3 good, 3 bad, and 3 ugly takeaways in LA Rams Week 4 humbling loss

Bad I: Turnovers will kill the Rams

Wow. The game after we mentioned the fact that these LA Rams may have finally found a handle on the football, they make a liar out of me. Two turnovers led to 14 early points for the Arizona Cardinals. Ugh. Can you tell that I’m not a fan of turnovers?

The LA Rams fell from a 3-0 team with a +2 net turnover to a 3-1 team with a 0 net turnover. That’s not a coincidence. The Arizona Cardinals are 4-0 and are at a +5 net turnover. The Rams’ next opponent, the Seattle Seahawks, are 2-2 but have a +3 net turnover. So far this season, the Seahawks have only given the ball away once, a fumble. The Rams have given away two fumbles and two interceptions.

Whether it’s a fumble or an interception, it’s bad news all the way around. It stops the offense dead in its tracks. It forces the defense back onto the field prematurely. It even changes the momentum of the game, which can be awfully difficult to re-establish once lost.

Turnovers introduce the wrong type of element into a football game. A team that coughs up the ball too frequently becomes quite conscious of coughing up the football, and the very act of focusing on not turning over the back allows turnovers to happen more frequently.

Turnovers will happen sometimes. I get that. But the Rams are averaging a turnover per game. That, perhaps more than anything else this team does, will spell disaster down the road. It’s not a question of being a good enough team to overcome turnovers, it’s simply that great teams don’t do them in the first place.