INGLEWOOD — The Rams have the better bragging rights over the rival San Francisco 49ers. They beat them when it mattered most last season in the NFC title game before winning Super Bowl LVI.
They have the Super Bowl bling, but that doesn’t remove the sting of losing seven consecutive regular-season games to the 49ers.
“I don’t know, but I wouldn’t say fun,” Rams cornerback Jalen Ramsey said after being asked to describe the rivalry with the 49ers.
Discussing the regular-season losing streak seemed silly heading into the first meeting between the Rams and 49ers in Week 4, but then Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford was sacked seven times and his offense failed to find the end zone during a forgetful 24-9 loss at Levi’s Stadium during “Monday Night Football.”
The Rams are pointing at their Super Bowl rings while the seven consecutive regular-season losses to the 49ers hangs over them like annoying flies that refuse to leave the room. The Rams (3-3) can put an end to the annoying losing streak when they host the 49ers (3-4) on Sunday at SoFi Stadium.
“I’ve been here for six weeks and I already hate them,” Rams offensive lineman Oday Aboushi said about the team from up north.
Aboushi wasn’t one of the five Rams offensive linemen who allowed Stafford to get hit 11 times by the 49ers’ ferocious defensive front Oct. 3. The Rams are hoping their seventh offensive line combination of the season will be enough to contain 49ers star edge rusher Nick Bosa, which will be a tough task with three backups likely starting. Aboushi gets the nod at right guard and Bobby Evans at left guard. Alaric Jackson moves to left tackle with Joe Noteboom out for the season with a ruptured Achilles tendon.
McVay called out his inexperienced offensive linemen for having missed assignments in the Week 4 loss to the 49ers, and when that didn’t work the following week after the loss to the Dallas Cowboys, where they gave up another 11 quarterback hits, veteran right tackle Rob Havenstein conducted a players-only meeting to help improve the mindset of the younger linemen. Starting center Brian Allen and Aboushi, a 10-year NFL veteran, also spoke at the closed-doors meeting.
“I think everybody who spoke in that meeting had good things to say,” Aboushi said. “It wasn’t a meeting to break guys down. It was a meeting to point things out if we’re going to do better, how we can be pros, how younger guys can be pros and getting better themselves.”
The meeting paid off in the win against the Carolina Panthers before the bye week, with the offensive line delivering its best performance in weeks and not allowing Panthers star edge rusher Brian Burns to record a hit on Stafford.
The Rams’ offensive line had something to build on during the bye week and their communication will likely improve with the return of Allen, who missed the past five games because of a knee injury. Havenstein and Allen will be the only Week 1 starters on the offensive line against the 49ers.
The Rams will also get back wide receiver Van Jefferson and cornerbacks Troy Hill and Cobie Durant, three players who didn’t play versus the 49ers in Week 4. For the second meeting, the 49ers will be the injury-riddled team with star wide receiver Deebo Samuel, defensive lineman Arik Armstead, fullback Kyle Juszczyk and linebacker Dre Greenlaw ruled out for Sunday. The 49ers have lost back-to-back games to the Atlanta Falcons and Kansas City Chiefs.
Samuel has tormented the Rams lately, but even with his absence the Rams’ defense has plenty to worry about with do-it-all running back Christian McCaffrey, whom the 49ers acquired last week in a blockbuster trade with the Panthers.
If the Rams’ defense does manage to disrupt 49ers quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo and not allow him to establish a rhythm with his playmakers, will that be enough if the offensive line can’t protect Stafford?
This NFC West clash will likely come down to the offensive line versus Bosa, who wrecked the Rams’ offensive game plan earlier this month, just like Buffalo’s Von Miller did in Week 1 and Dallas’ Micah Parsons did in Week 5.
But Burns’ pass rushing didn’t slow the Rams’ offense before the bye week and the Rams did plenty right to ignite their offense. They finally established a ground game and didn’t do it the traditional way. They got creative by incorporating jet sweeps with their wide receivers and turned that into a season-high 111 rushing yards.
The Rams can’t afford to be predictable again versus Bosa, who recorded two sacks and five quarterback hits on Stafford in the first matchup. If the Rams are able to find a productive balance with their passing and running plays to help their short-handed offensive line, that will allow Stafford to look downfield for the speedy Jefferson, who missed the first six games of the season with a knee injury.
Rams star wide receiver Cooper Kupp has done his part all season, but the Rams finally got wide receivers Ben Skowronek and Brandon Powell going with jet sweeps versus the Panthers and newcomer wideout Allen Robinson finally connected with Stafford as a red-zone target by recording a fade pass touchdown.
Now the Rams need the explosive vertical plays to fully break out of their offensive funk. Many are banking on Jefferson to provide that.
“He brings some juice to the offense that we need,” Powell said about Jefferson. “When you see him take off with the ball and he just runs past somebody so effortlessly, it’s like, ‘Yeah, we need that.’
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“That opens up everything for people like me, Ben and Cooper Kupp underneath, just catch the ball and do the dirty work.”
In the win versus the Panthers, Skowronek scored his first career touchdown on a 17-yard jet-sweep run that was initially designed for Powell. They decided at the last second to switch places with Powell taking the blocking assignment.
“I was happy for him,” Powell said. “As long as we score, it doesn’t matter who scores the touchdown.”
That’s the type of unexpected creativity the Rams need to contain Bosa and end the seven-game regular-season losing streak to the hated 49ers and make it a fun rivalry.
“Well, winning is fun,” Ramsey said. “Winning is very fun.”