INGLEWOOD (News4usonline) – This was a wild game. The Los Angeles Rams knew their season finale at SoFi Stadium was not going to be an easy game for them to win.
Even with a 17-3 halftime lead against the San Francisco 49ers, their longtime NFC West Division rivals, the Rams knew better than to start counting down to a division crown. The Rams achieved their goal of winning the division, but not the way they thought they would.
Thanks to the Seattle Seahawks knocking off the Arizona Cardinals, Sean McVay and his team have the luxury of hosting their first-round playoff game as a courtesy benefitting a division champ. But because the Rams could not finish off that double-digit lead they built up against the 49ers, their 27-24 overtime defeat cost them the NFC’s No.2 seed.
And because of the loss, the Rams, the NFC’s No. 4 seed, will play No. 5 Arizona for a third time this season. That’s not going to give McVay or his team any type of solace for what took place on their own turf. Without question, the defeat to the 49ers was a painful loss for McVay and the Rams to swallow.
“Tough one today,” remarked McVay in his postgame press conference. “Our guys came out ready to go. We just got to finish. Credit the Niners. They made more plays than we did at the end. We’ll move forward the right way. But this was a tough one today.”
For the first two quarters, the Rams dominated and threatened to make the game a blowout. The 49ers snatched whatever momentum the Rams had and rallied to tie the game and eventually win the contest in the extra period. McVay admitted the loss put a damper on his winning the division.
“Yeah, I mean, in the moment right now, this is a tough feeling. Our guys did a good job being able to navigate through the season. To be able to still win the division is a good accomplishment, but I don’t know that right now is a time to celebrate that. We’ll look at this film, we’ll clean it up, and we’ll move forward the right way. This is a resilient group.”
The Rams showed that resiliency after the 49ers had battled back to make it a 17-17 game. This truly felt like a playoff game. When quarterback Matthew Stafford hit Cooper Kupp for a 4-yard touchdown pass, the Hollywood script seemed to have been written out in the Rams’ favor.
Unfortunately, this was not a movie. There was no redo. The 49ers answered with a late touchdown of their own to send the game into overtime. After holding the 49ers to just a field goal in the overtime period, San Francisco clinched the win when Stafford threw a game-ending interception as he tried to connect with Odell Beckham on a deep pass down the sidelines.
“Yeah, I just left it short,” Stafford said.
That pick was Stafford’s second interception on the day and offset a pretty decent afternoon for the veteran signal-caller. For the game, Stafford went 21 of 32 for 238 yards and three touchdowns. So how does Stafford explain the euphoria of being up and then absorbing such a tough defeat?
“Go back and look at the tape,” Stafford said. “Obviously, there’s some plays out there I want back. I thought I made some nice plays too. Had a chance to win it, didn’t finish the game the way like we wanted to. Got to give them a lot of credit for finishing the way that they did. But yeah, got to look at the tape.”
The Rams had a lot riding on their Week 18 NFL dance against the 49ers. A possible division title. Stafford was looking to redeem himself from the first time the two teams played each other. That’s not to mention that Stafford (4,976 yards) came into the game needing just 183 yards to break Kurt Warner’s franchise mark (4,830 yards) for most yards passing in a season.
He did that with his 238 passing yards.
Speaking of records, wide receiver Kupp had his eyes on several marks, mainly the most receiving yards in a season and the most receptions in a single year. Kupp came up just short in both categories. Having an all-time year, Kupp will have to settle for No. 2 for receiving yards (1,947 yards) and being second in receptions (145).
Records are great but become a moot point if you don’t win. Kupp and the Rams didn’t achieve either. Before they took the field against the 49ers, the Rams had lost their last five games to the team from the Bay Area. That has now been extended to six games.
In their previous meeting, the 49ers handed the Rams an unthinkable 31-10 defeat back in November. If there is a team that has been a thorn in the side of the Rams and McVay, it’s been the 49ers. In that first game, the Rams had a lot of things going on.
The team had just lost wide receiver Robert Woods for the season due to an injury. They had just signed Beckham and were trying to integrate the veteran wide receiver into their playbook on the fly.
Stafford didn’t exactly have the best day at the office, going 26 of 41 for 243 yards with a pair of interceptions. That day the entire Rams’ running attack gained only 52 yards on the ground.
The Rams showed little improvement in that area, getting 64 yards rushing. Running the football is something the 49ers did better than the Rams. After gaining 10 yards in the first half, the 49ers had a total of 135 yards on the ground when the game ended.
“We just started making plays, honestly,” San Francisco quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo. “It wasn’t anything crazy. It wasn’t scheme or anything like that. It was just guys were making plays and guys stepped up in big moments. (The) defense really gave us a shot. It was really a full team effort today. (The) defense holding them in crucial situations. (49ers CB) Ambry (Thomas) at the end with the big interception too, that was awesome.”
The Rams came into the last game of the season riding a five-game winning streak. The Rams hadn’t lost a game since late November when they dropped a road game to the Green Bay Packers.
The first half of Sunday’s game sort of resembled what happened to the Rams in the first game. In that earlier contest, The 49ers jumped out to a 14-0 lead in the first quarter and turned that into a 21-7 halftime advantage on their way to the rout of their division rivals.
McVay and the Rams answered the bell in the second game, moving out to a 17-0 lead before the 49ers knew what hit them. The Rams went into this game with a 45-0 mark when leading at halftime with McVay as the head coach. That mark now stands at 45-1.
“You’ve got to finish,” McVay said. “Our guys came out ready to go but you’ve got to play four quarters or five quarters in this instance. Credit them, they did a good job. I have to do a better job, we can all do a better job, and fortunately this isn’t the end for us.”
Featured Image Caption: Los Angeles Rams wide receiver Cooper Kupp (10) split San Francisco 49ers defenders on his way to a big gain. Photo credit: Mark Hammond/News4usonline
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