With Stafford getting clobbered in a Cardinals rout, should Bennett finish game?

The LA Rams came out to start Week 2 flat footed. And with the Rams roster already battered and bruised, the team is down by three touchdowns, But the Rams, much like 2022, is leaning far too heavily on the remaining playmakers in this game, at their own peril. What do I mean?

In a game behind the patchwork offensive line, the offense has thrown 18 times and rushed just nine times. As a result, the Rams veteran quarterback Matthew Stafford has been sacked three times in the first half of the game.

But even more concerning is the fact that the team has thrown six passes to veteran WR Cooper Kupp. Kupp has hauled in four of those passes for 37 yards, but has already come up limping in this game. If he is already limping in the first half of Week 2, then the Rams must almost resign themselves to the fact that he will be injured by the Week 6 BYE.

Unless . . .

Perhaps its the sheer desperation of a game with a lopsided score at halftime that makes this game seem so desperate. Perhaps is the realization that the current trajectory of the team in Week 2 is leading the team to more than a humiliating loss. The Rams are on a collision course to lose their top two offensive weapons in a losing cause. Both QB Matthew Stafford and WR Cooper Kupp, two players who are vital to the team's chances of success this season, are getting pounded into the dirt in this game.

But one player has shown resiliency in the face of adversity. Perhaps the Rams should opt to bring backup QB Stetson Bennett into the game before an injury to Matthew Stafford forces the team to do so?

Is this game still winnable? That's up to you to decide. The Rams had the football at the Arizona Cardinals' four-yard line with a full set of downs and failed to score. First down and goal to go at the four-yard line with time running out in the first half and the Rams could not score.

Does that alter your perspective?

Even if Bennett has a horrible game, the Rams cannot 'lose' any worse than they are losing right now. If Bennett throws four interceptions, the game merely pushes the Rams to an 0-2 record, an outcome that ESPN probability has concluded is 97 percent likely to occur from this game.

The Rams have to be strategic in this game. With the team on the short end of the score, why risk stars to further injury? If holding players out of preseason games makes sense, why play Kupp and Stafford any longer in this one?

Momentum in this game is showing no signs of turning in the Rams' favor. The Rams' run defense seems to be nonexistent. All that is left is to finish this one out.

Week 3 cannot arrive soon enough.

Thanks for reading.