INGLEWOOD, Calif. -- For nearly seven months, Sean McVay has told the Los Angeles Rams their Super Bowl championship guarantees them nothing in this new season except a banner.
"It feels like it was a long time ago," said McVay, the youngest coach in NFL history to win it all. "It's one that I'll always cherish, but I think if you live in the past, you're going to get exposed in the present. So we're not going to do that."
The Rams will unveil that banner tonight at SoFi Stadium before they get another reminder of just how little their championship victory on that same field last winter will mean this fall.
The NFL chose Von Miller and the powerhouse Buffalo Bills as the Rams' opponent in their season opener, practically ensuring a difficult start to a season in which they're widely perceived to have the league's toughest schedule. The Rams know they'll get every opponent's best shot this year, starting with a visit from a team holding serious championship aspirations of its own.
"Going in to play the defending Super Bowl champs and watching them raise their banner, that'll be an interesting feeling, for sure," Buffalo quarterback Josh Allen said. "I've talked to a few people that have played and coached in this game before, and just really the unanimous thing that they were talking about was it feels like playoff atmosphere."
The Rams are Vegas underdogs in their first game since winning their franchise's second Super Bowl title. In fact, the Bills could send Los Angeles to a place it has never been with McVay -- below .500.
The Rams have never lost a season opener or had a losing record at any point in the tenure of McVay, who took over in 2017 and immediately built a perennial winner with General Manager Les Snead.
Sean McDermott got his job in Buffalo one week before McVay, and the still-young coaches already have the sixth- and seventh-longest tenures in the league. But while McVay got the ultimate validation last season, McDermott is hoping this will be the year for the Bills' first Super Bowl trip since the 1993 season.
The Rams already did it all in a season filled with superlatives, including the spectacular statistical campaign by Super Bowl MVP Cooper Kupp.
"The question we're always trying to answer is, how can 2022 be better for the LA Rams?" Kupp said. "What can we do better? Who can we put on the field to stack blocks and build on this thing? Feels good to be back playing a meaningful game."
The biggest question mark looming for Buffalo's defense is which rookie -- Kaiir Elam or Christian Benford -- will start at cornerback opposite Dane Jackson in their vaunted pass defense with Tre'Davious White sidelined by a left knee injury and Levi Wallace gone in free agency.
Elam is Buffalo's first-round pick out of Florida, while Benford was a sixth-round selection out of Villanova. Both were locked in competition through the preseason.
"We're still working through that," McDermott said. "Everything we try and do is to give our team the best advantage to win, and do right by the players on our team, and make sure that they're in the right headspace to play their best football, particularly for these two rookies."
Bills at Rams
7:20 p.m. (NBC)
LINE Bills by 2 1/2
SERIES Bills lead 8-5; Bills def. Rams 35-32 on Sept. 27, 2020
LAST SEASON Bills lost in AFC divisional playoffs at Chiefs; Rams def. Bengals in Super Bowl LVI
ON OFFENSE (2021 STATISTICS)
(RK) BILLS;VS.;RAMS (RK)
(6) 129.9;RUSHING;99.0 (25)
(9) 252.0;PASSING;273.1 (5)
(5) 381.9;YARDS;372.1 (9)
(3) 28.4;POINTS;27.1 (T-7)
ON DEFENSE (2021 STATISTICS)
(RK) BILLS;VS.;RAMS (RK)
(13) 109.8;RUSHING;103.2 (6)
(1) 163.0;PASSING;241.7 (22)
(1) 272.8;YARDS;344.9 (17)
(1) 17.0;POINTS;21.9(15)
WHAT TO WATCH Bills QB Josh Allen enters the season as one of the favorites to win NFL MVP, but he'll have a good first test tonight against the defending Super Bowl champions.
Week 1 schedule
Thursday's Game All times Central
Buffalo at LA Rams, 7:20 p.m.
Sunday's Games
Baltimore at NY Jets, noon
Cleveland at Carolina, noon
Indianapolis at Houston, noon
Jacksonville at Washington, noon
New England at Miami, noon
New Orleans at Atlanta, noon
Philadelphia at Detroit, noon
Pittsburgh at Cincinnati, noon
San Francisco at Chicago, noon
Green Bay at Minnesota, 3:25 p.m.
Kansas City at Arizona, 3:25 p.m.
Las Vegas at LA Chargers, 3:25 p.m.
NY Giants at Tennessee, 3:25 p.m.
Tampa Bay at Dallas, 7:20 p.m.
Monday's Game
Denver at Seattle, 7:15 p.m.
Los Angeles Rams head coach Sean McVay watches against the Cincinnati Bengals during the second half of a preseason NFL football game in Cincinnati, Saturday, Aug. 27, 2022. (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel)
Buffalo Bills head coach Sean McDermott watches during the second half of an NFL preseason football game against the Carolina Panthers on Friday, Aug. 26, 2022, in Charlotte, N.C. (AP Photo/Rusty Jones)
FILE - Los Angeles Rams' Matthew Stafford, left, and Aaron Donald celebrate after the NFC Championship NFL football game against the San Francisco 49ers Sunday, Jan. 30, 2022, in Inglewood, Calif. Stafford, Donald and the Los Angeles Rams will raise their Super Bowl banner Thursday night before kicking off the NFL season at home where they became the first team to hoist the Vince Lombardi trophy in their own stadium. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez, File)
FILE - Buffalo Bills defensive end Von Miller (40) takes part in a drill during practice at the NFL football team's training camp in Pittsford, N.Y., Thursday, Aug. 4, 2022. The memories are too fond, and the bonds formed too tight for Von Miller to say anything negative about the Los Angeles Rams even as the Buffalo Bills’ newly signed pass rusher prepares to face his former team in the NFL’s season opener on Thursday, Sept. 8. (AP Photo/Joshua Bessex, File)