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from Rams at Cardinals Postgame Notes

– Today’s win marks the Rams’ third straight win at University of Phoenix Stadium. The last time the Rams beat the Cardinals twice in one season was in 2012.
– The last time the Rams started 6-3 against NFC opponents was in 2004.
– In today’s game, Goff eclipsed 3,000 passing yards and 20 touchdowns in a season, the last Rams QB to post those numbers was Sam Bradford (3,702 yards and 21 TDs in 2012).
– Goff has 12 passing touchdowns on the road this season, which is the sixth most by a Rams quarterback in a single season. Goff trails Jim Everett (13 in 1990) for fifth most. Kurt Warner holds the records with 21 in 2001.
– RB Todd Gurley led the team in rushing attempts (19) and receiving yards (74), as well as receptions (six) and receiving yards (84).
– In total, Gurley notched 25 touches for 158 yards from scrimmage.
– The Rams are the first team this season to have two rookies with multiple touchdown receptions this season: Kupp (3) and Everett (2).
– The Rams have scored on the opening drive in 10 of 12 games played this season, and have won nine of those 10 contests.
– Ogletree joins CB Trumaine Johnson and S Lamarcus Joyner as the other Rams defenders with a pick-six this year. DE Morgan Fox also registered a safety. In total, Rams defenders have scored 20 points this season.
– The Rams are the second team this season to have two 40-plus yard interceptions in a game. The Ravens also accomplished the feat earlier this season.
– Marks the Rams’ fifth multi-interception game of the season. The Eagles and Ravens are tied with the most multi-interception games with six each. Buffalo and Jacksonville also have five multi-interception games this season.
– DT Aaron Donald sacked Gabbert twice. Donald has 8.0 sacks this season, which leads the team.
– Donald leads all defensive tackles in the NFL in sack totals with season. Cincinnati’s Geno Atkins has 7.0 sacks this season and will play Monday Night Football tomorrow. Dallas’ David Irving also has 7.0 sacks.
– Donald has 6.5 career sacks against the Cardinals, which is his highest career sack output against any single opponent.
– K Greg Zuerlein (143) passed David Ray (130 in 1973) and Jeff Wilkins (131 in 2006) on the Rams all-time single-season scoring list. Zuerlein (143) is now third on the list behind Marshall Faulk (160 in 200) and Jeff Wilkins (163 in 2003).
– Zuerlein (35) passed Josh Brown (33) for second most field goals made in a season. Jeff Wilkins (39) holds the record for most field goals made in a single season.
– Hekker’s 70-yard punt is tied for the third longest punt in the NFL this season. Jets’ P Lachlan Edwards also tallied a 70-yard punt. The longest punt in the NFL this season is 74 yards and that feat was accomplished by Tennessee’s Brett Kern and Seattle Jon Ryan.
– DT Michael Brockers blocked a field goal attempt by Phil Dawson. LB Cory Littleton recovered it and returned it 19 yards.
– The Rams special teams unit has blocked four kicks (field goals, punts, PATs) this season.
– WR/KR Pharoh Cooper tallied four punt returns for 60 yards, including a long return of 30 yards.

Rams sweep away Cardinals, secure first winning mark since 2003

Alden Gonzalez

http://www.espn.com/blog/los-angeles-rams/post/_/id/36694/rams-roll-past-cardinals-sweep-bitter-division-rivals

GLENDALE, Ariz. — Sammy Watkins called it “a blessing.” Michael Brockers described it as “a numbing feeling.” Johnny Hekker said it was “really satisfying.” Even Sean McVay — the first-year head coach who continually preaches the importance of a one-game-at-a-time mentality — acknowledged what it must mean to his seasoned Los Angeles Rams players, who helped lock up the franchise’s first winning season in 14 years with Sunday’s 32-16 victory over the Arizona Cardinals.

Rodger Saffold, in his eighth year as a Rams offensive lineman, was asked how different this season feels.

“As different as it possibly can,” he said. “It’s night and day around here, obviously. It just makes you want to compete and continue to win.”

The Rams weren’t necessarily great from University of Phoenix Stadium on Sunday, but their defense tightened up in the second half, their passing game stayed efficient and their special-teams unit made a major impact against their injury-riddled division rivals. They’re 9-3 now, off to their best start since 2003. But their goals are so much bigger.

“Very cool,” Rams quarterback Jared Goff said of clinching a winning record. “But by no means are we finished.”

What it means: That the Rams have been taking care of business, not messing around against the teams that they should beat. They have blown out the Indianapolis Colts, New York Giants and Houston Texans, and they have outscored the Cardinals by a combined 49 points in two meetings this season. The win allowed the Rams to stay one game behind the Minnesota Vikings, who beat them two weeks earlier, for second place in the NFC and that all-important first-round bye.

Veteran left tackle Andrew Whitworth worried that this could serve as a proverbial trap game, given that the first-place Philadelphia Eagles are next, but he “didn’t hear a soul talk about the Eagles or really worry about the Eagles or think about the Eagles” in the week leading up to the Rams’ Week 13 game. “To be honest, until this game was over, it was the first time anybody did bring up that game.”

What I liked: The Rams’ special-teams unit is one of the best in the NFL, and it showed Sunday. Tyrunn Walker blocked an extra-point attempt and Brockers blocked a 45-yard field-goal attempt. At one point, Hekker punted out of his own end zone and pinned the Cardinals to their own 21-yard line. After the L.A. defense forced a three-and-out, Pharoh Cooper returned a punt 30 yards, helping to set up the Rams’ third touchdown. The Rams’ opening drive ended in a 56-yard field goal from Greg Zuerlein, who is 6-for-7 on 50-plus-yard field goals this season.

Hekker was asked if he believes the Rams have the best special teams unit in the NFL and said, “I know without a [doubt] we’re the best coached,” a nod to special teams coordinator John Fassel. “Coach Fassel is a guy that has amazing attention to detail and focus on what he’s teaching us throughout the week,” Hekker said. “The proof’s in the pudding.”

What I didn’t like: It is difficult to answer this without feeling a little petty. The Rams jumped out to a 16-0 lead and let the Cardinals back in it with back-to-back touchdown drives — one a methodical type that absorbed more than six minutes, the other taking up less than 2 1/2 minutes and resulting in a wide-open Larry Fitzgerald. But the defense picked up six sacks — two of them by Aaron Donald, who has seven over his last seven games — and held the Cardinals to 149 scrimmage yards in the second half, with only 18 of them coming on the ground.

“It’s always going to be about keeping our gap integrity,” McVay said. “We do a lot of things with our run game, as far as how we want to defend it, especially against a team like that, where there are a lot of the downhill, tough, power, no-pull schemes. They did a good job creating some movement. I think we were able to settle in, slow down some of that early-down efficiency, and then get yourself into those manageable second and third downs from a defensive perspective.”

Fantasy fallout: Todd Gurley didn’t get a whole lot of carries early, but he wound up carrying the load for the offense again. Gurley rushed for 74 yards on 19 carries and picked up another 84 yards on six catches, with the screen game working wonders for him once again. Gurley entered the game ranked second in the NFL in scrimmage yards, and he now has a career-high 1,502 on the year. Watkins had only three catches on four targets for 38 yards, but he scored a touchdown. Cooper Kupp had five catches for 68 yards. And Goff (21-of-31, 220 yards, two touchdowns, one interception) became the first Rams quarterback to top 3,000 yards since Sam Bradford in 2012.

“Did I?” Goff asked. “That’s awesome. I think it’s a credit to everything we do and everything our receivers have done and our O-line. I’m just trying to fill in, do my best.”

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Injury report: Alec Ogletree hyperextended his left elbow while making a tackle on a short pass across the middle at the two-minute mark of the first quarter and was forced to exit shortly thereafter, after being in noticeable pain while the Cardinals marched up the field for a touchdown. Ogletree, the Rams’ leader in defensive snaps heading into the game, intercepted a pass and returned it 41 yards for a touchdown to give the Rams an early 16-0 lead. Bryce Hager took his place as inside linebacker and signal-caller for the rest of the defense.

“Right now, it’s looking up to be ready for next week,” Ogletree said after the game, with ice wrapped around his injured elbow. “We’ll see what they say tomorrow. I’ll find out tomorrow, for sure, what it’s going to be. But right now, it’s just going to take a lot of treatment.”

What’s next: The Rams will play their biggest game of the year, at home against a first-place Eagles team that was 10-1 heading into a Sunday night matchup against the Seattle Seahawks. It’ll be Goff, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2016 NFL draft, against Carson Wentz, who went second. It’ll be McVay against the Eagles’ Doug Pederson, two favorites for NFL Coach of the Year honors. And it’ll be two stout defenses matching up. The Rams will be tested like they haven’t been this season.

Said Gurley: “You play for games like this.”

Rams beat Cardinals to clinch first winning season since 2003

RICH HAMMOND

link: http://www.ocregister.com/2017/12/03/rams-beat-cardinals-to-clinch-first-winning-season-since-2003/

GLENDALE, Ariz. — They’ve been like two puppies from the same litter, opening their eyes and sniffing around this surprising world of winning. Now it’s time to find out who is the alpha dog of the NFC.

The Rams and the Philadelphia Eagles. The collision path started in April 2016, when the Rams traded up to draft Jared Goff at No. 1 and the Eagles traded up to draft Carson Wentz at No. 2. Few thought they’d both ascend this high, this fast, but next Sunday at the Coliseum, two of the NFL’s best teams will meet.

All of this still seems a bit dizzying for the Rams (9-3). One veteran player called it “numbing.” At this point, they’re the tightrope walkers of the NFL. Just keep going and, whatever you do, don’t look down.
A stumble almost took place Sunday, when the Rams looked vulnerable for a half but eventually pulled away for a 32-16 victory over the Arizona Cardinals at University of Phoenix Stadium. Defensive adjustments, excellent special teams and a patient offense saw the Rams through to victory.

Four regular-season games, and perhaps a playoff run, remain for the Rams, but for some of of them, Sunday was a smell-the-roses moment. With their ninth win, the Rams clinched their first winning season since 2003. Of the 53 players on the Rams’ active roster, 42 had never enjoyed an above-.500 year.

“I like the feeling I have,” defensive lineman Michael Brockers said. “It’s kind of a numbing feeling. I’m not used to winning, so I don’t want to lose. You get to that point where it’s not, ‘We’re good.’ It’s, ‘We’ll get better, each and every day, each and every practice.’ You don’t want to look at yourself like you’re good, because once you think you’re good, you can get humbled really quick. It’s all about being humble.”

The Rams got humbled a bit Sunday, by an Arizona team it dominated six weeks earlier in London. They never trailed, but their 16-0 first-quarter lead got trimmed to 16-13 in the second quarter, as their offense sputtered and their defense looked vulnerable against the run and lost linebacker Alec Ogletree to injury.

The second half, though, looked fine. Johnny Hekker’s field-flipping 70-yard punt, when the Rams nursed a six-point lead in the third quarter, changed the feel of the game. The Rams’ defense tightened up and held Arizona to three points and quarterback Jared Goff guided a patient offense that slowly improved.

Goff’s 11-yard touchdown pass to Sammy Watkins with five minutes left in the third quarter gave the Rams a 26-13 lead, and they edged ahead on two fourth-quarter field goals by Greg Zuerlein, who made four in the game. Goff completed 21 of 31 attempts for 220 yards, two touchdowns and one interception.

The offensive star, once again, was Todd Gurley, who ran 19 times for 74 yards and caught six passes for 84 yards. The defense, despite the loss of Ogletree to a hyperextended elbow, allowed just 15 rushing yards in the second half after a shaky second quarter against Arizona backup back Kerwynn Williams.

It clearly wasn’t the Rams’ best effort, but they managed a road win against a division rival they defeated 33-0 six weeks earlier. With the Eagles looming, it could have been a trap game for the Rams.

“It typically is,” Rams veteran offensive lineman Andrew Whitworth said. “You look at NFL history, this is usually one of those major trap games. They’re a tough team to come in and face at their place. … You knew this was one of those games that you worry about guys looking forward, past it, and not being able to come out with a win.”

So, the Rams gritted one out, and now it’s time for the surprising showcase game of their season.

The storyline is obvious. The Rams and Eagles both went 7-9 in 2015 and traded to the top of the draft. The Rams picked Goff, kept him on the sideline for half the year and finished 4-12. The Eagles picked Wentz, who passed for almost 3,800 yards as a rookie starter, but they missed the playoffs.

Expectations were low for both teams at the start of this season, but the Rams and Eagles sit atop their respective divisions and have two of the NFL’s highest-scoring offenses.

“Obviously it will be fun to play against him,” Goff said of Wentz, “but I’m just more excited to play their team. We’re coming off a win now and we’re going to enjoy this one and get a chance to look at it again (Monday on tape). They’re a great team, and obviously one of the best in the league for a reason, and it will be a fun one at home.”

Fun is a word being heard around the Rams’ locker room a lot these days, a credit to first-year coach Sean McVay and the veterans who believed in a coach who was 30 years old when he was hired.

McVay was barely of driving age the last time the Rams were a winning team, and offensive lineman Rodger Saffold, the longest-tenured Ram (since 2010) joked that there was some symmetry, because 2003 was the year he experienced his first-ever winning season, as a high school freshman.

Saffold, so often frustrated after games last season, smiled when asked how different things felt around the team this year.

“Um,” Saffold said with a chuckle. “As different as it possibly can. It’s night and day around here, obviously. It just makes you want to compete and continue to win.”

No Joy For Cardinals In Loss To Rams

Darren Urban

http://www.azcardinals.com/news-and-events/article-2/No-Joy-For-Cardinals-In-Loss-To-Rams/a92a740d-de15-448b-99cd-fa5a929cdb49

The milestones were falling for Larry Fitzgerald Sunday, as they tend to do these days, surpassing Jerry Rice as the fastest player ever to 1,200 NFL receptions and passing up Isaac Bruce for fourth in all-time receiving yards.

It didn’t matter all that much to the wide receiver. Not Sunday.

“Not when you lose to the Rams, a division opponent,” Fitzgerald said after the Cardinals fell to Los Angeles, 32-16, at University of Phoenix Stadium. “The season hasn’t gone the way we wanted it. It’s hard to take any joy in losing.

“When I’m done and retired and I see you over at Starbucks one day we can reminisce about it. But I don’t feel good right now.”

None of the Cardinals did. The game wasn’t a replay of London’s harsh loss to the Rams (9-3), although it started that way. A rally made it interesting, until the Rams’ Michael Brockers went right up the middle to block a 45-yard field goal try by Phil Dawson with 11 minutes left, a kick that would’ve have shaved the Los Angeles lead to seven points.

It was the cap on another rough special teams day for the Cardinals (5-7) and likely was the cap on any postseason dreams. A win against the Rams, and there was a path with the remaining schedule to create a potential fairy tale push.

Fitzgerald noted that the Cardinals are mathematically still fighting, although math being involved is usually a bad sign when it comes to playoff possibilities.

“We really needed that one,” linebacker Karlos Dansby said. “We just have to keep chugging. You never know what might happen. This might be the setup. You’ve got to have faith.”

The Cardinals believed early, even down 16-0 at the end of the first quarter. Quarterback Blaine Gabbert had an awful start, underthrowing a bomb to J.J. Nelson on his first play that was intercepted – setting up a Rams touchdown – and then throwing another interception that Rams linebacker Alec Ogletree returned 41 yards for another score.

“Definitely not the start any of us wanted,” said Gabbert, who eventually settled down to complete 18-of-32 passes for 221 yards and a touchdown to Fitzgerald. “You’ve got to have a short-term memory, playing the quarterback position.”

Indeed, the Cards found a way back in the game.

Adrian Peterson didn’t play because of a neck injury, but Kerwynn Williams, cracked ribs and all, was the catalyst. He ran for 86 yards in the first half, often through gaping holes created by the Cardinals up front. Williams’ efforts set up Elijhaa Penny for a one-yard touchdown run and then later, Fitzgerald – who had 10 catches for 98 yards – grabbed a 15-yard pass for a score.

The Cardinals were within 16-13 at that point. It was a game.

One thing I never question is the effort our guys give,” coach Bruce Arians said. “These guys played their tails off. We just didn’t execute well enough to beat that team today.”

There were missed chances, like the dropped interception early that Dansby lamented afterward, or the missed touchdown throw from Gabbert to an open Ricky Seals-Jones. Special teams, however, took center stage in crucial moments.

The first was a trade of punts in the third quarter. The Cardinals, down 19-13, forced a Rams punt from the L.A. 9. Johnny Hekker blasted a 70-yarder, with no return. After a three-and-out, Andy Lee’s punt went only 40 yards, and Pharoh Cooper returned it 30 – setting up a 30-yard touchdown drive.

In the fourth quarter, down 10, the Cards stalled at the Rams 27. Brockers knocked down long snapper Justin Drescher up the middle and blocked the field goal. The Rams took the ball and went on their own field-goal drive.

The Cards never really challenged after that. A touchdown could’ve changed things, but the Cards only went three-and-out and had to punt.

“I would’ve liked to see a little more composure right there at the end,” Arians said. “We needed to get two scores. As a whole unit, we crumbled right there.”

After a fantastic first half, Williams couldn’t even reach 100 yards, finishing with 97 when he had only 11 yards on four carries in the second half. Some of that was game situation, some of that was the Rams adjusting their defense to close the big holes from the first two quarters.

Gabbert will remain the starting quarterback, Arians said. The Tennessee Titans (8-4) visit next week, needing a win to stay tied for first place in the AFC South. The Cardinals have all but moved into the spoiler role. For more than that, they must believe – and Dansby said the players still will.

“It isn’t tough at all,” Dansby said. “It’s just about character. That’s all that is. It’s not tough at all.”