Los Angeles Rams: Road to Super Bowl LVI at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles | NFL News

The Los Angeles Rams are eyeing their Hollywood homecoming as the NFL’s ‘all chips on the table’ A-listers seek to finally get over the Super Bowl line.

They emptied their pockets of draft capital and traded away their future to go all-in on winning a Super Bowl, not just get there. So on the surface, you might say job 90 per cent done, 90 per cent successful.

Armed with their marquee free agency addition under center in Matthew Stafford, the NFL’s receiving leader in Cooper Kupp and three of their generation’s ‘X-factor’ defensive cogs in Aaron Donald, Jalen Ramsey and Von Miller, is this their time?

We take a look back on the Rams’ road to Super Bowl LVI…

What went right?

Sean McVay was the happiest man in the NFL when he acquired Stafford from the Detroit Lions as an upgrade on Jared Goff this time last year, and while there were glitches down the stretch, the marriage produced enough upgrade material to take the Rams home.

In fact, their pass-happy offense led the NFL in EPA (expected points added) at 0.191 through their 7-1 start to the campaign. The pre-snap motion window dressing and play-action that propped up Goff had become less of a necessity with Stafford, whose high-low reads, willingness to take on tight windows and ability to stretch the field gave McVay the knockout punch to Goff’s jab.

Kupp’s versatility and make-you-miss shimmying from the slot amounted to a league-high return in receiving yards (1,947) along with a staggering 115 expected points added on times he was targeted, with Ja’Marr Chase following as his nearest rival in that department with 85 EPA on times he was targeted.

And a league-leading use of 11 personnel along with the presence of a legitimate No. 1 receiver in Kupp beside him turned the trade for Odell Beckham Jr. into a roaring success as he was ushered deep in one-on-one matchups on his way towards six touchdowns in eight games, followed by his first 100-yard receiving outing since October 2019 in the NFC Championship game against the San Francisco 49ers.

It was not pretty for the entirety (as alluded to below), but Stafford arrived tasked with giving the Rams what Goff could not in regards to a finisher. He was the big ‘what needs to go right’ component. And you would argue it has gone right, so far…

What went wrong?

The groovy peacocking offense that had seen the Rams steamroll their way through the first half of the season became a little too predictable, a little too fragile down the stretch as they ranked 13th in EPA (0.018) over the final 10 weeks, leaving them eighth overall on the year.

A three-game losing streak against the Tennessee Titans, 49ers and Green Bay Packers cast doubt over their Super Bowl credentials while kickstarting a run of 13 Stafford interceptions in the Rams’ final nine games. This included a pick six in three straight games and seven interceptions in his last three regular-season outings.

Suddenly Stafford’s aggression and proclivity to take shots downfield were hurting him and the Rams, not helped by injury to Darrell Henderson to hinder an inconsistent run game as well as Robert Woods to switch the trade for Beckham Jr from luxury to necessity.

Defenses had caught on, abiding by the trend of two-deep coverages that many had employed to frustrate the league’s big-arm quarterbacks and dropping seven as a means of luring Stafford rashness and forcing McVay to be more creative.

Who knows what could have happened had Jaquiski Tartt not dropped a gimme fourth-quarter interception for the 49ers in the NFC Championship showdown?

Their final-day defeat to San Francisco felt like a useful insight into both the supremacy and tightness the Rams can be prone to: a Matt Gay field goal and two Tyler Higbee touchdown catches had seen them coast to a 17-3 advantage at half-time, only for the 49ers to find the end zone twice in the third quarter to level the game before sending the contest to overtime where Ambry Thomas’ interception of Stafford would seal the win after Robbie Gould’s go-ahead field goal to make it 27-24. Give the Bengals an inch, and they will take a mile.

What’s more, Raheem Morris’ defense didn’t quite offer the consistent suffocation that had been expected, his unit ranking just ninth in EPA (-0.025) and 15th in success rate (44.5 per cent).

Star names

Stafford has been front and center for the Rams this season. and understandably so; here was supposedly the final puzzle to McVay’s Super Bowl jigsaw, with the former Lions quarterback trading in 12 seasons of Detroit hardship, including just three playoff campaigns, for a long-awaited shot on the biggest stage. Here he is.

He finished the regular season 404 of 601 passing for 4,886 yards (third in the league), 41 touchdowns (second) and 17 interceptions (tied-most).

His star weapon Kupp broke record after record, including the most yards from scrimmage by a wide receiver in a single season in NFL history with 1,965, while a rejuvenated Beckham Jr. has looked at home since moving away from the Cleveland Browns’ run-first offense.

And though he may not garner the reputation of others in Stafford’s firing line, tight end Tyler Higbee has his own razzle-dazzle role as the tight split decoy blocker/motioning screen coordinator/end zone fade mismatch.

Jalen Ramsey marshals the Rams secondary as one of the premier cornerbacks in the NFL, looming as the man expected to pin himself to Bengals rookie wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase in one of the Super Bowl’s potentially-defining duels.

In Aaron Donald, the Rams approach Cincinnati’s weak-link offensive line with one of the most dominant pocket-collapsing, quarterback-smothering, double-team-swatting defensive lineman in NFL history, whose 70 sacks since 2017 are second only to TJ Watt and whose league-high 502 pressures since 2017 are 146 clear of his next closest rival Cam Jordan.

Trading for one of the great edge disruptors of his generation in Von Miller meanwhile formed the four-man rush to at least give offenses one extra Hall of Fame-bound obstacle in their effort to find a weak spot on defense, even if it hasn’t led to significantly improved numbers.

Playoff push

REPORT: Cardinals 11-34 Rams – Wild Card

The Rams opened their playoff campaign by burying a sinking Arizona Cardinals ship in a 34-11 victory at SoFi Stadium behind a turnover-free night from Stafford, touchdown catches from Kupp and Beckham Jr and a dominant defensive display that saw Miller lead the way with six tackles and a sack to complement a pick six from David Long Jr. and another interception by Marquise Copeland.

REPORT: Rams 30-27 Buccaneers – Divisional Round

Then followed another near-Tom Brady comeback for the ages as the Rams conceded 24 straight points from the Bucs to surrender a 27-3 lead before Matt Gay’s 30-yard field goal as time expired clinched a 30-27 win. Brady connected with Mike Evans for a 55-yard touchdown to pull Tampa with 27-20, before Cam Akers’ lost fumble on the next drive set up Leonard Fournette’s nine-yard score to tie the game, only for Stafford to come up clutch with a 20-yard completion to Kupp with 42 seconds left to pave the way for Gay’s winner.

REPORT: 49ers 17-20 Rams: NFC Championship game

McVay’s side confirmed their return to the Super Bowl by ending their six-game losing streak against Kyle Shanahan’s 49ers with a 20-17 victory in the NFC Championship game. Having trailed by 10 points at the start of the fourth quarter, the Rams closed the gap with an 11-yard touchdown from Kupp before taking the lead thanks to two Gay field goals until Travin Howard iced the game by intercepting Jimmy Garoppolo amid his last-gasp efforts to salvage the game.

Super Bowl pedigree

Los Angeles head back to the Super Bowl for the first time since their No. 2-ranked offense was limited to just a field goal in their 13-3 defeat to the New England Patriots at Super Bowl LIII at the end of the 2018 season. Todd Gurley led the league in rushing touchdowns that year before being rushing for just 35 yards off 10 carries at the Super Bowl due to a knee injury.

The franchise has reached the big dance four times in the Super Bowl era, lifting the Lombardi Trophy just once when MVP Kurt Warner, Offensive Player of the Year Marshall Faulk and Dick Vermeil’s “The Greatest Show on Turf” roster led the then-St Louis Rams to a 23-16 win over the Titans at Super Bowl XXXIV in 1999/2000.

Three field goals and a Torry Holt touchdown catch had given the Rams a 16-0 lead in the third quarter, before the Titans tied the game with 16 unanswered points. Isaac Bruce restored St Louis’ lead with a 73-yard touchdown with 1.54 to play in the fourth, and the game was decided when Mike Jones stopped wide receiver Kevin Dyson a yard short of the goalline to deny a game-levelling touchdown in the final six seconds. Warner was named Super Bowl MVP as the first undrafted quarterback and first first-year starter to win a Super Bowl in NFL history.

Warner and Faulk led the Rams back to Super Bowl XXXVI two seasons later but were beaten 20-17 by the Patriots, with Adam Vinatieri kicking a game-winning 48-yard goal as time expired after Mike Martz’s side had clawed their way back from 17-3 down to level the game through Ricky Proehl’s 26-yard touchdown with 1.30 on the clock.

The Rams’ other Super Bowl defeat came back in 1979/1980 when they lost 31-19 to the Pittsburgh Steelers, who were led by Terry Bradshaw, Franco Harris and John Stallworth.

Watch Super Bowl LVI live on Sky Sports NFL and Main Event from 10pm on Sunday, February 13, with current players Kirk Cousins and Calais Campbell, and Hall of Famer Warren Moon among the guests joining Neil Reynolds for 90 minutes of build-up to the big game.