Rams

 

Rams boost playoff chances with 30-22 victory over Saints on Thursday Night Football

Kyren Williams #23 of the Los Angeles Rams scores a 10 yard touchdown against Paulson Adebo #29 of the New Orleans Saints during the third quarter of the game at SoFi Stadium on December 21, 2023 in Inglewood, California. 

The Los Angeles Rams continue to defy expectations this season.

Many preseason pundits predicted the Rams to be the worst team in the NFL this season. Oddsmakers had them winning just six games or less.

Now they are on the brink of making the NFL Playoffs.

Matthew Stafford threw two touchdown passes and the Rams held on to beat the New Orleans Saints, 30-22, on Thursday Night Football at SoFi Stadium.

The Rams entered the game with a 52-percent chance of making the playoffs, but needed a win over New Orleans in what was a pseudo-elimination game for both teams.

The victory has now increased the Rams chances of making the postseason to nearly 75 percent, whereas those odds would have dropped to below 15 percent with a loss.

Los Angeles opened up the scoring with a 14-play, 95-yard, lengthy drive that was punctuated by a Puka Nacua touchdown pass on 4th down.

Nacua finished the game with nine catches for 164 yards and a touchdown. It was the rookie's sixth 100+ yard game of the season, one shy of the all-time rookie receiving record of seven games set by both Odell Beckham Jr. and Justin Jefferson. Nacua is also on-pace to break the all-time record of 1,473 yards for a rookie in a single season.

The Rams had all the momentum and were on the precipice of taking a 13-point lead midway through the second quarter. However, kicker Lucas Havrisik, missed an easy 47-yard field goal, giving the Saints great field position. It was Havrisik's second straight game with a missed field goal of 47 yards or less.

New Orleans took advantage of Havrisik's mistake, with Derek Carr hitting Rashid Shaheed in the end zone for a 45-yard touchdown pass that cut the lead to 10-7The Rams defense once again provided the team with a big boost. New Orleans was 0-for-3 on fourth down, committing three turnover on downs during the game.

The second turnover on downs proved to be important as the Rams offense took over with 35 seconds remaining in the half and scored a touchdown to take a 17-7 lead into the locker room. Stafford delivered a dime to DeMarcus Robinson in the back of the end zone for the score.

 Rams’ blockbuster victory it was their stars who shone

The Super Bowl champions made aggressive moves to acquire big-time players. They combined with homegrown talent to secure the franchise’s second title

As the confetti fell at SoFi Stadium, Odell Beckham stood alone amid the revelry, eyes welling, hands on his head in disbelief. No sooner than the dazed receiver appeared on the stadium’s massive video screen did the  Los Angeles Rams partisans, in slight majority among the 70,048 attendees, loose a deafening roar. To find their common emotional trigger, one needn’t have looked further than the message writ large on Beckham’s matching hat and T-shirt: Super Bowl Champions.

Nothing gets LA in a froth like a big sparkly prize. On Sunday the Rams’ 23-20 dismissal of the upstart Cincinnati Bengals was recognized with a Lombardi trophy, the second Super Bowl crown in the franchise’s 86-year history. It was a capstone achievement that was realised in Los Angeles, on the Rams’ home turf, with more A-listers in attendance than at most recent award shows. There was the Rock, Cardi B, Bennifer – and those sightings all came before the Grammy-grade halftime show.

So it was fitting that it was the Rams’ stars who delivered the Hollywood ending that was every bit as sappy as the one in American Underdog – an actual film about the Rams that was released this year. Even game MVP Cooper Kupp’s acceptance speech was note-perfect. “I just feel so undeserving,” he said in an emotional postgame news conference while thanking his high school sweetheart Anna Croskrey for the years of support and sacrifice that helped him to this career pinnacle – the greatest season by a receiver since the immortal Jerry Rice.

Beckham set the tone during the game; facing third and three from the Bengals’ 17-yard line, he quickly manoeuvred from the inside of the Rams spread formation and caught a fade pass over Cincinnati’s Mike Hilton in the right corner of the endzone to stake Los Angeles to a 7-0 lead. He celebrated in the endzone with a moonwalk. Another third-down reception in the second quarter for 35 yards set up an 11-yard Kupp TD catch that extended the Rams’ lead to 13-3.

Beckham was a a bargain bin signee added to the Rams roster at midseason, and he appeared well on his way to an MVP night. But then late in the second quarter, while reaching for a shallow pass, he fell to the ground clutching his left knee and had to be helped off the field, never to return to action. And without their X-factor or much of a run game to keep Cincinnati’s ferocious defensive front honest, LA struggled to move the chains, and Matthew Stafford got desperate. Facing third and 14 from the Cincinnati 43 yard line, Stafford forced an end-zone to Van Jefferson that was intercepted by Jessie Bates III. Thanks to the blunders, the Bengals rallied to a 20-13 third-quarter lead.

On the Rams’ first possession of the third quarter Stafford bounced a ball off Ben Skowronek that was picked off by Chidobe Awuzie. The next time the Rams had the ball Stafford went out for a pass, echoing the Bengals’ “Chilli Special” scoring play earlier in the game, but couldn’t gather the throw from Kupp. It was enough to make you wonder: Is this what the Rams traded away Jared Goff and all those draft picks for – to take the ball out of Stafford’s hands?

With the whiff of defeat in the air as thick as the stench of marijuana in the SoFi’s upper bowl, Aaron Donald seized control. After the second Stafford interception, the Rams’ all-world defensive stalwart dropped Joe Burrow twice; the second sack helped hold the Bengals to a field goal.

It wasn’t until late in the fourth quarter that the Rams offence shook off the loss of Beckham and started forcing the ball to Kupp – the Rams’ true No1 receiver. With time ticking away and Stafford struggling to connect with Van Jefferson (who may have been distracted by his wife going into labour during the game), Kupp carried a fourth-down handoff seven yards and caught four balls for 39 more yards, not least a one-yard back-shoulder touchdown against the Bengals’ Eli Apple to nudge the Rams back in front for good.

When Cincinnati seemed as if they’d drive for the win with 1:25 left, Donald hurried Burrow into a fourth-down incompletion that gave the Rams the ball back with 43 seconds left. After a Stafford kneel down, the most exclusive party in sports was on.

Altogether, the Rams sacked the Bengals QB a Super Bowl record seven times. “Our best players stepped up in the most crucial and critical moments,” said LA’s Sean McVay, validating his status as the NFL’s ‘It’ coach. “When you look at the way the second half started, a lot of teams would’ve folded.”

The Rams defense also provided a takeaway when Jordan Fuller intercepted Carr early in the third quarter.

Los Angeles capitalized off the turnover when Kyren Williams rushed up the middle for a 10-yard scamper and score.

Williams finished the game with 22 carries for 103 yards on the ground. Stafford was 24-for-34 for 328 yards and two touchdowns. He had no interceptions.

SHO-TIME

The newest member of the Los Angeles Dodgers was in attendance to watch the Rams victory over the New Orleans Saints.

Two-time unanimous American League MVP Award winner, Shohei Ohtani, fresh off signing his new 10-year, $700 million contract, was on the sidelines before the game and watched the remainder of it from a suite.