LA Rams schedule: 4 games we can’t afford to lose

Week 6

Once more, the LA Rams will play host to an NFC South Division team. This time, the Carolina Panthers show up on the doorstep of SoFi Stadium. The Panthers wanted to land a franchise-level quarterback but found the pickings very slim in the offseason. Will the Panthers be the team that pries veteran quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo from the San Francisco 49ers? Perhaps, but it will make no difference

The Carolina Panthers traded for New York Jets quarterback Sam Darnold last year, in hopes of salvaging Darnold’s NFL career. That didn’t happen last year, and there are fewer reasons to believe it will happen this year.  So the Panthers will voice bravado, and cite coach-speak about being competitive.

But the nuts and bolts of the matter are that the Panthers do not believe in Darnold, P.J. Walker, nor can they expect rookie quarterback Matt Corral to offer much leadership in his rookie season. The team has RB Christian McCaffrey and WR D.J. Moore, and that’s about it. And there is Darnold throwing to them.

Yes, Darnold defeated the Rams in 2020 by applying constant pressure to the middle of the Rams’ defense. But this year? The Rams have the dynamic duo of Bobby Wagner and Ernest Jones to shut that stuff down quickly. There will be difficult games in the 2022 Rams schedule. And the ‘Any Given Sunday’ warning label applies to this game too. But as we’d said before, if the Rams are serious about winning a playoff berth, this is a game that the team must win.