For LA Rams WR Cooper Kupp, the real work has just begun

If you want to know why the LA Rams offense is hugely underrated, just stop, look and listen to the type of season that WR Cooper Kupp has put up on the NFL this year. Then ask yourself, who is throwing to him? The fact is that Matthew Stafford has been one helluva upgrade to the career of Kupp. In what seems to have become an almost certainty after a loss, the team has been riddled with the usual trash talk that never fails to come.

It’s the tale of fair-weather fandom, those who are dissatisfied with the team, despite the fact that the LA Rams have won 12 games this year. The best teams in the NFL are the Green Bay Packers and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Their regular-season record? They have won 13 games. One more game, that’s it. The Rams have the second-best record in the entire NFL. Now, the second season starts. The real work is about to begin.

Just ask LA Rams wide receiver, Cooper Kupp.

He’s been on a bit of a tear of late. Let’s revisit just how good he’s been.

Ending on a high note

The key to success in the NFL Playoffs is about ending on a high note. But in the case of LA Rams WR Cooper Kupp, how can that possibly be true? He was hot all season long, catching 145 passes for 1,947 yards and 16 touchdowns. He was the NFL’s Triple Crown winner, one of the rarest distinctions for wide receivers. But the question is, did he end the 2021 NFL season on a high note?

Let’s revisit the last six games of the year, a period in which the team won five games and lost once. During that period, Kupp caught 53 of 65 passes for 614 yards and 6 touchdowns. That is a completion rate of 81.5 percent.  That is ridiculously astronomical.  Had he operated at that pace all season long, he would have caught 156 passes for 2095 yards and 17 touchdowns. Not far off his current marks, you might say?  Well, it would have been enough to set more NFL receiving records.

Oh, and it happened at the end of the season too, when all defenses knew that he was the Rams’ offensive go-to weapon.