Entering the 2011 campaign, expectations were surprisingly high for Steve Spagnuolo's St. Louis Rams after a promising 7-9 run the year prior. Management aggressively spent in free agency, bringing in safety Quintin Mikell, guard Harvey Dahl, and wideout Mike Sims-Walker to push the franchise over the hump. Instead, St. Louis plummeted to a dismal 2-14 record, finishing last in the NFC West. This train wreck of a season ultimately cost Spagnuolo and general manager Billy Devaney their jobs, capping a historical five-year stretch of futility that tied the worst mark in NFL history.

The offense was a complete catastrophe, ranking last in the NFL with just 193 points (12.1 ppg) scored all season. Sophomore quarterback Sam Bradford spent the year under siege behind a porous line, enduring 36 sacks and battling severe ankle injuries that limited him to 10 starts, finishing with 2,164 passing yards, six touchdowns, and six interceptions. Aside from the brilliant resilience of running back Steven Jackson, who stubbornly gritted his way to 1,145 rushing yards, and a mid-season trade for Brandon Lloyd, who grabbed five touchdowns, this unit lacked any explosive identity. St. Louis simply could not sustain drives or protect their young signal-caller.

Defensively, the Rams finished 26th in points allowed (25.4 ppg), regularly left out to dry by their inept offensive counterparts. Defensive end Chris Long was the driving force behind the unit, recording an exceptional 13.0 sacks while providing a relentless pass rush. Behind him, linebacker James Laurinaitis cleaned up everything, logging a staggering 142 combined tackles, while free-agent addition Quintin Mikell added five forced fumbles. Rookie defensive end Robert Quinn flashed future stardom with 5.0 sacks in limited action, but the collective secondary and run defense collapsed under the weight of constant field-position disadvantages.

The season was defined by an ugly 0-6 start that immediately crushed any lingering postseason hopes. The lone highlight of the entire autumn came in Week 8, when the winless Rams inexplicably shocked the powerhouse New Orleans Saints 31-21 in front of a stunned Edward Jones Dome crowd. St. Louis scraped out one more ugly 13-12 victory against Cleveland in Week 10, but the wheels came off entirely after that. The team succumbed to a miserable seven-game losing streak to close out the year, punctuated by two painful shutout losses against San Francisco and Pittsburgh.

Missing the playoffs was a foregone conclusion by November, but the legacy of the 2011 Rams remains etched in historical infamy. They became the most recent NFL team to fail to score 200 points in a season, and their abysmal minus-214 point differential proved how far they were from competing. No Rams players made the Pro Bowl, but Steven Jackson earned team MVP honors for his lone-warrior excellence. This failure marked the absolute rock bottom of the franchise's St. Louis era, serving as the necessary clearing of the deck that ushered in Jeff Fisher's rebuild the following spring.