Coming off a superbowl win, the Rams are known as the world champions and the best team in the NFL. The Rams are better than this one team I’m targeting today and that is the Lions. It is proved by real and truthful information. You might be asking, Nicholas, why are you targeting the Lions? Well, that is because of Caymen Smith. From messaging me when the exact words “Uh oh” when the Lions had the ball and were up ten to zero against the Rams to the Rams beating the Lions by eleven points that game he still thinks that the Lions are better than the 2021-2022 superbowl champs, Los Angeles Rams. Anyways, back to my point. Currently (The start of this season until now), the Rams are better than the Lions because of the rosters’ talent, stats, and analytics. 

The Rams have much more star talent than the Lions. The Rams have players like Aaron Donald, Jalen Ramsey, and Cooper Kupp compared to players like Jared Goff, Amon Ra St. brown, and D’andre Swift. These players for the Lions aren’t even considered pro bowlers or stars, but they are some of the best players on the Lions. Meanwhile, the players for the Rams are first team all-pros or superstars. I will be taking people’s opinions online in terms of the ranking currently amongst the NFL and I will be taking recent awards because there has been no awards given out this season since it hasn’t finished yet (Yes, I know this contradicts what I said in my thesis, but it has a reason). ( I consider first team all-pros as superstars and pro bowlers as stars. You don’t necessarily have to be all-pros or pro bowlers, but you have to be at the caliber. Aaron Donald is a three time D.P.O.Y. (Defensive player of the year) last winning it in 2020. Even though I mentioned his awards from the past he is still considered as the best defender in football currently and a top three defender of all time. Jalen Ramsey is considered as the best defensive back in football currently being a multiple time pro bowler and first team all-pro. Cooper Kupp on the other hand is a raining O.P.O.Y. (Offensive player of the year), triple crown winner, and might have had the best receiving season of all time. He is considered a top three wide receiver in football if not the best wide receiver currently. Jared Goff was a multi-time pro bowler when he played for the Rams, but without head coach of the Rams Sean McVay he has been considered average which shows you are not a star. Jared Goff is long past his prime and is washed. D’andre Swift is still in the midst of developing into a star, but if quite not there yet. Amon Ra St. Brown is also not there yet, but is breaking out. Overall, in roster talent I think the Rams are better because they have better players than the Lions. 

Now, the stats which show the teams records and how they are doing on offense defense, special teams. The Rams are 3-3 while the Lions are 1-4 currently. The Lions have had a bye week while the Rams haven’t at the time I am writing this essay so I will divide each stat for the Lions by five and multiply by six to equal it with the number of games the Rams have played (That’s if you want to know how I am calculating it). The Lions currently absolutely obliterate the Rams in every category of offense but luckily the other stats show why the Rams are better than the Lions such as the records which I already talked about. On the defensive side of the football, they are giving up less yardage running the football even though other teams are running the football more against the Lions than the Rams. Generally, if teams run the football more against you they either attack your run defense because it is bad or they are ahead of you in points in the game which are both bad things for your team. We can tell that both of these things are true for the Lions based on their record and if you watch football you know the Lions go down behind in points in most of the games they play. Even though teams are throwing and completing passes better against the Rams than the Lions, the Lions are allowing more yards through the air than the Rams on more attempts. If a team throws the football more against you that means your pass defense is bad (which is a bad thing) or they are down against you (which is a good thing). Since the Lions go down in most of their games and they have one of the worst pass defenses in yards allowed, we can tell that they have a bad pass defense which teams attack. We also can see that teams   throwing the football more against the Lions is not because they go down against the which can be seen by the Lions’ record and since they go down in most games which you know is true if you watch football. The Lions also have two points scored on defense to the Rams zero, but that doesn’t say much because two points scored in six games which you know is not that much if you know football (I did not calculate in this section since the Lions already showed that they were better in this section without the calculations). These stats show that the Lions defense is on the field more than the Rams defense which is a good thing for the Rams and bad for the Lions. This is good because the offense gets on the field and the offense is way more of a scoring threat than the defense. This is shown by the downs which the Rams defense has less than the Lions. The Rams’ defense also has way more takeaways (good because it gives the offense more chances) than the Lions and has more interception return yards (good because it gives offense better field position making it easier for the Rams to score). The Rams also have a better field goal and extra point percentage than the Lions. (This is more of an offensive category, but I will say it) The Lions have two more two-point conversions than the Rams, but this does not affect people’s opinion on if the Rams are better than the Lions that much (I did not calculate in this section since  the Lions already showed that they were better in this section without the calculations). The Lions have a better kick return yardage average than the Rams, but the Rams have a better average net yardage for their punts (Average yardage of punts with punt return), average yardage for their punts, and better average punt return average (These stats do not affect people’s opinion on who is better that much). Overall, for stats I think the Rams are better because of record, defense, and special teams compared to the Lions only being better than the Rams on offense. 

Now, the analytics, stats, but not really stats because they show efficiency and other analytics like that. In the analytics for the top players on both teams’ offense it shows that they are about pretty even in passing analytics with both quarterbacks being better than one another in ratings such as QBR. The Lions dominate the Rams in the rushing categories as their players have better performances in these analytics such as time behind the line of scrimmage. The Rams dominate in receiving as their receivers analytics have been way better in analytics such as average targeted air yards. So, both teams are pretty even on offense. For the defense there is no player analytics shown, but they have team stats more complicated than the ones talked about in the last paragraph such as completion percentage and defensive player stats not mentioned in the last paragraph such as sacks. The Rams pretty much are even with the Lions in defense being way better in stats such as allowed yards per pass attempt and yards per carry. They also get teams off the field more than the Lions, but the Lions have more takeaways. The Rams also have more tackles while the Lions have more sacks. They are pretty even on defense, but one thing that makes it uneven towards the Rams side is the margin of these stats. When the Rams are worse than the Lions Lions it is not by a large margin, but when the Lions are worse it is by a big margin. So, I would say the Rams are better on defense. 

In conclusion, the Rams are better than the Lions which is shown by the star talent, stats, and analytics. The Rams dominate the Lions in the categories of star talent, defense, special teams, and record while the Lions are only better than the Rams in offense. That makes a ratio of four to one which clearly shows the Rams are better. The Lions are also more of a rebuilding team while the Rams are more of a win now team which makes them better currently. Also, most true football fans would agree with me. This matters because I get to make Caymen realize that his team is worse than mine. 

Reference Page

nfl.com/stats/team-stats/defense/rushing/2022/reg/all

nextgenstats.nfl.com/stats/receiving#yards