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There’s only one way for the 2019 Los Angeles Rams to exact true revenge

The 2018 Rams were so successful, anything less than the mountaintop will leave revenge unattainable...

New England Patriots QB Tom Brady speaks with Los Angeles Rams QB Jared Goff after Super Bowl LIII, Feb. 3, 2019.
New England Patriots QB Tom Brady speaks with Los Angeles Rams QB Jared Goff after Super Bowl LIII, Feb. 3, 2019.
Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

The 2018 Los Angeles Rams were successful on the whole in many ways.

Two years after going 4-12 in their first season since relocating back to Los Angeles, they won their first playoff game in LA. They won their first playoff game as a franchise since the 2005 NFL playoffs. They put together a playoff run to become NFC Champions. They made it to the Super Bowl validating a season that had been labeled Super Bowl or bust back in March.

The Rams were excessively successful in many postseason outputs, save for one.

Super Bowl LIII.

With the offensive structure from the mind of HC Sean McVay stymied by the best coach of the modern (and perhaps any) era and the offensive line left grasping, the Rams’ offense put up a paltry three points on 260 total yards ruining a stellar defensive effort and opening the floodgates for questions to abound throughout the 2019 offseason concerning McVay, QB Jared Goff, RB Todd Gurley and the Rams’ window as a whole.

So to close Revenge Week, let’s acknowledge that the only form of revenge the Rams could possibly be seeking exists in a single form: beating the New England Patriots in Super Bowl LIV.

On Monday, we looked at the Los Angeles Rams being targeted this year due to their success in 2018 and the biggest revenge games on the schedule. Then, I looked at Goff and his quest for validation in 2019 with the Super Bowl stinker as the backdrop. Lastly, we previewed the Week 2 game against the New Orleans Saints game and the satisfaction that would come about if the Rams win thanks to the new pass interference challenge rule.

To close things out for Revenge Week in a word?

Closure.

Yes, part of this goes back to Super Bowl XXXVI. The end of the peak of the Greatest Show on Turf and the birth of the era of Patriots HC Bill Belichick and QB Tom Brady. But much of it comes down to the end of last season. How could it not? Recency bias is always unavoidable. It’s the last taste from 2018. It’s the jumping off point for 2019.

It’s the response the Rams are looking to deliver.

So for the Rams to achieve real revenge, that response has to come in the form of beating the Pats and beating Belichick and beating Brady.

And beating away the past.