Why LA Rams Week 5 win will work for Robert Woods.

In the NFL, the best players understand the Team over the Me concept. Perhaps no NFL team exhibits that quality better than that of the LA Rams.  It’s a team of elite veterans who take the time to mentor rookies, pitch in to help their community and do everything in their power to help the team win.

Oftentimes, that selflessness requires a player to sacrifice his own on-field production to ensure that his teammate succeeds as well. At other times, it means taking control of a game personally. In the case of Week 5 and LA Rams wide receiver Robert Woods, it was more of the latter.

Woods is a selfless player on the field. He gives as much zest and zeal to blocking, as to running with the ball, and even as to catching the ball for a touchdown. He does so because he understands that each role he performs for the offense helps the team to win.

Patience put to the test

But that understanding was tested mightily when he fell to fourth place on the team’s receiver ranking after four games. It was not for himself that he found his angst, but rather the outcome of a Week 4 loss to the Arizona Cardinals by the score of 37-20.  As he caught four of six passes thrown his way for 48 yards and a touchdown, he watched his teammate and friend, Cooper Kupp, struggle.

Kupp was just five catches of 13 targets for 64 yards against the Cardinals. Robert Woods understood the reason. The Rams offense just clicked when targeting Kupp in September 2021. That caught the attention of the Cardinals defense, who planned to blanket Kupp all day. They did, and the Rams failed to respond.

And so, Robert Woods wondered if the offense had moved on without him. That would be disappointing because he was Mr. Dependable. He showed up week in and week out, did everything the Rams asked of him and averaged 1000+ yards per season.

His turn to shine

That’s not something to be taken lightly. But in four games into 2021, he had caught just15 of 25 passes for 172 yards and two touchdowns. Despite his teammates outperforming even the loftiest of expectations, Robert Wood was finding himself to be the odd man out. Or at least, that is how it seemed.

Sometimes appearances can be deceiving.  For it just so happened that playing on a short week and on the road, the spotlight was firmly trained on LA Rams wide receiver Robert Woods. And wow, did he ever respond.

In one game, he nearly doubled in yardage, catching 12 of 14 passes for a cool 150-yard evening.  That allowed the Rams to control the clock, and score 23 second-half points against the Seattle Seahawks.

In the end, this was a great win for the Rams, who are now 4-1 and could be 7-1 by the time this team emerges from October. Perhaps even more importantly, the game proved once more that Robert Woods is vital to the Rams’ success. Not only when he is catching everything in sight. But when he is blocking for his teammates so that they can as well.