INDIANAPOLIS — If the Rams were trying to exorcise some demons, spew out some mistakes ahead of the long stretch ahead, well, Father Karras, you’d better duck this time.
The Rams beat the Colts 27-24 on Sunday, and they beat them ugly. It got so chaotically ugly through the end of the third quarter and start of the fourth, that all of these things happened in the span of just a few minutes:
• The first of three consecutive three-and-outs by quarterback Matthew Stafford and the Rams’ offense; this particular one also produced a 33-yard punt from Johnny Hekker and killed the momentum from a 10-yard sack on quarterback Carson Wentz by defensive tackle Sebastian Joseph-Day.
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• The second of three explosive passing plays by Wentz and the Colts’ offense; on it, the Rams’ defense fell prey to Wentz’s play-action and he completed a 23-yard pass. The Rams allowed the least amount of passes of 20-plus yards to be completed on them in the NFL in 2020 and they also were built (starting last season) to arrange their coverages from depth so as to not be caught by the play-action, as one specific by-product.
• A costly penalty on third-and-1 by Joseph-Day that gave the Colts a fresh set of downs.
• On that next first down, a jumbled and emotional moment in which starting inside linebacker Kenny Young appeared to get caught up in some after-the-whistle action, and made some sort of contact with the official as he was reacting to it. Young was ejected.
“I know emotions get high during football games; that’s fine. Football is a fierce game,” Jalen Ramsey said. “I can’t speak on specifically what happened on that play, to say who was right or who was wrong or whatever may have happened…I know for a fact that Kenny is not the type of guy to do something purposeful to get himself thrown out of a game. Whatever happened, I’m not sure.”
Rookie Ernest Jones got time alongside Troy Reeder as Young’s replacement, as did Travin Howard. Ramsey and Aaron Donald shared a moment with Young, and a few other players, before he was ejected. The Colts were also penalized for taunting, which moved them to a first down at the Rams’ 9-yard line.
“We’ll learn from that, (and) I know Kenny will learn from it,” head coach Sean McVay said after the game.
• That drive ultimately produced eight points for the Colts, as Wentz first found Zach Pascal for a touchdown on third-and-8, and then their two-point conversion attempt succeeded to bring them within three points of the Rams.
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• Stafford was sacked for a loss of eight yards on his first snap of the next series, and the Rams went three-and-out a second time (the defense then forced a punt on their next series) and then a third time that included a drop by receiver Van Jefferson on third down. Stafford said after the game that he wished he had placed the ball in a better spot for Jefferson, whom he had connected with on a long pass in the opener last week.
“That’s another one where I wished I’d have thrown just right at his chin,” Stafford said. “Just a safe throw, too, just let him go down there and catch it. … It’s really on me to get them better passes so they can just do their job easier.”
The Rams also lost running back Darrell Henderson to a ribs injury on the drive.
• As the Rams aligned to punt again, they executed a slight shift with safety and special teams ace Nick Scott, but long-snapper Matt Orzech accidentally hit Scott in the leg with the ball and it ricocheted away and into the end zone … where the Colts fell on it for another score and the four-point lead.
A mess. Just a mess.
“I need a beer,” joked McVay as he left the podium and headed back into the Rams’ locker room after the game. Dude, no kidding.
“But our guys stayed the course,” McVay added, and so went the theme of the night, because whenever you find bad things, you also can find the silver linings — even if you have to create them yourself.
Like Stafford hitting Robert Woods for a first down on the play immediately after Woods dropped a pass. Or an opening drive by the Colts that backed the Rams up on their goal-line — the second time they’ve opened this way in their first two weeks, by the way, and both in partial courtesy of a chunk-play kickoff return and concurring drive — and was definitively halted by a Leonard Floyd sack. Another promising Colts drive, this time in the second quarter, stalled at the Los Angeles 3-yard line when Wentz introduced a little “ugly” of his own.
On third-and-goal, Wentz shovel-passed the ball over the goal line and right into a waiting Troy Reeder’s arms. It was Reeder’s first NFL interception, and a play the Rams knew was coming … and even ran with backup quarterback John Wolford and their scout team against their own defense this week to make sure they got it right.
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“They were running kind of a tricky goal-line play with the option with the shovel-pass,” Reeder said. “We were pretty excited, it was a scouted look (so) we saw it. The last thing you’re thinking about there is making the pick. I think that’s sometimes how big plays happen — you’re in the right place at the right time and then you get the big, big play out of it.”
Or how about Cooper Kupp himself? Time and again, he came up clutch for the Rams and for Stafford, including with a touchdown on the opening drive. He eclipsed the 100-yard mark by the third quarter with a 43-yard catch-and-run, threw stiff-arms and push-downs on defensive backs to pick up extra yards and finished the game with nine catches for 163 yards and two touchdowns, including the go-ahead score in the fourth quarter (and the 44-yard pass that set it up). He and Stafford also freestyled a bit on a crucial third-and-1 in the fourth quarter in order to secure a conversion that ultimately set up Matt Gay’s game-winning 38-yard field goal.
“(Kupp was) the last guy I thought I was going to throw it to on that play, to be honest with you,” Stafford said with a grin. “They did a great job of covering it. We were trying to get Van or Woody on the front side of that play out and open, and they covered it … our guys up front fought just hard enough to get me a little bit of time. … I was able to find Cooper after — he was really just an extra, to be honest with you. I was able to find him and then he cut back, scared the hell out of me (because) I thought he didn’t know where the sticks were. He knew. We got the first.”
“We had a little play on that wasn’t necessarily the design of it,” McVay said. “But (they were able) to create when there was nothing there, and he and Cooper did a great job of it on that one, off a little play-action. That’s what great players do, they make you right when I’m wrong as a coach. I certainly was there and they found a way to get it done and deliver, and that ended up leading to that field goal.”
Ramsey, naturally, sealed the win with an interception of quarterback Jacob Eason, who bafflingly threw toward him after entering the game for an injured Wentz. Ramsey celebrated it by waving to the Indianapolis crowd as he ran a partial lap around the field.
“If you throw (the ball) toward Jalen Ramsey, he’s gonna make the play,” said Reeder, dryly, after the game.
But if we’re balancing silver linings, it’s fair to wonder what’s getting them to those points where their choice is either to somehow make that highest-pressure, most-crucial stop … or break? They allowed three explosive passes on Sunday against the Colts, one a 42-yarder (though a bit of a miraculous play on the part of Wentz, who got the ball downfield somehow as he was getting popped by Donald). Last season, they were the best in the league at preventing those air-yards explosives, or explosive plays in general (they also allowed a 41-yard run from Bears running back David Montgomery in Week 1). They’ve opened the year backed up against their own end zone twice in a row. Sure, they stalled the Bears in the red zone, and ultimately created a turnover on third-and-6. This week, Floyd came up with a sack on fourth down on the Colts’ first offensive drive, and in the second quarter, Reeder got his pick. They’ve allowed three scores in seven red-zone trips from opponents in the first two weeks, but they’ve also taken the ball away or forced a turnover on downs three times within the 20-yard line.
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But as time passes, should they be getting that close in the first place? Whether it’s a big return (both weeks), a big run play (last week) or big passing plays (this week) that help set up these red-zone or goal-line stands in the first place, the Rams have to get them fixed. Reeder said the Rams have a long-running joke when they practice certain scenarios in the red zone (such as the shovel pass): “Hopefully we don’t need this.” But they have, at almost an odd amount (yet have come away remarkably clean from the experience). Is it as simple as rattling out those demons now, so they don’t swoop back in later?
“I’m being self-critical, but we have to step it up to maybe not let them get in the red zone and put us in those tough situations, which we’ll do,” Ramsey said. “We’ll continue working on those type of things, but we’re definitely proud of how we played when they did get the ball in the red zone.”
Former Rams defensive coordinator Brandon Staley designed the system the Rams currently run to make some small things available to teams, in order to prevent them from doing what they really want to do in both the run and passing game, and therefore in 2020 (and yes, in spurts this season so far too) the Rams were able to dictate as a unit. Allowing safeties to play from depth to smother a deep-passing or play-action game, for example, sets up lighter boxes up front and these invite run plays … but stifling gap-and-a-half run defense smothers the run, too. But the run wasn’t an issue Sunday night — at least not from the backs. Lead back Jonathan Taylor averaged just 3.4 yards per carry. Wentz, on the other hand, was very effective in using his legs to extend plays — slipping sacks on more than one occasion, or picking up big gains. It’s not that the Rams didn’t get to Wentz, either — they sacked him three times and hit him 11 times.
“I’d have to go back and look at it,” McVay said. “There’s a lot going on and some different things, I thought they did a nice job in kind of being able to let some things develop. We had some crossers where it looks like we kind of had two carrying vertically through a zone and (then) some guys came open.”
“I think a lot of it sometimes comes with a quarterback who is really good at extending a play,” Reeder added. “I think a lot of those big plays didn’t come out on typical five-step timing, typical three-step timing. It was extended play, guy who is … that’s a big guy back there, who has had a career making those kinds of plays. I think it’s just getting him on the ground when we get our hands on him (and) not letting those kinds of plays occur.”
But the Rams won! Why are we talking about chaos and demons (“You weirdo,” you think)?
The reason for all of the angst, of course — and especially in a game as chaotic as Sunday’s was — isn’t the closeness of the game, or the closeness of some moments such as these goal-line stands. The angst comes from expectation, because we see what’s there. We see what’s possible. Hell, the Rams showed us on Sunday, on their gorgeously designed, called and executed first drive.
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Stafford completed all five of his passing attempts on the drive, for completions of 16, 23, 14, 13 and 16 yards (the latter of which was a touchdown to Kupp), as the Rams seared through the Colts’ defense again and again.
It was a drive in which McVay coached, and players played, as if they had all of the answers to the test. Except they started scribbling self-imposed problems on it part of the way through. To know that sort of drive is possible perhaps compounds the angst of those problems — but to players and coaches, they’re just that: Problems, that they believe they’re solving in real time.
“We were explosive today on offense, we just weren’t as efficient as we can be or want to be,” Stafford said. “It was an up-and-down game. Really, all three phases had great plays and plays I know they want back. But we stuck together against a team that is a really talented football team, on the road and in a hostile environment, and got a win — which is great, especially early in the season. Everybody is out there trying to work the kinks out, get to playing as good of football as they can.
“Winning those along the way is a positive.”
With an outing this turbulent, let’s just cut straight to the bottom of The Pile:
• Sony Michel (for whom the Rams traded last month) entered the game when Henderson got hurt and rushed for 36 yards on a single drive (with an 11-yard long) with the game tied in the fourth quarter. His promising, north-to-south running was working against the Colts’ defense … so it was a surprise when McVay threw out a double-motion sweep play on third-and-2, in which he sent Woods to the left on a pre-snap motion and had Stafford hand off to Kupp on the second sweep, to the same side. The play lost five yards (Gay still made his kick). Ramsey’s pick helped everybody exhale, with things still so close to that point.
“I hated my call that ended up forcing us to kick a field goal there,” McVay said. “Bad play call, great job by them making a play. I should have run something different for us, but that’s on me and I don’t run away from those things.”
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Michel’s calmness on that final drive, and his execution, were qualities noted by teammates.
“There’s no flinch in that guy,” Stafford said. “He’s obviously new to our team (but) he has done nothing but work hard and try to soak up this offense as best he can. He’s a guy who has played in a lot of big football games. He understands what it’s all about. He understands how to be a pro. That kind of stuff is really valuable.”
• McVay confirmed that Henderson hurt his ribs, but his status is unknown. The Rams have been thin already at running back since losing presumptive starter Cam Akers to an Achilles tear prior to training camp, and backups Raymond Calais (ankle) and Xavier Jones as well (Achilles). Outside linebacker Justin Lawler, who was promoted off the practice squad for a second week, broke his hand.
• Scott notably came in for the Rams on a few extra defensive backs packages throughout the game. The cornerbacks rotated quite a bit as they did last week, and Ramsey confirmed that Darious Williams was in the “Star” while he switched to the outside as the Rams adjusted to a look that then put Ramsey in position to intercept Eason.
• Henderson executed several of his pickups in the passing game extremely well, but for a second consecutive week, there appeared to be a miscommunication with Stafford on a play where Stafford took a hit and negative yardage.
• We’ll have to keep an eye on catch-and-run plays, although I’m willing to forgive some of the technical/execution things this early in the season as players continue to get their feet under them. But all too often, the Rams got a hand or two on a player after the catch and either slipped, or got dragged along or missed entirely and in particular on some of the shorter passing plays that turned into long plays. Seven of Wentz’ 10 longest plays of the game came off either catch-and-runs after contact (5), a scramble by him (1) or a run play where the initial tackle was not contained (1).
• Stafford finished the game 19 of 30 for 278 yards, two touchdowns and one interception (the product of which, he said, was the ball sailing out of his hand weirdly as he tried to avoid arms and helmets).
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“I’m just going to keep throwing the ball where I think it needs to go,” he said. “I definitely wasn’t at my best today. There were throws that I wanted back.”
He now has executed 39 game-winning drives in his career, which randomly coincides with McVay’s streak of wins when leading at halftime (including the postseason) … which is also 39.
(Top photo of Cooper Kupp: Trevor Ruszkowski / USA Today)
