'Nobody Gave Us a Chance!' Matthew Stafford Proud of Rams Season Despite Loss

While the Los Angeles Rams' season didn't end how they would have wanted, their season was more than the team could have asked for at the beginning of the year.

The Los Angeles Rams fell to the Detroit Lions in the Wild Card round, but that heart-breaking end to the season does not mean that the year was a disappointment.

Earlier this fall, the Rams were labeled as a team in the rebuilding stage, as they were coming off of a less-than-stellar year. 

Last season, the defending Super Bowl Champion Rams finished 5-12, the worst record by a team that had just won the championship the year prior. But this year's team took last season, threw it out the window, and defied the odds.

Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford in particular vocalized how proud he was of the team in his postgame interview after the loss to the Lions.

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"Nobody gave us a chance to even be sniffing where we are right now, and [we] gave a really good football team a run for their money," Stafford said. "Didn't get it done, but proud of the guys, proud of their effort from the coaching staff, players, everybody involved in it. It was a fun year, a hell of a year and something to be proud of."

Perhaps the most important part of the impressive year that the Rams had was the two emerging stars they selected in the fifth round. 

Puka Nacua and Kyren Williams both finished the year on the AP All-Pro second team in their rookie and second years, respectively. If it wasn't for them, the Rams wouldn't have ended up where they did.

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On the defensive side, the odds were stacked against Raheem Morris. Jalen Ramsey was traded to the Miami Dolphins this past offseason, but the pick that the Rams got in that trade turned into Byron Young, who had a great rookie season.

The only player on the defense older than 30 years old was Aaron Donald at 32, and he served as the leader of the group all year. 

While it did not end in the way that the Rams would have wanted, there are still plenty of positives to take from an otherwise successful year.