CONCERNING: Rams Suffer Unacceptable Loss to Panthers, This is the Rams BIGGEST Concern, & More

CONCERNING: Rams Suffer Unacceptable Loss to Panthers, This is the Rams BIGGEST Concern, & More

This is the biggest concern for the Rams right now. That’s coming up next on Locked on Rams. You are Locked on Rams, your daily Los Angeles Rams podcast, part of the Locked On podcast network, your team every day. What is up and welcome to another episode of Locked On Rams, your daily podcast covering your Los Angeles Rams, part of the Locked On Network, the number one sports podcast network. If you’re new to the channel, hit the subscribe button, hit the notification bell, hit the like button. If you’re listening on podcast, drop us a review, read on the show. My name is Doug McCain. You can follow me on exit Instagram at dmac_. I’ve covered LA sports for over a decade. 247 Sports Bleacher Report, SI Dodgers Nation. And as always, I’m joined by the Rams prealf and postgame show host for the Rams flagship radio station, ESPN 710 LA. He’s in his 11th season covering your Los Angeles Rams, the people’s champ, Mr. Travis Rogers. You can follow him on X, Travis Rogers. And on today’s episode, still reacting from the Rams disappointing, semi-shocking wakeup call of a loss to the Carolina Panthers. We’ve got our takeaways from that, some winners and losers. How big of a concern is it that they dropped that game? Also, where they’re at in the NFC. But first, today’s episode is brought to you by Fandal. Right now, new customers can bet just $5. And if your bet wins, you’ll get $300 in bonus bets to use across the app. All right, Travis. So, we were riding high for a long time. The Rams can’t be stopped. They’re going to never lose the game again. Matthew Stafford’s going to run away with the MVP. Just give us the Lombardi Trophy now, but like the NFL tends to do every now and then. It humbles even the best of teams, the best of rosters. And the Rams lose to the Carolina Panthers on the road. And they lose 31-28. It was a game where the offense was scoring points even though there was turnovers. You take a 21 to7 lead into the half, but not a good day for the defense. Not a good day for Emanuel Forbes and some of these Rams plays that were made during the season weren’t made on Sunday and they suffered loss. So, first question just kind of how shocked were you that they lose this game? I mean, pretty pretty surprised. It it it was, you know, I I I think I have finally turned the page, Dmac, to got get to the point where nothing in the NFL really shocks me anymore. There are some things that are surprising. There are some things that you really don’t see coming, but I I think I’ve finally come to the point where any NFL team can beat any other NFL team at any point. They’re just it it happens way too often. Now, that being said, this was surprising. I thought that the Rams, like you just laid out, were kind of cranked up on all cylinders. Matthew Stafford was on probably the best run of his, you know, uh, likely Hall of Fame career. They were scoring. They weren’t giving up a lot of points, and then everything just kind of went, not haywire exactly, but it just kind of looked like a typical NFL team that was having an off day. your quarterback throws a pick six, another one bounces off of a helmet. They, you know, a little ball security issue with that sack uh uh on third down that kind of put the game away for good. Um I was surprised, but not flabbergasted. They they hadn’t played a clunker in a really long time. And and that’s what that was to me. It’s not the end of the world. I still think that uh they’re going to end up fine. I still think that, you know, I I know that they’re in control of their own destiny. They just got to go and take care of their business from here. I think the schedule is relatively favorable the rest of the way home. So I I think they’re okay. But now you’ve brought in some randomness where if it does happen again, not only might you not might win the uh the number one seed, you might not win your division, right? That game on Thursday night against Seattle that’s coming up in a couple of weeks is likely for the NFC West title, which means that worst case scenario, you get a home game. Best case scenario, maybe you get a buy. And if you lose that game, you probably have to go on the road for your entire playoff run. No doubt about it. Yeah. We’ll talk about the implications. We can just dive right into that and get back to the game itself. But as far as the ramifications of this game, sure, this Rams team is still built to make a deep run, but it’s a lot of competition when you want to finish with a top seat, when you want to have that buy, when you want to host playoff games throughout the month of January and hopefully get into February and play at Levis’s. Because you look at the loss and what it means is the Rams are no longer the number one seed in the NFC. The road to finishing with the top spot got a lot more difficult. The Rams, you could have really put yourself in a better position to to kind of cement yourself at the top of this of this league and it still was a lot of work to do, but you’re still ahead of the Eagles, but you trail the Bears for the top. So, you do want home field advance throughout the playoffs. you want to buy a week and you want all that stuff, but the road to doing that is just a lot more challenging now. So, yeah, I mean, look, the truth is you cannot lose the games that you should win against teams like the Carolina Panthers. And what really frustrates me in this one is that yes, we’ll talk about the defense that was a major head shot with a defense that led the league with with points allowed per game and had really just continued to emerge at multiple levels. And I think this is one where the offense kind of could recognize that early and said to themselves, “Hey, we are supposed to be the team that can outscore opponents.” That’s kind of how we were built, right? Two star receivers, star quarterback, two running backs we trust, an offensive line, tight ends. This is a game that the offense should have gone out there and won. And it was just the turnovers from Matthew Stafford. It was missing guys, right? He missed Terence Ferguson a couple times. He missed Buen kind of loads behind him. Kind of falls off of Devonte Adams and goes to checkdowns a couple different times. So, I I hate to say this loss falls on Matthew Stafford or Shawn McVey, but look, the defense, you know what you’ve got from them all season. They kind of should have picked them up in this one. Yeah. No, Matthew Stafford had his worst game of the season. He probably had his worst game in a couple of seasons. And and I don’t think it’s piling on to say that they lost the game because of the way he played. They did. You know, their defense, like you mentioned, wasn’t great. But if Stafford’s even just okay, I think they win that game going away. Um I it it I I like what you said. I think there was a a a sense just some sort of vibe watching this game where uh the defense isn’t going to be what it’s been most of the season. So we’re you know first one to 35 wins the game and the Rams just misfired on a couple of drives. They had the couple of interceptions. They just did not have that crispness and that sharpness that they’ve had most of the year. And and give Carolina a lot of credit too. like they really didn’t screw. Now, I full disclosure here. I have watched an entire Carolina Panthers game exactly three times in my life, and it’s been all three times they’ve played the Rams. I don’t watch them. I don’t see them very often at all. That wasn’t a terrible team. I know that they’re not a great team, but they didn’t turn it over. Every time Bryce Young needed to make a throw, he did. That both Hovered and Dow were really good on the ground. They hit on big fourth down plays. They converted on a third down to ice the game inside the two-minute warning to put the thing away. They did a really good job. It wasn’t like they kept giving the ball back to the Rams. The Rams couldn’t capitalize on it. The Rams just didn’t do enough to win the game, and Carolina did. Now, you run that game back 10 more times, I think the Rams probably win it nine of the next 10. But, you know, it doesn’t matter. That’s not how it goes. Um, I think that to kind of go back to where we started, Stafford was bad. you know, he he was legitimately bad and he was downright awful relative to the way that he’s been playing. Um, I don’t think you’re going to get that a lot. If he were a younger player, I would be a little more uh-oh, did the spell kind of burst? That did the reality of it all set in that Matthew Stafford, I don’t want to say doesn’t care, but I don’t think he gives a damn that he had a bad game. He’s going to go out there against Arizona and pick up right where he left off prior to Carolina. I I have all the faith in the world for him. It was just, it was a very bad day for the Rams kind of across the board. It really was. And what makes you scratch your head though is still even with the Panthers looking like a competent team that had something to play for. They’re not eliminated from the playoffs. Bryce Young is trying to play for an extension, at least picking up that fifth year rookie contract. And you’re trying to at least have positive things in Carolina. This is a team to beat the Packers, right? But the truth is this is totally avoidable. And hey, it was Thanksgiving, right? You had your favorite pies. Shout out to the Caminski brothers for the blame pie. If we’re slicing up the blame pie here, I think that for as much as we to use one of your phrases, glaze Shawn McVey, for as much as we do that, I think you have to look at the fact that well, we talked about this whole segment. It was not Matthew Stafford’s best day. Matthew Stafford looked mortal in this one. So, what do you do when your quarterback looks mortal? You lean on a run game that was having a lot of success. Kairen Williams, Blake Cororm, 15 carries for 153 yards. The issue is not the second number, it’s the first number, it’s the 15 carries. And there were specific situations where you needed them. On the first red zone interception, the Rams threw the ball three straight times after Blake Corm had a 14yd carry and a six-yd carry. The interception was on third and goal from the 8 yd line. So that point, you’re forced into a passing situation essentially. And the Rams went three and out in the third quarter after throwing it on second and five. And Stafford ends up taking that sack. So this was the game to go with that two-headed monster. And that’s what makes it so frustrating. Look, I I I I’m not going to use the G word that you that you accuse me. Travis is special. I hate that phrase. Um, but put put that aside. Shawn McVey is good at almost everything there is to be good at as a head coach. I think there are two things that you can reasonably criticize him for and feel like you’re on relatively firm footing. Number one is just the bizarre use of timeouts. I will never understand how he uses his timeouts. It it it just doesn’t add up to me and and I don’t ever going to I’m never going to understand what he’s doing. The second part is he refuses to run the ball at times for reasons that completely escape me. Like you said, they were running it down Carolina’s throat. Uh Blake Corm had the best game of his NFL career. He was really fantastic. Had a great day. Kairen Williams did what Kairen Williams always does. He was pretty darn good. He just goes out there and gives you the same performance time after time. They could have run the ball every single play and punched it in the end zone. But that’s not what Shawn McVey does. Shawn McVey passes the ball. Whether it’s the best decision, the medium decision, or a terrible decision, he passes the ball. He can’t help himself. He has to throw the ball. And I think he knows it. I don’t think this is something that he’s unaware of. I think he knows that he makes a mistake in this situation occasionally. Um because he he’ll address it after the fact. I think that that was a clear example of keep running the ball. They can’t stop you. Just keep doing it. And I get it. You want Matthew Stafford to win an MVP. You got to trust Matthew Stafford even on a day where he’s struggling the way that he was. But still, sometimes you just got to score. And they could have scored just by running the ball. And I think that’s a fair criticism of McVey, glaze or not. Absolutely. Yeah. No doubt about it. I think that for this team just kind of downloading this information and making sure in the future down the stretch that it’s not just about trying to spam Stafford throwing the ball. We know what he’s capable of. We know how important he is. But I think it it was raining. I mean it was it was the perfect situation Lee on that run game and they abandoned it and I think it’s one of the biggest reasons why they suffer this disappointing loss. But uh how many times have we said that though Doug? Literally, you and I have been doing this show together for a few years now, and I feel like the why did they stop running the ball conversation comes up what, two or three times a year. It it just it is it is a regular occurrence. Again, it’s not something that is a fatal flaw for Shawn McVey, but it is an oddity where he just decides, you know what, we’re throwing it every time, even if you don’t need to. Doesn’t make any sense. I think the best point, too, is that that Blake Corn was having his best game. But we’ll pick up the conversation in the second half, and then we have to talk about this defense. How concerned are we about the Rams defense that had their worst performance of the season? That’s coming up next on Locked on Rams. NFL Sundays, they move really, really fast. One big play and suddenly everything feels different. We saw that in the game against Carolina, right? That’s what makes live betting with FanDuel so incredibly exciting. You’re not just watching the game, you’re reacting to it in real time. And with FanDuel, you can place bets as the action is unfolding. Every drive, you’re feeling something. Every momentum swing, you’re feeling something every highlight moment. So live betting is best when the game starts to shift. We just felt that again, right? A receiver gets hot, a defense tightens up, or the momentum, it flips after a big turnover. We saw that as well. 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So, here in our second segment, we’re going to pick up the conversation on not just the frustrating loss and the reaction to it, but why, like what exactly led to this loss. And I think that if we are going to kind of put the concern level up, as much as we just talked about the offense, to be honest, I’m not losing any sleep about the offense. You think I’m worried about Matthew Stafford as the MVP? You think I’m worried about Shawn McVey? You think I’m worried about Devonte Adams and Puka Au who made one of the best catches of the year in a running game that looking like a legit twitted monster? I’m not. But the defense after allowing Bryce Young to look like a number one pick at times to look like he’s someone who is a a top 15 quarterback in this league at times in a run game that doesn’t have superstars allow them to run the football. and Emanuel Forbes looking like the Commander version Emanuel Forbes at times. That is the bigger concern for me in this one is they weren’t getting consistent pressure and Puna Ford’s been kind of dealing with the injury. So, I think that’s impacting him, but they didn’t do a great job stopping the run. And then you look at too just the big plays in this game, the third downs and the fourth downs. The Rams just were not making the plays. The Rams just were not in those stops that we’ve seen. Panthers 7 for 15 on third down, three for three on fourth down, and the Panthers over the red zone, but they still scored three offensive touchdowns. I mean, you look at the way they were able to take advantage in in big situations. The explosives were hurting the Rams. Bryce Young 8 for 10 for 162 yards, three touchdowns on third and fourth downs in this game. That is kind of my one knock on Chris Schula. talked about a knock on McVey. My knock on Chris Schula is sometimes he makes bad quarterbacks look like average quarterbacks. Good quarterbacks look like great quarterbacks. Yeah. I So, as far as the level of concern goes for for the Rams defense, I think a lot of that is going to depend on what it looks like against Arizona on Sunday, right? If if you see another game where they have a hard time dealing with a team that’s not great, a hard time dealing with a quarterback, this time it might, you know, likely be Jacobe Brassette. um who is not a guy that’s going to light you up and he has another day. Then I think we go from hey that was a bad day to what’s going on and what needs to change. So I’m I’m I’m I’m not worried but I’m paying attention. Right. I you you it’s gone from they’re giving up 12 points a game, everything’s good to I don’t know, man. Let let me see that again. Let me see what that looks like and and and let me decide then. Uh the guy that had a a worse day than Matthew Stafford, you mentioned his name a second ago. Emanuel Forbes was awful. Now, here’s the question. Bad day maybe, or did somebody figure something out against that guy and figure out a way to get him isolated and really take advantage of him? Because he was bad. Right now, we’ve given him a ton of credit. We’ve given him a We talked about the whole Dodger effect, right? Come over from another team, kind of get polished up again, and go out there and be a great player all over again. That that looked like the guy that Washington said, you know, we’ll see you later. Not interested anymore. So keep an eye on on him going forward, what it looks like, the rims defense is really good, especially the front. I thought one of the things that they struggled with against they weren’t able to get Bryce Young on the ground, right? They they they pressured him a little bit, but not nearly as much as I thought you might see. They he he was able to step out of a couple of plays. He was able to not only get rid of the ball in in in big situations, but he had time in big situations to find guys on those fourth down plays to find that receiver uh in the middle of the field to put the game away on that third down play. Like when they really needed to get pressure on him, they were unable to do it. So again, maybe it’s a bad day, maybe that’s all it was, but it it’s gone from this may be a defensive team first. this may be the, you know, the tip of the spear as far as this team goes to. Let’s see what it looks like against Arizona because that that was a a very unrammlike performance that statistically they’re still one of the best defenses in the league, but that wasn’t, you know, prime Kansas City Chiefs. That wasn’t Josh Allen that was doing it to you. It was Bryce Young and the Carolina Panthers who you couldn’t get off the field when you needed to. And that was that was interesting in the worst possible way. No doubt about it. I think that you’re totally right where this is a Rams team where you’re not if if the Rams played the Bills this past week, I think they get up for that, right? It felt like they played down to their competition just a little bit. And you hate to see that with a team that is as well coached that has this much character. But it made me get those week five San Francisco 49ers vibes, right? Where Mac. Jones has time to throw where they’re taking advantage of these short intermediate routes. But it wasn’t that with Bryce Young. It was the run game. It was the fact that you didn’t see any massive explosive runs. You didn’t see kind of those runs we saw from Saquon Barkley last year. But Chuba Chubba Hubard and Rico Rico Dattle 141 yards on 35 carries. And you didn’t see the explosives, but the chunks that they were getting were allowing Bryce Young to not have those third and long situations were allowing the the Panthers offense to have those options and put them in able down. So, not stopping the run and then kind of getting home a little bit, but not enough. But really, it was a secondary as you point out. I mean, look, we got to talk about if we’re going to we’re going to build up Emanuel Forb and say he’s one of the breakout players, one of the surprise players in the NFL this year. We also have to kind of bring it down to earth a little bit when he struggles. And this is just kind of the story of the NFL, right? One week you literally have the highest PFF grade in the sport. And we’re talking we last week we were like, “No, no, not pro bowl, all pro.” Okay. Like last week he was Emanuel Forbes Sanders, right? Last week he was Emanuel Forbes Bailey. He was one of those quarterbacks the NFL. Now he’s Eli Apple, right? I mean Emanuel Forbes. Okay, there you go. Hey, his family watches the show. First of all, Travis, so the Forbes family, I know you guys are built Forbes. I I apologize. I’m just playing. I’m just playing. Talk you talk, Travis. Never filter. I love it. But yeah, to kind of to talk to kind of get deep into his performance, was it a step back? It was. And I think that the biggest takeaway for me in Forbes is this in all seriousness is take a look closely when he matches up with bigger physical receiver, right? And that’s when he can out get outplayed. And we’ve seen that, remember early on against the Titans with uh Aya Mayor, right? Aayou Manor. I mean, he made some big plays. It was it was awards best throw of the year and we’ve seen some moments where guys just impose their will. Yeah. Phil Philly with AJ Brown did it to him as well. And I get it. Like AJ Brown’s going to do that to a lot of guys. That’s not the end of the world. But when it’s guys in Carolina, when it’s guys in Tennessee, this is where it becomes like, all right, what what’s going on there? Again, that he’s been really good. This was I I think kind of going back to what you said at the very beginning of this segment, DMAC, is really important. And then kind of to reemphasize this, this these are human beings. These are guys that kind of do kind of flow. It was Thanksgiving. You’re playing against a team. You’re a 10 and a half point favorite. Everybody thinks you’re going to win. You think you’re going to win. The matchup is not scary to the point where you have to be on every single thing in your preparation or the guy’s going to embarrass you. Right. Like you said, if you’re going up against Josh Allen, you know if you make one mistake, it’s a touchdown. you know, if you are 1% off of where you’re supposed to be, he’s going to find it and he’s going to exploit it. That wasn’t the level. That wasn’t the standard to get to against Carolina. And it showed they just they they just were not locked in in the way when what they did to Tampa the week before coming off of what they did to Seattle the week before with two games. So, hey, look out. This is a good team. This is a big deal. And all it’s the first time in a while they’ve had a all right, this is one that you’re going to have in your back pocket. and they just weren’t sharp. And I and it’s it’s I don’t know if I want to say it’s okay, but I understand what happened. If in fact that is what happened, let’s see what happens. You you you had a bad day. Can you bounce back against Arizona? Can all those little things that cost you against Carolina go away against a bad Arizona team and take care of your business? Everybody goes to sleep on on Sunday night uh this upcoming week feeling pretty good. If it happens again, now you got problems. Now you’ve got some some very big issues as you get close to the end of the line, but I’m optimistic that they’ll get it cleaned up. I am too. I really am. I I I I I tend to worry about that side of the football as far as this quarterbacks goes. And you’re going to get a Kella Witherspoon more in the fold and we’ll see how he performs. But this is a defensive unit that doesn’t have these highriced quarterbacks, these guys in the secondary that the offense has, right? these guys that are top five of their position at least consistently every single week. So, I think the big picture if we’re kind of going to look back at the season, if they win the Super Bowl, they lose the Super Bowl. If they lose in the playoffs and we see the quarterbacks not have their best day like we saw, maybe we look back and say, “Wow, did they put enough into that position group, right? I mean, is that going to be the reason why this team loses?” And I think that if you’re going to have to kind of list a couple reasons, it’s going to be the quarterback play is going to be massive moving forward. I just went on a cruise, Travis, and the Titanic. I’ve always been obsessed about the Titanic. And a lot of people, they wonder why it actually sunk, right? And they Oh, was it was it was it the bulkhead? Like why it actually sink? It was The reason why it sunk is because it scraped that glazer on the star the the glazer. Wow. The glacier. That’s glazer. You’re the glazer. But uh the glacier on the starboard of the the ship. And if they had invested in steel rivets, which were grade four, best of best, the ship would have not sunk. But they were cheap on the rivets. They use rot iron rivets that were grade three. And that’s why they ultimately sunk. So do we are the quarterbacks the rot iron rivets, right? Or should we got some steel rivets? That’s kind of what I’m wondering. By the way, fun fact about this Titanic, the pool on the Titanic is actually still full to this day. Oh, there. Well, sure. I mean, yeah. I mean, it never really emptied. It just it just stayed full as it slid underneath the surface of the ocean. Too soon, Travis. Too soon. No, they Look, this is the weak spot. The the weak spot now that Harrison Mas has made a couple of field goal kicks and and made his pats is can they cover when they need to cover? And and again, I’m not going to overreact to one bad game against a team that probably played their best game. Like you said, they beat they they beat Green Bay, they beat Dallas, they beat the Rams. They have some really odd wins on their schedule. Uh they’re still alive in their division. So, I don’t think Carolina stinks. I just think they’re one of those teams that is very inconsistent. I think they had a really good day against the Rams at the same time where the Rams did not have their best day and they caught them flatfooted. I think the Thanksgiving of it all mattered. Right. You got family coming in and out. Again, we we lose track of the fact that these are human beings that have things going on away from their work like we all do. And I think it showed it. It wasn’t a catastrophic performance, but it just it just wasn’t anywhere near what we’d seen them do uh the previous five weeks where they look like the best team in the league. And a positive wakeup call. We’re going to talk about that next. But I need Emanuel Forbes to prove to me he is a steel rivet. I think he has the potential to be just that. But coming up next, another look at where the Rams are in the NFC and could this loss ultimately be something that helps the Rams long term? That’s coming up next on Locked on Rams. The holidays are officially here, which means gift hunting season is on. And if you want something meaningful, personal, and guaranteed to get a reaction, Aura Frames is the gift that delivers every time. It’s not just something you wrap. It’s a way to share memories, right? 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Promo code locked on. This deal is exclusive to listeners and frames sell out fast. So, order yours now to get in time for the holidays. Support the show by mentioning us at checkout. Terms and conditions apply. And welcome back to Locked On Rams. Thank you for making Locked On Rams your first listen every single weekday. Breen available your podcast. Locked on Rams part of Locked on Podcast Network. Back to the show while Travis is aura farming with that ad there. I saw that. But Travis, a lot of people kind of spinning this as a wakeup call. A lot of people spinning this as okay, you kind of humble a little bit and you’re not just you’re not going to just run through every single team. I I don’t necessarily see it as that just because I think this is a Ram team that should have won that game and I still think it’s an unacceptable loss. When you look at your window, when you look at your talent group, they the Rams should have won that football game all things considered even if it was close. But what say you? I think this is a perfect opportunity for me to use one of my favorite phrases of all time. Two things can be true at the same time. They should have won the game. That is a team that they should beat. That was a disappointing performance and it is a wakeup call and it’s also not the end of the world, right? That this is a a like I said a minute ago, this is the NFL. Anybody can beat anybody. The Rams weren’t ready to go and they got got, right? That that’s what happens in this league occasionally and they won’t let it happen again. This is why that if if this were a team that had a bad head coach, if this were a team that had a quarterback that was inexperienced, if this was a team that had not been through tough times before and not been through big games before, it may be the thing that all of a sudden lets it start to unravel. Look, look at use this example, the Indianapolis Colts who were way up here and now all of a sudden they’ve just started to kind of come down here. They haven’t been through this a lot as a group, so they’re learning how to do it in real time. Shawn McVey is going to get his guys ready. Matthew Stafford will be better. They’ve got the perfect opponent coming up next. They got a chance to knock the Lions out of the playoffs, uh, you know, in a couple of weeks, depending on what happens Thursday night against the Cowboys. They’ve got their season on the line against the Seattle team on a Thursday night. They’re going to be fully present. They’re going to be ready to go. If they take care of their business, they’re still going to end up exactly where they would have ended up had they won this game anyway. Chicago’s going to lose again. Chicago’s not going to run the table. So, the Rams can still get back to the top of the conference if they take care of business. But you’re right, Doug. It It was a game they should have won. Carolina is mediocre. I know they played well that day, but they’re a mediocre team. They couldn’t get off the field when they had to get off the field. They couldn’t make a play when they needed to make a play and they got caught, right? That that that happens occasionally. So, I think this is just a perfect example of two opposites could be true at the same time. And that’s a perfect example of it. And taking by you beat me to it. I was about to say if you want to bounce back, bounce back against the Arizona Cardinals. It is on the road and they’re eliminated from the playoffs and they have nothing to play for. But sometimes when you play a team that has only to play for the spoiler, that’s exactly who you want to play if you are the Cardinals, right? Is a team that has something to play for. So that is something to consider for sure. But if you look at the playoff picture real quick, it’s basically a six team race to get that top spot in the conference. The Bears are now at the top spot at 9 and three. You got the Rams at 9 and three, right behind them, the Eagles at third, 8-4, the Buccaneers at 7 and five, and the Seahawks at 9 and three, the Packers behind them at 83, 8 and three. So, it’s basically those teams, the Bears, the Rams, the Eagles, the Buccaneers, the Seahawks, and the Packers. An interesting thing to note is that the Bears actually have the tiebreaker over the Rams right now because they’re six-2 in the conference. The Rams are four and three. So, we’ll see. Can Ben Shirtless Johnson and Kayla Williams fight on? How about that win for the Trojans this weekend? All right. Uh uh for for them to to kind of continue that, that’d be the story of the year. But you never want to be chasing. So that’s it’s going to be jumbled up and you’re going to have to rack up these wins. It’s going to be extremely tight if you want to win that that top spot. And that’s has to be the goal. Let’s just throw that out there. The reason why the Rams aren’t reigning Super Bowl champions right now is because they didn’t play Philly at home. I I firmly believe that. I I do too. And and I think, you know, just to kind of go back over what you said, think about the cities where you don’t want to Chicago in January, hard pass. Philadelphia, we just saw what that looked like a year ago. Even Seattle at that time of year, cold and wet and and not perfect conditions to do what the Rams like to do. So, these are the these are the Green Bay is still very much in the mix, too. outside at Lambeau Field in January. We’ve seen what that looks like in a playoff game and it doesn’t look good for the Rams that it isn’t just other like if it were Detroit, it’s a little different. You’re going to go inside. It’s not that big of a deal. If it were Tampa down in South Florida or or you know then okay, whatever. You can go do these. But Philly, Chicago, Seattle, Green Bay, all cold weather outdoor cities. So it it is a big deal. Now, can they win in there? Yeah, they can. But do you do do you love their chances? I don’t. I’d much rather have them at home. Um, and they can do it. If they win their last five games, they will be the number one seed. Absolutely. By the way, I did get a chance to ask you that Bucks game, people are saying that was the best Rams home crowd they’ve seen in the regular season in a while. Where do you stand on that? It was good. I It was good. I I I’ll go not that far back in the past before that. I think the Seattle game the week before was better. I I I thought that I I thought so. I thought because it was a much more competitive game. I think the crowd had a much bigger impact on that game than it did. They just kicked Tampa’s butt from the opening kickoff of that game. That thing was a a runaway basically from from the jump. So, no, I I I think that that Seattle crowd was the best one that I’ve seen re probably since they moved into SoFi Stadium. I was trying to give our crowd some credit, man. Put some respect on our crowd because it’s honestly doesn’t get the respect they deserve. But Rams will bounce back and we’re going to talk about it all this week. Tomorrow we got winners and losers and more. That’s coming up tomorrow on Locked On Ram. So be sure to join us. But that’s going to do it for this episode of Locked on Rams. You can join Travis later. Are you doing the show later? Actually, are you going? Okay, so we got uh Travis I got I was getting vacation vibes. I don’t know why, but uh Travis and DeMarco in the afternoons on ESPN LA. A must listen for all LA sports fans, especially Rams fans, too. The Rambling. Go check them out over there. My name is Doug McCain. You can follow me on X and Instagram at dmac_la.

D-mac and Travis break down the Rams 31-28 loss to the Carolina Panthers.
– Is Matthew Stafford mortal?
– Why the Rams defense struggled.
– Step back for Emmanuel Forbes.
– Is McVay to blame?
– Can Rams still finish with the top seed in the NFC?

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