Rams can't hold fourth-quarter lead, lose again to woeful 49ersBy RICH HAMMOND / STAFF WRITER
LOS ANGELES – Jared Goff gets it. The Rams’ rookie quarterback understands that this season has been a 15-week calamity and on Saturday, he finally sounded sick and tired of it.
“I promise everyone out there, all the Rams fans, that I’ll do everything I can, with everything in me, to get this thing fixed,” Goff said after the Rams’ 22-21 loss to the San Francisco 49ers at the Coliseum.
For the first time this year, Goff sounded like a true team leader. Perhaps he had no choice. He couldn’t possibly stand at the postgame podium and trumpet any positives. Against one of the worst teams in the NFL, with a two-touchdown lead in the fourth quarter, the Rams underwent a full-team meltdown.
The 49ers scored with five minutes left, got the ball back and scored again with 31 seconds left. The Rams still led 21-20, but the 49ers, with a 1-13 record and 13 consecutive losses, decided to be bold. Quarterback Colin Kaepernick ran in the two-point conversion and the 49ers wildly celebrated.
The Rams (4-11) lost their sixth consecutive game and for the 10th time in their last 11 games. It’s easy to call this game the worst of the season, but was it? Worse than the season-opening shutout loss to the 49ers? Worse than a near-identical loss to Miami last month? Or does it even matter anymore?
“We just didn’t finish,” cornerback Trumaine Johnson said. “Playing good all game, and then the last few possessions, it’s like we gave up, man. The whole team, including myself.”
The season has been sunk for weeks. The last bubbles will surface next weekend, when the Rams mercifully conclude their season against Arizona. That game is meaningless, other than its impact on Goff, on and off the field, and that development seems to have reached an important stage.
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