Rams running out of time to fix offense after loss to Eagles – Daily Breeze

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Rams Kyren Williams, #23, is hit by. Eagles Chauncey Gardner-Johnson, No. 8, during first-quarter action at SoFi Stadium on Sunday, Nov. 24, 2024. (Photo by David Crane, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)

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INGLEWOOD — Everything was in place for the Rams. Their confused, indecisive squad was up for grabs. With Sunday’s victory over the Philadelphia Eagles, the Rams will face the Seahawks and Cardinals for first place in the NFC West, the former of which defeated the latter earlier in the day.

Instead, as has been the case for most of the season, the Rams (5-6) took one step forward and two steps back in a 37-20 loss.

An offense that turned in the first quarter like it did on ExpressLane on I-110, with nine first downs, zero third downs and a touchdown by Kyren Williams? Replaced in the second quarter by a group that scored three times and gained six negative yards on four drives.

Thanks to this, the Eagles (9-2) had the ball for 10:57 in the second quarter and slowly began to weaken the Rams’ defense, which played aggressively at the beginning of the game. But most of the good vibes evaporated when Philadelphia took the lead on AJ Brown’s touchdown with 1:27 left in the second quarter.

The rest disappeared when running back Saquon Barkley had a 70-yard touchdown run on the first play of the third quarter, the first of two 70-yard touchdown runs.

“They made a lot of long drives and that kind of speaks to how our season has been going lately,” defenseman Kobie Turner said. “At some point we have to stop letting them run the ball so much, right? For example, they had the ball for 11 minutes in the second quarter, they led, they led, and when we got to the fourth quarter and had to stop, they had the ball the whole game. “

Considering the Eagles were about to start the second half, you’d think the Rams wanted to end the second quarter aggressively after getting the ball back with 1:27 left.

However, after quarterback Matthew Stafford was sacked for the second of five times, head coach Sean McVay opted to run off the clock and throw the ball on third down rather than take a chance on a third-and-long offense. understand why.

Williams lost the ball twice. The second possession was recovered by the Rams, but the first possession was returned to the Eagles and ended a promising Rams drive on their first possession. Williams has had four fumbles in the last four games.

“It’s the ball, that’s the most important thing,” Williams said. “We have to deal with it no matter what the situation.”

The offensive line emphasized disrupting defensive tackle Jalen Carter and for the most part performed well. However, that left the rest of the Eagles’ four-man lineup in one-on-one matchups with the rest of the Rams, and Philadelphia took advantage of those matchups.

“If I can get to Carter myself, it will give the guards a chance on the other side, but sometimes that’s what you need, you need that help,” right guard Kevin Dotson said. “We just had to get it right on the first and second try, but things didn’t work out the way we wanted.”

The team went 0-for-8 on third down and 2-for-4 in the red zone. Puka Nacua was assessed a penalty on a play that would have tied the game at 3-and-9 in the fourth quarter, and the Rams tried to make it a one-possession game.

So after Barkley’s first down, one of 26 carries for 255 yards on the night, the Rams responded by rushing down the field and scoring a Demarcus Robinson touchdown. However, the defense was already gassed and quickly allowed the Eagles to respond, and Barkley and Kenneth Gainwell continued to attack the Rams before swallowing them whole on the latter’s 13-yard touchdown run.

Rams kicker Joshua Karty had missed his third field goal attempt in consecutive games, and there was nothing that could stop the Eagles at that point.

It wasn’t a completely cataclysmic weekend for the Rams; They dropped to third place in the NFC West, tied with the 49ers. One game down with six to play, including one against each division rival, is not a valley you can’t climb out of.

But it’s getting late in the season and the Rams are left trying to fix the same mistakes that keep repeating themselves week after week and could derail their playoff dreams.

“There are such humiliating nights in football; it all depends on how you react. I know this team has the ability to respond,” McVay said. “I don’t know any other way to say it than to say tonight that it didn’t work out for us, and there were a lot of reasons for that. … But we will come back with a bang, that’s what I know.”

Originally published: November 24, 2024 at 8:45 pm PST