Stu Jackson@StuJRams
“I thought tonight was a good indicator of the physical and mental toughness of this group” – Sean McVay

Rams Bros.@RamsBrothers
Damn. Helluva effort from this #Rams team. They were dismantled by injury in this game and still found a way to overcome a deficit and take a lead on the road. Fought their asses off for 4 quarters.

Jourdan Rodrigue@JourdanRodrigue
Brutal couple of holds called on Arcuri, including one that nullified a Jordan Whittington touchdown.

I [saw] Steve Avila (ruled out, knee) down on the side with some sort of large brace around his knee. He’s talking through stuff on the tablet with Beaux Limmer, who is now at center.

RAMS REPORT@RamsNFLReport
Insane how frequently Detroit has gotten away with late hits on the QB going back to the playoff game last year. It’s happening all over again. Dirty players but it doesn’t matter when the refs don’t care.
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roberto clemente@rclemente2121
very bright spot: the donaldless rams defense showed up big by holding last year’s #3 home scoring offense to just 20 points in regulation and keeping the rams in the game from start to finish – big tip of the hat to rookie dc chris shula for getting these guys ready to play!

Jourdan Rodrigue@JourdanRodrigue
Now you see why Tyler Johnson is the 2 behind Nacua.

Jourdan Rodrigue@JourdanRodrigue
early TruMedia accounting shows Matthew Stafford was pressured on nearly 45% of his pass attempts. To piece an offense together – minus Nacua – in the second half tonight like Stafford did was kind of astounding but absolutely not sustainable.

Rams Bros.@RamsBrothers
Per @NextGenStats, Stafford’s time to throw thus far is 2.16 seconds. Fastest of his career since 2016. Think it has anything to do with the offensive line?

Los Angeles Rams PR@TheLARamsPR
OLB Jared Verse (@JaredVerse1) became the fourth rookie in franchise history to record 1.0 sack in his debut, joining Kyle Borland (1987), Kevin Carter (1995) and Robert Quinn (2011).

Stu Jackson@StuJRams
Sean McVay: “I think Rob (Havenstein)’s return is sooner than later.”

Next Gen Stats@NextGenStats
Cooper Kupp had 42 snaps and 12 touches in motion in Week 1, the most by any player in a game over the last seven seasons.

Kupp was in motion at the snap on 30 plays, 6 more than any other player in a game over that time span.

Sarah Barshop@sarahbarshop
Cooper Kupp said he saw “vintage” Matthew Stafford on Sunday night.

“He was battling out there,” Kupp said. “I think he rolled his ankle up or something early on, but no one would know. He’s not making a fuss about it or anything like that. But we can tell he’s hurting.”

Rams’ biggest lesson after tough, injury-filled loss in Detroit? Don’t let this compound

Jourdan Rodrigue

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5755151/2024/09/09/rams-matthew-stafford-offensive-line-loss/?source=emp_shared_article

DETROIT — They have been here before, and so have I, and so have you.

The Los Angeles Rams, already without two starting tackles and a starting cornerback entering their Sunday Night Football game at Detroit, lost backup left tackle Joe Noteboom (ankle) and starting left guard Steve Avila (knee) as well as young star receiver Puka Nacua (knee) to injuries mid-game. Starting right guard Kevin Dotson, one of the few stalwarts left on this tattered offensive line, left Ford Field wearing a walking boot on his left foot.

By the end of the 26-20 overtime loss, backup receivers Tyler Johnson and Jordan Whittington had subbed in for Nacua and rookie sixth-round draft pick Beaux Limmer was at center, while center Jonah Jackson was back at left guard (the position the Rams signed him to play via a three-year, $51 million contract before flipping him to center and Avila back to left guard about two weeks ago).

It felt eerily similar to moments in the 2022 season, when a historic series of offensive line injuries carried a ripple effect into the rest of the roster and imploded the season. McVay took the podium after those games with a twisted face and knotted shoulders. Sunday night, while obviously upset by the loss, McVay did not seem despondent.

“First of all, it’s a choice you make in terms of, ‘let’s pour into the guys (we have),’ ” he said. “We’re developing depth. We’re going to learn from the things that have occurred in previous years. And if guys get injured, then you know what? It’s our job to get those next guys ready to roll.”

Astoundingly, the Rams clawed their way back from a 17-3 deficit in the third quarter. With 10:29 remaining in the period, a new center (Limmer) and right tackle (AJ Arcuri) and no Nacua, Matthew Stafford was 5-for-5 for 45 yards and running back Kyren Williams ultimately punched in a touchdown.

On a drive beginning with 1:31 left in the third quarter, Stafford hit Johnson on a 2-yard catch, after which Johnson’s hard, savvy running picked up an extra 61 yards. Stafford’s calm despite his situation up front — and perhaps McVay’s, too — was on no better display than during a cluster of sequenced plays on the Rams’ go-ahead scoring drive in the fourth quarter after an interception by veteran safety John Johnson III.

Stafford got the ball back on the Los Angeles 20-yard line and dealt a few passes around to get to about midfield. The Rams subbed speed threat Tutu Atwell into the game, indicating a deep shot was coming, as Stafford and McVay observed the Lions playing their defensive backs closer to the line of scrimmage. As the ball was snapped, the Lions’ defensive backs rotated into a single-high look and Atwell did run a deep concept to the right — but Stafford instead hit an open Kupp on the opposite side of the field for 20 yards and ultimately set up Kupp’s 9-yard touchdown catch a few plays later.

Stafford appeared to get his ankle rolled over early in the game. He was hit 12 times and sacked twice. The makeshift offensive line allowed 22 pressures on 49 pass attempts (45 percent) according to TruMedia’s early Monday morning accounting. An Arcuri holding penalty nullified a touchdown pass with 13:28 in the fourth quarter that ended up a field goal.

“They were big,” said McVay of the penalties, sighing. “We got the looks that we wanted. … And you know what? That’s part of it. There (were) a lot of great individual plays. There (were) a lot of guys that stepped up. … Those guys that were playing tonight, led by Matthew, gave us a chance.”

While Stafford threw an interception in the end zone in the second quarter on second-and-8, Stafford and Kupp, with an assist from veteran role players Demarcus Robinson and Tyler Johnson, were the reason the Rams not only were competitive but also took a 20-17 lead with 4:30 left in the fourth quarter.

The play Stafford most wanted back? A third-and-10 pass from the Rams’ own 22-yard line that he intended for Kupp but sailed off-target, that would have taken the game to the two-minute warning with the 3-point lead.

“I know he’s going to feel like he’s going to make every throw,” Kupp said. “It’s tough. We had a route on, and the DB went to undercut and I adjusted to cut off the undercut and try to guarantee the throw. He saw the undercut and tried to throw it high. It was one of those situations where we’re both making the right decision, it just wasn’t the same decision.”

Stafford walked to the sideline afterward with his hands clasped over the top of his helmet. It was the only sign during the entire game that Stafford was upset — and it was at himself.

“Yeah, that was the game, had a chance to win it,” said Stafford. “Every game, there’s plays you want back. That is definitely one of them. I like to think that I can hit that throw a bunch of times in a row.”

In overtime, a visibly gassed Rams defensive front was gashed in the run game by 60 rushing yards, including a 1-yard touchdown by David Montgomery. It felt how the game looked. Again helpless to the circumstances, Stafford could only watch as the game leaked out of he and the offense’s hands run by run.

“They just got some good removal, they got some players in space versus some man coverage looks and they made the plays, and Montgomery was breaking a bunch of tackles,” McVay said. “You could really see that. I’ll go back and look at the tape, (but) like I said, I was really proud of this group.”

There were plenty of positives to take from the still-evolving defense as a whole. Safety/nickel Quentin Lake was everywhere on the field, vacillating from the second safety in the Rams’ two-high base defense, to the coverage-versatile “Star” on passing downs. Lake’s open-field tackle in space on Jameson Williams on second-and-10 with 38 seconds left and the Lions down three points not only prevented a touchdown, but also set up a known passing down that fell incomplete and held Detroit to a field goal.

The Rams’ defense may not have even gotten to that tenuous a situation if it weren’t for an unnecessary roughness foul against Kam Kinchens five plays earlier. The defense certainly wasn’t perfect — 5.3 yards per carry allowed, a few missed tackles and two explosive plays on a first-half touchdown drive that amounted to 50 of the drive’s 77 yards — but it also held Detroit to 6 of 13 on third down and 2 of 4 in the red zone, kept them at 17 points while the offense scored 17 unanswered of its own, and were visibly more aggressive, especially on short-yardage, middle-of-the-field passing plays that used to chip away at them.

There are enough bright spots to string together that could build a very, very good team. But if the Rams’ offensive line gets any more decimated than this, it will be hard to see what can be possible through all the murkiness. The injuries handcuffed McVay’s play sheet Sunday night, forcing more “regulated” calls. Missing Nacua does the same, and while Johnson’s 79 receiving yards on five catches in his place helped quite a bit, Stafford’s rapport with the second-year receiver is unmistakable.

The sour memories seep in on a night like Sunday. In 2022, Rams’ offensive linemen fell one after another in a doomed drumbeat. Hardly a game went by without a new injury or two, and reserves came from practice squads and couches across the league with few positive results. Stafford got battered. He and Kupp switched to an unsustainable brand of hero-ball before their own season-ending injuries, and McVay disappeared so far into his own head he could have been lost to coaching for good.

Then he — they — came back. The lessons learned during that season shape all those who were present to this day. If we thought we saw the fruits of their dismal 2022 experience manifest through the pleasant surprise of last season, we might have been wrong. We might actually see it now.

Rams Bros.@RamsBrothers
reactions to last night’s overtime loss to the #Lions:

• Nine & Dime, still elite
• OL in shambles (injuries), McVay & co. persevered anyway
• DL struggled against the run but Shula dialed up good pressure opps
• Tons of faith moving forward

Seth Walder@SethWalder
Jared Verse had a 33% pass rush win rate at edge last night — tied for 6th-best in Week 1 thus far.

(ESPN Analytics / Next Gen Stats)

HoldenCantor@HoldenCantor
Some good to take from yesterday and I’ll probably miss some:

-Shula can call a damn defense
-Troy Reeder..not that bad
-Durant does not want to give up his job
-Coop is Coop again
-Stafford is a dawg, per usual
-Colby Parkinson was a great addition
-Jared Verse is as advertised

Ramsoholic@ShayTweetedThat
— For people worried about the Rams RUSH defense

The Lions are a top 5 returning rush offense in the league

top 5 in RYPG
top 5 in YPC
#1 in rushing TDS

They have arguably the best OL

They have 2 rushers who ran for over 1k last year

Monty is a bruiser who was limited half 2 and came out fresh in OT vs a tired DL in LA

Gibbs is fast and elusive

We held both guys to under 100 yards

We held Gibbs to 3.6 ypc

Monty did have his way but if you watch the Lions they do that to EVERYONE, Its not like the Patriots or Chargers ran all over us, both of them had more yards than Detroit

***
— Rams are just that good that they can lose their star WR early, LT early , LG early after already not having their RT , LT and CB1 and take the Lions at home to OT

This DL vs the best OL showed up way better than last year! Age of this stud 4 DL is (26,25,24,23) THEY SHOWED UP! Bobby Brown and Hoecht did ok for most part

LBs played decent but the loss of Ernest could be felt at times

White is a good CB but he is not fast, he did let up a big TD unfortunately that may overshadow his overall GREAT game! He tackled well and contained his side.

Durant showed out, Lake showed out, CURL IS A DOG!

JJ3 is still that dude! Got a mean stiff arm but thats one play, overall great game!

Stafford had one big mistake but overall showed why hes CLEARLY the best QB in NFC, its not really that close. Under pressure hes an animal, no look menace!

People said RUN, RUN, yes running is good when its working, but Lions have a top 5 run D with a STILL mid/weak secondary, you have to take advantage of that with Staff and co!

PUKA- that one really hurt, if he plays whole game, we know how that turns out but Tyler Johnson did his thing but hes NO PUKA, period!

Avila was rusty and ends up getting hurt, hes young he should of got a good Q or 2 in pre season now hes hurt.

Noteboom was playing great and per usual gets hurt. Alaric was missed but Noteboom filled in for the short time.

#61 , I just call him by his number. You are not an NFL caliber LT , it clearly showed. So can not blame you because its not surprise you got worked all night and played bad. Parkinson was a nice help for you but one on one you were a non factor, no shock though your a 3rd stringer vs a top DE in league

Kupp is BACK. No shock when healthy a top 5 WR in league, period.

Corum will play, but you have to save him for games with a lead to start, we know Mcvay expects alot out of his RB and he is young. He will be our RB2 soon, but now its Rivers with Kyren still at 90% snap roughly share

Mcvay- You are still the second best coach in football. I like the aggressiveness but 4th and 4 with Puka out and Stafford hobbled was not wise, still, I ride for you because you are brilliant!

Mr Shula- You are the MVP here, what a fucking game plan you put out there, you will be a HC soon my friend, just hopefully we get you for 2+ years!

Playboy Karty- man you can end my anxiety of FGS and you did. Still need to see a 50 yarder but so far, im happy!

Lions great game to you. While you barely beat us with all we had going on, we still had some dogs out there working and with #9 back there we have a shot vs anyone! The run game in Detroit is tops in league, Ben Johnson is the best OC right now by a landslide and he really works with Goff strengths well. Goff is not a game changer, but he can manage a game and do whats asked. Letting Gibbs get alot of work half 2 was allowing Monty to rest and be full go in OT which showed , man we were gassed as hell and that dude looked like he just woke up from a 10 hour sleep!

Hoping for good news on our injury front. Go RaMS!

Matthew Stafford’s best throws from 317-yard game vs. Lions | Week 1