Column: Rams’ failure to protect Matthew Stafford threatens to derail more than their season
He didn’t have any protection. He didn’t have any weapons.
Matthew Stafford was a sitting duck in the Rams’ 41-10 loss to the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday.
Playing behind an offensive line decimated by injuries, Stafford was sacked five times at State Farm Stadium. Starting the game without Puka Nacua and ending it with Cooper Kupp in a walking boot, the veteran quarterback led the Rams on only one touchdown drive.
The season has barely started but already could be over, the Rams with a 0-2 record and the defending NFC champion San Francisco 49ers scheduled to visit them in Week 3.
The Cardinals’ Kyler Murray picked apart the Rams defense, and their offense — which lost Cooper Kupp to an ankle injury — was stagnant behind a weakened line.
This is starting to feel like a repeat of the Rams’ five-win 2022 season when Stafford was beaten and beaten and beaten some more until he was shut down for the season because of a bruised spinal cord.
How much more of this will Stafford be forced to endure?
How much more of this can the 36-year-old take?
The answers to these questions could have major Ram-ifications for the team, both in the short and long term.
Any effort to emerge from this 0-2 start has to start with Stafford, who barely had any time to throw against the Cardinals.
Four of the sacks were on third down, including early in the second quarter. Trailing 21-0, the Rams had the ball on the Cardinals’ seven-yard line when linebacker Zaven Collins ran around left tackle Warren McClendon Jr. and mauled Stafford from behind. The Rams settled for a field goal.
“You can’t really get anything going if you don’t have the opportunity to let stuff develop,” coach Sean McVay said.
The reasons were obvious. Starting left tackle Alaric Jackson was serving the back end of a two-game suspension for violating the NFL’s personal conduct policy. Fellow lineman Steve Avila and Joe Noteboom went down in a season-opening loss to the Detroit Lions and were placed on injured reserve.
Running backs Kyren Williams and Blake Corum combined to average just 2.7 yards per carry behind the makeshift offensive line, the absence of a viable running game allowing the Cardinals to key on Kupp — until the receiver injured his ankle on a 24-yard reception in the final minute of the first half.
Kupp picked up a combined 13 yards in his previous three catches. He didn’t play in the second half.
If Cooper Kupp is forced miss any games because of his latest injury, it would be a major blow to a Rams offense that is in desperate need of playmakers.
The Rams were already without Nacua, who suffered a knee injury in Week 1 and landed on IR. Kupp wore protective footwear in the locker room after the game.
Stafford played the entire game, taking the field for his team’s final possession with a little more than four minutes remaining. The Rams were down by 31 points.
Saying he didn’t want to place inexperienced backup Stetson Bennett in a compromising position, McVay selected to safeguard Stafford by exclusively running the ball.
“Felt like he was going to be out of harm’s way,” McVay said. “No matter what happened, we weren’t going to throw the football.”
The ability to protect Stafford could affect the Rams beyond this season. Stafford is technically under contract through the 2026 season, but in the wake of the most recent adjustment to his deal, he’s basically playing on a year-to-year basis.
Stafford said on a podcast last month that he hoped to play another three or four seasons but also acknowledged that he considered retirement after the 2022 season.
Stafford was sacked 29 times in just nine games that season and was twice placed in concussion protocol. Kupp also played just nine games, and the Rams didn’t have much of a ground attack.
Even before Cooper Kupp left the game with an ankle injury the rout was already on in the Rams’ 41-10 loss to the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday.
Sound familiar?
Predictably, Stafford downplayed the pounding he endured against the Cardinals.
“I feel fine,” he said.
Stafford echoed McVay’s message about not using the missing players as excuses for the performance, saying that with Kupp and Nacua sidelined, he was looking forward to working with the likes of Demarcus Robinson, Tyler Johnson, Tutu Atwell and Jordan Whittington.
“I got a ton of trust in them,” he said.
Stafford delivered the kind of message that any team would want its on-field leader to deliver, but it didn’t solve anything.
The Rams have to figure how to prevent their opponents from driving their old quarterback into their turf. The season will depend on it. The future will too.
Go beyond the scoreboard
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