5 ways LA Rams play better than expected in 2020

Here are 5 ways the LA Rams play better in 2020 than expected

The LA Rams struggled in 2019 due to extreme circumstances.  While the team was busy trading away both starting cornerbacks, and promoting a rookie safety to a starting role due to a season-ending injury, the team continued to play football. While the team was busy shuffling offensive linemen into starting roles and adding new faces to duct tape holes in their starting line in mid-season, the team continued to play football.

The trio of LA Rams running backs were all injured in 2019, derailing the plans to transfer some rushes from Todd Gurley to his teammates Darrell Henderson and Malcolm Brown. Instead, the team found itself passing more than originally planned.  Somehow, all of those over-the-top tragedies have been baked by the unfamiliar prognosticators into the Rams DNA now. In short, the Rams are the NFL version of a one-hit-wonder.

Simple slump or future?

The 2018 13-3 team fell to 9-7 in 2019. Period. End of story. Per anyone and everyone now looking at the NFL from the national perspective, the Rams DNA is now branded “just over .500 on a good season”. Despite all the roster-breaking injuries, despite all the mid-season trades and roster adjustments, the LA Rams are now capped by the national media at 9-7. That’s a pretty pessimistic viewpoint even from a subjectively biased anti-Rams viewpoint, let alone a fair and objective viewpoint.

And that is where the record begins before accounting for the 2020 offseason.  In this offseason, the impression is that the Rams parted ways with Cory Littleton, Clay Matthews, Dante Fowler Jr., Todd Gurley, and Brandin Cooks without a Plan B in place. So the 9-7 Rams of 2019 have further eroded away to the anonymity of a team already playing for “next season” before this season is even underway. Each team has its share of skeptics. But the Rams have more than a fair share this season.