The Los Angeles Rams (9-3) will travel to Glendale in Week 14 to face the Arizona Cardinals (3-9) in an NFC West tilt. The Rams are coming off a Week 13 loss to the Carolina Panthers while the Cardinals lost to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to extend their losing streak to four games. It’s clear that both franchises are headed in opposite directions as Arizona has been unable to build anything during the Jonathan Gannon tenure. But, every NFC West matchup is physical and the Rams were exposed last week. Will they bounce back? Here is a breakdown of each team’s roster headed into Sunday…

QBs: Matthew Stafford is human after all. Stafford threw 2 interceptions (one pick six) and lost a fumble on a strip sack. Even despite the three turnovers, the Rams only lost by 3. It was Stafford’s worst game of the year by far. Yet, he still ranks as PFF’s #1 quarterback entering Week 14. Don’t forget, Stafford as a Ram in December, January, and February is 18-4.

Jacoby Brissett might be the best backup quarterback in the NFL. He sports a 72.8 PFF grade and his TD/INT ratio is 66 TDs to 28 INTs. For backup QBs, he’s pretty reliable.

RBs: Blake Corum is making a strong case that he needs to see at least 50% of the carries. Williams and Corum are both averaging 4.7 rushing yards/attempt. McVay should lean into the running game more because not many teams have shown that they can stop it.

The Cardinals don’t have much at the running back position since James Connor is on injured reserve. Bam Knight has been starting games and has only averaged 25.5 yards/game.

WRs: Davante Adams continues to dominate in the red zone. Although, I would like to see the Rams become less dependent on him; using the run game and also Puka Nacua if teams begin to gravitate doubling Adams. Puka Nacua continues to be superman; making highlight reel grabs a normal part of his game these days. Keep an eye on the Rams transactions as they have yet to bring Tutu Atwell back from IR; making it seem like Xavier Smith has leapfrogged him on the depth chart.

UPDATE: The Cardinals will be without Marvin Harrison and Greg Dortch on Sunday. That leaves Michael Wilson, Andre Baccellia, and Xavier Weaver as the primary pass catchers. My initial rating has Arizona at a 3 out of 5. But with the losses of Harrison and Dortch, this easily drops them to 0.5 out of 5.

TEs: The Rams tight ends haven’t been as great as they were during the middle of the season. Higbee’s absence has impacted that. Terrance Ferguson needs to get more involved and that falls on Sean McVay. He is only seeing 1-2 targets game.

Trey McBride has been the lone bright spot for Arizona. The fourth year tight end has accumulated 118 targets (88 receptions), 879 yards, 8 touchdowns. When Arizona needs to move the chains, it is often working through McBride as he has 47 first downs from his 88 receptions. With the Rams missing Quentin Lake, they will need to be creative in how they defend McBride. The primary option could be Jaylen McCollough as he provides the most size in the secondary.

OL: Ryan Wendell continues to do a phenomenal job with the offensive line. Entering Week 14, the starting line is graded as follows:

Alaric Jackson – 80.8 (9th / 81)

Steve Avila – 82.8 (5th / 79)

Coleman Shelton – 78.0 (5th / 37)

Kevin Dotson – 83.1 (4th / 79)

Warren McClendon – 78.4 (15th / 81)

What’s impressive is McClendon’s play considering he is the backup behind Rob Havenstein. But McClendon has proven to be consistent and excelling in this offense. When Havenstein is healthy, a strong argument exists that McClendon deserves to keep the job.

Arizona’s offensive line is largely supported by Parris Johnson Jr. Aside from him though, the Cardinals are weak at the guard position and at right tackle. This has been a yearly issue for Arizona as they have neglected to address the offensive line with high draft picks aside from Parris Johnson.

DL: Keep an eye on Poona Ford’s availability (calf injury) in this game. He only played a handful of snaps in the loss to Carolina (big reason why the Panthers ran the ball so much). I would not be surprised in Ford misses this game in order to be healthy for Week 15 against Detroit (run heavy team).

The Cardinals defensive line is headlined by Calais Campbell, the 39 year old journeyman. Age is only a number as Campbell as continued to be a menace in the middle with his towering size and ability to collapse the interior. Campbell has 5.5 sacks in his 18th NFL season.

EDGE: Byron Young (10 sacks) and Jared Verse (6 sacks) have not accumulated as many sacks in the 2nd half of the season, in large part because teams have made a concerted effort to get the ball out quickly. Regardless, these two still provide a ton of pressure without the sack numbers. The negative from Week 13 was Jared Verse did not have as great of a performance in run defense.

Josh Sweat is the Cardinals only real threat off the edge. Sweat reunited with Jonathan Gannon (former Eagles DC) when Sweat hit free agency this past summer. The reunion may be short lived because Gannon will likely be fired after this season. At least the investment in Sweat has been worth so far with the former 4th rounder accumulating 11 sacks this year.

LBs: While Stafford took a lot of blame for his performance in Week 13, Nate Landman and Omar Speights were actually big culprits for the poor defensive performance. Both received pedestrian grades for their run defense. Speights was caught vacating the middle of the field at the end of the game that allowed CAR to seal the win with a completion to Jalen Coker.

Baron Browning will man the middle for Gannon’s defense. He has underwhelmed with a 52.1 PFF grade in 10 games played this year.

DBs: Aubrey Pleasant’s secondary took a step back after I praised them last week. Emmanuel Forbes was the guilty party of allowing two touchdowns. Quentin Lake and Roger McCreary are currently sidelined with injuries. Darious Williams (tibia) has mentioned on this week’s injury report. LA could be operating with a thin group at the position over the next few weeks until they get reinforcements back.

Will Johnson was a great Day 2 draft pick and has been playing as a top 25 corner in the league. However, Max Melton will be out (hip). Look for the LA to capitalize with either Puka or Davante depending on who Will Johnson is matched up on.

ST: After elevating Harrison Mevis from the practice squad multiple times, LA has decided to sign Mevis to the active roster. In correspondence, Joshua Karty was waived from the team.

Chad Ryland will do the place kicking for ARI. He has one of the weaker/inaccurate legs in the NFL so I don’t expect him to be used often from 50+.

Coaching: In their 4 meetings against each other, McVay is 3-1 against Gannon. The lone loss was in Week 2 of 2024 when Arizona blew out Los Angeles 41-10. The Rams offense has been sluggish against Gannon as of late, only scoring a combined 23 points in the two regular season meetings last year. If only Los Angeles can grab a lead early, they should have no problem putting away Arizona.

Shula’s defense is looking to rebound as they surrendered the most points (31) since Week 3 at Philadelphia (27 points on defense).