Rob Maaddi, FISM News
The NFL season kicks off Thursday night with the defending Super Bowl champion Los Angeles Rams in an unfamiliar spot: playing as the underdogs.
The Buffalo Bills are 2 1/2-point favorites on the road against the Rams, who will hoist their Super Bowl banner in front of a raucous, home crowd. The Bills are preseason favorites to win their first Super Bowl after falling short in an overtime loss at Kansas City in the AFC divisional round last January.
“They’re excellent. I mean there’s no weaknesses with this team,” Rams coach Sean McVay said of the Bills.
I think I’ve mentioned it already, but all the positive accolades and flowers that people are giving them, I think are well-deserved and earned. Coach (Sean) McDermott does an excellent job. You can see really, they’re sound in all three phases, they got great players, they got really great schemes that accentuate their player’s skillsets. I think that’s what’s a great reflection of Coach McDermott, his staff. We’re certainly excited, but we know what a great challenge it’s going to be.
Josh Allen leads a dynamic Bills offense and the league’s stingiest defense added linebacker Von Miller, who helped the Rams beat Cincinnati in the Super Bowl.
“The NFL is just so messy,” Miller said. “I’m playing in the Super Bowl and then my first game back is right there with a new team. And that’s what the fans want to see. Of course, there will be some emotions there. What if the fans boo me, what if the fans cheer me? I’ve already thought about all of these different things.”
The fans at SoFi Stadium will be cheering for Matthew Stafford, Cooper Kupp, Aaron Donald, and the rest of the Rams, who are trying to become the first team to repeat as Super Bowls champs since the New England Patriots did it in 2003-04.
Stafford was nagged by an elbow injury throughout training camp but he said he won’t be limited.
“I feel good. I’m ready to go. No limitations,” Stafford said. “I feel great. I’m ready to go play, can always be better. I can I always try to feel like I’m 21 again, I’ll keep trying, but no, I feel really good. [I] feel like I can make every throw.”
Stafford could be even better in his second season with the Rams. There’s no adjustment period and he’s more familiar with McVay’s offense.
That was my first time really doing it around here. I’ve been obviously doing it for a long time, but just with him and with this process so there was definitely some things I had to get used to, some comfort level things I think for both of us at that point. This time around, I think the majority of the time, he’s thinking exactly what I’m thinking. He knows what I like. If not, we talk about it and we go on. It’s been great. He’s obviously an extremely smart coach, does a great job of putting us as players in positions to be successful. There’s always a reason for everything that we do. So just exciting to get into that process really and stop going against our defense and doing all that kind of stuff and really just kind of hone in on somebody and try to get a game plan together.
Allen and his teammates are aware of the high expectations surrounding the Bills. Buffalo hasn’t won a league championship since capturing consecutive AFL titles in 1964-65.
“I think the locker room and the guys that we have done such a good job of communicating and putting our expectations out there,” Allen said. “We’ve got the highest expectations out of anybody. I know you can look at the media, you can hear different word after different word, and different thought after different thought. But we’re here for one goal and that’s to win a world championship. So we’re trying to do everything we can do.
“We’re not putting too much pressure on us because we know what to expect. But in terms of going out there and executing, we’re just trying to get better and play the best football we can play.”