Nobody puts on a prime-time show like the LA Rams

The 2020 LA Rams stage as home underdogs against the newly coached Cowboys is set. But nobody puts on a show like the LA Rams

The LA Rams are already fighting, and losing, the battle of 2020 expectations. The range of respectable predictions for the LA Rams 2020 season is coming in at a tight range from 7-9 to 9-7.  Despite the refocus of Rams head coach on the entire organization, hiring new coordinators, and reformulating the team’s offensive, defensive, and special teams, the deepest analysis so far on the LA Rams looks at the 2019 record of 9-7, cites the departure of WR Branding Cooks (583 yards, 2 TDs) and RB Todd Gurley (857 yards, 12 TDs) and concludes the Rams will decline further.

Meanwhile, a fully healthy Dallas Cowboys team played to an 8-8 record a year ago and has subsequently swapped out virtually their entire coaching staff. The Cowboys have had their own loss of talent, but on the defensive side of the ball in Robert Quinn and Byron Jones.  Suddenly, those Cowboys are road favorites to open the 2020 NFL Season at LA Rams’ home field at SoFi Stadium. And they are already trolling the Rams about the home opener

Of course, any predictions this early in the season is more theological than analytical. It’s faith-based expectations, not based on facts or empirical evidence, but upon the belief that what was will be. That is despite new players, new coaches, and a myriad of new and different factors. As many recall, the arrival of head coach Sean McVay signaled a huge improvement with the LA Rams. His first season was 11-5. His second season was 13-3. And 2019, his third season, was 9-7.  This year, his team is predicted to fall below a .500 record.   So let’s look at the record books.