SEATTLE — The Los Angeles Rams don’t make excuses. Let’s all remember that.

So when coach Sean McVay bemoaned, “I’ve never quite seen anything like what happened on the two-point conversion,” after Zach Charbonnet’s instantly infamous recovery swung a 38-37 overtime loss to the Seahawks last December, it wasn’t an excuse.

And when wide receiver Puka Nacua posted a rebuke of the referees milliseconds after that loss on social media, saying, “Appreciate you stripes for your contribution. lol.”, it wasn’t an excuse. He deleted the post, sure, but it wasn’t an excuse.

And when McVay explained the Rams’ fourth-down flop in a 31-27 NFC Championship Game loss a month later, calling the Seahawks’ stop “a fortuitous bust by them,” it wasn’t an excuse. Of course not. It couldn’t be. They don’t do that.

“I’m not making excuses,” McVay said after the 38-37 loss that helped decide both the NFC West and home-field advantage. “We don’t do that. I don’t believe in that. It doesn’t move us forward. But we do want clarity and an understanding of the things we can do to minimize that (result), when we rejected the two-point conversion.”

But if it looks like an excuse and sounds like an excuse and smells like an excuse …

Doesn’t matter. There are no excuses now.

Not after previously retired 10-time Pro Bowler and three-time NFL Defensive Player of the Year Aaron Donald returned to the Rams on Sunday — signing a one-year, $20 million deal. Not after Donald (the most disruptive defensive lineman of his generation) joined Myles Garrett (the most disruptive defensive lineman in the league). Not after general manager Les Snead stockpiled a roster fit for “Avengers: Doomsday.”

It’s not just Donald and Garrett, either. It’s quarterback Matthew Stafford, who led the NFL in touchdown passes and passing yards in 2025. It’s Nacua, who led the NFL in receptions. It’s Davante Adams, who led the NFL in receiving touchdowns. It’s running backs Kyren Williams and Blake Corum, who combined for 1,998 rushing yards and 19 touchdowns. It’s cornerbacks Trent McDuffie and Jaylen Watson, who were added to secure the secondary.

It’s an overflowing defensive front featuring Donald (who’s tallied 176 tackles for a loss and 111 sacks in 154 career games), Garrett (whose 23 sacks last season were an NFL record), Braden Fiske, Poona Ford, Kobie Turner and Byron Young.

While we’re at it, it’s a home stadium that’s about to host the Super Bowl.

Which means, for the Rams, it better be Super Bowl or bust.

This is arguably the biggest all-or-nothing season in NFL history. There is no excuse for the Rams to do anything but dominate. There is no excuse for McVay, Donald, Stafford, etc., to do anything but cement their legacies. There is certainly no excuse to lose (again) to the Super Bowl-champion Seahawks, whose biggest roster addition Sunday was an undrafted rookie cornerback.

Hours after Donald was added to the Rams’ ridiculous 53-man roster, Seahawks safety Nick Emmanwori posted on social media: “All that for us,” along with a laughing emoji and a sarcastic salute.

Snead and McVay may not have pieced together a football transformer with the sole focus of beating the Seahawks. There are 15 other games on their schedule, starting with an NFC West opener against San Francisco in Australia on Sept. 10. The Seahawks will be waiting in the final mile of a marathon, with two meetings in the season’s final three weeks.

The Seahawks are somehow both the final boss and the undisputed underdog. The Rams have the pressure, while the Seahawks have the prize.

As ESPN NFL analyst Peter Schrager posted on social media Sunday: “Seahawks and Knicks — the rare defending champions who’ll be considered underdogs in their own divisions. And they’re both likely quite fine with that …”

I’m not naive. Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald would surely prefer not to trade punches with a transformer. He’d prefer a lazy river to a mountain littered with land mines. He’d prefer a division rival without an unprecedented set of stars.

But we know what this franchise does with doubt. The slept-on Seahawks, crammed into a rainy nook in the Pacific Northwest, with the flawed quarterback and the fluke Super Bowl, with six Pro Bowlers but precious little buzz, with all of the accolades but none of the acclaim, feed on this feeling. They invite it. If needed, they invent it.

They don’t need to now.

At 35, with two seasons of eroding rust, there’s no telling what Donald will do. On Sunday, he said: “Do I feel like I can still play at a high level? Yes. Do I feel like I can still be myself? 100%. If I didn’t feel like that, I wouldn’t be here.”

He’s here, and that’s bad news for everybody else. Because I believe him. Especially on a defensive line with the depth to keep Donald fresh. Especially with Garrett attracting double-teams and freeing Donald to destroy. Especially with a supporting cast that, on paper, is impossible to prepare for.

So the Rams better not let the Seahawks beat them. If they do, a backward pass will not be an acceptable excuse. A fortuitous bust will not be an acceptable excuse. An incompetent special-teams unit will not be an acceptable excuse. An aging Stafford, an immature Nacua or a declining Donald will not be an acceptable excuse.

Of course, the Rams don’t do that, but it’s worth writing anyway.

It’s Super Bowl or nothing. There are no excuses now.

____

©2026 The Seattle Times. Visit seattletimes.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.