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Rams learned some bitter lessons on Sunday, and they couldn’t have come at a worse time

VINCENT BONSIGNORE

link: http://www.ocregister.com/2017/12/10/bonsignore-rams-learned-some-bitter-lessons-on-sunday-and-they-couldnt-have-come-at-a-worse-time/

Isn’t that the way it always is with life’s most poignant lessons?

The ones that rip our hearts out and leave the most indelible impressions?

The timing is always impeccably bad. Like pushing off studying for the big test until the last minute, only to see the professor spring it two days early.

Oops.

Or not getting car the tuned up within the two-year warranty, only for it to break down on the way to Vegas and having to fork over a thousand large to get it fixed. It would have been taken care of — for free! — had you just taken it into the shop a week before.

Yup.

Life lessons. They rear their ugly heads at the worst possible time.

And they hurt like hell.

Such is the Rams’ world right about now after taking a sucker punch the size and power of a Mike Tyson uppercut in the cold-blooded world of life’s harshest lessons on Sunday.

They had the Eagles on the ropes on multiple occasions in an epic brawl between two NFC powerhouses. Maybe not completely in control of things, but certainly within grasp. And with so many potential rewards awaiting them.

A 10-3 record and a two-game lead over the Seahawks in the NFC West. A three-way tie atop the NFC playoff picture with the Eagles and Vikings. A potential bye week in the first round of the postseason and at least one guaranteed home playoff game.

Not to mention a monumentally huge confidence booster that would have resulted from beating the high-flying Eagles, arguably the best team in the NFL, and whatever mental edge it would have created should the two teams meet again.

It was all right there for the taking.

The Rams just needed to study for the test. Take the car to the shop in time.

But nope. They got a little too sloppy, a tad bit careless.

And it cost them big time.

Trumaine Johnson gets called for a taunting penalty after the Rams had stopped the Eagles on third down with the Rams leading 28-24 in the third quarter. Rather than forcing a long field goal, Johnson’s lack of composure gave the Eagles a fresh set of downs and, eventually, the go-ahead touchdown to give Philly a 31-28 lead.

Yes, it’s an emotional game. Absolutely, the penalty appeared to be a case of a referee going overboard when he could have just let some harmless jawing slide. But in a chippy game in which officials had warned players from both teams multiple times to pipe down, Johnson has to be the bigger man and walk away after the fabulous play he made to break up a pass.

“You have to kind of put (emotions) on the back shelf,” said Rams guard Rodger Saffold, who was tested himself when his helmet was ripped from his head by an Eagles defensive lineman on a long run by Todd Gurley.

“Immediately, my emotion is, ‘Let me go attack this guy,’ ” he said. “But at the end of the day, we still get a good run, it’s positive, just go to the next play. Staying even-keeled is really important in this game. Sometimes when the emotions get too high, you put yourself in bad situations.”

Johnson did exactly that.

Later, with the Rams clinging to a 35-34 fourth-quarter lead, the Eagles were called for pass interference to set the Rams up with a first down at their own 35-yard-line. A little over eight minutes remained, and with at least three downs to work with and the lead in hand, it was the perfect time to start feeding Gurley the rock and burn some clock.

Gurley had been a beast all afternoon, and with right tackle Rob Havenstein going out with an ankle injury two plays before, it probably wasn’t the ideal time to throw the ball.

Never mind the Rams had knocked Eagles quarterback Carson Wentz out of the game to put whatever comeback Philadelphia might mount in the hands of backup Nick Foles.

All the more reason to get Gurley cooking.

Instead, Sean McVay dials up a pass play and, almost predictably, Chris Long overpowered Haventein’s replacement, Darrell Williams, and Jared Goff, holding the ball too low and far too long, gets stripped sacked by Long to hand possession to the Eagles.

“Not a great play selection by me,” McVay conceded. “I’ve got to do a better job putting our offense in better situations. Be smart. Have a little more situational awareness there, and that was a mistake on my part.”

Yup.

But Goff also has to be aware there’s a backup right tackle in the game and the need to get rid of the ball sooner.

“I probably just held onto it a little too long,” Goff said.

The Eagles eventually kicked a field goal to go up 37-35. It was a lead they’d never relinquish.

The Rams talked all week about the little things making the biggest difference in games like this, only to do a poor job managing the very dynamic they preached about.

“Against a great team like that, there’s things you just can’t do,” said McVay. “We cannot afford to beat ourselves.”

But that’s exactly what they did.

The Rams were penalized seven times for 107 yards. Two of them gave the Eagles a fresh set of downs after third-down stops, and one gave the Eagles another set of downs inside the Rams’ red zone after a made field goal.

Of the three back-breakers, the Eagles cashed in with 17 points and, nearly as importantly, kept the clock running and the ball away from Goff and the Rams’ offense.

Case in point: The leverage penalty on Aaron Donald on Jake Elliott’s 54-yard fourth quarter field goal. Without it, the Rams get the ball with more than six minutes remaining trailing 37-35. Because of it, the Eagles burn two minutes off the clock, still take the two-point lead, and the Rams get it back with 3:50 instead of six minutes.

“It wasn’t just the penalties that killed us, it was the amount of time (we lost),” Saffold said. “With the penalties, we didn’t have enough time to march down the field like we want to. Coach has to stick more to the passing game then he probably wants to because time is starting to wind down. Those types of things, we have to handle them the right way. We didn’t do that today.”

All the Rams’ goals remain in front of them. And thanks to the Jacksonville Jaguars beating Seattle on Sunday, they still hold a one-game lead over Seahawks, who they play on Sunday.

They were dealt a healthy dose of life lessons against the Eagles. It ruined a perfectly set up Sunday afternoon and makes their final three games a bit dicier than they hoped.

The key is to learn from them.

Otherwise, they’ll pay an even heftier price than they did on Sunday.

Critical Fourth-Quarter Turnover a Key Factor in Loss

Myles Simmons

http://www.therams.com/news-and-events/article-1/Critical-Fourth-Quarter-Turnover-a-Key-Factor-in-Loss/b3f5bd10-b789-4cea-a5f0-cc4d24ef69cc

Running back Todd Gurley seemed like he was half-kidding when he referred to Sunday’s game against the Eagles as “a Rams family reunion” of sorts.

But on a critical play at a critical time in the fourth quarter, it was two former Rams doing the damage. Defensive end Chris Long sacked quarterback Jared Goff on 1st-and-10 from the Los Angeles 35, and safety Rodney McLeod fielded the loose ball, returning it nine yards to the L.A. 25.

It was a game-changing play that led to an Eagles go-ahead field goal in the visitors’ 43-35 victory over the Rams.

“Against a great team like that there is things that you can’t do,” head coach Sean McVay said postgame. “We cannot afford to beat ourselves. We’ve got to make sure that we always do a great job taking care of the football.”

But the often self-critical McVay was true to form in his postgame press conference, saying he should’ve made a better play selection. He mentioned that right tackle Rob Havenstein had just gone out with an injury, leaving reserve lineman Darrell Williams in Havenstein’s stead.

“I think when you look at that play right there, it was a great rush by Chris Long — certainly not a great play selection by me,” McVay said. “I’ve got to do a better job of putting our offense in better situations, be smart, have a little bit of situational awareness there and that was a mistake on my part.”

McVay later added that the Rams do always want to be aggressive from an offensive standpoint, but there are caveats to that depending on the situation. The head coach cited Havenstein just going out and L.A. being ahead by a point as two factors that should be factors when it comes to playcalling.

“I don’t regret ever being aggressive, but being more situationally aware and how I can put our team in a better spot, I would say, is probably the more appropriate term and that’s something that I’ll learn from,” McVay said.

Goff, however, disagreed with his head coach blaming himself for the fumble.

“He told me the same thing. He shouldn’t do that,” Goff said. “He’s been doing a great job all year calling plays. Once the play comes in, it’s my job to execute it and unfortunately we didn’t.”

So from Goff’s vantage point, what happened on that play?

“I probably just held on to it a little bit too long,” the quarterback said. “Stepped in the pocket there and Chris Long came around and made a great play. Probably get rid of it a little bit earlier there. And [that’s] one thing that you can learn from for sure.”

“Anytime that plays like that are made, it’s also a credit to the defense being able to create that,” McVay said. “And there’s a situation where Chris Long — you guys are familiar with him — ended up making a big rush and provided them with a huge play that ended up being the game-winning-type play.”

And in what was a tight game for nearly the entire contest, those kinds of plays end up being the difference.

“I think if we played them 10 times, it would be close every game,” Goff said. “It comes down to, at the end of the game, who makes the play and who doesn’t and who takes care of the ball and doesn’t have dumb penalties and stuff like that. That ends up being the difference in the game, and we did that and they didn’t.

“So, hats off to them. They’re a great team, really good team; complete team. That was a really good atmosphere out there today. It felt like a playoff game and one that we would’ve liked to win.”