Swanson: Hard to imagine Rams at their best amid slew of injuries

WOODLAND HILLS — I’m in the mood to complain. If you’ve been following the Rams this season, so are you.

Were you also looking forward to seeing where they picked up after last season’s late surge? Were you intrigued by that spirited stretch when they won seven of their final eight regular-season games to clinch a wild-card berth?

Raise your hand if you feel cheated by all the ugly twists and turns and sprains and tears that have shredded the plot to start this season.

Yeah, same.

But I’m not just going to whine about what coulda been. I’m going to file a complaint with the Universal Department of Competitive Affairs.

Person filing complaint 

Anyone watching Rams games

Address: Number and street City State / City State ZIP Code

1001 Stadium Drive, Inglewood, CA 90301

Date of repair, service, or purchase

Jan. 14, July 25, July 26, Aug. 7, Aug. 11, Sept. 8, Sept. 15 …

What type of product or service is the complaint about?

Physical harm. Inadequate IR limits. Unmitigated misfortune. A bad case of déjà vu.

Briefly describe your complaint (be specific – who, what, when, where, how). Use additional paper if needed.

Briefly? Yeah, right; two games into the season, there are 11 players on injured reserved! And more hurt who didn’t even make the list, so many that even the deepest team wouldn’t be able to withstand this amount of carnage.

But here goes:

*Tight end Tyler Higbee tore his ACL and MCL in January’s playoff game against the Lions on a low hit by Detroit safety Kerby Joseph.

*Cornerback Derion Kendrick suffered a torn ACL during the Rams’ first training camp practice

*Wide receiver Puka Nacua sustained a PCL sprain in Week 1’s 26-20 overtime loss in Detroit, where offensive linemen Steve Avila and Joe Noteboom injured their MCL and ankle, respectively.

*Wide receiver Cooper Kupp sprained his ankle in a 41-10 loss to the Arizona Cardinals in Week 2, when safety John Johnson III also sustained a hairline fracture in his scapula, left guard Jonah Jackson aggravated a shoulder injury and even the rookie kicker, Joshua Karty, tweaked his groin.

(See additional pages for the complete list.)

What do you want done to satisfy your complaint?

Turn off injuries.

Please attach copies of any documents, receipts, warranties, invoices, correspondence, photos, etc. that will help substantiate your complaint.

Attaching a copy of my Southern California News Group colleague Adam Grosbard’s story on the high ankle sprain that will sideline Kupp for an extended period of time. It details how that especially poses a conundrum for the Rams. The NFL is allowing teams to designate only as many as eight players to return from IR during the regular season, and the Rams are fast running out of return spots.

Actually, I’ll just link you to all of Adam’s Rams’ coverage – worthwhile reading, even if half of it is going to bum you out because it’s so heavy on the who’s-hurt-now of things.

Puka Nacua being loaded onto the cart. Very bad news for the Rams. pic.twitter.com/EEdx0sXKyq

— Mr Matthew CFB (@MrMatthew_CFB) September 9, 2024

And I’ll attach some depressing video of Nacua being carted off the field in Detroit, alone on the cart except for the driver who wheeled him away into the bowels beneath Ford Field. And some hard-to-watch footage of the Cardinals’ Jalen Thompson tackling Kupp, the star receiver’s planted ankle bending beneath the safety’s weight.

And I’ll add some audio from Coach Sean McVay’s willful address to reporters before practice Friday at the Rams’ new practice facility: “We’re in the midst of a little bit of a storm right now, and you learn a lot about people when you go through it … and the types of men that we expect in terms of how we handle this.”

And finally, I’ll attach a few reminders that the Rams were this preseason’s trendy dark horse to reach the Super Bowl, as an indication of the high potential cost of these dark storm clouds that have gathered.

There were pundits who foresaw the Rams playing for another title to add to the one they won a couple years ago – the season before the 2022 campaign, when they were bombarded by so many injuries they went from champs to out-of-the-playoffs chumps.

Now here they are again, huge underdogs entering Sunday’s game at SoFi Stadium against the rival San Francisco 49ers, who are also banged up, but not nearly as badly. For the first time since 2011, the Rams are staring down an 0-3 record that spells trouble: Of the NFL’s 162 teams that have started 0-3 since 1990, only four have made the playoffs.

A few weeks ago, no one could have predicted a repeat of such a painful slide. ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler answered “what’s your early Super Bowl LIX pick?” by suggesting we’d see the Buffalo Bills beat the Rams, the latter of whom were “trending up on offense and finally have the (salary) cap space and draft capital to improve their defense for one more run.”

His colleague Field Yates predicted Kansas City Chiefs over Rams, for similar reasons.

CBS Sports’ John Breech wrote that the Rams were his bold pick to win their division and get the No. 1 seed in the NFC: “The Rams were totally slept on last year and I kind of feel like everyone is sleeping on them again this year.”

I don’t know that anyone is sleeping on McVay’s squad anymore so much as sending thoughts and prayers and maybe some get-well-soon cards.

Not wanting your money back so much as wishing to see the team with so much promise much closer to full strength. Wanting to be mad about it and wishing there really was an entity with whom to lodge a complaint about the unfairness of it all.