LA Rams must prick the Cowboys hot air hype balloon in opener

The LA Rams must prick the hot-air hype balloon surrounding the Dallas Cowboys in order to win the opener

The LA Rams were 8-5 in 2019 and faced the 6-7 Dallas Cowboys in week 15.  In that game, the wounded Rams had just won two hard-fought division rival games and were clinging to the hope of post-season play.  The Dallas Cowboys were fighting for their own playoff berth, and to keep their head coach, Jason Garrett, on the team’s payroll for 2020.  The Cowboys won that game 44-21, but that was the only success that night.

The Rams would go on to finish the season 9-7, just missing the NFL Playoffs. The Cowboys would go on to finish 8-8, missing the playoffs and ensuring that their head coach would be fired. In the end, the Rams and Cowboys game did not change the trajectory of either team.

Paths parted

Two teams with very similar records were treated very differently by the national media since that game.  For the Rams? The fall from 13-3 to 9-7 has created a storyline of a struggling team  The consensus from that moment is that the Rams will finish last in the NFC West, Jared Goff is a pretender under center, and that the Rams will slowly fade away.

Conversely, the Dallas Cowboys are once more the darlings of the NFL. Dak Prescott is deep in the discussions of NFL MVP this year, the newly coached Cowboys are among the teams favored to win the Super Bowl. And the Cowboys are favored by three points in the Rams home opener.