Entering the 2026 NFL season with huge expectations following a dream offseason, the preseason favorite Los Angeles Rams find themselves in an uphill battle before the calendar even turns to October.
Following a Week 3 road loss to the Denver Broncos, which featured a 16-0 halftime lead, the Rams fell to 1-2 on the season. The unexpected loss also dropped them to co-favorites to win the Super Bowl at BetMGM alongside the surging Buffalo Bills.
While there is still plenty of time for Los Angeles to turn things around and make the postseason, history has not been kind to Super Bowl hopefuls with multiple early losses. Only five champions have started the regular season 1-2 — with all five turnarounds led by Hall of Fame quarterbacks.
Not every struggling team has the luxury of turning to Tom Brady, Eli Manning, Troy Aikman or Joe Montana. But can the Rams and future Hall of Fame QB Matthew Stafford stay in the Super Bowl with a daunting upcoming schedule on the horizon? Let’s see what history says.
Super Bowl odds
Despite its poor 1-2 start, Los Angeles still makes for respectable Super Bowl odds and gets the benefit of the doubt. Tied with Buffalo for the lead in BetMGM’s Super Bowl winner odds (+650 each), Los Angeles is still comfortably ahead of NFC West division rivals like the San Francisco 49ers (+900) and Seattle Seahawks (+1000).
If the Rams want to stay among the favorites, however, the wins need to start piling up quickly. Of the five Super Bowl champions who started the regular season with a 1-2 record, four of them won Week 4 games and never looked back.
Super Bowl winners who started 1-2
| Team | Final Note |
|---|---|
2018 Patriots | 11-5 |
2007 Giants | 10-6 |
2001 Patriots | 11-5 |
1993 Cowboys | 12-4 |
1981 49ers | 13-3 |
After multiple early losses, the 2018 Patriots, 2007 Giants, 1993 Cowboys and 1981 49ers immediately went on big winning streaks of at least six games to get their seasons back on track. And while the 2001 Patriots struggled for a few months while Tom Brady figured things out, New England went from a 5-5 exit in that Week 10 to closing the season on a nine-game winning streak for the first of six championships won during the Brady and Bill Belichick era.
The upcoming schedule is brutal if Los Angeles wants to correct its false start. Week 4 sees the Rams travel cross-country to face the Philadelphia Eagles (+1800) in a 1 pm ET kickoff that could be a nightmare for West Coast teams. And it doesn’t get any easier in Week 5 when the Rams host their co-Super Bowl favorite Bills in a Monday Night Football showdown that will generate plenty of national attention.
To continue their quest for a storybook season, the Rams will likely need wins against some of the NFL’s strongest teams while missing many star players. Star pass rusher Myles Garrett (knee) remains on injured reserve while All-Pro wideout Puka Nacua’s status is also uncertain before Week 4. And that’s before we even look at the Week 14 road game in San Francisco or the pair of matchups against Seattle in the final three weeks of the season.
The Rams aren’t the only team with Super Bowl aspirations to fall off a 1-2 start. The Dallas Cowboys and New England Patriots also face early roadblocks. They are the only other 1-2 teams with shorter than +5000 odds (each listed at +3000, roughly a three percent implied probability).
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Like the Rams, the Patriots face higher-quality competition in a Week 4 AFC East matchup at Buffalo. Scoring just 36 total points through three games, they need quarterback Drake Maye to get going after a sluggish start.
The Cowboys, meanwhile, have a more realistic chance to go on a winning streak to turn their season around. They play just one game against a team with a winning record in the next six weeks.
While the future is bleak for teams with multiple early losses, teams with 2-1 records — like the Baltimore Ravens, who are tied with the 3-0 49ers for the second-shortest odds on the board at +900 — are in a more solid position. Recent Super Bowl winners have lost early, with five of the last six champions losing in the first three weeks of their campaigns.