press & others sum up the BILLS game

Rams' miraculous comeback falls short in 35-32 loss to Bills: Everything we know https://t.co/EDwrxX34ZB

— Rams Wire (@TheRamsWire) September 27, 2020

Jourdan Rodrigue@JourdanRodrigue
Robert Woods: “We’re a great team. We just have to play like it for all four quarters.”

Los Angeles Rams UK@LARams_UK
I feel better about this years 2-1 team than I did about last years 3-0 team at this stage.

BTHRams@BTH_Rams
So many positives from that game. Weird to have that from a loss.

Stu Jackson@StuJRams
Rams HC Sean McVay: “I love this football team. We’re not going to make any excuses. We’re going to use this as an opportunity to move forward.”

McVay on adjustments made at halftime: “I saw a lot of individual efforts that were outstanding. I saw a resilient group, I saw a team that stayed connected when you go down 28 to three, against a really good football team. And they just kept battling, they kept swinging.”

McVay also took responsibility for how the first half unfolded: “I did a terrible job of putting us in some really poor situations early in that game. I make no excuses about it. Our guys ended up responding. We made some better adjustments. And the guys made the plays.”

Lindsey Thiry@LindseyThiry
“No, obviously not,” Rams WR Robert Woods said when asked if it appeared teammate Darious Williams committed pass interference. “The receiver initiates the contact and the quarterback is literally just throwing the ball in the area and it wasn’t even a catchable ball…”

Rams fall just short of franchise-best comeback, lose to Bills late https://t.co/MkWbdCLs9W

— RamsNewsNow (@RamsNewsNow) September 27, 2020

from https://theramswire.usatoday.com/lists/rams-bills-week-3-takeaways-reaction/

Jared Goff looks more like his 2018 self

One of the most encouraging parts of the season thus far has been the play of Jared Goff. once again, he was sharp on Sunday, throwing for 321 yards and two touchdowns, completing 23 of his 32 pass attempts. His lone mistake was an ugly interception intended for Van Jefferson, forcing the ball into tight coverage on third down.

He made several great throws down the field, hitting four different receivers for gains of at least 20 yards – and Gerald Everett twice for gains of 18 and 16 yards. He looked sharp, more like the player we saw two seasons ago than the one that struggled mightily last year.

The improved protection certainly helps, but he’s making great decisions, throwing accurately to all levels of the field and has really found a rhythm on the field.

Ramatic@randy_mcmillon
Rams fans FYI Jared Goff was 23 of 32 for 321 yards 2 touchdowns 111.8 passer rating

Rich Hammond@Rich_Hammond
Rams did not record a sack, a tackle for loss or a QB hit in the first half.

Jourdan Rodrigue@JourdanRodrigue
The Rams allowed six plays of 20-plus yards today after only allowing three total through the first two games of the season. Safety John Johnson said it was “eyes, and knowing assignments” while Aaron Donald added the running gashes were guys in right place, but missing tackles.

More sage advice from Robert Woods: “…and don’t put the game in the referee’s hands.”

BTHRams@BTH_Rams
Random silver lining: Interception included, this was Jared Goff’s best game of the year

Inside an unprecedented Rams comeback, and why it ultimately failed

Jourdan Rodrigue

https://theathletic.com/2093945/2020/09/27/the-pile-inside-an-unprecedented-rams-comeback-and-why-it-ultimately-failed/?source=twittered

With approximately eight minutes remaining in the third quarter of Sunday’s game in Buffalo, the Rams were down 28-3 and had less than a 2 percent chance of winning.

Fifteen game minutes later, the Rams were ahead by four points, and had about a 75 percent chance of winning.

The Rams ultimately lost 35-32 — after all that effort — but how did they manage to climb out of a hole like that in the first place? Head coach Sean McVay never has won after facing a deficit that large.

As the Rams went into the locker room at halftime, McVay basically threw out his old game plan. According to Jen Hale on the FOX broadcast, McVay and his offensive staff huddled together and essentially drew up a new script with which to open the third quarter.

“I did a terrible job of putting us in some really poor situations early in that game,” McVay said. “I make no excuses about it. Our guys ended up responding, we made some better adjustments and the guys made the plays.”

Defensively, coordinator Brandon Staley set about adjusting the types of pressures and blitzes that often failed in the first two periods, when the Rams didn’t record a sack or a quarterback hit. In the second half, Staley appeared to get more aggressive in sending defensive backs, and also his defensive line woke up, hitting Bills quarterback Josh Allen six times and sacking him four times.

And from a player perspective, veteran receiver Robert Woods said the team simply never got rattled.

“We know we’re never out of it. We’re a great team,” he said. “Just got to play like it all four quarters, and not just turn it up at the end of the game. … We knew we were down, but looking at the clock we knew we had plenty of time. Really, it was just finding that one play to just kick-start us and go.”

Quarterback Jared Goff snuck a touchdown from the 1-yard line to break the drought in the third quarter and make it 28-10. Then, safety John Johnson secured an interception that set up a 31-yard catch by tight end Tyler Higbee, then a 25-yard touchdown catch by Woods, full of his notorious yards after the catch. Veteran outside linebacker Leonard Floyd finally got Allen’s jersey dirty with a third-down sack. Cooper Kupp scored, then the Rams converted a two-point try, and then little-engine-that-could back Darrell Henderson scored, too. Just like that, the Rams scored 29 unanswered points to take a 32-28 in the fourth quarter.

The problem was, Allen and the Bills got the ball back, and kept it.

Of course, all of that effort essentially was wiped away when the Rams allowed a third-and-22 to be converted with 3:20 to play. That led to a fourth-and-8 play at the Rams’ 13, which the Bills went for because they needed a touchdown (and which led to a controversial penalty call). There’s every reason to believe that had the Rams forced a punt after that third-and-22 play, they could have run out the clock, given the way Henderson was eating up the field at that point.

Understandably, McVay did not want to discuss that third-down play in his postgame interview, remarking only that he “had to watch the tape.” But he is going to want to find out exactly what went wrong, and correct it, because instead of closing the door after an unprecedented comeback, the Rams allowed Allen to stay on the field. He ripped another 19-yard completion a few plays later, and ultimately the Bills scored the game-winner.

“We were just one step away,” Johnson said of the third-and-22. “It’s something that we see a lot. We see it a lot from our offense. We were one step away, and unfortunately in this league, that’s not good enough.”

I’m going to get to that call in a minute, too — you know the one. But there’s a reason I have this third-and-22 placed higher up in this column than “that call,” the fourth-down pass interference flag that probably should not have been thrown, which gave the Bills one more shot at the end zone and, ultimately, the game.

That’s because, in my words and the much wiser words of Woods, you should never, ever leave a game up to the refs. They’re human, after all, and they are, to put it politely, not immune to human error.

I’m also not going to fail to recognize what put the Rams in position to need a comeback like that in the first place, a first half full of sloppy tackling, miscommunication and bad situational football. We will get to that farther down the page (stop reading here if you’d like to preserve any positivity).

It’s just … at this point in the season, with such a young team, I think there is one important takeaway to be gleaned from Sunday’s game, and that’s this one: These Rams clearly never believe they are down and out.

“We’re a tough group. We’re a mentally tough group,” McVay said. “We’re going to use this as an opportunity to respond. … I just can’t wait to get back to work with this group. I love what this team is about. I think we can use this as a real opportunity to gain some strength and gain some momentum. Fortunately these are things that, if they occur early enough in the season, you’re able to respond the right way. They can be great learning opportunities that don’t cost you in the long run.”

As a long, unpredictable season stretches on, it’s notable to have gotten a look at the backbone of this team, even in a loss as tough as this one.

Welcome to The Pile. The Rams are 2-1, and 1-1 on the road with their toughest stretch of mileage out of the way. Let’s start poking around.

That call, plus context

So, about that pass interference call. On the fourth-and-8 play, Rams cornerback Darious Williams was flagged for contact with Bills receiver Gabriel Davis. It gave the Bills a first-and-goal play at the Rams’ 3, and they scored the go-ahead touchdown.

It might have been a little bit of a makeup call, too. In the third quarter, the referees ruled in favor of the Rams on Johnson’s interception. From a broadcast view, it appeared to be a 50/50 ball on an Allen throw, which by rule would go to the offensive player. Instead, it was an interception — the first Allen has thrown this year — and served as jumper cables to a stalled Rams attack.

I think it is a good rule of thumb to follow whatever advice or context Woods gives (and how could you not?). Keep in mind, coaches can get fined for criticizing the refs, which, let’s face it, is a dumb rule. So McVay approached it a little more politically.

Anyway, here’s what Woods said about the call:

“No, obviously not (pass interference),” Woods said. “He’s playing defensive back, he’s playing hands-on, he’s checking him. As he gets into his route, the receiver initiates the contact. The quarterback is literally just throwing the ball in the area. It wasn’t even a catchable ball. Obviously they make the call, it is what it is. You have to keep playing and finish the game. Unfortunately, they were in such close proximity with such little time, fresh set of downs. Just have to close it out when we do get put in those situations.”

But Woods agreed that the game never should have come down to one call.

“We just have to close out the game,” Woods said. “We knew it was going to go until the clock hit zero. Just got to stay consistent, keep playing well, and don’t put the game in referees’ hands. … Start early on, and we won’t be in that situation.”

Feed Darrell

Henderson proved formidable for a second consecutive week, finishing with 114 rushing yards and one touchdown on 20 carries. He also was pretty much the only bright spot for the Rams in the first half.

“I’m not surprised,” McVay said. “I think he built on a really good performance from the previous week. Ran hard, leveled his pads off. I thought the touchdown run to put us up was a big-time run, just running through a lot of traffic, lot of bodies at the goal line. He made a lot of plays. He’s going to continue to make a lot of plays.”

The fact that the Rams continued to work to establish the run — understanding that pretty much everything they do in the passing game is set up by the run — was important. Normally if a team is down by any margin, let alone a 25-point deficit, the plan of attack for the offense shifts toward being pass-heavy, in theory to bite off bigger chunks of yards and limit clock runoff. But Henderson, through most of Sunday’s game, averaged over six yards per carry. So the Rams, refusing to be rattled, kept feeding him.

“I thought that was a great job by Sean, the play-calling there,” Goff said. “Because we were running the ball so well at the time, but you do have to be aggressive. So picking his spots and moving the tempo, moving me off my spot, it was really good by him.”

Here is a cool example of what the Rams were able to do by sticking with the run (besides the obvious of Goff in play-action): Last week, the Rams put on tape several reverses by Woods with a running back also in the backfield. On Sunday, the Rams were able to fake that reverse in a way, shifting traffic to be slightly wider to account for Woods moving in motion around the back of Goff, and therefore helping Henderson, who got the early carries on those plays, get more space in the gaps. Then, after that worked a few times, the defense tightened down a little to plug Henderson. In those situations, the Rams were able to instead hand off to Woods, who had success a few times.

Bills had a bead

Goff said postgame that the Bills’ defense is “probably the best” defense the Rams will face this year, and it’s hard to argue with that.

Through the first half, Buffalo was pressuring Goff a ton and knocking him off his rhythm, and even forced a crucial third-down sack on the Rams’ first drive. The Bills were also beating the Rams’ screen game in the first half, essentially asserting themselves instead of reacting to what the Rams were showing. The calculated pressure they brought also locked up tight end Tyler Higbee pretty early on as a blocker, when the Rams would have preferred to test him against a returning-from-injury Bills linebacker corps. That was a smart design from coach Sean McDermott, especially knowing how much the Rams’ tight ends could potentially wreck the game early if they were used as pass-catchers.

“Specifically, they’re a good blitzing team,” Goff said. “They had a good bead on us early. You can tell they did their homework. … It was tough early on. … What they were doing to us defensively was just dictating a lot to us early on.”

Kicker woes, continued

Rookie kicker Samuel Sloman has had a rough start to his NFL career, including a 53-yard missed field goal into notable wind on the Rams’ opening drive Sunday.

Sloman showed that the distance was well within his range inside a controlled environment at SoFi Stadium during training-camp scrimmages, but McVay thought the blame should go on himself for the missed kick, considering the circumstances.

“That was a terrible decision by me,” he said. “We can’t do that to Sam. We can’t take a sack on third down, either. We moved back eight yards. That’s a play that we can’t have and we’ll be better moving forward.”

Rams against the run

The Rams missed a combined total of 18 tackles in their first two games, according to Pro Football Reference’s advanced defensive statistics, and will be well into the 20s after Sunday’s performance.

A particular issue seems to be bringing a running back down on initial contact. Last week, it was Philadelphia’s Miles Sanders, and this week Devin Singletary rushed for 71 yards on 13 carries (5.4 yards per carry, which drastically changes what a team is able to do with its play calls on shorter downs).

“That was just us,” Aaron Donald said. “On one play, I went to try to make a back-door play to hit my gap, so that was on me. We were just missing tackles. We gotta tackle better. That was just on us. The first half, we were just all over the place. It wasn’t like us. But on the road, playing good teams, you can’t make mistakes like that. But we’ll be better, we’ll fix things. … We just have to keep working.”

Miscues and a missing safety

The Rams also struggled with explosive plays (20-plus yards), allowing six by the Bills, plus several more in the 15-to-19-yard range. In the two games prior, they allowed a total of three plays of 20-plus yards.

Failure to contain in the middle and back tiers of the defense was an issue, and it appeared — via players’ reactions on the broadcast — that there were a few miscues and some miscommunication.

Rookie safety Jordan Fuller left early in the game with a shoulder injury and did not return, and while it’s tough to assign blame to specific players on blown plays without knowing the specific calls or assignments, we can say for certain that the Rams’ secondary looked discombobulated for the first time this season.

“I just think we had a few busts,” said Johnson, who spoke highly of backup safety Taylor Rapp but did say that in-game adjustments after the loss of Fuller were initially difficult. “Fuller went down early in the game. We had to move some guys around. We had a couple of mental errors that really cost us on big plays. It’s nothing we can’t clean up. It’s literally eyes and knowing your assignments.”

The Rams had no update on Fuller following Sunday’s game. McVay will next speak with media on Monday evening.

Bottom of the Pile

You know what? Let’s skip it. I’m calling, “Water! Water!” and changing it up (viewers of Sunday’s game will know what I mean). Side note: the Rams probably will change up their calls ahead of next week, considering how clearly they came through on the broadcast.