Who’s going to beat them?
Who’s going to cease the unstoppable offense? Who’s going to attain on the persistent protection? Who’s going to outwit the teaching genius?
Who can presumably halt the Rams on their thunderous march towards a Tremendous Bowl championship?
After yet one more jaw-dropping Sunday afternoon at a raucous SoFi Stadium, the reply was clear.
No one.
No one can spar with the Rams. No one can run with the Rams. No one can compete with the Rams.
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Gary Klein breaks down what went proper for the Rams of their 41-34 victory over the Detroit Lions at SoFi Stadium on Sunday.
No one is gifted sufficient or deep sufficient or sensible sufficient to maintain the Rams from profitable their second Tremendous Bowl championship in 5 years.
No one. It’s over. It’s finished. The Rams are going to win all of it, and earlier than you cry jinx, perceive that that is simply placing into phrases what many already are pondering.
The Rams’ second-half domination of the Detroit Lions in a 41-34 win ought to once more make the remainder of the league understand that no one else has an opportunity.
The Seahawks? Please. The 49ers? No approach. The Eagles? They’ve been grounded. The Bears? Is that some form of a joke?
The Patriots? Not but. The Broncos? Not but. The Payments? Not ever.
The Rams trailed by 10 factors at one juncture Sunday after which blew the Lions’ doorways off within the second half to clinch a playoff berth for the seventh time in 9 seasons beneath Sean McVay, setting them up for the simplest trip in sports activities.
With a win in Seattle on Thursday evening — and, sure, they need to beat a crew that simply barely survived Previous Man Rivers — the Rams primarily will clinch the NFC’s prime seed and home-field benefit all through the playoffs.
Which means they must win solely two video games at SoFi to advance to a Tremendous Bowl at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara. Which means they’ll win a championship with out leaving California, three video games performed within the kind of excellent local weather that will get the very best out of their precision assault.
And as Sunday proved as soon as once more, they’re ok to win three primarily residence playoff video games towards anyone.
“I really like this crew,” McVay mentioned.
There’s loads to like.
They’ve an MVP quarterback, the league’s most versatile two-headed operating assault, an inside protection that will get stronger beneath strain, and the one weapon that no crew can match.
They’ve Puka Nacua, and no one else does.
Rams broad receiver Puka Nacua is tackled by Detroit cornerback Amik Robertson through the second half Sunday.
(Eric Thayer / Los Angeles Occasions)
Is he unbelievable or what? He’s Cooper Kupp in his prime, solely sooner and stronger. He caught a career-high 181 yards’ price of passes on yet one more day when he couldn’t be lined and barely could possibly be tackled.
“He’s unbelievable,” McVay mentioned. “He’s so robust, a few instances he simply drags guys with him … he epitomizes all the things we need to be about … he’s like Pac-Man, he simply eats up yards and catches.”
Pac-Man? The Rams even rating on their old-school references.
In all, it was one other Sunday of completely enjoyable soccer.
They outscored the league’s highest-scoring crew 20-0 at one level, they outrushed the league’s hardest backfield 159-70, they racked up 519 whole yards towards a crew as soon as thought destined for a championship.
And so they did it with barely a smile. Excluding Nacua repeatedly banging his fist to his chest — are you able to blame him? — the Rams are regular and steadfast and simply so scary.
”All we need to do is go to work and discover a strategy to be higher,” mentioned Matthew Stafford, who seemingly answered the group’s chants by clinching the MVP award with 368 yards and two landing passes. “It’s a enjoyable group proper now however we perceive there’s extra on the market for us.”
Tons, heaps, heaps extra.
This yr an identical column appeared on this area relating to the Dodgers. By the primary spherical of the playoffs, one simply knew that they had been going to run the desk.
The identical feeling exists right here. The Rams look unrelenting, unfazed, unbeatable.
“Guys simply stored competing, staying within the second,” McVay mentioned.
This second belongs to them. One knew it Sunday by the top of the primary half, which featured a Stafford interception and a struggling secondary and Jared Goff’s vengeful greatness and a 10-point Lions lead.
Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford passes within the first half of a 41-34 win over the Detroit Lions at SoFi Stadium on Sunday.
(Eric Thayer / Los Angeles Occasions)
Then the Rams drove the ball almost half of the sphere in 30 seconds in a push that includes Stafford and Nacua at their greatest. Stafford related with Nacua on an excellent 37-yard go within the last moments that led to a Harrison Mevis 37-yard subject objective to shut the hole to seven.
“Proper earlier than that I informed the fellows, ‘Let’s go steal three,’” Stafford mentioned.
Seems, they stole a recreation.
“One of many key and demanding sequences,” McVay mentioned of that late first-half hammer, which led to a blinding third quarter that completed the flustered Lions.
“We by no means panic,” Blake Corum mentioned. “As a result of we all know … what we now have to convey to the desk.”
What they’ve more and more been bringing is a operating assault that completely enhances the superior passing assault, as evidenced Sunday by Corum and Kyren Williams combining for 149 yards and three touchdowns.
The Lions’ extra vaunted backfield of Jahmyr Gibbs and David Montgomery? Seventy yards and one rating.
“We push one another to the restrict,” Corum mentioned of Williams.
Rams operating again Kyren Williams stiff-arms Detroit Lions security Erick Hallett II through the first half Sunday.
(Eric Thayer / Los Angeles Occasions)
Doubtlessly disturbing was how one famous Ram might have pushed previous his limits, as receiver Davante Adams limped off the sphere early within the fourth quarter after apparently reinjuring his troublesome hamstring.
To lose him for the playoffs could be devastating, as he frees up area for Nacua and is sort of an automated landing from the five-yard line and nearer.
Then once more he’ll have a month to heal. And the Rams nonetheless have a bruising array of tight ends led Sunday by the touchdown-hot Colby Parkinson, who caught 75 yards’ price of passes and two scores, together with one inexplicable landing by which he clearly was down on the one-yard line.
The Rams bought fortunate there. However even when the proper name was made, they might have scored on the subsequent couple of performs. The way in which the Rams attacked, they might have been scoring all evening.
“You knew that it was going to be that form of recreation the place there was some good back-and-forth,” McVay mentioned. “You wanted to have the ability to know that factors had been going to be actually essential for us, and our guys delivered in an enormous approach.”
Simply wait. By the point this season is completed, McVay’s guys may have delivered a trophy representing one thing a lot greater.
It rhymes with Strombardi.
