reporters on the SF game

Lost in an elimination defeat, all these individual accomplishments / records / milestones. #LARams pic.twitter.com/Y54FbXfJrg

— J.B. Long (@JB_Long) December 22, 2019

from https://theramswire.usatoday.com/2019/12/21/la-rams-49ers-analysis-week-16-score-notes/

Robert Woods and Tyler Higbee have carried the offense in recent weeks, and that was the case on Saturday. They both went over 100 yards receiving, catching 17 passes combined. They’ve clearly become Goff’s favorite targets, especially on the bootlegs to the right side.

The Rams gave up 34 points, but the defense was great until the final drive. Jalen Ramsey was especially good, breaking up two passes, including an interception. Darious Williams more than held his own in his first start, also deflecting one pass and picking off another. On the night, San Francisco only had 334 total yards, 60 of which came on the final drive.

Aaron Donald and Dante Fowler Jr. had strong performances, combining for four sacks, five QB hits and four tackles for loss. The Rams had six sacks as a team with Morgan Fox and Samson Ebukam recording the other two.

.@TG3II is the first player in Rams history with 13+ touchdowns in three straight seasons! pic.twitter.com/MHpNNbUEza

— Los Angeles Rams (@RamsNFL) December 22, 2019

Nick Wagoner@nwagoner
The #49ers converted two 3rd down attempts of 15+ yards on their game-winning drive. It’s only the second time in the last 40 seasons that a team converted multiple 3rd or 4th down attempts of 15+ yards on a game-winning drive, per @EliasSports

The other team: The Cleveland Browns on Nov. 4, 1984.

Before converting the two third-and-16s on the game-winning drive, the #49ers were 0-for-20 on the year on third and 15 or more yards.

Lindsey Thiry@LindseyThiry
Clay Matthews, who joined the Rams as a free agent with sights on a playoff run, on the disappointing season: “Any silver lining? No. I’m too old to take any silver lining. I’m here to win ball games and –– to win ball games.”

Inside the two dismal defensive plays that doomed the Rams’ slim playoff hopes

Rich Hammond

https://theathletic.com/1480024/2019/12/22/inside-the-two-dismal-defensive-plays-that-doomed-the-rams-slim-playoff-hopes/?=twittered

SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Third-and-16. For an NFL defense, it’s a gimme. Many offenses don’t even try to convert it. For fear of making a bad-to-worse mistake, they run a draw and punt.

Nobody expected that from the San Francisco 49ers late in the fourth quarter Saturday night. Of course the 49ers, in a tie game, went for it, but then something really bizarre happened. They converted. Twice, in the final two minutes of a game the Rams needed in order to keep alive their playoff hopes.

Third-and-16. It’s almost impossible. The 49ers hadn’t converted any of their previous 14 attempts from that distance (or more) this season. The Rams’ defense, when faced with third-down plays of at least 16 yards since the start of the 2017 season, had stopped opponents from converting on 34 of 38 attempts.

Then it happened twice in less than 70 seconds, and because of it, the Rams’ season ended. They’re not going to the playoffs. They’ll be, at best, a nine-win team that finishes third in its (tough) division. Those two plays didn’t ruin the Rams’ season, or even solely cost them this game. There was a missed field goal, a terrible interception return for a touchdown and a handful of other lapses that set this table.

“I think those two plays are indicative of the effort that our defense gave,” coach Sean McVay said, “and it’s unfortunate that they ended that way because they had put together a really good performance against a tough offense. But those two plays hurt us and we’ve got to be better there.”

But really, third-and-16? Twice? The Rams, in a 31-31 tie, needed one stop on San Francisco’s ensuing drive, which started with a six-yard loss on a sack of Jimmy Garoppolo and an incomplete pass. On third down, Garoppolo threaded an 18-yard pass over the middle to receiver Kendrick Bourne.

That stung the Rams, who had one timeout left and thought, reasonably, that they might get the ball back near midfield with a chance to win. OK, so that wouldn’t happen, but after a one-yard run by Raheem Mostert and another sack, this one for a loss of seven yards by linebacker Samson Ebukam, the 49ers faced another third-and-16 play with less than a minute to go, and at least the Rams would go to overtime.

Of course they would, right? Entering Saturday, 12 of the NFL’s 32 defenses hadn’t allowed a single third-down conversion of more than 16 yards this season. Only five teams had allowed more than two all season. No team had allowed more than five, and it took Houston 14 games to do that.

It took only a few seconds for the Rams to completely unravel. On another third-and-16 play, Bourne and fellow receiver Emmanuel Sanders lined up to the left of the formation. They split at the snap, with Bourne heading toward the middle of the field and Sanders drifting toward the sideline.

Rams nickel corner Nickell Robey-Coleman stuck to Bourne, as he was supposed to, and Rams cornerback Jalen Ramsey played off Sanders in a zone concept, expecting rookie safety Taylor Rapp to pick up coverage of Sanders. Only he didn’t. Ramsey passed off Sanders to absolutely nobody, as Rapp ran toward the sideline, away from Sanders and toward an area not occupied by any 49ers targets.

“I was supposed to be a little over the top on that concept,” Rapp said.

Here’s the dots for the third-and-16 that ended the Rams season. I’m not sure what Taylor Rapp thought the coverage was supposed to be. pic.twitter.com/IakGOYwEnZ

— Bill Barnwell (@billbarnwell) December 22, 2019

The 49ers, and thousands of their fans, noticed, and just as Rams linebacker Cory Littleton took a leap in his direction, Garoppolo stepped into a long throw toward the wide-open Sanders, who completed the 46-yard pass play and got the 49ers to the Rams’ 23-yard line. Three plays later, they kicked a 33-yard field goal for a 34-31 victory that dropped the Rams to 8-7 and ended their slim playoff hopes.

McVay said the Rams were “in a certain call that entailed some communication” but said he didn’t “want to get into the specifics of what should have occurred on that.” Ramsey had no such qualms.

“We were in a form of two-man,” Ramsey said. “We had an adjustment to check to, because they were (in) condensed splits. I played my technique, trusting that he was going to be over the top. He wasn’t. So that’s what happened.”

Rams cornerback Jalen Ramsey after losing 34-31 to the Niners. pic.twitter.com/euSiIYoqab

— Lindsey Thiry (@LindseyThiry) December 22, 2019

Don’t scold Ramsey for being honest. He was asked what happened on the play and he explained it. Ramsey didn’t disparage a teammate and Rapp, in a separate conversation, owned up to the error.

Also, don’t forget Garoppolo’s role in this whole fiasco. He actually stood in the pocket and made the throws. That couldn’t have been easy, given that the Rams had spent the previous two quarters hitting him like a blocking sled. The Rams sacked Garoppolo six times in the second half, yet he stood in the pocket while it collapsed around him and made two world-class throws. Of course, they got help.

“(The Rams) played a two-shell defense,” 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan said, “and you’re going to work Bourne in the middle if it’s a two-man type deal, but the safeties got so high and wide. I think it was somebody (Rapp) got flat-footed in the middle of the field and we were able to get over the top of them. It was a good throw, great route. Sometime we tried for earlier in the game, but we didn’t get the right coverage for it, but we got it there and the guys made it happen.”

What a strange journey for the Rams’ defense. After last week’s dismal effort in defeat to Dallas, the Rams couldn’t have been stronger in the first quarter. On the 49ers’ first three drives, the Rams allowed only one first down and recorded an interception as they soared to a 14-3 lead with a sharp offense.

The 49ers rallied and took a 24-21 halftime lead, but one of those San Francisco touchdowns came courtesy of Rams quarterback Jared Goff, who threw an absolutely dreadful interception that Fred Warner returned 46 yards for a touchdown. The Rams rallied on both sides of the ball in the second half, though, and Garoppolo looked skittish even though he made enough throws to keep his team in the game.

On the latter third-and-16 play, Littleton nearly got his extended hand to Garoppolo’s arm.

“I feel like we put good pressure on them,” Rams defensive tackle Aaron Donald said. “We was there. He stood in the pocket and made those good throws. We were about to get him. If we had a second longer, we would have had him, but he made two good pass plays to help his team win.”

And they cost the Rams’ offense a chance at redemption. Near the end of a quiet second half, the Rams — trailing 31-28 — woke up and drove 41 yards in seven plays to set up Greg Zuerlein’s game-tying 52-yard field goal. McVay was mixing his play calls effectively and Goff, after the One Big Gaffe at the end of the second quarter, had been throwing with accuracy and rhythm.

Given one more chance, after a third-down stop, the Rams seemingly had a good chance to drive down the field again and score, or at least take some momentum into overtime.

“Yeah, you hope so,” Goff said. “That’s where you tip your cap to what (the 49ers) were doing. They had a couple good conversions there at the end of the game and were able to finish. You go back in the game and you can look at a million plays. Myself personally, I’ll look at that pick six for a long time and wish I wouldn’t have pulled the trigger on that. Maybe it would have been a different game and we would be talking about something else right now.”

Instead, it’s over. The Rams, a year after a trip to the Super Bowl, will be done after next Sunday’s home game against Arizona. They will face an offseason full of questions, not only about the shortcomings of 2019 but about how they can improve amid a challenging salary-cap landscape.

The Rams aren’t going back to the Super Bowl, or the playoffs, or extending to three years their run of 10-win seasons. It is, by all measures, a failure, one that will take a while to unpack.

“It’s extremely disappointing,” Goff said. “It’s not even close to the standard we want to hold.”