Rams fail against Cowboys: Takeaways from another poor offensive showing by L.A.

The Los Angeles Rams have one of the worst offenses in the NFL. That’s not hyperbole, that’s not opinion, that’s what all of the evidence is pointing to through their first five games. In their quest to “run it back” after winning the Super Bowl with a rather explosive passing offense featuring the Offensive Player of the Year, the Rams have fallen completely flat on their faces.

That was as evident during Sunday’s 22-10 loss to the Dallas Cowboys as it was during any other Rams game so far this season. The L.A. Rams, who entered the week ranked 29th in scoring, 28th in yards, 29th in yards per carry, and 29th in turnovers, only made things look worse in Week 5 and they will be ranked even lower on offense in Week 6.

The Rams have scored just 39 points in their last three games, their only saving grace after a 31-10 loss in Week 1 to the Buffalo Bills, is the 31 points that they scored against the Atlanta Falcons. But even against the Falcons, the Rams only rushed for 65 yards and turned the ball over three times.

It was more of the same against the Cowboys and the 2-3 L.A. Rams will be looking up at the San Francisco 49ers in the NFC West. There is a lot of season left in 2022, but is it starting to feel like the Rams are running out of time to get better?

And how will they get better?

These are some happenings and takeaways from Sunday’s brutal loss to Dallas.

Rams offense is struggling mightily

The Rams also turned the ball over immediately:

Matthew Stafford sacked, fumbled, recovered for a touchdown

The game couldn’t have gotten off to a worse start, as a third-and-short passing call turns into a sack, fumble, and immediate Cowboys touchdown. The only saving grace was a missed PAT, keeping the score 6-0.

Cowboys Missed PAT

Riley Dixon blocked punt, recovered, leads to a FG

The Rams get the ball back after the Dallas defensive touchdown, but the Cowboys force a punt after L.A. picked up just 29 yards on the drive. The punt was blocked, the second blocked punt of the season for Riley Dixon. The 10 points off of these two plays would be as many as the Rams would score all day.

Tutu Atwell for 58 yards

The first career catch for Tutu Atwell. He gains 58 yards after getting a step on Trevon Diggs, hauling in the over-the-shoulder grab. Not a bad debut as a pass-catcher, it just took a long time to get here. Atwell would only be targeted one other time in the game, an incompletion.

Cooper Kupp for 75 yards, mostly YAC

The Atwell catch led to a field goal, then L.A.’s defense forced two punts on the next two Dallas drives. When the Rams got the ball back in the second quarter, Kupp caught this one against Trevon Diggs and took it the rest of the way for a touchdown. He finished with 125 yards. Ben Skowronek had six catches for 41 yards on eight targets.

No Allen Robinson (again)

Robinson was targeted four times, catching three passes for 12 yards. Whether you blame Robinson, Sean McVay, Stafford, Liam Coen, or Les Snead, it doesn’t matter. There is no way that “part of the plan” for Robinson was for him to have 100 receiving yards over the first five games total. Robinson is on a pace that would be about 350 yards for a 17-game season.

Aaron Donald adds to his career sack total with 2 more

He’s blowing past 100 career sacks with ease. Donald has now sacked 50 quarterbacks in his career.

Riley Dixon Fake Punt

Dixon makes up for the blocked punt by gaining a first down with this throw. Looking like prime Johnny Hekker.

Struggles in run defense

The Cowboys only needed 76 net passing yards from Cooper Rush. That’s thanks to how bad the Rams offense was and the fact that Dallas ran the ball 34 times for 163 yards, an average of 4.8 YPC; but prior to running the clock out, the Cowboys were at 5.9 YPC. Tony Pollard had a 57-yard touchdown run.

The Rams came in with a pretty good run defense, but the 163 yards allowed is a season-worst.

Jalen Ramsey first career sack

Ramsey probably shouldn’t have even gotten this sack, but Tony Pollard doesn’t know how to pass protect like Ezekiel Elliott does apparently. In any case, Ramsey is on the board with a sack and he appeared to be locking down CeeDee Lamb whenever the two were matched up.

Matthew Stafford’s first interception, second fumble

The offensive line problems were as apparent as ever on this play by A.J. Jackson, as Stafford is immediately pressured, to which he does the wrong thing and throws an interception.

On Stafford’s next drive, he loses his second fumble of the game. That’s three turnovers for Stafford.

There were some good individual performances by the Rams, but the total output was as bad as it gets.

The Rams face the Carolina Panthers next week and anything less than an emphatic win would be very worrisome for McVay.