10 Seasons And Counting Since Rams Finished At .500
By Sam McPherson
This is the 80th season of Rams football in the National Football League, dating back to 1937. In what can only be considered a near-perfect coincidence, the organization has a 543-545-21 record in NFL play. That's a .499 winning percentage over a long period of time, and the .500 mark has become a sort of label for the Rams franchise this season in many ways.
First, the team is 3-3 right now. Second, the Rams haven't finished at .500 in a single season for 10 years now. Third, the team hasn't finished above .500 since 2003. Finally, Head Coach Jeff Fisher has led the Rams to three, seven-win seasons since taking the team in 2012, and this could be his best shot yet at leading the organization to a non-losing season.
Los Angeles travels to London this week to face the New York Giants—also a 3-3 team right now—and winning this game could go a long way towards the Rams breaking this streak of NFL futility. For its first season back in the City of Angels, as well, it would be a great way to reunite NFL football with the city after two decades absence.
Here's a look back at Fisher's seasons with the Rams to see where and when the chase for .500 went wrong.
2012: 7-8-1
After a 3-6-1 start, the Rams turned things around with road wins over the Arizona Cardinals, the Buffalo Bills and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and they also beat the Super Bowl-bound San Francisco 49ers in overtime, too. A 36-22 loss at home to the Minnesota Vikings in Week 15 really hurt, and the team had its final chance to crack .500 in the season finale against the Seattle Seahawks on the road.
With the game tied at 13-13 in the fourth quarter, though, the Seahawks mounted an 11-play, 90-yard drive to score the winning touchdown with just 1:39 left in the game. After driving 51 yards in less than a minute, though, the Rams offense faced fourth down at the Seattle 29-yard line. Quarterback Sam Bradford's pass was intercepted by Richard Sherman, and the Seahawks ran out the final 33 seconds of the game.
2013: 7-9
Once again, the team got off to a slow start (3-6) before ending the season with a loss in Seattle that prevented a .500 finish. Three of those first six defeats came by a TD or less, too, which always ends up breaking an NFL season for a team that can't win the close ones. A 2-6 road record is what doomed the Rams in 2013, even though one of the victories was a 38-8 plastering of the eventual AFC South champions, the Indianapolis Colts.
The final game against the Seahawks could have gotten Fisher and the Rams to .500, but this was the Super Bowl-winning Seahawks. Seattle led 13-0 at halftime and held the Rams offense to just 158 total yards on the day. Fisher's team gained just 13 yards on 18 rushing attempts, while QB Kellen Clemens threw two INTs in the loss.
2014: 6-10
The Rams broke pattern with a solid 6-7 start to the season, but instead of finishing strong, the team lost its final three games by a combined 30 points to once again fall short of the break-even mark. And yes, the final loss was once again in Seattle against the playoff-bound Seahawks. Clearly, someone in the NFL scheduling office lacked creativity.
In Week 15, the Rams lost at home to the Arizona Cardinals in a game where no TDs were scored. Fisher's offense settled for a 24-yard field goal in the first quarter and a 19-yard field goal in the fourth quarter. In between, Arizona kicked four FGs itself. In Week 16 at home, the Giants posted a 37-27 win over the Rams to hand them the ninth loss; New York led the whole way, and the Rams committed three turnovers.
2015: 7-9
After a 4-3 start, the Rams lost five straight winnable games, two of them by three points each. Those were huge losses, as the team could have been 6-6 instead of 4-8 with the final four games to play. Nonetheless, the Rams rebounded to win three straight, including a shocking win over the Seahawks in Seattle in Week 16. That was sweet payback for the prior three seasons, really.
This set up a Week 17 road game against San Francisco with a chance to finish at .500 once again. The Rams took a 16-10 halftime lead, but they couldn't score in the second half. Eleven penalties in the game for Fisher's team didn't help at all, as the 49ers tied the game in the fourth quarter with 4:28 remaining. In overtime, the Rams offense marched 51 yards in 11 plays to get a crack at the game-winning FG, but it was blocked. Four plays and 69 yards later, the 49ers won the game themselves on a FG, and the .500 dream was once again over.