Studs and duds in Rams loss in SB LIII...

Studs and duds from Rams' loss in Super Bowl LIII

Cameron DaSilva

[theramswire.usatoday.com]

Beating the New England Patriots is never easy, especially under the bright lights of the Super Bowl. The Los Angeles Rams learned that for the second time on Sunday, falling to the Tom Brady-Bill Belichick dynasty once again, 13-3.

There’s plenty of blame to go around and it doesn’t fall on the shoulders of one individual, but there were also some strong performances in Sunday’s loss. Here are the studs and duds from Super Bowl LIII for the Rams.

Studs

Marcus Peters

Peters was viewed as the weak link in the secondary and a possible target of Tom Brady and the Patriots, but he was anything but that on Sunday night. He made a great stop on third down to force a punt, played tight coverage on a deep out route to Julian Edelman, forcing an incompletion, and ran stride for stride with Chris Hogan on a pass to the end zone.

His worst play came in man coverage against Edelman after the receiver went in motion, but with seven tackles and a pass defensed, Peters had a strong performance.

Brandin Cooks

You can say what you’d like about Cooks not coming down with two deep passes that would’ve been touchdowns, but neither were easy catches. On the first, Goff was late to find him wide open over the middle.

On the second one that he could’ve caught, Gilmore had a hold of his left arm and prevented Cooks from pulling it in. It was catchable, but in no way would it have been an easy grab.

As a whole, he played well with eight catches for 120 yards, including a long of 24 yards. It obviously wasn’t enough, but he was the Rams’ best playmaker Sunday night. It’s just too bad he wasn’t able to bring in one of those two deep passes for scores.

Dante Fowler Jr.

Fowler definitely came to play in this one, bursting off the line of scrimmage like a missile on several occasions. He didn’t get to Brady for a sack, but he had two tackles for loss and came close to hitting the quarterback a few times.

In a game where the Rams only hit Brady four times – once by Aaron Donald and Ndamukong Suh each – Fowler stepped up despite coming away without a sack.

Cory Littleton

Littleton was asked to do a lot on Sunday night. He was left one-on-one with Edelman a couple of times, which did him no favors, but he was excellent in just about every other aspect of the game. He picked off Brady’s first pass of the game, made a game-high 10 tackles, including a key stop to force a punt.

He also broke up two passes, tipping a throw intended for Rob Gronkowski over the middle of the field on fourth down. James White was also limited to only one catch for 5 yards as the Rams did a great job shutting him down as a receiver.



Duds

Jared Goff

Goff didn’t have his worst game ever, but it was far from his best – or even above-average, for that matter. He completed 19 of 38 passes for 229 yards with no touchdowns and an interception, posting a passer rating of 57.9. He nearly threw an interception over the middle to Dont’a Hightower in the second half, too, while also missing a couple of open receivers underneath in favor of deep passes.

The offensive line did him no favors as he was hit 12 times and sacked four times, taking a beating for 60 minutes in the pocket. His interception to Stephon Gilmore was a careless mistake off his back foot in an attempt to avoid a sack, but he knows he has to be better in those situations.

Sean McVay

In a game where the Rams weren’t down by more than one possession until the final minutes, they steered away from the running game for some reason. McVay had Goff throw it 38 times compared to just 17 runs by the running backs, including 10 by Gurley.

McVay also got conservative early in the game by punting it on fourth-and-3 from the Patriots’ 42-yard line. The Patriots blanketed the Rams’ receivers deep downfield all game long and the Rams didn’t do enough to adjust with a quick passing game.

Tight ends and running backs were only targeted six times all game long, which would’ve been a good way to negate the Patriots’ pass rush and blitzes. McVay admitted he got “out-coached” by Bill Belichick and he wasn’t wrong in that assessment.

Running backs

Neither Todd Gurley nor C.J. Anderson did much of anything on the ground against the Patriots, totaling 57 yards on 17 carries. Gurley had a 13-yard carry called back due to holding, but he simply couldn’t get in a rhythm on Sunday as he and Anderson shared the backfield.

Gurley insisted after the game that he’s not hurt and Sean McVay has remained adamant that the knee isn’t an issue, but something is clearly off about the All-Pro running back.

Offensive line

One night after being crowned Offensive Line of the Year, the Rams’ front five put forth a disappointing performance. Goff was sacked four times and hit on 12 occasions, getting very little time to read the field and make accurate throws.

Running lanes were tough to come by, too, and while the Patriots’ defensive line deserves a lot of credit for the job it did up front, the Rams’ offensive line struggled with blitzes and creative blitzes by New England.

Nickell Robey-Coleman

Robey-Coleman had the tall task of covering Julian Edelman in the slot, but it’s fairly clear which player won that battle. Edelman, the game’s MVP, caught 10 passes for 141 yards, and while not all of that came against Robey-Coleman, he was beat in coverage multiple times.

Stopping Edelman was one of the keys to the game for the Rams and they were unable to do that from start to finish. He caught 10 of the 12 passes that came his way and was given free releases off the line throughout – a shocking decision by Wade Phillips and the Rams defense.

Robey-Coleman needed to have the game of his life and it was anything but that.