LA Rams Primetime Schedule Is Out And It’s A Doozy
Much like Homer Simpson awaiting new billboard day, millions of football starved fans waited with bated breath for the schedule to drop. Luckily most of it leaked throughout the day (and a fake schedule leaked throughout the week). The NFL has given the defending champs the hardest schedule and all their primetime games shine a light on how hard it will be to RUN IT BACK. Each game presents its own unique challenge and its own set of subplots and storylines. In order, here are the primetime games that will prove to be the most challenging for the defending champs.
Rams vs Bills (SNF ON THURSDAY)
It’s ring night and the league has given the Rams a HUGE test to start the season. Once the digital billboard goes up the celebrating stops because the AFC favorite Buffalo Bills come to town. This is a chance for Sean McVay to avenge a loss and to record his first win against Buffalo (there are only four teams he hasn’t beaten, Buffalo, Pittsburgh, Miami, and the Jets).
Von Miller returns to LA after signing a 6-year deal that caused him to have conflicting feelings while moving him to a bigger house. He will test the new Rams’ O-Line, in particular Joe Noteboom who is taking over the watch for Andrew Whitworth.
Jalen Ramsey gets a chance to shut down a stud in Stefon Diggs, and Josh Allen can start his MVP campaign against one of the best defenses in the league.
The Bills defense has to prove it won’t get gouged like it did in the playoffs and that won’t be easy. The Rams run game hopefully won’t be as patchwork as last year and Allen Robinson will make life easier for Van Jefferson and Cooper Kupp. Matthew Stafford also gets an early chance to remind people that he didn’t luck into a title.
Ring night has the potential to be a primetime match-up for the ages.
December 19th at Green Bay (MNF)
The Rams’ swoon concluded in Green Bay where the Packers ran LA out of town. Odell Beckham had a good game but other than that it was their nadir. Sean McVay has yet to beat Matt LaFleur and while the Packers didn’t add much to their offense, at least in terms of star power, that doesn’t matter.
Reigning MVP and Peter Stormare doppelganger Aaron Rodgers can make a star out of any receiver. Their defense is quietly one of the best in the league and if Beckham is back for this game the Rams have the firepower to match Green Bay (they lost Robert Woods the week prior last year).
This one could also decide home field in the playoffs and while that hasn’t helped Green Bay, the Rams could sure use a SoFi-only slate in January. Even if it doesn’t decide Homefield the Rams need to prove to themselves that they can finally get the cheese flavored monkey off their back.
December 25th at Broncos (CBS AFTERNOON)
Ho Ho HO Rams fans, the champs head to Denver on Christmas day. Aaron Donald gets Russell Wilson under his tree and Stafford gets to solve a defense featuring Bradley Chubb, Patrick Surtain, and Randy Gregory.
The Broncos have two wide receivers in Jerry Jeudy and Courtland Sutton that’ll give their secondary a headache and it comes less than a week after going to Green Bay so this will surely test their resolve.
Denver’s line is going to need to prove that it can protect Wilson against a defensive front that has been the Grinch to him his entire career. Also, for LA sports fans this game should serve as a nice glass of Bad Santa level egg nog after the Lakers inevitably stink up Staples (sorry not calling it the Crypt).
January 1st at Chargers (SNF)
LIGHTS OUT GUERILLA RADIO! The battle for LA will commence on New Year’s day and both teams are likely to have a ton at stake. McVay and Brandon Staley get their first dual against each other and Stafford once again gets a brutal defense to solve.
Khalil Mack and former Rams Sebastian Joseph Day are part of a front seven featuring Joey Bosa and Kyle Van Noy so the Rams’ line will be tested all day.
Offensively, Justin Herbert is looking to make a leap into Josh Allen/Patrick Mahomes company and could be making a case for MVP.
For fans, this matchup means a lot as it will mean four years of bragging rights and the Rams have a chance to show why they’re the marquee team in LA and the Chargers want to prove their not just lowly unwanted tenants. By the way, both fanbases are already dreading the hack jokes about how SoFi will be as deserted as a movie theater showing “Marry Me”.
October 3rd at SF (MNF)
Why so low? Well, this comes in week four and they play again in week seven. Sure, this is an early rematch of the NFC Championship and McVay hasn’t beaten KYLE in the regular season in three years, but still, the stakes are a little low. Obviously, this has divisional stakes especially with this coming a week after the Rams are in Arizona but given the quarterback situation being murky, the Niners typical slow starts, and the Rams no longer being owned by Shanahan, this might not be the duel everyone thinks.
Bobby Wagner and Ernest Jones have a massive opportunity to shut down whoever is running the ball in the middle and Deebo Samuel might not even be around. This is a far less sexy matchup than it was in January. That said, if the Rams win, fans are encouraged to make SoFi North jokes for the rest of the year.
December 8th VS LV (TNF)
The Rams make their Amazon primetime debut hosting Vegas and while DA RAIDAS signed Chandler Jones and traded for Davante Adams this one doesn’t have a lot at stake. Davante Adams vs Jalen Ramsey is the marquee matchup on defense while Hunter Renfrow is looking to prove he’s more than K-MART Cooper Kupp. Josh McDaniels is also a bit of a mystery as a head coach given how his tenure in Denver went over a decade ago. Still, this could be a fun game and one the Rams will need to bank before their schedule gets absolutely brutal.
The Rams have the hardest schedule in the league as of now (things change) and their primetime games give them different challenges that will demonstrate why they’re the champs. Get the popcorn ready!