For the Patriots to Win, They Should Follow the Lions’ LeadBy ANDY BENOIT January 29, 2019
In early December, the Rams got demolished on a Sunday night by a stingy Chicago defense and then lost the following week (again in prime time) to Philadelphia. The mini-slump was ugly, and fans doubted they’d see this team in Atlanta come February. Football people did too, given that the slump actually began the week before the Chicago loss, in L.A.’s nondescript victory at Detroit.
From afar, it looked like a comfortable win—30-16 on the road. But 14 of the Rams’ points came late in the game on drives with favorable field position and on somewhat fluky runs by Todd Gurley (a 13-yard touchdown where the Rams’ run design gouged the Lions for taking the unusual step of playing man coverage on first-and-10, and a 36-yard Gurley scamper on the one and only instance where Detroit’s base run D broke down). But midway through the fourth quarter that day, the Rams led just 16-13, having looked nothing like themselves. They’d been out-schemed and out-executed for much of the game. As Rams veteran O-line coach Aaron Kromer put it at Media Night, “I’ll be honest, that game really helped us grow, because it allowed us to notice some deficiencies we had.”
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