The NFL's 'dream team' lose again - what's going wrong?

The Los Angeles Rams were billed as the NFL's super-team Super Bowl favourites entering the 2026 season. So far, things have not gone to plan.

Sky Sports NFL's Neil Reynolds and Jeff Reinebold discuss where it is going wrong for Sean McVay's side on the latest episode of Inside the Huddle, after the Rams suffered a shock 18-16 defeat to the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday.

Their latest setback leaves them 2-4 at the bottom of the NFC West, McVay insisting little will change unless his team find a way to stop "beating ourselves".

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"Cast your mind back to the summer. It was a dream team," said Reynolds on Inside the Huddle. "There's no such thing as a dream team in the NFL.

"I know we've had them over the years and they've never panned out. It was a dream team. They were the strongest of Super Bowl favourites.

"The Rams didn't just lose this game. They looked really out of sorts, like there was a hangover from the one they might have had against Buffalo on Monday night."

The Rams made the biggest splash of the offseason this year when they traded for Defensive Player of the Year pass rusher Myles Garrett, who remains sidelined since Week One due to injury. They meanwhile lured Aaron Donald out of retirement to bolster a star-studded team already led by MVP quarterback Matthew Stafford, who took the Rams to the NFC Championship Game last season as they were narrowly-beaten by the eventual champion Seattle Seahawks.

For all their talent, the Rams have seen special teams prove a debilitating factor in recent games, and this week cut kicker Harrison Mevis after his poor start to the year. They replaced him with former New Orleans Saints kicker Blake Grupe, who was hurt on Sunday while trying to tackle Devin Duvernay on a return.

The Rams rank last in special teams EPA through six weeks, their struggles haunting them again Sunday when injury to Grupe forced them to go for two points after their first touchdown, which they failed to convert. Punter Ethan Evans later had to attempt the extra point, with backup quarterback Stetson Bennett coming in as the holder.

"The fact you fire your kicker after the Buffalo game, bring in a new guy, and then he gets hurt because you can't cover a kickoff, right? He's trying to make a tackle on a kickoff, he gets hurt, and now your punter is your kicker," said Reinebold.

"They're still very good. And Matthew Stafford throws two touchdowns and no picks and all that, but everything that can go wrong is going wrong.

"Now you can say that the Rams are way better, their roster's way better than the Cardinals, and that's an argument you can make, but these are pro athletes. These are the best there are in the world. And if you give them a chance and you let them hang around, they're good enough to beat you. And that's what happened to the Rams."

Speaking after the game, McVay shouldered the blame while insisting he needed to do a "much better job", saying there were no positives to take from Sunday.

McVay himself has endured a turbulent start to the season, criticising his own decision to fly into Melbourne, Australia just a day before the Rams' defeat to the San Francisco 49ers, before leaving a press conference early and then expressing his anger following the Week Five loss to the Bills.

"Sean McVay's been quite regretful in recent games that he hasn't been aggressive enough or his play calling hasn't been on point," said Reynolds.

"Every bounce seems to be going against them at the moment, but they just look out of sync. Sean McVay is intense. He is a hundred miles an hour. He openly admitted, he told me this the summer after losing to the Patriots in the Super Bowl that he overprepared because it was Bill Belichick.

"He ran his team too much mentally going into that game, put too much on their plates. He's got to balance that, hasn't he now? To not hit the panic button and to just try and methodically work your way out of this."

The Rams visit the Las Vegas Raiders in Week Seven, before facing Justin Herbert's limping Los Angeles Chargers.

Watch the 2026 NFL season live on Sky Sports, including every minute of the playoffs and Super Bowl LXI on Sunday February 14, 2027. Get Sky Sports or stream contract-free with NOW.