Examining Rams' super collapse, from Super Bowl champions to the sidelines

As the defending Super Bowl champion Rams sank deeper and deeper into irrelevancy during their lost season, one thing remained constant.

Each week, as losses and injuries mounted, coach Sean McVay conducted a videoconference with reporters from his office, a message plastered on the wall above his head:

URGENT ENJOYMENT

Little, if anything, was enjoyable for McVay, who wore a pained or anxious expression throughout a disappointing season that ended Sunday with a 19-16 overtime defeat to the Seattle Seahawks at Lumen Field.

"This year has been, in my opinion from just what I can control, professional failure," McVay said last week, clarifying a few days later, "That doesn't mean that I feel like a failure. It means that we haven't lived up to the expectations."

How did a team that frolicked in celebratory confetti last February nosedive to a 5-12 record, the worst season-after performance by a Super Bowl champion in history? How did an organization that proclaimed its intention to "Run it Back" after winning the title at SoFi Stadium stumble instead to a season of ruin?

McVay is wont to say, "there's a lot of layers." And that certainly was the case for the 2022 Rams.

Here is a look at why it went so wrong:

Rams won Super Bowl LVI

That's the point, right?

The Rams went all-in during their boom-or-bust 2021 season. The result was boom times for a franchise that reached the NFL zenith six seasons after leaving St. Louis to return to Los Angeles.

But winning a Super Bowl comes with costs not easily quantifiable.

Consider that no