Rams return to L.A. and win, but time will tell how long they remain a marquee item

Rams return to L.A. and win, but time will tell how long they remain a marquee item

by Jason La Canfora

[www.cbssports.com]


LOS ANGELES -- Kickoff was still more than three hours away, but traffic around the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum was clogged and congested for block upon block. Figueroa Street, Exposition and Martin Luther King Jr. boulevards were overflowing with cars, with police trying to coordinate a smooth entrance to the stadium. Thousands were still already tailgating inside, guys were holding signs offering parking across Vermont Avenue for the bargain price of $80 -- a telltale signals that the NFL was back.

This preseason football game between the Los Angeles (again) Rams and the Dallas Cowboys had registered as a bonafide event, even by L.A. standards, as the Rams were back in town -- ostensibly to stay this time -- and this grand old stadium hosted its first NFL game since Dec. 24, 1994.
It was the place to be and be seen -- even with Adele performing another of her eight-straight sold-out concerts at Staples Center mere miles away and with the Dodgers in the heart of a pennant race. Eventually, the 89,140 fans poured in here (some late arriving, sure) which the Rams were pointing out as an NFL record for a preseason game in the States hours before it actually began.
The Rams rallied for a 28-24 win on this gorgeous beach evening (85 degrees with a nice breeze), with their deep reserves overcoming a 17-point deficit in the second half.
"It was great, it was great" said Rams coach Jeff Fisher, a SoCal guy who played in this stadium for USC. "Anytime you get close to the Coliseum it's hard to get in, because there are so many people. But it was fun. It was great. ... We're glad to be back."
The fight for relevance and resonance and success -- in the standings and at the box office -- is on ... again, with the Rams seeking a connection with both the bevy of entertainment stars in the area, and especially with the hoi polloi, thousands of whom were amassed all around this cavernous stadium from the morning hours on.

Of course, the rub is, the novelty always wears off and this is an incredibly fickle NFL market and this team may have to win and win soon if it wants to capitalize on this initial shot of adrenaline. For all of the many shots on the scoreboard before kickoff of various models on the sidelines dancing and preening for the camera and for the celebrity cache on hand, it's going to take the Rams capturing a fan base and mollifying their corporate sponsors and suite holders to really make a go of it here. (Lest we forget the Chargers or Raiders could still be joining them here.)

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And, well, allowing Cowboys receiver Lucky Whitehead to return the opening kickoff 101 yards for a score (the first of many Rams special teams failures) -- with a cacophony of Dallas fans wailing all the while -- probably wasn't the most auspicious way to begin this latest phase of pro football in Los Angeles after a 22-year absence.
Of course, it was no coincidence that Jerry Jones' team served as the opponent for this momentous event, as he has long looked for a share of the market by holding his training camps in Oxnard, California, he was the primary power broker in getting the other owners to approve Stan Kroenke's plan to move here from St. Louis and eventually build a football palace in Inglewood, and you couldn't miss the Cowboys' massive trailer truck parked outside the Coliseum, serving as a mobile team store.
One thing Jerrah always does is follow the money, and make no mistake, that's what this latest dalliance with L.A. is all about.
So, let us commence with some of the "firsts" and get them out of the way.
They played I Love L.A. by Randy Newman for the first time on the Coliseum loudspeakers about 75 minutes before kickoff (they played a snippet of the chorus of the theme of Welcome Back, Kotter about 500 times, inter-splicing it between other songs for three hours or so before game-time).
Whitehead, as you already know, scored the first touchdown back here and explosive back/return man Benny Cunningham scored first for the Rams, a 14-yard scamper that punctuated a drive he sustained. And in the end, Fisher was addressing his locker room following a wild comeback win trying to keep them from getting too high.

"I had to remind them it was a preseason game," Fisher said of his partying locker room. "It was as if we had just clinched the playoffs as far as they were concerned. And that's always fun."
This being a preseason game -- even one with all of this pomp and circumstance and, I suppose, history -- the primary context of the affair was still more about who did not play than it was about who did. Yes, the Rams are trying to raise their national profile (Hard Knocks and all) and are desperate to get their young core some exposure and profile in this over-saturated L.A. media/marketing and entertainment landscape.

Todd Gurley, the best candidate for Breakout Star From a New Hollywood Production on this roster, for instance, has joked that he only gets noticed, when he does get noticed, as the guy from a local hamburger ad. But it can't be at the expense of over-exposure to injury, and he was among those who did not play.
The Cowboys, predictably, sat star quarterback Tony Romo after an injury-marred 2015, as well as veteran tight end Jason Witten and stud left tackle Tyron Smith, to name just a few.
And the Rams still had to be smart about how much they played their starters, too. Journeyman Case Keenum started the game under center, though one can't imagine he'll play much football once these games actually start to count in the standings. And the individual most in the limelight Saturday night -- even more than Gurley -- was first-round pick Jared Goff, whom this franchise mortgaged a good bit of its future to move up and select despite a somewhat middling college career.
The early years of this franchise -- particularly these three seasons before Kroenke completes construction on his state-of-the-art football Taj Mahal in Inglewood -- will be defined by the success of that trade, or lack thereof, and Goff's development. For a franchise that has lacked anything close to stable and competent quarterback play for a decade (since the emergence of Marc Bulger), and which hasn't finished above .500 since 2003, much is riding on Goff's arm. His importance cannot be overstated, and while he played in this monstrous stadium in college at Cal, the stakes are markedly higher for him and his bosses, now.

Had Goff been able to come close to the poise and ability of Cowboys rookie Dak Prescott (a fourth-round pick), then there would have been considerably more postgame buzz about this contest. Prescott (10 of 12 for 139 yards, two touchdowns and a near-perfect rating of 154.5) displayed veteran savvy and splayed the ball around the field. He made two pretty back-shoulder throws to Dez Bryant early on -- one for a big gain and another for a highlight-reel touchdown; it was the kind of throw Goff failed repeatedly to make to receiver Kenny Britt with no defenders around from the opening episode of Hard Knocks and indicative of the many strides he must make.
Prescott was pristine, displaying perfect form and placement on a beautiful 32-yard lob that led Terrance Williams right into the end zone (Prescott was the leading man of this exhibition).
"He did a really good job of commanding the guys," said Cowboys center Travis Frederick, one of many veterans raving about the rookie. "He was very comfortable."
Goff, on the other hand, was picked off on his second attempt in ugly fashion, taking a blow to his non-throwing shoulder that would end his night early. He was beat by the blitz on third-and-9, hit as he threw and the ball caromed right to a defender for an easy pick.

Goff has been struggling in practice from what I have heard, looking quite raw and rudimentary in some special situations, and it was impossible not to want to compare him to Prescott, who had the air of a veteran from the onset, leading an 80-yard drive and later making astute plays from a first-and-25 situation to eventually scramble alertly on third down to get Dallas in field-goal range, making it 24-7 on the drive following Goff's interception.
"He played with poise and composure, in every aspect of it," Cowboys coach Jason Garrett said. "You saw it in his eyes in warmups. In no way did the game seem too big for him. I thought he handled himself really well. ... He handled the success of the game well and handled the adversity and he got our team back in favorable situations on a couple of different occasions when we were behind in the chains. He read the defenses well, he threw the ball well. He made a lot of little plays and a few big plays. I thought he did a really good job."
Goff was let down by a drop deep in his own territory to start his second drive, but rallied to convert on third-and-long. He threw a few nice balls later in that possession that fell to the ground and, using a lot of clock on what would normally be a two-minute drill, he took a drive-ending sack as well to close out the first half (how shrewd it was to let Goff play behind a backup line is worthy of debate). He finished 4 of 9 for 38 yards with a sack and a pick and a rating of 17.1.
"After the first hit he took he was a little sore," Fisher said, adding that "he'll be fine" and back to practice this week. Fisher also said that moving forward Goff will get ample opportunity to work with the starters.
"It's fine," Goff said. "I've played through much worse."
Goff said he felt more comfortable on his second drive and "once I was able to settle in I felt great."
After more than two decades of no pro football (OK, there is a USC joke in there somewhere), however, even a sloppy, uneven product largely placated this big crowd. The Rams were 4-12 in their last season in California, playing in Anaheim, on a team that produced 29 offensive touchdowns as a team (somehow Jerome Bettis carried 319 times with just three scores).
The last NFL game here featured Joe Montana and the Chiefs beating the L.A. Raiders (the last score at the Coliseum was Vince Evans to Alexander Wright for 65 yards). Nowhere to go but up, I suppose.


The last time an NFL team played here Gurley was 4 months old and Goff was about 10 weeks old. Rams president Kevin Demoff, one of the people most integral in the move, was midway through his senior year of high school here in Los Angeles (only a few years removed from a crushing defeat on Nickelodeon's Double Dare).
The top movie in the country was Dumb And Dumber and the forgettable Ini Kamoze had the top song on the Billboard charts (Here Comes the Hotstepper). If you were super cool (and rich) in SoCal back then maybe you sprung for what's now considered the first "smart phone" -- the IBM Simon Personal Computer Communicator retailed for $1,100. Yeah, it has been a while.
Time will tell how long the Rams remain a marquee item in this latest incarnation, and if Kroenke's sparkling new stadium will be enough to hold L.A.'s attention for good. I like their odds of besting the late-model IBM phone and Ini Kamoze in terms of staying power. Dumb and Dumber, well, we'll have to see about.
More notes from the Cowboys-Rams game
You can't overstate how good Prescott looked: Many scoffed at Jerry Jones when he didn't rush to outbid the Chiefs for Rams castoff Nick Foles as a his backup following the injury to Kellen Moore. Prescott played the entire first half and with the Cowboys being very careful with Romo, there will be a lot of snaps out there for the rookie QB. Prescott's DUI scared teams off more than anything he displayed on field. I'll be watching his development closely. He had three absolutely perfect throws, and you could tell before the ball even reached its apex that the 32-yard arc to lead Terrance Williams into the end zone was going to be a thing of beauty. I ran into Cowboys Hall of Famer Michael Irvin after the game -- he called Prescott the best QB in this draft and said he begged Jerry Jones not to sign a veteran when Moore was hurt. "I told Jerry -- don't you dare take any reps away from this rookie," Irvin said. "Don't you dare mess this up for him." Looks pretty sage so far. Don't expect to hear anything about the Cowboys signing a veteran if Prescott keeps this up. "He made a really favorable impression on a lot of people," Cowboys coach Jason Garrett said.

Dallas could end up with a bevy of backs: They have more runners than they need barring injury. None would land all that much in trade -- whether it's Alfred Morris or Darren McFadden -- but I wouldn't rule it out.
Expect plenty of expletives out of Jeff Fisher on the next Hard Knocks: The Rams continue to take a lot of silly flags. Especially on special teams. They handed plays and drives back to the Cowboys and generally got burned for it, and the starting defense was not sharp, especially against the run. "We're not close to being regular season ready right now."
Love Rams running back Benny Cunningham: Great as a change-of-pace guy and in the return game and he was excellent carrying the Rams offense in the first half with Todd Gurley not dressed. Fisher loves him too and at some point he'll land a new contract with this team. The Patriots explored him as a restricted free agent this offseason.
Rams third-string QB Sean Mannion made the most of it: He led scoring drives adroitly and converted a late fourth down to keep the final drive going -- he found receiver Nelson Spruce (who'll get more Hard Knocks action) several times and finished it off with the game-winning touchdown pass. Spruce -- becoming a cult favorite around here -- went for X-rays on his knee but Fisher thinks he'll be fine. Mannion finished 18 of 25 for 147 yards and three touchdown throws. "Sean handled things like we expected him to," Fisher said.