ladies and gentlemen my name is Kaden kuer and welcome to Kaden's Corner what a opening weekend of NFL football that we were delighted with Ravens Chiefs went down to the wire with likely barely stepping out of bounds and then on Sunday Night Football we had the Lions and Rams that went to overtime where the Lions drove it down the field and won this game now the Rams faced some adversity early they had some offensive lineman go down puka nakua get injured in the first half and ultimately wouldn't come back in the second half they are down two touchdowns in in the third quarter but they would come back and rally hold a lead late and this would go to overtime where they'd ultimately lose and for the Los Angeles Rams I know this is not the way they wanted to start their season all these injuries on the offensive line pukaa going down Matthew Stafford taking that low hit and hobbling around and losing to the same team that knocked you out of the playoffs where you held a lead late gave up the field goal and would go on to lose the coin toss and loseing overtime but for the Los Angeles ramps with all of those negatives I'm actually looking at this in the opposite way I think there is so much positive to take from this game and I think the Rams are legit contenders this year and let's just start with this the lions are no joke of a team the Rams only lost to them by one point in the postseason last year and we all know that the Lions would go on to the NFC Championship where they'd hold a 17-point lead in the second half you're telling me they play 30 more minutes of good football they're in the Super Bowl and the Rams only lost to this team by one point and looking at this opening night game for the Rams it was a complete disaster and they still almost won they had three starting offensive linemen get injured combined with one of their starting offensive linemen that is suspended so in total they had to work with four new offensive linemen a few that had come up from the practice squad and puka akua Who lit the league on fire last year as a rookie went down in the first half I think everybody's ready to call him a top 10 receiver in the league and we know what he brings to this explosive Rams offense and at the end of the first half Matthew Stafford took that really low hit and was hobbling around for the rest of the game so you combine all of those things together and tell that the Rams would go on to lose this game in overtime because they lost the coin toss I'd be feeling like I'm in a great spot if I were the Los Angeles Rams now coming into this game and throughout the entire off season there were so many question marks with the Rams on the defensive side of the football they lost arguably one of the greatest defensive players in all time in Aaron Donald now this defense already wasn't great last year and it was this offense that really carried the team and now you're losing one of the greatest players on that side of the ball it's a little worrisome and I think they did a great job in the draft and defensive side of the ball for the last two years and I was really impressed with this defensive performance I thought in the second half they stayed with it they got critical stops when they were down 14 points and they ultimately were able to get the offense the ball back when they needed to go on those critical drives now when you look at the final 2 minutes of the fourth quarter and into overtime the defense didn't look great but that's what happens when you play an explosive offense and give them that much time to hang around they got him into field goal range forced overtime and the defense had to be out there for two critical drives in a row and they were weren't able to catch their breath it's also week one these guys' cardio is going to get a lot better throughout the year as well so with everything considered with this really dangerous lions offense I thought that this Rams defense did a pretty darn good job of slowing them down so I'm looking at all of this right now and I'm like wow the Rams are a legitimate Contender if they can get healthy they were able to force the Lions into overtime down four offensive linemen down a top 10 receiver in the league and had a banged up Matthew Stafford I would say that that's pretty darn impressive and when you break down this Rams offense I know mat Matthew Stafford he never throws these interceptions in the Red Zone he had that one mistake at the end of the first half where he threw that pick that's also a big time Game Changer I don't think we're going to see that from him in the future and I think another really big green flag for this Rams team is that Cooper cup looks like his old self again we know that when the Rams went on their Super Bowl run he was the most dominant receiver in the NFL he won the Triple Crown award and nobody could guard him but over the last two years he's been really banged up and he's been in and out of the lineup but I think this first game is a great indicator for what's to come for cup season now the Lions don't have the best secondary in the NFL but he was piecing them up he looked like his old dominant self he had 14 receptions for 110 yards and a touchdown and it's going to get a lot tougher for defenses to guard him when they also have to worry about puka AA who was just placed on the IR puka as a rookie had 105 receptions and nearly 1,500 receiving yards he's a Bonafide top 10 receiver in the league and when you pair him next to Cooper cup when we get to see this offense in full motion they are going to be so dangerous I've always felt that this connection with Matthew Stafford and Shawn McVey has been very underrated since their Super Bowl run people really haven't given them their credit because they're on the west coast because they're not consistently playing the Patrick Mahomes the Josh all the Joe Burrows the Lamar Jacksons but no matter who Stafford's throwing the ball to Shawn McVey is going to schem them open now I know it's only week once so I'm not about to sit here and overreact coming into this year I was super confident with this Rams offense and with what I saw in week one it tells me everything I need to know about this Rams team this team is going to get healthy the offensive line is going to look good Cooper cup is now going to be paired with puka akua for virtually a full season and this run game with kyen Williams is going to be elite and then Shawn McVey is going to sprinkle in that play action that's just going to make this team so dangerous I'm really ready to go all in on the Rams if they weren't in the same division as the 49ers they would definitely be a top four seed in the NFC and I still think they're going to be really competitive with the ners like they are every year but I'm not quite ready to put them over them but right now I think of the NFC Power Rankings I have the 49ers at one and I have the Lions at Rams at 2A and 2B this Rams team is a legitimate Super Bowl Contender and they're not getting their credit that they deserve I'm Kaden Kubler and that's my take