It’s no secret just how much the Los Angeles Rams are missing Cooper Kupp on offense after the wideout suffered a torn ACL in the middle of November.
Is it time for the Los Angeles Rams to hit the panic button after another embarrassing loss in the national spotlight?
Despite the Rams sitting in great position at 11-3 with two games in a row to make it seem like they’re going to earn the No. 2 seed in the NFC playoff picture, this team clearly has a few areas in need of improvement, especially on offense.
It was one thing for Los Angeles to struggle the way they did back in Week 14 against the Chicago Bears by only scoring six points since their defense is one of the best for a reason, but Sunday’s loss to the Philadelphia Eagles should be a major wake-up call.
With all due respect to the defending champions, a matchup against the banged-up defense of the Eagles seemed like a dream scenario for Sean McVay‘s squad to bounce back stronger than ever while keeping things close with the New Orleans Saints in the NFC playoff race for the top seed.
Instead, the struggles continued for Los Angeles on offense after putting up just 23 points in the loss to Philadelphia, whether it was a result of Jared Goff continuing to look out of sync or the scare the team received from Todd Gurley when he missed the beginning of the second half.
However, the one thing that isn’t being talked about enough when it comes to the struggles on offense is how the last month has made it clear just how much the Rams miss having Cooper Kupp as the No. 3 wideout on offense.
Nothing against Josh Reynolds since the second-year wideout has done a fantastic job for the most part stepping up in the passing game while Kupp remains sidelined, but the former Eastern Washington star has been a one of a kind player since entering the league in 2017.
Right away as a rookie, Kupp received heavy praise for looking more like a veteran instead of a player taking part in their first NFL season. And when seeing how Kupp as a No. 3 option in the passing game had caught 40 passes for 566 yards with six touchdowns in just eight games before suffering that torn ACL, one can only imagine how different these past few weeks would have been with him in the lineup.
The fact that a high-powered offense like the Rams loaded with talent like Brandin Cooks and Robert Woods to go along with Gurley has only scored 29 points over their previous two weeks shows how valuable of a member Kupp really was.
Whether it was taking advantage of his teammates receiving extra attention or simply the opposite approach in Cooks or Woods seeing additional passes from opponents worrying about Kupp, Los Angeles clearly misses all of this.
Best case scenario for obvious reasons is that Kupp’s ACL clears faster than expected so he’s ready to go for the start of the 2019 season while returning to his normal ways without any setbacks.
For now, the Rams just need to figure out a way to to turn things around on offense before it’s too late since there’s nothing they can do about Kupp’s absence other than just doing whatever is necessary to put up points each week, or it could be an early exit again come January.
Source: “Los Angeles” – Google News