Los Angeles Rams 46, Indianapolis Colts 9: For The First Time

One of the biggest drawbacks and one of its most entertaining qualities is that its sample sizes are small.

The Los Angeles Dodgers have played 142 games. P Clayton Kershaw has thrown 2,183 pitches this season in his 23 starts. G Jordan Clarkson led the Los Angeles Lakers with 1,071 field goal attempts in the 2016-17 season.

Jared Goff threw 29 passes today.

This is the paradox. Every pass he throws is exponentially more valuable than any pitch Kershaw throws or any three Clarkson shoots. And it’s hard not to immediately draw exponentially more hyperbolic conclusions from those passes than those pitches or threes.

So it is following the Los Angeles Rams’ 46-9 beatdown of a hobbled Indianapolis Colts team.

The Rams were favored to beat the Colts. They did not. They beat them down.

The Rams didn’t just win this game. They dominated it.

Goff picked up the first win of his career as did Rams Head Coach Sean McVay. Fitting, yes, but telling also. Goff was efficient and incisive going 21/29 for 306 yards and throwing a beautiful touchdown to WR Cooper Kupp who himself was phenomenal in his debut.

Pehaps more impressive was the defense. They scored two touchdowns, nearly had a third, forced a safety, made Colts QB Scott Tolzien look like Colts QB Scott Tolzien and validated all the hopes Rams fans had of Defensive Coordinator Wade Phillips turning this into a top unit.

The 2017 Football Outsiders Almanac painted a path to success for the Rams this year. To their numbers, it won’t come on the back of the offense, which they predicted could look relatively pedestrian this year, something it did not look today (outside of a running game that yet again disappointed, but let’s bring that up at another time). To their numbers, it will come on the back of a defense that could go from its ranking of 15th in 2016 to a projected second-best-in-the-NFL in 2017.

We saw those projections made real today. They looked the part.

No, the entire season will not go like this. Yes, there will be much stiffer challenges ahead.

But today as the McBae era begins, we saw reasons to buy into the idea that the Rams could walk that path to success sooner than later.

So soak it up Rams fans. Ignore the less-than-finer points today. The Rams just shellacked an opponent in front of the home crowd.

This is how things should be.