As the green and blue confetti rained down in Levi’s Stadium Sunday night, you can be sure the rhyme in history wasn’t lost on the Rams.
For the second year in a row, the Rams were eliminated in the postseason by the eventual Super Bowl champion — this year, to make it worse, NFC West rival the Seattle Seahawks. And for the second year in a row, the Rams were the only team to push the eventual champions to the brink.
Last year, it was a six-point loss to the Eagles, who would win the NFC championship by 32 and the Super Bowl by 18. This January, a four-point loss to a Seattle team that beat its other two opponents by a combined 51 points.
So this spring will be the second offseason that the Rams feel like they were one play, one drive, one touchdown away from a championship.
What went right for the Rams to be in that position again in 2025? What went wrong that they weren’t able to break through and return to football’s biggest stage? Let’s take a look before turning the page officially to the 2026 offseason:
What went right
First and foremost, Matthew Stafford played all 20 games this season. That was no given in August as he fought through an aggravated disc in his back. Everything else that went right was the result of that.
Like Stafford winning the first MVP of his 17-year career. The raw numbers — leading the NFL with 4,707 passing yards and 46 passing touchdowns — were impressive enough. But the way Stafford did it — playing within the offense while still processing fast enough to protect his back from unnecessary hits, the way he turned on late in games when the Rams needed him to — were what made him the league’s most valuable player.
Those heroics led directly to the Rams’ two playoff victories, with Stafford leading a game-winning touchdown drive against the Panthers and then the overtime field-goal drive against the Bears.
Head coach Sean McVay’s offseason vision of what the pairing of Puka Nacua and Davante Adams could produce was proven correct. Their complementary strengths — Nacua a zone beater who could be the engine of a drive, Adams a man beater who could close it out with a touchdown — came to full light, with Nacua leading the league with 129 receptions and Adams leading it with 14 touchdowns, despite both missing time with injuries.
The Rams paired the duo with the midseason implementation of 13-personnel — three tight ends, one receiver. The grouping outperformed the Rams’ traditional 11-personnel in terms of expected points added (EPA) per play. All four of the Rams’ tight ends scored at least three touchdowns, and Colby Parkinson and rookie Terrance Ferguson emerged as real receiving threats.
The run game had the highest success rate of any offense in the NFL at 50.1% (second-place Buffalo’s was 46.6%). The offensive line successfully implemented outside zone and duo-concepts, while Blake Corum proved a reliable second back to keep Kyren Williams fresher.
All those elements of the offense — which finished first in the NFL in scoring — helped the Rams start the year 11-3 and become the first team to clinch its spot in the postseason.
The defense got off to a strong start to the season behind breakout performances from some young players. Byron Young led the team with 12 sacks. Offseason acquisitions Poona Ford and Nate Landman fixed a lot of the team’s old woes in run defense. Safety Quentin Lake went from reliable presence to indispensable piece at nickel cornerback.
What went wrong
Part of the reason the Rams resorted to 13-personnel was health at receiver; but a reason the Rams stuck with it was because a true third receiver never emerged for this team.
They paid Tutu Atwell $10 million to fill the role, but he finished the year with six receptions and two healthy scratches in the postseason. Rookie Konata Mumpfield’s development was slow-played, but Jordan Whittington didn’t grow into a bigger role his second year. Xavier Smith finished third among receivers with 303 yards, but only three times did he have more than 36 in a game.
Special teams was nothing short of a disaster the entire season. Three of the Rams’ first four losses were the direct result of that side of the ball. Blocked and missed kicks were the culprit in the first two, a punt return for a touchdown in the third.
This led to the changing of the guard at kicker and long snapper — Harrison Mevis and Jake McQuaide taking over from Josh Karty and Alex Ward, respectively — midseason, prior to the post-Week 16 dismissal of coordinator Chase Blackburn, the first midseason firing of McVay’s nine-year tenure.
Despite the aforementioned early-season success on defense, it proved to be unsustainable. In the last six games of the regular season, the defense fell to 23rd in EPA per play.
Part of this was due to the absence of Lake, with a dislocated elbow. But even when he returned, the defense didn’t bounce back in the postseason. Their opponent success rate of 41.8% in the regular season spiked to 46.7% in the three playoff games.
The special teams and the slumping defense combined to undo the Rams’ promising start to the season. After 11 wins in 14 games, the Rams went into their toughest stretch of the season with four out of five on the road. They lost three out of five, dropping from the one-seed in the NFC to a wild-card spot in the process.
The one that hurt the most was the Week 16 loss to Seattle. The offense produced 581 yards and 37 points against the vaunted Seahawks defense, but a punt return touchdown got Seattle back into the game and the defense could not hold onto a 16-point lead.
It was the third time in the regular season the Rams couldn’t hold a two-possession, second-half lead, and it cost them homefield advantage in the playoffs. They fought for two gritty road wins, then returned to Seattle and Lumen Field.
And again, it was the same story. The offense scored 27 points and had 479 yards, but went 1 for 8 on third down and 2 for 3 in the red zone. The defense allowed the Seahawks to extend drives with a 7-for-13 mark on third down and a fumbled punt by Smith let the Seahawks build a two-possession lead the Rams could not overcome.
And so again the Rams’ season ended, a touchdown short to the eventual champion.