Author: Brad Gagnon / Source: Bleacher Report
Championship teams often peak right about now. The Los Angeles Rams are doing the opposite.
The once-unbeatable Rams have lost more games in the last eight days than they did during the first 13 weeks of the 2018 NFL season. And while even elite teams hit speed bumps, it’s tremendously concerning that Los Angeles was utterly outplayed in both losses.
It’s also an indication that the team’s Week 14 dud—a sloppy 15-6 road loss to the Chicago Bears—was no fluke. The offense has hit a December wall—one the Rams might not be able to ascend between now and January.
They looked sluggish in a Week 13 victory over the Detroit Lions, they looked frightened in that Week 14 loss to the Bears, and they shockingly looked overmatched in Sunday night’s 30-23 home loss to a Philadelphia Eagles team that was reeling as a 13.5-point underdog without its starting quarterback.
What’s wrong with the Rams? As per usual in this league, it starts with the quarterback.
Following a two-interception performance against the Eagles, Jared Goff has now turned the ball over as many times in the last three games (eight) as he did during the first 11. He had a 113.5 passer rating entering Week 13, but since then he’s completed just 55.0 percent of his passes with a 5.5 yards-per-attempt average, a one-to-seven touchdown-to-interception ratio and a 51.3 rating.
Bleacher Report
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There are excuses on the table. Goff’s receiving corps lacks depth, he misses sure-handed sophomore pass-catcher Cooper Kupp, frigid conditions made life difficult against a tough Bears defense, and the Eagles D certainly came to play as well.
But those don’t cut it. The 24-year-old has been consistently throwing behind (or above, below, too far ahead of) open receivers.
If Goff is going to become a special player—a player worthy of a No. 1 overall pick, a rockstar-level second contract and long-term “elite” status—he can’t afford to turn into an overwhelmed rookie version of himself just because he’s missing one of his favorite targets, or because he’s playing in weather lower than room temperature, or because the Eagles unexpectedly showed up at the L.A. Coliseum with leftover magic dust from 2017.
Goff is allowed to have games like those, but they can’t come consecutively in the midst of a race for the top seed.
There might be time to turn it around, especially with the three-win Arizona Cardinals and the four-win San Francisco 49ers serving as season-closing target practice. But the damage might have already been done. The New Orleans Saints merely need to win two of…
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