Rams put away Jaguars with team win

INGLEWOOD (News4usonline) – It was a good day to right the ship for the Los Angeles Rams. The Jacksonville Jaguars proved to be the perfect opponent for the Rams to get back on the winning track after the team went through the entire month of November without a win.

The Rams put together a good defensive effort, solid offense, and a dash of special teams to roll out a 37-7 win against the visiting Jaguars at SoFi Stadium.

“Great team win,” Rams head coach Sean McVay said during a postgame press conference. “That was exactly what we had talked about. A lot of respect for those guys. They’re a really tough football team.  But for us to come out ready to go in all three phases, I thought there was major contributors in all three phases. But winning the turnover battle, doing a lot of the things that we had talked about, it really came to life.

McVay continued, “It was awesome to see (WR) Brandon Powell be able to start the game off with a big kick return. I thought that was big from special teams. We didn’t turn the football over offensively, we got takeaways, we got after the quarterback. There’s a lot of things that were really very positive about today. We got to be able to build on this.” 

#rams coach Sean McVay on team’s 37-7 win against the Jacksonville Jaguars. #RamsHouse pic.twitter.com/2EtteaIvA2

— Dennis J. Freeman (@DennisJFreeman) December 6, 2021

Everything seemed to work for the Rams against the Jaguars. Let’s start with the offense. Quarterback Matthew Stafford had a no-turnover day and threw for 290 yards and three touchdowns. Sony Michel kicked the running game into gear with a 121-yard effort on the ground.

The consistency of wide receiver Cooper Kupp continues to amaze. Kupp caught eight of the 26 passes that Stafford completed during the matinee game at Sofi Stadium. On the flip side of that coin, the Rams kept Jacksonville under 200 yards in total offense (197 yards). 

LA got after rookie quarterback Trevor Lawrence with constant pressure all afternoon. As a result, Lawrence completed only 57 percent of his passes for 145 yards. The Rams sacked Lawrence twice and forced two fumbles as Los Angeles bumped up its record to 8-4, staying within striking distance of first-place Arizona in the NFC West.    

“When you tend to get turnovers, you tend to win games,” Rams defensive lineman Aaron Donald said. “So we’ve got to continue to do that, continue to build off this type of win today. I think this was a great team win. So, we’ve got to keep this up. This is the kind of football we’ve got to play here on out.”

The Rams may have only recorded two sacks, they seemed to get plenty of hits on Lawrence. Officially, the boxscore says that the Rams got to Lawrence a half dozen times, but it sure felt like it was much more to Jacksonville head coach Urban Meyer.    

“I’m always concerned about young players growing,” Meyer said. “He’s a 22-year old player, first year in the NFL. He got hit too many times tonight. A couple of times I want them to look at what happened to – I saw a couple videos, but I’m anxious to hear the results on that. But, the question was am I concerned about his development. I’d like to see everyone else around him and you know, everyone else just play a little better. I wish I could give you something more than that.”

If Meyer had to pinpoint one reason why Lawrence was getting tagged so many times, it was not difficult to see that Donald was chief instigator No. 1. Donald registered five tackles, two of those quarterback hits and two forced fumbles. When asked what kind of disruption Donald caused for the Jaguars, Lawrence was direct with his response.    

“A lot. I mean, run game, pass game, everything,” remarked Lawrence. “You just see that guy flying around. It’s tough to block, you know, I wouldn’t want to be an offensive lineman going against that guy,”

“He’s tough to block and I thought early in the game, we did a good job with the pass rush, and we protected and we’re moving the ball well,” Lawrence added. “I think obviously it’s when you start getting down that pass rush increases, because they’re not really worried about the run as much. So, it makes it hard for the guys up front.”

While Jacksonville’s offensive line lost their battle in the trenches to Donald and his buddies, Stafford’s six bodyguards kept the pressure off of their quarterback and even got enough push upfront to allow Michel to rush for his season-high yardage. Stafford, who completed 68 percent of his passes against Jacksonville, attributes great play-calling to what the Rams were able to do on offense.  

“Yeah, I got to give (Head Coach) Sean (McVay) a lot of credit,” said Stafford. “That was a great game plan we had in this game. And then really, the guys that were asked to play more than they played probably this season stepped up and played great.  (RB) Sony (Michel) I thought ran the ball really well. Kind of going into the week, seeing the plan unfold, and I’m like, ‘This is a Sony Michel type of game.’

“He’s just going to slug it out, wear on these dudes. I thought he was great in the pass game too. Gave him some opportunities in the pass game, did some nice stuff. I get a great view from where I’m at of him running the football and some of those four, five, six-yard runs are just things of beauty.”