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Rodrigue: Rams can’t stop kicking themselves into their own way

By Jourdan Rodrigue

https://theathletic.com/4987694/2023/10/22/rams-steelers-sean-mcvay-brett-maher/?source=emp_shared_article

INGLEWOOD, Calif. — The things this team does to itself, man.

Los Angeles Rams kicker Brett Maher left seven points on the board because of two missed field goals and a missed extra point. Coach Sean McVay couldn’t challenge a questionable spot on the field after a fourth down just ahead of the two-minute warning because he was out of timeouts. A defense that had played really well in the first three quarters had discipline and alignment breakdowns in the final frame. A quarterback playing some of the overall best football in the league right now threw a costly interception on the first scrimmage play in the third quarter that turned into seven points and also didn’t complete a single pass in the fourth quarter …

… and the Pittsburgh Steelers beat the Rams 24-17. Or, seven points.

“There were a lot of things that we didn’t do to be able to finish this game,” McVay said. “Execution on teams, whether it be some execution offensively where you set yourself behind the sticks. Defensively, you can’t have 12 men on the field (and) you’ve got to be aligned in the right spots in some critical third downs. They were able to finish the game, we weren’t.”

Here’s McVay on Maher, specifically: “We’ll look at it, and we’ll see. He’s got to be better. That’s seven points that were missed out on, that were key and critical for the momentum of the game (and) the type of game that it was. Those were tough ones, today.”

A crestfallen Maher added postgame that he isn’t injured or dealing with anything that could have explained the errors, he just couldn’t find “it” on Sunday.

It wasn’t just that Maher missed the field goals, a 53-yard try in the first quarter and a 51-yard try in the third quarter. It’s also that the Steelers then got the ball back on shorter fields. Of the six playable possessions bookended by those misses, the Steelers scored a field goal and a touchdown on each of the shorter fields (starting from their 43-yard line and their 41-yard line, respectively). Three resulted in punts.

The other scoring possession within those bookends was off of Matthew Stafford’s third-quarter interception.

Here’s McVay on the interception, in which Steelers star outside linebacker T.J. Watt jumped Stafford’s throw: “(That) was just a killer. It was a really poor decision, I put our guys in a tough spot right there and that one is gonna eat at me. … Bottom line is, we had hitches on the outside and a little option route from the three-spot, seams at the two-spot. Thought, we obviously thought it was going to be a single-high (safety). (Steelers cornerback) Levi Wallace rolled up as a cloud. Got Cooper (Kupp) working an option on the mike (linebacker) and you don’t feel that overlap from the hook player when Watt ended up dropping out of there. That’s what led to the turnover.”

Stafford said he “obviously” didn’t see Watt.

“They had a nice coverage call for what we had going,” he said, “that being said, I gotta be smart with the ball.”

In about as sudden-change scenario as possible, and defending from their own 7-yard line, the Rams gave up a touchdown and the Steelers led 10-9. But it was still early in the third quarter! The Rams even answered Pittsburgh’s own touchdown drive with one of their own, plus a two-point conversion.

But in the fourth quarter, the Los Angeles defense fell apart while the offense was shut out, rushing for just 20 net yards while Stafford didn’t complete a single pass of his four attempts … and the Rams ran only eight total plays.

“We always talk about, ‘We’ve got to do our stuff better than they do their stuff, for longer,’” said outside linebacker Michael Hoecht, who had two sacks, two tackles for loss and a forced fumble. “It didn’t shake out that way. … Over the course of a game, you can probably point to 10, 15 different things that need to shake your way in order to win (and) you need to win those 10 or 15.”

The Rams’ defense allowed 14 fourth-quarter points after holding Pittsburgh to just 10 through the initial three quarters. There was also a glaring error halfway through the fourth quarter when a substitution miscommunication involving the secondary led to a 5-yard penalty only added to other alignment issues and missed tackles and assignments. The Steelers scored two plays after the penalty.

“We got to do a better job of communicating the personnel changes,” McVay said. “You can’t give them five yards when they are in those scoring positions.”

Suddenly it was the Steelers who were moving the ball, up 24-17 despite the Rams outgaining them 341 yards of offense to 257 through that go-ahead touchdown.

The Rams didn’t — couldn’t — answer after that. It was the Steelers who had the chance to put the game away, and did.

Here’s McVay, on what could have been a very reasonable challenge, after game officials placed and then measured the ball after a fourth-and-1 Kenny Pickett sneak the Rams believed they had stopped short: “It doesn’t matter what I think. That was the spot they made. … I’m not gonna sit here and make any excuses about stuff that didn’t go down. Those plays shouldn’t have come down to that, if we executed like we were capable of. You guys saw the same stuff that I did. It doesn’t do any good. That’s what was called, and that’s what we have to be able to live with.”

Still, if McVay had a timeout left he could have challenged the official’s spot as the Steelers ran the play with 2:24 left on the clock. If it had occurred within the two-minute warning, it would have automatically been reviewed. So while McVay won’t dwell on one play’s impact on the overall game, there’s a real alternate scenario in which Stafford and the Rams’ offense got the ball back on about their 39-yard line, with two minutes to play. They weren’t moving the ball in the fourth quarter, no. But Stafford is also historically a pretty reliable operator in exactly those potential game-winning scenarios in crunch time.

“To not have an opportunity to have that be clarified, it sucks,” said veteran cornerback Ahkello Witherspoon.

Running back Darrell Henderson rejoined the team five days before Sunday and said he found out he would start pretty much on game day (Henderson was introduced on the video board as a starter during pregame warmups, which is planned somewhat in advance). He got a little more advance notice on his role, a planned series-by-series rotation with veteran running back Royce Freeman after the week of practice, in which Henderson was thrown into as many reps as possible between the actual offense and the scout team to make sure his game conditioning was OK after so many weeks away from football.

But the 127-yard rushing effort between the two backs — which included a couple of nice pressure pick-ups in pass protection, including Henderson’s blitz blocking on a third-and-12 that allowed Stafford to scamper for a touchdown — as well as a 154-yard monster of a game from rookie receiver Puka Nacua were wasted on a team that couldn’t get out of its own way, has not gotten out of its own way, and seven games in is drawing skepticism that it ever will.

“The biggest challenge (has been) the consistency through four quarters,” McVay said. “The complementary football. You look at it, there are some really good opportunities for us to be able to kind of just run away with some games or be able to kind of extend some leads, and we haven’t been able to do that.”

There’s McVay, repeating himself about a Rams team that is on the wrong side of seven games — learning plenty, sure, young and growing, sure — but also giving opponents the opportunity to beat them.

That they know better is what makes the sour taste of a loss like this stain the tongue, or a loss like the one in Cincinnati, or even the narrow losses to the NFL’s reigning elite earlier this season. Three of their four losses are by a touchdown or less.

“Just keep trusting ourselves, just keep learning,” said Ben Skowronek, a team captain. “It’s kind of been the same song and dance week in and week out. Just continue to play within ourselves and do our job. We have a young team, but that’s no excuse. We’ve now played seven football games, countless practices. It’s really just playing complementary football and being able to put all three phases together.”