Inglewood, CA (News4usonline) – The Los Angeles Rams continued their strong defensive push in recent games, keeping the Los Angeles Chargers out of the endzone during a 24-9 win at SoFi Stadium.
“First of all, what a great job by our defense keeping us in,” Rams head coach said during his postgame comments. “Really couldn’t have started any worse offensively. But what I did like that our guys did… we didn’t even get a first down until the two-minute at the end of the first half. But defensively kept getting stop after stop.”
The win allows the Rams to reach the .500 mark (4-4) at the halfway point in the season. The Chargers are still looking for their first win. That’s not the Rams’ problem as they try to get their season back on track after their second straight victory.
Quarterback Matthew Stafford, who pitched an efficient afternoon for the Rams by completing 17 of 25 passes for 157 yards and a touchdown, talked about the momentum of winning multiple games in a row.
“Obviously it’s nice to learn from your mistakes when you win football games and not lose them so they all count,” Stafford remarked. “We obviously didn’t do a good enough job, some of the earlier games in the year, finishing them off and I’m proud of the way we finished this one off. Games are going to go the way they’re going to go.”
For two quarters, the Rams played the Chargers as if they were sleep walking offensively. For two quarters, the Rams defense yielded but did not bend into allowing the winless Chargers to get into the endzone.
To add emphasis to how well the Rams have been playing on the defensive end, especially of late, their opening period endzone blockage has given the offense time to assemble to do their thing later.
For the eighth straight game, the Rams defense has not allowed an opponent to score a touchdown in the first quarter. They surrendered a field goal to the Chargers in the first quarter and allowed their AFC opponent two more kicks in the second period.
Still, the Rams found themselves trailing the Chargers by six points with two minutes left in the first half. Then the light bulb went off.
For the greater part of two quarters, the Rams offense produced three first downs, failed to convert a single third down (0-5) and had less than 100 yards (net 90 yards) of offense.
The Rams found themselves hanging around on the scoreboard because the Chargers could not produce anything more than three field goals.
This gave the Rams offense a chance to wake up. On their final drive of the first half, the Rams drove down the field, took the lead with 19 seconds remaining and didn’t look back. For a while there, the Chargers stuck around and made this a game.
The bottom eventually fell out and so did the Chargers. Kyren Williams’ 1- yard touchdown run at the end of the second quarter sort of opened a Pandora’s box for the Chargers as the Rams went on to score on three straight possessions to put some distance from themselves and their SoFi Stadium rivals.
“You’re stringing first downs together. That was the thing,” McVay added. “Even in the two-minute drive, that was where you get rhythm because you’re able to stay ahead of the change. You’re getting a couple explosives, even the second half to start that drive. Moving the ball and scoring points is what offensive rhythm dictates and we didn’t do any bit of that until that two-minute drive. But what I did love is the guys stayed steady.”
The Rams scored twice in the third quarter to give them some room to position themselves for their fourth win of the season. First, Blake Corum scored on a 23-yard run. Corum’s score was then followed by an 18-yard touchdown pass-and-catch from Stafford to wide receiver Puka Nacua.
Up until the last two minutes of the second quarter against their city rivals, the Chargers played as if they were in charge of the game. However, the Rams’ second and third quarter scoring spree took away any momentum the Chargers thought they had.
The Rams played their next two games on the road before returning back to SoFi Stadium on Thanksgiving eve to play the Green Bay Packers. The Rams four wins this season have come against NFC East (New York Giants and Philadelphia Eagles) and AFC West (Las Vegas Raiders and Los Angeles Chargers) opponents.
Dennis has covered and written about politics, crime, race, sports, and entertainment. Dennis currently covers the NFL, MLB, NBA, NCAA, and Olympic sports. Dennis is the editor of News4usonline.com and serves as the publisher of the Compton Bulletin newspaper. He earned a journalism degree from Howard University. Email Dennis at dfreeman@news4usonline.com
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