PUKA NACUA had an outstanding game against the Raiders (Brevin Townsell/Rams photo).

By Greg Beacham
AP Sports Writer

INGLEWOOD (AP) — Although the Los Angeles Rams and the Los Angeles Chargers share a stadium, they don’t share a rivalry.

The NFL schedule only puts these teams together once every four years, and they have neither the long history nor the recent animus necessary to make Sunday’s meeting into a true crosstown showdown.

“It’s a big town to cross,” Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford said with a grin. “I don’t run into those guys too often, to be honest with you. I don’t really want to make that drive. Nobody does.”

Indeed, while the Rams and Bolts have called Los Angeles home since their relocations a decade ago, this conurbation is vast. The teams’ training complexes are more than 30 miles apart, with the Rams deep in the western San Fernando Valley and the Chargers down in coastal El Segundo.

Stafford has been a local for several years now, so he knows it might be more pleasant to face the Chargers’ pass rush than that drive to the South Bay in afternoon traffic.

But Stafford and the Rams (3-4) also realize they will be facing a desperate bunch of roommates this weekend: The Chargers are a shocking 0-6 in a start that makes the Rams’ early stumbles look minor in comparison.

After beginning the season with legitimate aspirations for a third straight playoff berth and more, the Chargers are the NFL’s only winless team and its lowest-scoring team. But the Bolts are fresh from a bye week that included a thorough examination of how they’ve found themselves in such a mess, and the Rams’ defense will be the first to see what Jim Harbaugh and Mike McDaniel have added.

“I feel like every stone, any part that we could look to better, that’s the way we responded,” Harbaugh said.
Harbaugh is keeping McDaniel in charge of the offense and play-calling for Justin Herbert, who got a week off to rest a body that has already taken 21 sacks in a miserable season.

“I think it was a very helpful and useful week,” Herbert said. “Got to meet with Mike a lot that week.”

The Rams are still below .500 entering November after beginning their own season as a Super Bowl favorite, and they likely can’t afford a slip-up against a winless opponent during the softest stretch of their schedule.

But the Chargers’ unrealized potential is a concern to Rams coach Sean McVay, a longtime admirer of McDaniel’s offensive innovation and Harbaugh’s old-school leadership style.

“I really couldn’t care less what the record says,” McVay said. “I see a team that’s really good. They’ve had a chance to win a lot of these games.”

With the Chargers coming out of that busy bye week, the Rams are in the unusual position of trying to determine what McDaniel and Harbaugh have chosen to change during their week off.

“Maybe you project up some things that they would maybe do, if you’re saying, ‘If we were in a similar situation, what would that look like?’” McVay said. “But you want to be careful not to overthink it and play good, sound defense. There still are a lot of challenging and stressful things that they’ve done on tape that we have to be ready for.”

The Chargers’ defense has been largely solid this season, but the Rams have the league’s most productive offense by yardage despite an inability to score at a commensurate rate. Along with the NFL’s most productive passing game, the Rams rolled to a strong win over the Raiders last week behind a pair of 90-yard rushing games from both Kyren Williams and Blake Corum.

“You attack it as you do any other week,” Stafford said. “We don’t really look at the other team’s record and go, ‘They’re good or they’re bad.’ This is NFL football. They have Pro Bowl-caliber players on that sideline and a team capable of doing anything.”

Need to know
• Los Angeles Rams (3-4) at Los Angeles Chargers (0-6).
• When/where to watch: Sunday, 1:05 p.m., Fox.
• Latest odds: Rams by 6 1/2.
• Against the spread: Rams 3-4; Chargers 0-5-1.
• Last week: Rams beat the Raiders 35-21; Chargers had a bye.
• Last meeting: Chargers won 31-10 on Jan. 1, 2023, in Inglewood, California.
• Series record: Rams lead 7-6.