The Los Angeles Rams have had their share of brutal playoff exits, but the ones that sting the most aren’t always the closest calls. Sometimes the disappointment comes from something simpler: the Rams arrived with real expectations, and then the game slipped away fast.
That was the case in 1985 against the Chicago Bears. Chicago was a 10.5-point favorite, but the Rams still had reason to believe they could keep things competitive.
Eric Dickerson had rushed for 1,234 yards during the regular season and had just put up a playoff-record 248 yards the week before against the Dallas Cowboys. Instead, the Bears’ defense swallowed him up.
Dickerson managed only 46 yards, and the Rams were shut out.
A similar letdown showed up in 1978, when the Rams finally got past the Minnesota Vikings after losing to them in the previous two postseasons. Los Angeles handled Minnesota 34-10 in the Divisional Round and then met the Dallas Cowboys in the NFC Championship Game at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.
The Rams had beaten Dallas 27-14 in Week 3, and this one was tied at halftime. Then the second half turned ugly.
Two interceptions helped spark a blowout, and the Rams suffered their fourth NFC Championship Game loss in five seasons.
The 2017 postseason brought a different kind of disappointment. It was the Rams’ first trip to the playoffs since 2004, and they ran into an Atlanta Falcons team that had reached the Super Bowl the year before.
Los Angeles trailed 13-10 at halftime, but the game never tilted in its favor. The Rams ended up losing 26-13.
Then there was the 1989 matchup with the San Francisco 49ers, a team widely viewed as one of the best ever. The Rams had already beaten the 49ers in Week 4 and played them tightly again in Week 14, so there was at least a case for optimism.
They even held a 27-10 fourth-quarter lead before letting it go. With the Rams down 7-3 earlier in the game, Jim Everett went deep to Henry Ellard, but the throw came late.
What could have been a completion and a chance to move into scoring position instead became an interception. San Francisco scored after that, and the game was never close again.
The most disappointing performance of all may have come in the Rams’ 13-3 loss in the Super Bowl after the 2018 season. Jared Goff and Todd Gurley led a young team that finished 13-3 and had already won an overtime NFC Championship Game on the road against the New Orleans Saints.
But this was not Sean McVay’s sharpest night, Goff had one of the worst games of his career, and Gurley was not at 100 percent because of his knee. The Rams leaned on Gurley all season, but they never found that rhythm here.
They rarely looked like they were in the game.
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