Fake punt was key in Rams first win

INGLEWOOD, Calif. – The Los Angeles Rams and head coach Sean McVay needed a spark from the offense. Any spark. Through the first two games of the season, LA’s offensive unit had only scored 30 points combined. 

And up until midway in the second quarter, the Rams offense couldn’t light a candle against the San Francisco 49ers. They were going nowhere fast. 

The team’s offense was stagnant for about a quarter and a half. McVay’s defense had surrendered 14 points in the first quarter and was not clicking on all cylinders. 

So, already down two scores to the 49ers in their backyard and staring down the possibility that the lead by their NFC West Division rival could increase, the Rams offense didn’t do anything to counter. 

After seeing quarterback Matthew Stafford throw for zero yards in the first quarter, the second period didn’t look like it would get any better. The Rams were forced to punt after a stalled offensive possession. The 49ers were set to receive the ball after the Rams were hit with a fourth down. 

So they thought. Everyone else in the building sitting and watching the game at SoFi Stadium probably thought the same way. No one saw what was coming next.    

Reserve running back Ronnie Rivers took the punt snap and ran his way to a first down. That play changed the trajectory of the ballgame. 

 “It was 14-0. It was a scenario that we thought we could have a look for it,” McVay said the next day. “I thought the guys executed. I thought [Nikola] ‘Niko’ Kalinic’s block at the point of attack was key and critical where he secures the first level and then ends up kind of throwing a last little block on a second-level defender scraping over the top and that allowed Ronnie [Rivers] to be able to put his foot in the ground and level off to be able to get just enough for the first down.” 

After Rivers secured the first down for the Rams, Los Angeles subsequently marched down the field and scored a touchdown, thanks to a Stafford to Kyren Williams connection for the score. 

“That’s just something that every time we had a chance to do punt, we worked it,” Rivers said following the Rams win. “And coach told us that it was going to be up this week and if they called it and we had had the look, we were all ready to execute.” 

Just like that, the Rams had cut San Francisco’s lead in half and looked more energized. The Rams still trailed by 7 points at halftime. But the well-executed fake punt gave the team a pulse. To make a fake punt go off perfectly at the right moment, Rivers said a combination of things has to take place.  

“I think it’s the feel of the game and it’s really up to the coaches…head coach and special teams coach on when they want to give that a try,” Rivers went on to say. “I was out on the field and my teammates called it out to me and said, ‘You know, we going to try this.’ We saw the look and felt like we could get the edge.”  

By the time the fourth quarter, the Rams were in full go mode and stunned the 49ers by scoring three times in the final period and holding San Francisco to three points to flip a lackluster beginning to a rousing finish.   

When Joshua Karty booted the game-winning field goal with a couple of ticks left on the clock to give the Rams a 27-24 comeback win, the turn of events no doubt left the 49ers sour and in disbelief. 

“We got a 14-point lead,” San Francisco quarterback Brock Purdy said after the game. “Obviously anything can happen, but for us it’s like, alright, we have the momentum, let’s run with it. We have a good enough team to finish out a game pretty early and put up points every drive offensively. So we’re all pretty frustrated.” 

49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan pointed to the fake punt that turned the game around in the Rams’ favor. 

“I think it was a frustrating game throughout it,” Shanahan said. “I thought we had every chance to win that game. I thought also we had a number of times in the game, we had opportunities to run away with it especially early in the game, that 14-point lead.”

“We hadn’t really moved the ball on our ‘D’ and it started with that fake punt. I think after that, I feel like (Rams QB Matthew Stafford) went like eight of his next 10 [attempts] or something like that so that got them back in the game,” Shanahan added.  

The Rams were giddy they found a way to pick up their first win after starting the season and dropping their first two games. Rams offensive lineman Rob Havenstein said the win was “huge.”

“It was huge, but I think the way we went about it throughout the week was the real turning point,” Havenstein said. “Whether we won or lost this game, it was how we attacked practice and our mindset about how are we going to be moving forward.”