After 4 games, are the LA Rams really better than their 1-3 record?

Are the LA Rams truly a 1-3 team?

It's difficult to form a cohesive and lucid argument that a team that has begun the season with a record of 1-3 is any better than a team with a 1-3 record, but here goes. After all, we know that the Rams opened the 2023 NFL season with a 3-6 record before catching fire to finish the year with a 7-1 run that carried them into the 2024 NFL Playoffs.

While this is a brand new season, with a brand new set of circumstances, this is also a team that has been set upon by some incredibly adversarial circumstances that will abate soon. What do I mean? Well, take off your rose-colored glasses, because you won't need them. Not for this optimistic tour of the LA Rams remaining 2024 NFL season.

So grab your cup-half-full and let's take a tour:

IV - Rams have played three of four games on the road

The Rams are indeed 1-3. But all three losses have come on the road. With a season of nine home games and eight road games, the team has already played three of eight road games. Conversely, the team has competed in just one of nine home games. So doing some simply quick math, the team has eight home games remaining, and five road games.

And in a season like this, that could be a huge advantage.

While the team has struggled on the road, the team will play all three scheduled games in the month of October 2024 at SoFi Stadium. For a team that has only enjoyed one victory, in the friendly confines of SoFi Stadium, conceivably this team could emerge from the month of October with a record of 4-3.

A pipe dream? Perhaps. After all, the team's schedule in October includes:

• Week 5 - Green Bay Packers (2-2)
• Week 6 - BYE
• Week 7 - Las Vegas Raiders (2-2)
• Week 8 - Minnesota Vikings (4-0)

While the schedule does not offer a great deal of optimism from this vantage point, the team does get the benefit of competing at SoFi. Right now, the team is almost certainly viewed as a home underdog throughout the month. But if the team can string together some success, wouldn't that tend to bend those potential odds in the Rams favor?

I certainly expect so.

III - Rams roster is finally showing signs of getting healthy

After weeks of new injuries, the team seems to be turning the tide of maladies in the opposite direction. In four games, the team has played the past two games without any new serious injuries. That is vital to this team for two very different reasons.

Of course the first reason is quite obvious. An NFL team roster that is consistently depleted by injuries is gradually less talented from week to week. Less talented teams are ultimately less likely to win games., Right now, the LA Rams are still competing without two starting offensive linemen, two starting wide receivers, one starting tight end, and two starting defensive backs.

Plus a host of contributors and rotational players.

Perhaps even more important to this team is the opportunity to enjoy some continuity. In almost every facet of game planning, NFL teams need the same players in the same positions week after week to allow coaches to address systemic breakdowns. It's important for players to grow accustomed and comfortable on the football field

That can only take place if the same players line up together week after week.

So much depends upon the coordination, communication, and chemistry between players. While understood and accepted, it's seldom cited on a game by game basis. But it's the lack of three C's that has crippled the team's secondary, limited the upside of the team's offensive line, and generally been a thorn in the team's side so far in 2024.

II - Rams have created as many problems as they have encountered

The team is struggling, yes. But let's not sit back and believe that all adversity, bad luck, and challenges faced by the team so far are happening TO the team. In many ways, the Rams are guilty of creating as much adversity, or more adversity, than they are experiencing from external forces.

As we had pointed out in a recent article, the Rams create problems with ill-timed penalties. Against the Chicago Bears, Rams rookie OLB Jared Verse had two sacks taken out of the record books by silly DB penalties. And those penalties kept the Chicago Bears offense on the football field long enough to score a go-ahead touchdown.

That was not an isolated incident. The Rams are lacking at creating turnovers, too generous at allowing giveaways, ineffective at running with the football, far too generous in surrendering yards on the ground, and are relying entirely on RB Kyren Williams to score touchdowns.

While it's likely only a temporary set of challenges, these elements persist despite four games.

The list of items to coach up and correct is extensive. Ultimately, the team will figure out the solutions and the team will play a more consistent game of football. Because this is a young team, corrections may take time. But they are ultimately on their way.

And when this team fixes the errors, even those small changes can have a dramatically positive impact.

I - Rams already know that they can turn a season around

In 2023, the LA Rams won the season opener, but fell to a 1-2 record after three games. the team did manage to knot up their record after 6 games at 3-3, but lost three straight to fall to a 3-6 record. Then the entire team had a chance to regroup with a well-timed Week 10 BYE. The team roared out to a 7-1

That experience of roaring back to claim a playoff berth when all evidence indicated that this team was heading for a Top-10 selection in the 2024 NFL Draft is about to pay off huge dividends. Eventually, this team will get it's bearings and begin to put up better and more competitive games. When that happens, the Rams will start to string wins together, no matter who the team faces.

Hopefully, this team can claw and scrape its way back to a record of 3-3. Even if the team manages to do so, peering ahead to the rest of the games on the 2024 Rams schedule, there is only one team that can be considered not in the running for postseason competition. And even that team, the New England Patriots, cold surprise a few teams this season.

The Rams have no gimme-games this season.

Ultimately, the Rams have to settle up. Regardless of injuries, penalties, dropped passes or missed tackles, the team is merely as good as the record says it to be. Even as we rationalize with a variety of reasons why this team should be better than 1-3, the Rams must deliver that evidence on the football field.

Through four games, they haven't. And until they do, this team is only as good as the record shows it to be. While that is quite disappointing, it's simply what we must accept.

As always, thanks for reading.