Rams Pull Off ‘Gutsy’ Win  

(News4usonline) – The cliche that defense wins championships is a lot more than a phrase. The Los Angeles Rams proved this to be true against the Philadelphia Eagles. 

The Rams rallied from 10 points down in the fourth quarter to notch a must-win 24-20 road victory against one of the top NFC teams in the NFL. To pull this off, the Rams had to put a blanket over the Eagles in the second half by keeping Philadelphia out of the endzone.  

“What a gutsy effort by our group,” Rams head coach Sean McVay said after the game. “ “I can’t say enough about our defense, keeping us in that football game, getting stop after stop. Man, there are so many things that we can clean up, but for our group to come alive when they did, and [to] find a way to make the plays, and so many different guys, really proud of them.”   

A week after getting battered and bruised after blowing a 16-0 halftime lead in a 30-26 defeat to the Denver Broncos, the defensive unit of the Rams decided they were not having any of that against the Eagles. 

The Rams defense played lights out on quarterback Jalen Hurts and against the Eagles, holding Philadelphia to just 172 yards in total offense and 12 first downs overall for the game. To punctuate their stalwart effort, the Rams did not allow the Eagles to convert a single third down (0-12) attempt in the game.

“Obviously, everybody contributed to that,” Philadelphia head coach Nick Sirianni said in his postgame speech. “Everybody. So, there’s execution errors, there’s coaching errors. Everybody contributes to it. It’s an ultimate team game. You can’t sustain drives and do the things that you want.”

McVay had high praise for his defensive unit after the game for the way they played. 

“Man, defensively, just what a job by them,” said McVay. “Keep making them snap it one more time. Getting stop after stop. We tried to do a lot of things that were not in alignment with what is winning football, but you can’t win it until the fourth quarter. And our guys came alive when they did. A lot of gutsy efforts.”

Adding to the Rams’ defensive dominance, Los Angeles also rendered the Eagles’ fourth down tries to 25 percent (1-4) and held the Eagles to just 3.0 yards per play attempt on offense. 

The Rams harassed Hurts into having an afternoon he’d rather forget, forcing the Eagles signal-caller into completing only 12 of 27 passes for 93 yards. After surrendering 20 points in the first half, the Rams didn’t concede a single point in the third and fourth quarters.  

Not exactly winning football if you’re the Eagles. 

“Poor execution. Poor execution. Yeah, poor execution,” Hurts said.  

As much credit the Rams defense deserves for their outstanding play against the Eagles, the offensive unit for Los Angeles, after sleepwalking for the first three quarters of the game, finally woke up in the fourth period. Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford went on a passing frenzy, throwing 30 of his total 51 passes in the final quarter. 

Stafford went 20 for 30 for 197 yards in the fourth quarter alone. Stafford got off just eight passes in the first half. He completed four passes with an interception. Stafford wound up completing 32 of 51 passes for 317 yards. 

He also had a couple of passes he wished he could have back as they resulted in picks.  

“Obviously, I don’t ever want to turn the ball over like the first one. It was a physical mistake, the ball kind of sailed on me,” Stafford said. “On the second one, I just got too aggressive.”

A large part of Stafford’s passing success in the fourth quarter was assisted by wide receiver Puka Nacua. Nacua caught eight of his total nine receptions in the game for 97 yards in the final period. He finished the game catching nine passes for 125 yards.  

“He played well,” Stafford said. “Obviously I have to go look at the tape, but I thought he did some really good stuff. I want to look at that call where he had that [illegal] block. I didn’t see much of that one, but I mean I thought he played great. 

“He’s such an energy spark for us obviously. He made some tough catches late in the game for us over the middle. Guys were draped all over him. So he played like Puka to me.” 

Cover Art courtesy and credited to the Los Angeles Rams