The Los Angeles Rams fell 18-16 Sunday to the Arizona Cardinals at SoFi Stadium.
The Cardinals are now 2-0 this season at SoFi, giving them a better record there than either of the two teams that call it their home stadium.
For the Rams, Sunday's loss was the worst of the season. They entered as massive 13.5-point favorites, and Arizona had just lost four straight, with their only other win this year coming against the winless Chargers in Week 1. The Cardinals didn't even need a touchdown to beat the Rams either, instead relying on kicker Chad Ryland to make all six of his field goal attempts, including a 43-yarder to clinch the win in the closing seconds.
The defeat prompted a harsh assessment from former NFL defensive end and analyst Chris Canty on Tuesday morning's episode of "First Take."
"It's a wrap, man," Canty said of the Rams' Super Bowl hopes. "They just lost to a team that didn't score an offensive touchdown. They lost to a team that kicked six field goals, at the crib. The Arizona Cardinals got more wins at SoFi Stadium this year than the Chargers and Rams combined. That's an issue.
"I knew this Rams team could run into a little bit of trouble because super teams never work in the NFL. When you bring in guys to play different roles from an Xs and Os stand point, but also from a leadership standpoint, it's always going to be challenging. There is always going to be a learning curve. Then you couple that with the fact that it is a top-heavy roster, and when you have guys injured that exacerbate the depth or lack thereof, you get these results.
"The frustration that we saw from Sean McVay in the postgame press conferences week over week, that's not happenstance. They got some problems. We're starting to see some cracks in the foundation when it comes to these Rams," Canty added.
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The Rams came into the 2026 season as the favorites to win the Super Bowl after loading up in the offseason with two future Hall of Fame defensive stars: Myles Garrett and Aaron Donald. Add that to an elite offense and already stacked defensive rotation that features All-Pro corner Trent McDuffie and ascending talent like Braden Fiske, Byron Young, and Kobie Turner, and it's easy to see why they were everybody's pick to go to the big game.
But their 2-4 start to the season has left them in last place in the NFC West, and Garrett hasn't even played since Week 1. He remains on injured reserve after undergoing arthroscopic knee surgery after the season opener. The Rams have now lost to the 49ers, Broncos, Eagles, and Cardinals, with their only two wins of the season coming against the Giants, a game in which they lost their franchise quarterback Jaxson Dart on the opening drive, and a 3-point nail-biter against the Bills in Week 5.
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It's still too early to definitively say the Rams' Super Bowl hopes are dead. But things don't look good in LA right now. San Francisco sits comfortably atop the NFC East at 6-0, while the Seahawks are down at 3-3 and the Rams are tied with the Cardinals at 2-4. Elsewhere in the conference, the Vikings are undefeated at 5-0 while the Packers and Bears each have four wins. The Lions are still a game up on the Rams as well after just demolishing the Cardinals in Week 5.
With how the NFC is shaking out, the Rams might not even get a Wild Card bid at this point. And it's hard to see this turning around anytime soon with Turner and star wideout Davante Adams both expected to miss multiple weeks with injuries, defensive tackle Poona Ford out for the season, and Garrett still yet to even return to practice.
The Rams' next games will be against the Raiders in Las Vegas, followed by the Chargers at home and then the Commanders and Cardinals, both on the road.