Even as the LA Rams needed to put together a more competitive game, the Rams starters sat while the Rams backups and deep reserves had to withstand the merciless Denver Broncos. This was not a game of parity, The Rams were sending their young playmakers onto the football field to try to withstand the full effect of the Broncos' motivated offense and defense.
If you wanted to see the LA Rams start out hot, you were hitting the cold brews hard and early in this one. The Rams could not get anything going on either side of the football in the first half of this one, and that seemed to snowball throughout the game as time wore on.
I know that the Rams will suffer plenty of setbacks this season. But I did not expect a deep drop in the Rams competitiveness so quickly.
Rams rolled over early in this one
By the end of the first quarter, the LA Rams were already down by 17 points. In terms of time of possession, the Rams had 4:31 minutes to the Denver Broncos 10:29 minutes. While offensive playbooks and strategy may have been vanilla, the fact that the Broncos dominated in this one in time of possession so early was the story.
If the LA Rams learn more from adversity and failures, then this one certainly gives the Rams plenty of teaching moments before the start of the 2023 NFL season. But before halftime arrived, I had already begun to lose interest in the overall game. With over 10 minutes to go until halftime, I had more than 10 sours and only five sweets on my list. Curiously, that coincides with the two-to-one advantage of time of possession.
While the Rams needed to get a solid sense of their running offense, dropping to a deficit of 24 to 0 with 10 minutes to go did not do much to give the offense much incentive to do so.