5 winners, 4 losers in Rams victory over Cowboys in preseason opener

Just have fun, go out there and sling it.

That was LA Rams HC Sean McVay's advice to his backup quarterback Stetson Bennett. And it would be those simple, but profound, words that he would use to set the bar of expectations from his young quarterback. Despite pre-game reports from the NFL Network, the Rams did not play veteran backup Jimmy Garoppolo. And there was never a remote possibility that the team would send out starting veteran quarterback Matthew Stafford for Game 1 of the preseason.

This was about quarterback Stetson Bennett. It was all about Bennett, and was never going to be about anyone other than Stetson Bennett in Game 1. And as the fates would have it, the game truly was about Stetson Bennett after all. It was about his struggles, his flashes of control, his mistakes, and his resiliency.

And after facing down the barrel of what could have been a confidence-shattering performance, Bennett recalled the words that Coach McVay shared publicly about his young quarterback:

"When I have seen him (QB Stetson Bennett) at his best, he is having fun, and that is really consistent with all players. And so just go cut it loose play and enjoy it. And I thought we felt that in the first preseason game a little bit last year when he was kind of flashing and doing those kinds of things. So that is what I am looking forward to seeing."

HC Sean McVay

Ultimately, the same quarterback who seemed to look and throw the football right into the hands of defensive backs on four separate occasions, and was spared a fifth interception by the grace of the officials, who called a defensive penalty that kept the Rams offense on the football field and sustained the final Rams offensive drive of the gams.

Preseason games are about finding out what young and inexperienced players are made of. We know going into preseason that players who compete are not 'there' yet, at least not in the view of the team's coaching staff. So this is one more opportunity to test a player's mental-fitness, their football intelligence, their resiliency, and ultimately, their passion for the game of football.

In the end, QB Stetson Bennett passed that test when it mattered most. And thanks to the new version of Coach Sean McVay, he was given the time in the game to find his path to victory:

But he did not win this game alone. He had a lot of help. Nor did he dig a hole for the team all by himself. He had plenty of help in that area as well.

Fans were eager to rule out Bennett, and he did nothing to reclaim their trust in this one. But it's just one game, and the way he finished this one out could make all the difference in the world. I recommend staying patient with him for now. He will improve.

Ultimately, the Rams stuck with Stetson Bennett, and the team won the game as a whole. So who were the winners and losers in this one? While an obvious choice for losers in QB Stetson Bennett, I am not going to list him there, because he did redeem himself at the end of the game. So who were the winners and losers in this game? Nine players stood out: Five winners and four losers. And here are their stories: