There was a lot of talk last offseason about the Los Angeles Rams experiencing a Super Bowl hangover after making it to the big game and losing to the Patriots. Players, coaches and everyone in L.A. brushed off that misconception, saying the Rams had the right guys in the building to remain on track in 2019.
Of course, they didn’t maintain the success they had the previous two years, going 9-7 and missing the playoffs for the first time under Sean McVay. Aqib Talib was with the Rams for half the season before being traded to the Dolphins, and he says the Super Bowl hangover was real.
He explained what caused it on “The Dave Dameshek Football Program” recently, saying his workouts were shorter after the Super Bowl, which trickled down to the rest of the team, too.
“I don’t know what it is, but you play till February, so your whole offseason gets started later. And I think, me personally, the success makes your work not as long,” he said. “The year before we went to the Super Bowl, my offseason workouts were three hours. We went to the Super Bowl so I’m like, ‘All right, I’m a little tired. We played longer.’ My offseason workouts go to an hour and 45 minutes. And that just trickles throughout the whole team so it’s less amount of work put in, and your offseason is a product of your season. What you put in is what you’re going to get out. Everybody put in a little bit less, and you get out a little bit less. I mean, a little bit less is four more losses, so 9-7.”
There was a lot of blame to go around last season. Jared Goff struggled behind a terrible offensive line, while the defense was as inconsistent as any in the NFL; one week, it looked like a top-10 unit, and the next it was gashed by a team like the Bucs or Cowboys.
Talib doesn’t blame the coaching or talent for the Rams’ struggles, but rather the work that was put in during the offseason.
“That’s my opinion. I don’t think it was coaching. I don’t think it was personnel. I don’t think it was none of that,” he added. “I just think it was, we got the target on our back now, they went to the Super Bowl and everybody going to give us their ‘A’ game and we didn’t put in enough work to be ready for those ‘A’ games.”
This is a surprising claim by Talib, given how focused the Rams seemed to be last season. The only distractions they dealt with were questions about Todd Gurley’s knee and the possibility that teams had figured out McVay’s offense after Bill Belichick dismantled the Rams in the Super Bowl.
There will be no Super Bowl or postseason hangover this offseason after the Rams fell way short of expectations in 2019, but another disappointing year in 2020 could raise the level of concern in L.A.
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