by Paul Teetor
The Los Angeles Rams are in the playoffs.
Let me repeat that astounding statement: the never-say-die LA Rams are in the frickin’ playoffs.
The very same Rams who were 3-6 more than halfway through the season and left for dead by the entire LA media establishment, including All Ball, are in the playoffs.
The same Rams who posted the worst-ever post Super Bowl-winning season with a 5-12 record last season are back in the playoffs this season with a 10-7 record after Sunday’s 21-20 win over San Francisco.
The same Rams who had seemingly mortgaged their future for years to come for the sake of winning a Super Bowl in SoFi stadium two years ago are now in the playoffs again – with a chance, a slim chance admittedly, but a legit chance – to win their second Super Bowl in three years.
All they have to do, starting this Sunday in Detroit versus old friend Jared Goff, is win four games in a row on the road.
Difficult? Absolutely.
Impossible? Absolutely not.
And these are the same Rams, with an over-the-hill, on-his-last-legs quarterback in Matthew Stafford, who were supposed to be eclipsed in terms of fan and media attention this year by the Chargers, with a brilliant young rifle-armed quarterback in Justin Herbert.
Instead the Chargers finished the season 5-12, fired their coach and general manager a month ago, and are trying to hire either Bill Belichick, the New England coach who had so much success with Tom Brady, or Jim Harbaugh, the Michigan coach who drove his team to the college championship game.
So much for the pro football “experts” who make a living by bloviating endlessly about NFL teams and their playoff prospects. The truth is no one knows anything until we get close to the end of the regular season and the contenders separate from the pretenders.
And even then a team’s fortunes can turn on a dime. A month ago the Philadelphia Eagles were 10-1 and all the experts said they were heavy favorites to win the Super Bowl.
Now? Now they have lost five out of their last six games and have barely scraped their way into the playoffs.
Meanwhile the Rams have pulled off the greatest comeback since Napoleon got sacked at Waterloo, the greatest turnaround since Lazarus rose from the dead.
So how did such an astounding revival happen?
Start with this fact, and it’s not just opinion. It’s a fact: they have the best coach in all the NFL.
Sean McVay is young enough at age 37 to relate to his players on their level, innovative enough to be an offensive genius, and smart enough to leave the defense to defensive coordinator Raheem Morris while he worries about the big picture.
In all of pro sports, but especially in football, player development is crucial. Only a few superstars are drafted NFL ready. Everyone else has to be developed to reach their full potential.
No one does that better than McVay.
When the Rams started this season, they had exactly one offensive weapon: wide receiver Cooper Kupp, who was coming off an injury plagued 2022 season amid doubts that he could return to the MVP form of his Super Bowl season.
He’s been good, but he hasn’t been able to duplicate that incredible year, when he won the triple crown of receiving (he led the league in receptions), yards gained and touchdowns.
But Kupp hasn’t had to be as good as he was two years ago, which brings me to the second reason the Rams have improved so much over the course of the season: the emergence of rookie wide receiver Puka Nacua. The fifth-round draft pick out of Brigham Young University has already set the NFL rookie record for receptions with 105, and yards with 1,486 — and he is sure to add more of both in the playoffs.
He is so tough and so physical that McVay has taken to calling trick running plays for him – like the jet sweeps that he used to run for Kupp – and suddenly the Rams have the best and most versatile pair of receivers in the league.
The third reason for the Rams quantum leap is the second-half emergence of running back Kyren Williams. Since McVay took him off the bench and gave him a chance, he has looked like the second coming of Todd Gurley, the superstar running back who took the Rams to two Super Bowls before his knees fell apart and he was traded and then forced to retire. Williams is now second in the entire league in terms of rushing yards from scrimmage.
And finally, there has been the re-birth of quarterback Matthew Stafford, who orchestrates all these offensive weapons. Stafford shut it down mid-way through last season with elbow and back injuries. Coming into this season at age 35 he was viewed as damaged goods.
And he played the first half of the season like his best days were far behind him. But in the second half the old magic was back: 60-yard bombs to deep receiver TuTu Atwell, precision mid-range darts to Kupp and Nacua, and dump down passes in the flat to tight end Tyler Higbee.
On the other side of the ball the improvement has been just as remarkable, considering that the Rams have had to rely on low-round draft picks since they traded away all their first and second round picks to get players like Stafford and Jalen Ramsey to help win a Super Bowl.
Building around future Hall-of-Famer Aaron Donald, McVay has developed such budding stars as linebacker Ernest Jones, tackle Kobie Turner – he tied Donald’s Rams rookie record with nine sacks – safety Jordan Fuller and edge rusher Byron Young.
McVay has pulled off another first-class coaching job in getting this team into the playoffs. It starts Sunday night against the Lions with a great storyline: Stafford facing his old team in the Lions and Goff facing his old team in the Rams.
By the time that game is over we’ll know if this is a genuine comeback or an optical illusion.
It says here that the Rams are for real.
Fuerbringer joins Mustang pantheon
Mira Costa senior Charlie Fuerbringer has been named the 2023-24 Girls Volleyball High School Athlete of the Year by the National High School Coaches Association (NHSCA), and inducted into the NHSCA Hall of Fame. With the Mustangs, she won the 2023 CIF Volleyball title and was twice named to the All CIF First Team.
Fuerbringer was a member of the United State’s U19 team that took gold in Croatia in August of 2023, as well as the USA’s U19 Pan Am Cup Champion in 2022. Earlier in her career, she won gold medals at both 12 and 13’s at USA Volleyball Girls Junior National Championship.
She also won the Daily Breeze Girls Volleyball Player of the Year for three consecutive years, joining the ranks of former Mira Costa stars Holly McPeak and Alix Klineman in the pantheon of Mira Costa volleyball superstars.
Both McPeak and Klineman went on to star in college and the pros. Fuerbringer is off to the University of Wisconsin next fall to begin the next step in her journey to greatness.
“She’s on a different level,” Mira Costa coach Cam Green said. “Aside from the physical, she has a real understanding of how to run an offense, how to attack the other team’s defense. She’s always ahead of the game, she’s purposefully looking two steps ahead.”
Wisconsin has a strong volleyball program, the girls team made it to the NCAA Final Four this year. Fuerbringer should fit right into their championship culture.
“She’ll be fine,” Green said. “She’s ready physically and mentally.”
Contact: teetor.paul@gmail.com. Follow: @paulteetor. ER
