The Rams Found Their Rhythm. Now Comes the Hard Part.

After answering an ugly opening loss with a 28-6 victory over the Giants, Los Angeles heads to Denver with a more revealing question: Can the Rams turn one good night into the way they play?

By Jason Burrell | South Bay Black Journal

INGLEWOOD — Sometimes football isn’t that complicated.

Sometimes you don’t need a new playbook, a motivational speech or somebody standing behind a podium explaining away everything that went wrong.

Sometimes you need to settle down, trust the man next to you and play football.

That’s pretty much what Davante Adams had been telling us.

After the Rams went to Australia and got punched in the mouth by San Francisco, everybody wanted an explanation. Was it the travel? Fatigue? The lack of preseason snaps?

Adams wasn’t interested in excuses.

“We can make excuses all we want, but they played better than we did,” he said before the Giants game.

Then Monday night arrived, and Adams made his point with eight catches, 195 yards and two touchdowns.

The Rams beat New York 28-6. Matthew Stafford threw four touchdown passes. The offense found a rhythm that had been missing in Australia, and the defense played with an edge that made the Giants uncomfortable all night.

It was a good response.

But here’s where the story gets interesting.

The Rams don’t get to carry those 28 points into Denver. Adams doesn’t get to start Sunday with 195 yards. Aaron Donald doesn’t get another standing ovation simply because he came back.

They have to do the work again.

And judging by what the Rams have said this week, they understand that distinction.

“The big thing is after you do a good job responding, now how can you keep that same sense of urgency?” Sean McVay said Tuesday. “Because human nature tells you to exhale a little bit. We can’t afford to do that.”

That’s the difference between having a good Monday night and becoming a good football team.

The Rams have shown us both versions of themselves in two games. Australia exposed what happens when the operation breaks down. Monday showed what happens when the offense stays connected, and the defense takes the fight to its opponent.

Now Denver gets to ask which version is coming to town.

Rhythm is more than Stafford and Adams

The first Rams possession Monday looked painfully familiar.

Three plays. Five yards and a Punt.

Then Stafford found Adams for 19 yards. Blake Corum broke a 16-yard run. Stafford eventually connected with Adams for a 31-yard touchdown, and something changed.

The offense started settling in.

On the next possession, an offensive holding penalty threatened to put the Rams behind the sticks. Then came third-and-10.

Stafford to Adams, Sixty-four yards.

A few plays later, another third down.

Stafford to Kyren Williams, Touchdown.

One successful play starts giving life to the next one.

Adams was spectacular, and with Puka Nacua unavailable, Stafford leaned on him. But reducing that performance to two great players finding each other would miss what made the offense work.

The protection gave Stafford time. The running backs created balance. Terrance Ferguson made plays at tight end. The Rams found ways to use the people they had rather than spend the night lamenting the people they didn’t.

Stafford explained it Wednesday.

“We are at our best when everybody is touching the rock, and we’re multiple,” he said. From a defensive standpoint, he added, that means having to defend everybody.

That’s an important distinction as the Rams prepare for Denver this Sunday.

The Broncos aren’t simply another opportunity for Adams to chase 200 yards. Their defense, coordinated by Vance Joseph, presents pressure, different personnel looks, and a secondary Stafford described as one of the most talented and versatile groups Los Angeles will face this season.

And Adams has another familiar challenge waiting for him: Patrick Surtain II.

Adams spoke Wednesday about their previous matchups with the respect of one craftsman discussing another. He remembered the walk-off touchdown against Denver in 2022. He also acknowledged that Surtain got the better of him in their next meeting.

That’s the kind of honesty I appreciate from a player.

Adams knows what he can do. He also knows the man across from him gets paid to do something, too.

The most revealing Adams story this week, though, came from offensive coordinator Nate Scheelhaase.

During the Giants game, Scheelhaase noticed Adams working on a release along the sideline. He wondered whether the receiver had hurt his ankle.

Adams told him he was getting something down in his mind before doing it.

Think about that.

In the middle of a 195-yard performance, a 33-year-old receiver was still rehearsing his craft.

That’s not a man living off what he used to be. That’s a seasoned vet still working on what he can become.

McVay described Adams’ route running Friday as an art form, comparing the way he manipulates a defender’s leverage to a boxer slipping punches. He talked about the receiver’s love for the small details, not merely the rewards that come from mastering them.

There’s a lesson in that for the Rams.

You don’t sustain excellence by admiring what you did Monday.

You sustain it by preparing on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday as though Monday’s applause has already faded.

Trust means giving somebody the ball again

Monday wasn’t perfect.

Stafford threw an interception. Williams fumbled. Corum put another ball on the ground before recovering it. The Rams missed a field goal and left points on the field.

But I kept coming back to what happened after those mistakes.

Williams got the football again.

Corum got the football again.

Stafford kept throwing.

Ferguson had a difficult chance he couldn’t finish, then came back and made an important touchdown catch.

McVay called it doing “the next right thing.” He explained Tuesday that his job after a mistake isn’t merely to tell a player to catch the ball; it’s to give him useful coaching and make sure the player understands that his coach is still in it with him.

That’s leadership.

Not pretending a mistake didn’t happen. Not embarrassing a man because it did.

Correct it. Teach him. Give him another opportunity.

Stafford said something similar after the game.

“Nobody’s perfect. We all have plays that we want back,” he said, before explaining that the Rams trust their teammates because those men have earned the right to be on the field.

Accountability and Trust go hand in hand.

Sometimes the next right thing is handing the ball back to the man who just lost it.

But Denver will test that trust in a different way.

The Rams will be operating in a loud road environment against a defense that can create problems before the ball is even snapped. Scheelhaase pointed specifically to the importance of communication between Stafford and center Coleman Shelton.

The Giants game showed that the Rams can recover from a bad play.

Denver will challenge how often they can avoid putting themselves in those situations in the first place.

Aaron Donald is learning something, too

And then there’s Aaron Donald.

For most of his career, everybody knew where No. 99 was.

Offensive coordinators knew. Guards knew. Centers knew. Quarterbacks damn sure knew.

His return to SoFi was one of those moments that reminds you why sports matter beyond the final score.

Stafford said he couldn’t control himself when Donald ran out of the tunnel.

“Just the human being, the player, all of it combined,” Stafford said afterward. “What he brings to our team and to our locker room is unmatched.”

The human being.

We know No. 99.

They know Aaron.

And the more Donald talks about his comeback, the more interesting the story becomes.

Before the Giants game, he told us, “I’m just one guy.”

Monday, one of those guys made a three-yard tackle for loss after a Rams turnover handed New York a short field. The Giants settled for three points instead of seven.

But Donald wasn’t the only one answering.

Trent McDuffie intercepted Jameis Winston in the red zone. Byron Young pressured the quarterback and earned a game ball. Wesley Bailey recorded his first career sack.

The defense worked together.

McVay called it playing “11 as one.”

Donald has already helped that group, but what he said Thursday gave me a different appreciation for his return.

He watched his comeback film six times.

Six!

He studied what he did well, what he needed to clean up, and how his movements compared with his previous years. He admitted that hearing calls through the noise felt different after so much time away.

Then he talked about Kobie Turner.

Turner was a younger player when Donald last wore a Rams uniform. Now Donald sees a veteran who speaks up and leads.

Sometimes Donald forgets something, and Turner reminds him.

“I need that right now!” Donald said.

I love that.

One of the greatest defensive players in NFL history returns to the game, and the younger teammate he once helped establish is now helping him.

That’s what a real team looks like! A leader who’s not afraid to be vulnerable.

Nobody is above learning. Nobody is too accomplished to receive help. And leadership doesn’t always flow from the oldest man in the room to the youngest.

Sometimes it comes back around.

Donald even said he’s going third in drills because he’s earning his place.

“I’m a guy that likes to work and earn everything I get,” he said

That’s not a bad message for a locker room coming off its first victory.

Especially one headed to Denver, where the altitude and Bo Nix’s mobility will require disciplined rush lanes and a smart defensive-line rotation.

Donald isn’t pretending those challenges don’t exist. He said he’ll have to see how the altitude affects him, and he trusts the rotation to provide fresh bodies when needed.

He doesn’t have to do everything.

He has to do his job and so does everybody else.

Denver will tell us something Monday couldn’t

The Rams have other concerns heading into Sunday night.

Nacua is doubtful. Kamren Kinchens is doubtful. Colby Parkinson is questionable, although McVay said Friday that he was progressing. Jordan Whittington is expected back. Ronnie Rivers is on injured reserve with a calf injury, and the team has brought in safety Maximus Pulley while planning to elevate Dean Connors for special teams.

None of that is an excuse waiting to happen.

It’s the NFL!

Every week changes the people available to you. Every opponent presents a different problem. Every victory has something in it that can make you better, or make you comfortable.

The Rams have already experienced both sides of that reality.

Australia gave them a reason to examine themselves.

The Giants gave them evidence that the work could produce something better.

Denver gives them the next examination.

McVay said Friday that the offense must be able to run and throw efficiently enough that a defense has to respect both. He also pointed to ball security and early-down execution as areas that still need improvement.

That’s the football challenge.

The human challenge is a little simpler.Can you stay hungry after somebody tells you how good you were?

Can you trust one another when the next game doesn’t unfold as comfortably as the last one?

Monday, the Rams found their rhythm.

This week, they went back to work.

And Sunday night in Denver, against a team that has no obligation to care what happened at SoFi, they’ll have to earn it all over again.

Football doesn’t give anybody much time to celebrate or mourn.

It just gives you another snap.

The Rams have shown us they know how to respond.

Now it’s time to show us they know how to stay in rhythm.