LA Daily News: Rams Were Hoping They Didn't Have to Prove Their Resilience
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Rams were hoping they didn’t have to prove their resilience
By Mark Whicker | mwhicker@scng.com | Daily News
PUBLISHED: December 16, 2018 at 10:20 pm | UPDATED: December 16, 2018 at 10:21 pm
LOS ANGELES – All along the Rams said this wasn’t going to be easy. The problem, of course, that it was.
They could play half-games against Denver, Detroit and Seattle and still fall back on their truths. They had the best offense, the best runner, the best defensive lineman, the best punting game. Their masterpiece was that orgiastic, 54-51 victory over Kansas City on Monday Night Football, in front of a spellbound Coliseum, in what was universally ordained an official Super Bowl Preview.
Their reputation was complete. Problem was, the season wasn’t.
Now they have lost two consecutive games in alarming fashion, if an 11-3 team with a division championship in its pocket can be alarmed. This 30-23 loss to Philadelphia exposed all the wires and dials behind the wizard’s platform. Imagine how bulletproof they would have considered themselves, if they had managed to win this, too.
And they nearly did. After a third-quarter nightmare in which the Eagles had seven first downs and 17 points to the Rams’ none and none, Los Angeles cut a 30-13 lead to 30-24 and then, thanks to Jake Elliott’s missed field goal, had the ball back with 1:08 left on its own 43.
That’s an eternity for Jared Goff in the best times, and with the Eagles curling up in turtle mode, he rushed the Rams down to the Eagles’ 18 with :04 left. One swing for the fences remained. But now Philadelphia did revive the pass rush that had hassled Goff the whole game, and he missed Josh Reynolds in the back corner in the end zone.
“We’re a top team,” receiver Robert Woods said. “We’ve done it before. We just need to put it back together. These are back-to-back losses, but we’ve still got some time, still got a couple of weeks to get back on track.”
“If it has to happen, it’s good that it happened now instead of in the playoffs,” guard Rodger Saffold said.
Coach Sean McVay, under bona fide stress for the first time in his Rams’ career, spared no words. He lamented the “negative plays” on first down, which was previously a Rams’ specialty. He talked about the little mistakes “uncharacteristic of our team,” specifically Goff fumbling the ball after he had tripped on someone’s foot, then picking it up and getting intercepted by Corey Graham. That let Wendell Smallwood barge into the end zone for the 30-13 lead.
“Sometimes you need to just make it a dead play there,” said McVay, who said it was “hard to argue” that the Rams had lost their mojo after the euphoria of the Chiefs’ game.
It was not a good night for JoJo Natson, the 5-foot-7, 153-pound punt returner who has been a nice story for the Rams. Natson fielded one punt on the 10 and wound up on the five, which gave the Eagles a tilted field that they converted into a two-play, 59-yard touchdown drive.
It should be noted that the Rams’ defense needed major infrastructure work during that whole period, with Smallwood breaking tackles and with hardly anybody shedding blocks.
Then Natson fumbled a punt with 2:51 left that set up the Eagles on the L.A. 36 and forced the Rams to burn their final time out. The fact that Goff still had a chance after that was borderline miraculous.
“On the first one, I slipped,” Natson said. “On the second, I just changed hands and I was trying to make a play. It’s football, I’ve been playing it all my life. The guys in here, they supported me, they just told me to keep my head up and come back next week.”
Until the fourth quarter, the Rams had scored one touchdown in seven quarters. They had one play that exceeded 21 yards.. They did get Todd Gurley going early, and that set up play action for Goff that he used expertly on the first touchdown drive. But Gurley missed time with a knee problem, and that narrowed the running back contingent down to one man, rookie John Kelly, until Gurley came back.
“I love that guy, he’s a warrior,” McVay said.
Goff has thrown seven interceptions in three weeks after throwing none in his previous four games. Obviously the loss of Cooper Kupp is more than coincidental. Goff’s quarterback rating was 66.8, the third consecutive week it hasn’t reached 70. But neither line has distinguished itself in this stretch, and for the second consecutive Sunday, Aaron Donald had one tackle and one assist, and one quarterback hit.
“These self-inflicted wounds, we’ve got to figure it out and figure it out fast,” McVay said. “But what I love about these guys is how resilient they are.”
Rams fans were loving the days when these guys didn’t need to prove it.
[www.dailynews.com]
By Mark Whicker | mwhicker@scng.com | Daily News
PUBLISHED: December 16, 2018 at 10:20 pm | UPDATED: December 16, 2018 at 10:21 pm
LOS ANGELES – All along the Rams said this wasn’t going to be easy. The problem, of course, that it was.
They could play half-games against Denver, Detroit and Seattle and still fall back on their truths. They had the best offense, the best runner, the best defensive lineman, the best punting game. Their masterpiece was that orgiastic, 54-51 victory over Kansas City on Monday Night Football, in front of a spellbound Coliseum, in what was universally ordained an official Super Bowl Preview.
Their reputation was complete. Problem was, the season wasn’t.
Now they have lost two consecutive games in alarming fashion, if an 11-3 team with a division championship in its pocket can be alarmed. This 30-23 loss to Philadelphia exposed all the wires and dials behind the wizard’s platform. Imagine how bulletproof they would have considered themselves, if they had managed to win this, too.
And they nearly did. After a third-quarter nightmare in which the Eagles had seven first downs and 17 points to the Rams’ none and none, Los Angeles cut a 30-13 lead to 30-24 and then, thanks to Jake Elliott’s missed field goal, had the ball back with 1:08 left on its own 43.
That’s an eternity for Jared Goff in the best times, and with the Eagles curling up in turtle mode, he rushed the Rams down to the Eagles’ 18 with :04 left. One swing for the fences remained. But now Philadelphia did revive the pass rush that had hassled Goff the whole game, and he missed Josh Reynolds in the back corner in the end zone.
“We’re a top team,” receiver Robert Woods said. “We’ve done it before. We just need to put it back together. These are back-to-back losses, but we’ve still got some time, still got a couple of weeks to get back on track.”
“If it has to happen, it’s good that it happened now instead of in the playoffs,” guard Rodger Saffold said.
Coach Sean McVay, under bona fide stress for the first time in his Rams’ career, spared no words. He lamented the “negative plays” on first down, which was previously a Rams’ specialty. He talked about the little mistakes “uncharacteristic of our team,” specifically Goff fumbling the ball after he had tripped on someone’s foot, then picking it up and getting intercepted by Corey Graham. That let Wendell Smallwood barge into the end zone for the 30-13 lead.
“Sometimes you need to just make it a dead play there,” said McVay, who said it was “hard to argue” that the Rams had lost their mojo after the euphoria of the Chiefs’ game.
It was not a good night for JoJo Natson, the 5-foot-7, 153-pound punt returner who has been a nice story for the Rams. Natson fielded one punt on the 10 and wound up on the five, which gave the Eagles a tilted field that they converted into a two-play, 59-yard touchdown drive.
It should be noted that the Rams’ defense needed major infrastructure work during that whole period, with Smallwood breaking tackles and with hardly anybody shedding blocks.
Then Natson fumbled a punt with 2:51 left that set up the Eagles on the L.A. 36 and forced the Rams to burn their final time out. The fact that Goff still had a chance after that was borderline miraculous.
“On the first one, I slipped,” Natson said. “On the second, I just changed hands and I was trying to make a play. It’s football, I’ve been playing it all my life. The guys in here, they supported me, they just told me to keep my head up and come back next week.”
Until the fourth quarter, the Rams had scored one touchdown in seven quarters. They had one play that exceeded 21 yards.. They did get Todd Gurley going early, and that set up play action for Goff that he used expertly on the first touchdown drive. But Gurley missed time with a knee problem, and that narrowed the running back contingent down to one man, rookie John Kelly, until Gurley came back.
“I love that guy, he’s a warrior,” McVay said.
Goff has thrown seven interceptions in three weeks after throwing none in his previous four games. Obviously the loss of Cooper Kupp is more than coincidental. Goff’s quarterback rating was 66.8, the third consecutive week it hasn’t reached 70. But neither line has distinguished itself in this stretch, and for the second consecutive Sunday, Aaron Donald had one tackle and one assist, and one quarterback hit.
“These self-inflicted wounds, we’ve got to figure it out and figure it out fast,” McVay said. “But what I love about these guys is how resilient they are.”
Rams fans were loving the days when these guys didn’t need to prove it.
[www.dailynews.com]
| Subject | Author | Views | Posted |
|---|---|---|---|
 | MamaRAMa | 115 | December 17, 2018 03:31AM |
| MamaRAMa | 46 | December 17, 2018 03:39AM |
