The Green Bay Packers will take on the Los Angeles Rams in the franchise’s first ever game at SoFi Stadium on Sunday. The Week 5 showdown pits the Packers, who are 2-2 but 0-2 in the NFC through four weeks, against the Rams, a disappointing 1-3 team devastated by injury.
Can the Packers bounce back from last week’s home loss and keep the Rams struggling in Week 5?
To help preview Packers-Rams, we asked five questions of Rams Wire managing editor Cameron DaSilva. Here is our Q&A:
Help Packers fan understand the chaos of the Rams offensive line through four games.
Rams Wire: It’s thankfully gotten better in the last two weeks with the same five players starting each game, but it was a complete and utter mess the first two games. With Alaric Jackson suspended and Rob Havenstein injured, they were missing their starting tackles in Week 1. In that game, the backup left tackle Joe Noteboom got hurt, as did starting left guard Steve Avila. A week later, Jonah Jackson went down and landed on IR with Noteboom and Avila. Alaric Jackson has since returned, as has Havenstein, but Logan Bruss and Beaux Limmer have taken over at left guard and center. tl;dr Kevin Dotson is the only starter who hasn’t missed a game.
How has the Rams defensive front adjusted to losing Aaron Donald?
Rams Wire: It’s been a mix of good and bad. Kobie Turner and Braden Fiske have been great on the interior, but they don’t command the attention that Donald always did. Jared Verse and Byron Young have been excellent on the edges, too, but Verse has missed a league-high 11 tackles, which has contributed to the team’s lack of tackles in the backfield. It’s been a group effort in replacing Donald and so far, it’s become clear this group has a high ceiling.
Can Matthew Stafford and Sean McVay navigate around not having their top WRs?
Rams Wire: Without question. They’ve done it for the last two weeks and they’ll need to do it again on Sunday. Stafford is playing at such a high level right now given the offensive line situation and the absence of Puka Nacua and Cooper Kupp, and McVay is doing a good job of getting different guys involved each week, even switching to more 11 personnel against the 49ers in their only win. The biggest problem for the Rams is they can’t convert yards into points. They’re 28th in red zone TD percentage, which is a major weakness without Nacua and Kupp.
Should anyone in the Rams secondary scare Jordan Love and the Packers passing game?
Rams Wire: Not really, no. Tre’Davious White has been picked on each week, Cobie Durant hasn’t had success in coverage and their two safeties, Kamren Kinchens and Kamren Curl, are giving up way too many big plays (and each has allowed a perfect passer rating). Quentin Lake has been the team’s most consistent and reliable defensive back, primarily covering the slot. But he’s not exactly a turnover machine, either.
The Rams win if…? The Packers win if…?
Rams Wire: The Rams will win if they can stop the run and limit big plays in the passing game. It sounds obvious, but that’s been two of their biggest problems defensively. They’ll also need to score touchdowns on more than 50% of their red zone trips because field goals won’t get it done. The Packers will win if they can avoid costly turnovers to give the Rams a short field. As long as Green Bay takes care of the ball and doesn’t stumble in the red zone, this is a game that certainly favors Matt LaFleur’s team.