Sunday’s Cardinals/Rams game features a 3-5 Rams team against a 3-6 Cardinals team with an over/under of just 41.5 and last place in the NFC West on the line. This certainly isn’t what either team or fanbase had in mind before the season.

Today, let’s take a look at what these teams’ expectations were, what went wrong, and what the future might hold for these divisional rivals.

Expectations

The Rams, of course, are coming off a Super Bowl title and were looking to repeat coming into the season. They had lost a few key pieces on the field and several members of the coaching staff, but with an offense led by Matthew Stafford and Cooper Kupp and a defense led by Aaron Donald and Jalen Ramsey, they were still tipped to be one of the top teams in the NFC.