Rams win Lions showdown

Inglewood, CA (News4UsOnline) – The Los Angeles Rams came into their NFC matchup against the Detroit Lions with the need to perhaps win out for the rest of the season in order to grab ahold of the No. 1 seed and homefield advantage throughout the playoffs. 

The Rams started their day as the No. 1 seed in the NFC. The Lions began theirs in the hunt for a playoff berth. This game figured to be a hard-nosed chess match between the Rams and Lions. And it was.

Down a score at halftime, the Rams rode the right arm of quarterback Matthew Stafford to a wild 41-34 victory. 

“What a great job by our group finding a way,” Rams head coach Sean McVay said during his postgame comments. “It’s an excellent football team. We knew it was going to be a great challenge but I can’t say enough about the leadership of Matthew Stafford.” 

This game, like any other game, had its ebb and flow weave to it. Detroit jumped out to a 10-point lead at one point of the first half. The Rams then went on a 17-0 blitz in the third quarter to flip the script on the Lions.

By the time the fourth quarter rolled around, the Rams held a commanding 34-24 lead. 

“Third quarter was rough on us,” Detroit head coach Dan Campbell remarked afterward. “They got a jump on us that we couldn’t overcome. (Rams WR Puka) Nacua had a huge day. We couldn’t slow him down. (Rams QB Matthew) Stafford played at a really high level, which we knew he would if we couldn’t disrupt him and more importantly, stop the run. We weren’t able to do that. They were able to break through there and grind it out which made it very difficult on us.”

Stafford’s second touchdown of the game to tight end Colby Parkinson sealed the win for the Rams. After giving up 24 points in the first half, the Rams played good enough defense to hold the Lions to 10 points in the second stanza. 

“I think our guys really didn’t give up any loose yardage,” McVay said. “I thought we knocked out the run and I thought we were sticky in coverage. We were able to apply pressure to force them to progress past some of their primary options. Just being able to earn the right to get the pen back in your hand a little bit defensively. That’s an explosive offense. They’re leading the league in scoring. They got playmakers all over the place.” 

In the first half, Detroit quarterback Jared Goff and wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown were thorns in the side of the Rams. Both Goff and Stafford went toe-to-toe in leading their respective teams to scores. 

Goff came out with the advantage with the Lions putting up 24 points by halftime. Goff completed 14 of 20 passes for 221 yards and three touchdowns. Stafford wasn’t too bad himself, converting 13 of 23 passes for 193 yards. Brown was the main target for Goff in the first half. 

The former Mater Dei and USC standout was targeted 11 times and caught nine passes for 127 yards and two scores. A couple of things happened in that first half that led to Detroit to almost anything it wanted to do offensively on the Rams. 

First, the Rams’ vaunted defensive line had a hard time getting to Goff and trying to put him on his backside. With time in the pocket, Goff, who once led the Rams to a Super Bowl appearance, could pretty much dictate where he was going with the football. 

After the Rams had taken a 14-10 lead following Kyren Williams’ second touchdown of the game, Goff came back to throw touchdown passes to St. Brown and Jameson Williams. Williams’ touchdown came with seconds left in the second quarter. 

Trying to get a little bit of this momentum back before the half, Stafford went into gunslinger mode and led the Rams down the field in just enough time to allow Harrison Mevis to kick a 37-yard field goal with the time expiring before intermission.

Stafford said that drive and Mevis’ kick were momentous for the Rams.

“It was a big one,” Stafford said. “Right before that I was like, ‘Man, let’s go steal three.’ I told the guys, ‘Let’s go steal three points and see what happens.’ The first one we got the little completion at the back of the ball and then Sean [McVay] called a great one. It was the same one I was thinking. I was like, ‘Please go to this.’ He thought it and we thought the same thing.”

“They were playing a super prevent defense,” Stafford continued. “I tried to move the post player and give Puka as much space as he could to do his thing. He did and made a great play and got it down in there. Getting three there is big. Being able to come back in the second half and tie it up is a big one.”