{"id":505665,"date":"2026-10-23T19:12:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-23T19:12:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/505665\/"},"modified":"2026-10-23T19:12:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-23T19:12:11","slug":"raiders-week-7-preview-what-happened-to-los-angeles-rams-super-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/505665\/","title":{"rendered":"Raiders Week 7 preview: What happened to Los Angeles Rams\u2019 Super Team?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Heading into the season, who would have thought that the Week 7 matchup between the Las Vegas Raiders and Los Angeles Rams<\/a> would be a \u201closer goes home\u201d type of game when it comes to the playoffs? Not many, that\u2019s for sure. But here we are.<\/p>\n

The 3-3 Raiders need to end a three-game losing streak and beat a quality opponent to be legitimate postseason contenders, while the 2-4 Rams<\/a> desperately need a win to keep pace in the NFC Wild Card race. To preview the game for Raider Nation, Silver and Black Pride reached out to our friends at Turf Show Times, and Kenny Arthur<\/a> was kind enough to answer a few questions about the Rams.<\/p>\n

Q: Sorry, but I have to start with the elephant in the room. The Rams won the offseason and were billed as the heavy Super Bowl favorites heading into the campaign. Sitting at 2-4, how did the \u201cSuper Team\u201d fall apart?<\/p>\n

A: For the record, I never thought the Rams were a super team, or even the best team in the NFC West. They spent the offseason doing what the Rams always do, which is chasing big names and brushing aside actual weaknesses. To be fair, Trent McDuffie and Jaylen Watson addressed a need at cornerback, and McDuffie was a much better use of a late first-round pick than anyone in the draft would have been. So kudos to L.A. for that, although Watson was an overpay. Even so, he was an overpay to replace one of the worst starters on the team.<\/p>\n

None of the other moves were that smart, and the non-moves were terrible miscalculations.<\/p>\n

Number one, the Rams had the worst special teams in the NFL last year, and it\u2019s been a running theme for L.A. to have bad special teams for at least the last five years. Did they upgrade kicker Harrison Mevis? No. (Mevis was cut last week.) Did they hire a better special teams coordinator? No, they hired Bubba Ventrone, who was fired by the Broncos last year. Did they replace returner Xavier Smith, who fumbled the NFC Championship game away? No, they kept him. (Smith was released last month after the season started).<\/p>\n

So number one, the Rams had the 32nd-ranked special teams, and I would\u2019ve predicted no change there. It\u2019s extremely difficult to win the Super Bowl with the worst special teams in football, as the Rams found out last year. So no, I didn\u2019t have a lot of respect for their disrespect of special teams.<\/p>\n

Number two, instead of using resources to upgrade obvious needs like a linebacker or a receiver (injuries to Puka Nacua and Davante Adams are NO surprise) or a safety or a defensive tackle, the Rams trade for Myles Garrett (???) and use a first-round pick on QB Ty Simpson (???). Are you pushing all-in or planning for the future?<\/p>\n

Garrett is a Hall of Famer, but he didn\u2019t address a weakness, especially by trading away Jared Verse for him. Simpson felt like a reach — I understand the urge to draft a QB when your starter is 38 — but this is less about him. It\u2019s more than the Rams always treat rookies like they couldn\u2019t possibly help. That\u2019s not true. Every year the Super Bowl teams have several key rookies. The Rams used their second-round pick on TE Max Klare, who is fifth string and has one snap this year.<\/p>\n

So that\u2019s what I\u2019d say about the \u201csuper team\u201d. The Rams made headlines (like paying Aaron Donald $20-$30 million for one season and he\u2019s having zero impact) but they ignored weaknesses. So yes, being 2-4 surprises me, but being far more beatable than they were predicted to be does not.<\/p>\n

Q: Matthew Stafford hasn\u2019t looked anything like the guy who was last season\u2019s MVP, from an outside perspective at least. What\u2019s been the difference between this year\u2019s version of Stafford and last year\u2019s? Are the injuries starting to catch up to him?<\/p>\n

\"Matthew<\/a><\/p>\n

(Photo by Jevone Moore\/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) Icon Sportswire via Getty Images<\/p>\n

A: From 2022-2024, Stafford had a TD rate of 4% and an INT rate of 2%. That\u2019s an average of 23 touchdowns and 11 interceptions per season and 7.3 Y\/A, right? That\u2019s three seasons; it\u2019s a much larger sample size than one season. That\u2019s who he is. That\u2019s your basic Matthew Stafford.<\/p>\n

Then last season the Rams acquired Davante Adams, and he threw 46 touchdowns. Stafford\u2019s TD rate went up to 7.7% and his Y\/A went up to 8.8. He had a top-3 WR in Nacua helping him take chunks out of the field on the drive, and then at the goal line Sean McVay would call a pass for Adams. In 2025, Adams caught 11 goal-line touchdowns. McVay turned Stafford into a goal-line back, except with his arm. I say this all to say that Stafford won MVP because McVay changed the goal-line offense into one that favored passes instead of runs, which is what helped Stafford barely beat Drake Maye at the finish line.<\/p>\n

Now we\u2019ve seen a normal Matthew Stafford season again. I think he struggled against the 49ers in Australia in Week 1, and then against the Eagles he wasn\u2019t that good, and the goal-line touchdowns went to Kyren Williams. Otherwise, I actually think not much has changed. He\u2019s Stafford. He\u2019s good. He\u2019s not elite. You\u2019d rather have him than most quarterbacks. Puka missed two games; now Adams is out for 6-10 weeks. I think the Rams should have — as I said before — added another receiver in the offseason. Now they\u2019re out of money.<\/p>\n

Q: A ruptured hamstring robbed us of the Davante Adams revenge game this weekend. So, who is expected to step up and fill the void as Los Angeles\u2019 No. 2 pass-catcher behind Puka Nacua?<\/p>\n

A: Nobody will step up. Konata Mumpfield might get the reps, but he\u2019s not that good. Jordan Whittington isn\u2019t that good. Tyler Higbee might get the second-most targets, but he\u2019s not that good. Tutu Atwell isn\u2019t good. I might think it\u2019s tight end Colby Parkinson, but he\u2019s having an awful season. The Rams screwed up; they should have used their first-round pick to acquire a receiver somehow.<\/p>\n

Q: I\u2019m going to cheat here and ask two defensive line questions. One, how has Aaron Donald looked since coming out of retirement? Two, besides Donald, with Myles Garrett, Kobie Turner and Poona Ford injured and out for Sunday, who is left on the Rams\u2019 defensive line?<\/p>\n

\"Aaron<\/a><\/p>\n

(Photo by Katelyn Mulcahy\/Getty Images) Getty Images<\/p>\n

A: Aaron Donald hasn\u2019t looked good. Unfortunately for the Rams, he\u2019s still been the best defensive lineman on the roster. The only other guy who might have that distinction is Turner, and he\u2019s on IR. Ford could only stop the run; he\u2019s arguably the worst pass-rushing defensive tackle in the league. Braden Fiske has regressed badly since his rookie season.<\/p>\n

Dare I say that Ashton Jeanty is going to look like a top-10 pick on Sunday? This might be the worst defensive line in football.<\/p>\n

You\u2019ll see guys named Tyler Davis and Ty Hamilton. That\u2019s about all I can say about them. Larrell Murchison too.<\/p>\n

Q: Los Angeles\u2019 defense is interesting on paper because despite ranking third in yards allowed<\/a>, the unit is 17th in points surrendered heading into Week 7. What\u2019s led to that anomaly? If you were Klint Kubiak, how would you attack the Rams\u2019 defense?<\/p>\n

A: Ask yourself when the Rams\u2019 defensive stats improved. Against Jameis Winston in Week 2 (when he replaced Jaxson Dart) and against Jalen Hurts in Week 4. And against Bo Nix. Last week it was Jacoby Brissett. Josh Allen and James Cook had no problems. Brock Purdy and Christian McCaffrey had no problems. If the team has talent at QB and RB\/OL, I wouldn\u2019t think twice about having a banner day against L.A.<\/p>\n

Given how well Klint Kubiak seems to have done with Kirk Cousins this season (you know better than I do if that\u2019s true), I expect an ugly day for the Rams defense. McDuffie was out last week; I\u2019m not sure if he\u2019ll be back this week. The Rams\u2019 best players are McDuffie and Garrett, and both could be out. Without those two, the defense is downright bad. Attack them however you want.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll be called a \u201chater\u201d by Rams fans, and \u201cnot a Rams fan\u201d because of these answers. This is merely what I\u2019ve observed from a 2-4 season with wins over the Giants and Eagles, and just losing to the Cardinals. In the same way that the Chargers are 0-6, should we say that the Chargers \u201caren\u2019t that bad\u201d because they looked better on paper? Or should we call a spade a spade? This is a very interesting matchup with another team that badly needs to stop the bleeding. I don\u2019t know who will win, but given how banged up L.A. is this week, it could definitely be the Raiders.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Heading into the season, who would have thought that the Week 7 matchup between the Las Vegas Raiders…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":505666,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[48,52,51,76980,56618,47,50,49],"class_list":["post-505665","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-las-vegas-raiders-analysis","tag-las-vegas-raiders-discussion","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505665","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=505665"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505665\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/505666"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=505665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=505665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=505665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}