Rams keep playing with fire — Broncos could finally make them pay

The Rams have spent the first two weeks of the season treating the football like unattended luggage at the airport.

If they keep it up, eventually somebody is going to take it.

For all of the encouraging signs that came out of Monday night’s 28-6 demolition of the Giants, there was one problem that the Rams somehow managed to camouflage beneath four Matthew Stafford touchdown passes and more than 400 yards of offense.

The Rams remain far too loose with the football.

They might have gotten away with it against the Giants, but try it on Sunday night in Denver against this Broncos’ defense and you might get sent home without a receipt.

Stafford has been intercepted twice, and the Rams’ offense has fumbled four times (two lost) through the first two games. For comparison, Stafford had two interceptions through the Rams’ first three games last season and then didn’t have another interception for 2 1/2 months.

Against New York, Kyren Williams and Blake Corum carried the football like there was grease on it, both fumbled, with Williams losing the ball inside the Rams’ 10-yard line and essentially gift-wrapping the Giants three points.

Williams’ history makes the latest mistake more concerning. He has 11 career fumbles, losing eight, including five fumbles during the 2024 season.

At some point, ball security stops being a point of emphasis and starts becoming a problem.

“I think with Kyren, what you’ve seen from him is his ability to respond, his ability to come back, his ability to make the next right play,” offensive coordinator Nate Scheelhaase said this week.

That is admirable. Against Denver, however, the better plan would be avoiding the need for a response.

The Broncos have forced three fumbles through two games, although they haven’t recovered one, and intercepted two passes. More importantly, this is a defense constructed to make quarterbacks uncomfortable and possessions miserable.

Denver led the NFL with 68 sacks last season, and opponents have already begun adjusting protections and getting the football out quicker to combat its pass rush. Add the noise and altitude of Empower Field at Mile High, and this becomes exactly the environment where one missed protection, hurried Stafford throw or exposed football can swing a game.

“They present a number of exotic looks that you have to be able to work through,” Scheelhaase said. “You have to be able to have great communication.”

And you also have to control possession and hold on to the football.

The Rams won’t have Puka Nacua to provide Stafford with his most reliable security blanket. They also won’t have Myles Garrett on the other side of the ball to help create extra possessions of their own. That shrinks the margin for error considerably.

Stafford was brilliant for long stretches Monday, throwing for 327 yards and four touchdowns, but he also was intercepted. Williams and Corum combined for 164 rushing yards, yet both fumbled. The Rams were good enough to survive their mistakes because the Giants were never good enough to punish them.

But the Broncos are built differently, and coach Sean McVay knows his team will have to play cleaner to get the win on the road.

“There was a lot of stuff we can clean up, though, as well, taking better care of the football is one,” McVay said.

McVay’s counterpart, Sean Payton, described forcing turnovers as a defensive mentality that all the great defenses throughout NFL history have had. He said turnovers come when an entire defense goes hunting for the football rather than waiting for mistakes to fall into its lap.

That philosophy, which has been a point of emphasis for defensive coordinator Vance Joseph’s defense, becomes especially dangerous when paired with a pass rush capable of accelerating Stafford’s internal clock and a physical run defense capable of putting helmets and hands on the football.

The Rams possess the talent on offense to be one of the NFL’s best teams.

But they’ve spent the last two weeks walking a turnover tightrope without having to pay the price yet for losing their balance.

Sunday night in Denver, they’ll need to keep their balance and make sure they don’t give their opponent opportunities to steal the game right out from under them.

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