The Buffalo Bills are heading to Los Angeles on Monday night coming off a frustrating loss to the New England Patriots. Meanwhile, the Rams are sitting at 2-2, and I’m not sure anyone knows exactly what to make of them after four games.
Los Angeles entered the season with Super Bowl expectations, but injuries, slow starts, and some questionable offensive performances have kept the Rams from looking like the team everyone expected. Of course, they also just pulled off a fourth-quarter comeback against the Philadelphia Eagles, so there’s that.
For this week’s Behind Enemy Lines, I reached out to Evan Craig, staff writer at SB Nation’s Turf Show Times, to get a better understanding of what’s happening with Sean McVay’s team.
We discussed Matthew Stafford’s turnovers, the Rams’ improved secondary, the matchup against Buffalo’s run defense, and the organization’s willingness to take big swings to win championships.
That last topic is particularly interesting to me because of the ongoing debate among Bills fans about Brandon Beane’s approach to building a championship team. The Rams have demonstrated that you can trade premium draft picks, pursue established stars, win a Super Bowl, and still find ways to remain competitive.
Here are seven questions with Evan Craig.
1. The Rams are 2-2, but after the comeback win in Philadelphia, do you feel like this team is better than its record right now? What has kept them from looking like the Super Bowl contender many people expected coming into the season?
Evan Craig: I think the Rams have the potential to be much better than their record, but at this point in time, I don’t think that they are.
Forget the season-opening loss to the 49ers, which the coaching staff essentially treated as a preseason game given their ridiculously boneheaded decision to travel to Australia a day before the game. Los Angeles has yet to play a complete game this season. They started slow against the Giants in Week 2 before piling it on in the second half against poor Jameis Winston. Then, the following week, they looked great to start things off, taking a 16-0 lead into halftime. Unfortunately, the Rams got outscored 30-10 after the break in a frustrating game.
Finally, against the Eagles, the team stunk it up to high heavens for three quarters until they finally decided that they had enough losing to the Eagles for one lifetime and came back to win 24-20. There have been some good things in each of their games (besides the one against the Whiners — that one just sucked). It’s just a matter of putting it all together.
Injuries have been a major reason LA hasn’t looked like a Super Bowl contender so far. Truthfully, I think some fans might be getting some PTSD from the 2022 season in the early going, considering how many injuries to key players there have been through the first month. Star wideout Puka Nacua has already missed more games in the first few weeks than he did all of last season. Prized offseason acquisition Myles Garrett hasn’t played since the opener. Jaylen Watson, another key offseason addition, suffered an injury that thankfully isn’t expected to be serious. Second-year tight end Terrance Ferguson was placed on IR. Even Aaron Donald has been banged up, though he’s expected to play on Monday. So yeah, it hasn’t been a fun month on that front.
Combine that with the Rams being notorious for slow starts under Sean McVay, and you get this stomach-churning rollercoaster of a season to date.
While I do expect this team to “get its act together” once many of its key pieces return, I have to caution fans that maybe this team isn’t the unstoppable force many projected it to be entering the season. Even then, I still think they can be very good, and that will be enough in the NFC.
The best teams in the conference reside in the NFC West, as other potential playoff hopefuls like the Eagles, Packers, Lions and Buccaneers have really declined, so there shouldn’t be many obstacles outside their division in the way if the Rams wind up making a late-season surge. Still, this is the NFL, so crazy things could happen, as LA nearly found out against the Panthers in last year’s playoffs.
2. Matthew Stafford is still making those ridiculous veteran throws and just led another fourth-quarter comeback. At this stage of his career, has anything noticeably changed about the way Sean McVay is using him or managing the offense?
Evan Craig: Man, that was quite a comeback on Sunday, wasn’t it? Matthew Stafford helped save the Rams’ season, though he also tried to end it prematurely with two bad interceptions against the Eagles. His play also contributed to the collapse against the Broncos a couple weeks ago.
Stafford can clearly still sling it, as you said. However, his decision-making this season hasn’t been as crisp as it was during last year’s MVP campaign. Through four games, he has nearly as many picks (6) as he did all of last season (8). It’s like we’re seeing more of his gunslinging, hero-ball style of play returning compared to the efficient field general he was in 2025.
And we should’ve seen this coming, considering Stafford is coming off a season where he had the NFL’s best interception luck. According to PFF, Stafford threw 21 turnover-worthy passes across 716 dropbacks, yet finished with just nine interceptions, a total which includes the playoffs. The dam was bound to break eventually, and it’s contributed to some of LA’s misfortunes this season.
Despite that, nothing’s really changed about how Sean McVay is using him. Only, Stafford’s been forced to pass way too much in the last two games, so the offense has been extremely unbalanced.
The veteran has thrown an insane 106 times to the team’s 48 runs. I’m no math whiz, but that’s less than a 50/50 distribution, and it made zero sense. The Broncos and Eagles have leaky run defenses, and LA has a great one-two punch at running back.
It doesn’t make sense to steer away from something that was working and put more on Stafford’s plate. Yes, he’s fully capable of it, but he shouldn’t have to do it all.
3. The Rams’ pass defense has been excellent through four games. What has been the biggest reason for that improvement, and is there one player Bills fans should be paying more attention to besides the obvious stars?
Evan Craig: After failing to invest much in the secondary since Jalen Ramsey was shipped out of town, the Rams doubled-dipped at corners from the Chiefs. First, LA traded for Trent McDuffie and later signed Jaylen Watson in free agency.
McDuffie has been spectacular in coverage, since Pro Football Reference says he’s allowed just a 22.5 passer rating in coverage four games into his Rams career. He keeps up this stellar play, and he’ll easily be earning All-Pro honors yet again this season. Already he’s made the most of the monster extension the team signed him to upon his arrival.
Los Angeles also re-signed safeties Kamren Curl and Quentin Lake, who have been wise investments. Okay, forget Lake was absolutely Mossed by the Eagles’ Darius Cooper on Sunday. I can’t find the link to the clip because it’s, ahem … broken. Don’t you dare YouTube it! Anyway, Curl and Lake have been good players for the Rams, and they were rightfully rewarded for their efforts.
One player who deserves more attention is cornerback Josh Wallace, who’s filled in for Watson while he was out with an injury. Wallace was called for a controversial pass interference call against the Broncos, which eventually helped Denver steal the win.
While he was the scapegoat in that one, he played much better in Philly. It helped that the Eagles were short-handed at wideout, but still. Watson is trending to be back this week. If the Rams experience any other injuries or Watson isn’t ready to return, Wallace will be the guy to step up.
4. When you look at this Rams offense through four games, what is the biggest thing that still isn’t quite working the way McVay wants it to?
Evan Craig: I don’t know how many times this has to be screamed at the TV, but Sean McVay’s team struggles to get off to fast starts.
Maybe this should be expected, since the Rams aren’t generally quick starters under McVay, especially as of late. Slow starts and playing complete games were an issue at the start of last season as well before LA went on a seven-game winning streak from Weeks 6-12. It’s just a bit of a problem that’s resurfaced again.
Through the first four weeks, the Rams have scored just two touchdowns in the first quarter. That’s not great, Bob … er, Joe.
Overall, they’re much better once they get out of the quarter and have actually outscored their opponents 47-33 in the first half. If they could start just a tad quicker, beginning with the Bills coming to town, it would not only show they mean business, but it could lessen the possibility for hiccups later in the game.
5. Buffalo is coming off a frustrating loss to New England. If you’re Sean McVay looking at the Bills on film, where do you think the Rams will believe they have the biggest matchup advantage Monday night?
Evan Craig: McVay has to be salivating over his run game against the Bills’ lackluster run defense. Kyren Williams and Blake Corum should have a field day against Buffalo, if McVay opts to run the ball more than he has the last two weeks.
Williams and Corum have combined for an average of 114 rushing yards through the first four games. The Bills have allowed 116 rushing yards a game, which is about middle of the pack in the league.
Buffalo has also given up over 120 rushing yards in three of their four games. The only reason their average isn’t worse is because they gave up just 66 yards on the ground to the Lions, but Detroit was forced to pass considering they fell behind early and had to try their best to keep up with Josh Allen.
Otherwise, their run D isn’t anything the Rams coach should be losing sleep over.
So needless to say, I love the dynamic duo’s chances against this defense, as long as there’s no Jokers to interfere.
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6. From covering Sean McVay for all these years, what do people outside Los Angeles misunderstand most about the way the Rams build their roster? They’ve been aggressive with trades, draft picks and veteran players, but they’ve also managed to keep reloading instead of completely rebuilding.
Evan Craig: Many fans think the Rams are reckless and don’t care about the future, which couldn’t be further from the truth. A great way to describe them is that they’re calculatedly reckless — there’s a slight difference.
Their short-term goal is obviously winning the Super Bowl. However, they do still care about the future, and this offseason proved it.
The front office first invested in upgrading the secondary with the McDuffie trade and then signing Watson. Those were much-needed fixes to issues that plagued the team last season. Then, in the draft, the Rams selected Stafford’s future successor: Ty Simpson.
Fans actually cried the blues after the draft, thinking the team hadn’t done enough to return to the Super Bowl. Well, the Myles Garrett trade in June quieted most fans still upset over the Simpson pick.
The Simpson selection showed the NFL that yes, the Rams will hand out draft picks like Halloween candy a lot of the time, but they understand things will come crashing back down to earth soon enough, so it’s better to get ahead of the curve now, not later.
Also, when LA didn’t have many early-round picks, particularly in the first round, they hit on many players in later rounds. They had no choice but to hit on many of their late-round picks.
Players like Puka Nacua, Kyren Williams, Byron Young and Kobie Turner were all taken in the third round or later. Each of them has helped the Rams return to contention after the season from hell that was 2022.
The organization didn’t need to rebuild because they trusted their scouts’ belief in each of those guys, and they’ve been rewarded with three straight playoff trips, getting one round deeper in each of those appearances.
7. Bills fans have spent years debating whether you have to stay competitive every season or occasionally push all your chips in like the Rams did during their Super Bowl run. Having watched the Rams up close, do you think their approach is something other teams can realistically copy, or does it only work because of McVay, Stafford and the organization they have in place?
Evan Craig: I think teams can try to imitate the Rams, but an exact carbon copy won’t happen, of course. LA has made some trades over the years that would’ve been ballsy even in Madden!
Even when trades or signings fail to pan out, which hasn’t happened much in the Les Snead-Sean McVay era, the team hasn’t stopped cutting its losses and trying again.
That is the main reason that aggressive approach has worked so well. The front office is simply unafraid, and you can’t say that about any other team in the league.
There have been instances in the last few years of teams that have tried LA’s method, including the Packers’ move for Micah Parsons, a blockbuster stunner I never would’ve expected from them of all teams. Usually though, if teams try to copy the Rams, it’s more of a one-off, and then they return to reloading picks.
While many teams prioritize or stockpile first-round picks, the Rams were trading them away.
This is certainly not an approach for the faint of heart, as again, first-rounders and other draft picks are gold to most teams, so they fear dealing them when the Rams don’t.
That fearless mindset will continue if the Snead-McVay brain trust has their way, even if the Garrett trade or other offseason moves blow up in their faces.
Needless to say, being in contention and making a playoff appearance year after year is great and all, but sometimes taking a big swing is worth it to try and get over the hump.
If it doesn’t work out, that shouldn’t discourage anyone from doing it again, even if it causes pain in the short term.
Pain is temporary, but the scars from a missed opportunity are forever.
A big thank you to Evan Craig of SB Nation’s Turf Show Times for taking the time to answer these questions and provide some insight into the Rams.
You can read more of Evan’s work through his personal website, which includes links to his Turf Show Times articles and other writing.
I would trade our head coach and general manager for the Rams head coach and GM in a New York second.