Rams will open 2022 season at home against Bills, Miller
The season after a Super Bowl championship can be hard. For the Rams, it looks hard right from the start.
The Rams will face the Buffalo Bills at SoFi Stadium in the NFL season opener Thursday, Sept. 8, the league announced Thursday.
The 5:20 p.m. game on NBC will pose an immediate test for the Rams, winners of Super Bowl LVI, and the Bills, futurebetting favorites to win Super Bowl LVII.
It also marks an immediate return to the site of that Super Bowl victory for Von Miller, the outside linebacker whom the Bills signed away from the Rams as a free agent in March with a six-year, $120 million contract.
That’s only the first of many tough games and marquee matchups for the Rams, who drew five other 2021 division winners under the NFL scheduling formula.
“Being the defending champions, we know we’re going to get everybody’s best shot,” Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford said on the NFL Network after the league released the entire regular-season schedule. “We’re playing a winner’s schedule. There’s a bunch of really good teams on here.”
Prime-time games, in addition to the opener against Buffalo, include a Monday night game at the San Francisco 49ers on Oct. 3, a Thursday night game against the Las Vegas Raiders on Dec. 8, a Monday night game at the Green Bay Packers on Dec. 19, and a Sunday night game against the Chargers on New Year’s Day in which the Rams will be the visiting team at SoFi Stadium.
The Rams and Chargers also will meet in the teams’ first preseason game this year, with the Chargers officially the home team, on a date to be announced.
Announced earlier this week was the Rams’ Christmas Day home game against the Denver Broncos, their first meeting with quarterback Russell Wilson since he was traded from the Seattle
RAMS SCHEDULE
PRESEASON
Aug. 13: at Chargers, TBD
Date, time TBD: Houston
Date, time TBD: at Cincinnati
REGULAR SEASON
Sept. 8 (Thursday): Buffalo, 5:20 p.m., Ch. 4
Sept. 18: Atlanta, 1:05 p.m., Ch. 11
Sept. 25: at Arizona, 1:25 p.m., Ch. 11
Oct. 3 (Monday): at San Francisco, 5:15 p.m., ESPN
Oct. 9: Dallas, 1:25 p.m., Ch. 11
Oct. 16: Carolina, 1:05 p.m., Ch. 11
Oct. 30: San Francisco, 1:25p.m., Ch. 11
Nov. 6: at Tampa Bay, 1:25 p.m., Ch. 2
Nov. 13: Arizona, 1:25 p.m., Ch. 11
Nov. 20: at New Orleans, 10a.m., Ch. 11
Nov. 27: at Kansas City, 1:25p.m., Ch. 11
Dec. 4: Seattle, 1:05p.m., Ch. 11
Dec. 8 (Thursday): Las Vegas, 5:15 p.m., Prime Video
Dec. 19 (Monday): at Green Bay, 5:15 p.m., ESPN/Ch. 7
Dec. 25: Denver, 1:30p.m., Ch. 2/ Nickelodeon
Jan. 1: at Chargers, 5:20 p.m., Ch. 4
Jan. 7or 8: at Seattle, time and TV TBD
Seahawks.
The good news for the Rams is that travel should be less demanding this season. They don’t face the NFC East or AFC East, and have only one game in the Eastern time zone (at the Tampa Bay Buccaneers Nov. 6) and only one kicking off in the morning Pacific time (at the New Orleans Saints Nov. 20).
The bad news is that their schedule rates as the strongest in the league. Their opponents combined for a .567 win percentage last season, 10 of 17 games will be against teams projected to have winning records in win-total over-under betting, and they face all of the other teams in the top nine in Super Bowl future betting.
After a three-game losing streak against the playoff-bound Tennessee Titans, 49ers and Packers last November threatened to derail their season, the Rams have several three-game stretches against playoff contenders this season: the Arizona Cardinals, 49ers and Dallas Cowboys in September-October, the 49ers, Bucs and Cardinals in OctoberNovember, and the Packers, Broncos and Chargers around the holidays.
The Rams will face the 49ers, whom they beat for the NFC championship, twice in the first eight weeks, the second time after a Week 7 bye.
There will be no easing into their attempt to defend their first Super Bowl title as the L.A. Rams.
The Rams are fifth in the early Super Bowl odds at 10-1 as they prepare to try to be the first Super Bowl winners to repeat since the 2003 and 2004 Patriots.
The Bills, who went 11-6 in the regular season before losing to the Chiefs in the divisional round, are consensus 13-2 favorites to win the next Super Bowl.
According to archives at sportsoddshistory.com, this will be the first time Super Bowl champions start the following the season against betting favorites to win the next Super Bowl since the Ravens opened against — and lost to — the Broncos in 2013.
The Bills are favored in part because of the acquisition of Miller, the 33-yearold active NFL leader in career sacks (115 ½).
A Ram for a very productive half-season following a November trade from Denver, Miller said in March it was hard to leave L.A. and his pass-rushing partnership with Aaron Donald, but he was drawn to Buffalo by the prospect of being “part of something special.”
“What they’re doing here is extremely special,” Miller said. “They’re going to win a Super Bowl with or without me. They’ve built an amazing team.”
Those high hopes, and the Rams’, will quickly be put to the test.