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Los Angeles Rams 31, Arizona Cardinals 24: The Coliseum is closed.

The Rams put together a winning effort to close out a winning season that fell far below expectations for the first time under Head Coach Sean McVay.

NFL: Arizona Cardinals at Los Angeles Rams Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

After the dust settled on the 2019 NFL Draft as teams wrapped up their final personnel changes with free agency long gone, the 2019 season began to take shape. With the Los Angeles Rams coming out of Super Bowl LIII, expectations were high.

Sky high.

Our post-draft FanPulse results had 95% of Rams fans taking the over on the Rams’ 10.5 win total over/under.

That’s worth considering as the Rams’ 2019 season came to a close today.

More than 90% of Rams fans had the Rams winning 11 games or more in 2019.

Today by beating the Arizona Cardinals, 31-24, the Rams closed out 2019 by going 9-7.

The game itself was meaningless in its output. The Rams had already been eliminated from the playoffs, so the performances in term of their impact on the season had already been rendered moot.

The event was a historical one as the Rams played their final game in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum as TE Tyler Higbee set a franchise record for receiving yards by a tight end and the Rams sent fans into the offseason on the back of the Rams’ sixth consecutive win over the Cards.

But there’s no way to look at this one in a vacuum.

It’s the cherry on top of a failure sundae.

The Rams will watch six other teams from the NFC in the playoffs next year for the first time under Head Coach Sean McVay.

It’s the wrong kind of change, but it’s the new reality as the Rams head into the 2020 offseason.

And it’s one the Rams will confront as they begin to head into their new home in Inglewood next season.