Few Super Bowl champions have fallen farther faster than the Rams. They’re 3-7. Their two best players (by far) on offense are injured. And the Rams are more than two-touchdown underdogs at Kansas City on Sunday.
Rams defensive back Jalen Ramsey was asked by reporters on Friday about the team’s status on the wrong side of the betting line.
“What you thought we weren’t going to be the underdogs going in?” Ramsey said. “I know nobody thought that. Let’s keep it real now. It is all you can do. We knew we were going to be the underdog, let’s keep it real with each other now. And none of us are going in thinking we weren’t going to be the underdogs. So yeah, it just is what it is. That don’t ever matter to me. I feel like that’s like more like of a gambling or social media thing. I don’t gamble, but that’s probably like what that is. I don’t think we really pay attention to that, whether we underdogs or not. Like I said I don’t gamble, but I’m sure spread is in their favor, however that go. But regardless, we’ve got to go out there and play and try to get a win regardless and just do the best we can.”
It’s one thing to be, say, a three-point underdog. DraftKings currently has the Rams as 15.5-point underdogs.
The Rams are trying their best to turn it around. Ramsey, for example, gathered defensive backs after practice on Friday. So what did Ramsey say?
“We just had a little conversation,” Ramsey said. “That’s all I’ll say.”
He may have been talking to them about the team giving up so many explosive plays. Ramsey was asked about that dynamic.
“You’ve just got to keep playing,” Ramsey said. “That’s it. Just got to keep going through it. You’ve got to go through the storm, you’ve got to go through the ups and the downs, and sometimes the downs make you appreciate when you were up a little bit more. You’ve just got to keep going through it and focus and lock in and know that it’s going to change in your favor at some point. You’ve just got to keep going through it honestly. We’re in the NFL so teams are going to make plays, right? Teams are going to make plays. There’s good players on each team, but you just got to go to the next play or go to the next game, whatever the case may be. And if something happens again then oh well, so be it. We’ll try to figure it out and go past it, but all we can do is just keep going. Just try to focus and play hard and have each other’s back. That’s all we can do at this point.”
He’s right. But it’s still glaring, given what the Rams were able to do in 2021. This time around, the Rams are simply playing out the string. And, along the way, they’ll be playing standalone games.
In addition to Sunday’s “America’s Game of the Week” (America would beg to differ) on Fox at the Chiefs, the Rams have a Thursday night game against the Raiders, a Monday night game against the Packers, a Christmas Day game against the Broncos, and a New Year’s Day primetime game against the Chargers.
Of those games, only the “road” game against the Chargers can be told by the NFL to hit the road.
