the press, twitter, etc. on the Seattle game

This is the definition of pass interference. Never looks back at the ball. Hits the receiver early. Embarrassing. https://t.co/zxosxRLYxc

— Eric Williams (@eric_d_williams) December 22, 2021

Lindsey Thiry@LindseyThiry
Rams 20
Seahawks 10

Rams now 10-4, tied with Arizona Cardinals for first place in the NFC West.

Axel Kopun@FV_Mylia_Lynn
4th & 2. Shotgun formation. What a joke. McVay is the “dumbest” genius I’ve ever seen.

Jack Daniel@JackDRams
Cooper KUPP is the MVP this year. I don’t care who they give it to. We all know who it actually is

JAKE ELLENBOGEN@JKBOGEN
#Rams are 8-0 this year when Cooper Kupp catches a touchdown pass.

Los Angeles Rams UK@LARams_UK
There’s certain years that you feel like you’re witnessing greatness. I think I’ve probably felt it 3 times as a Rams fan.

2013 Robert Quinn
2018 Aaron Donald (well every year, but that one especially)
2021 Cooper Kupp

This is a special season

Axel Kopun@FV_Mylia_Lynn
Warner & Faulk in 1999 & 2001. Isaac Bruce in 1995, Eric Dickerson in 1983 & 1984 come to mind for me too.

Cooper Kupp shines, sets franchise bar while defense holds Rams steady in must-win: The Pile

Jourdan Rodrigue

https://theathletic.com/3030152/2021/12/22/cooper-kupp-shines-sets-franchise-bar-while-defense-holds-rams-steady-in-must-win-the-pile/?source=emp_shared_article

INGLEWOOD, Calif. — The sun rises, the sun sets, and Rams receiver Cooper Kupp catches brain-breaking passes and scores touchdowns.

Kupp set the new high-water mark for the franchise in receptions (122) on Tuesday night in a 20-10 win against Seattle — a really unsettling game in its timing, after unprecedented circumstances due to COVID-19 forced the NFL’s hand toward postponement. The Rams had, at one point, 30-plus asymptomatic players and coaches on the reserve/COVID-19 list after an outbreak that started just prior to their Week 14 win at Arizona. Both rosters ultimately had holes in them by Tuesday at 1 p.m., the NFL’s cutoff date for activating players off of that list, with the Rams still missing three starters and nine regular contributors.

But when things get weird or out of balance (and they certainly did, with the Rams only able to put up three first-half points), it’s clear that quarterback Matthew Stafford and the rest of the offense depend on Kupp to just be … Kupp. He scored both of the Rams’ touchdowns in the win, one a 6-yard toss-and-catch in the third quarter that he and Stafford have been running since the early days of spring ball (this catch also set the new franchise receptions record, before Kupp promptly raised that bar a bit higher). The other was the kind of plane-bending play that he and Stafford are now frequenting week over week, a 29-yarder over the middle and just over the top of Seattle’s hook defender as Kupp crossed the field and trotted into the end zone for the go-ahead points with 5:13 left to play.

“We got into empty,” said Kupp of the second touchdown, “defense was playing the coverage they had been playing, they got into a Cover 2. Then Matthew, Matthew is just a really good football player. And that’s my analysis for that touchdown.”

Kupp’s nine-catch, 136-yard night marked the ninth time in 14 games this season that he has gone over 100 receiving yards.

“He’s so special,” said head coach Sean McVay, and then his face, usually frozen in each postgame appearance into some high-octane version of an expression dependent on that day’s results, slipped into something softer. Once, twice, a few times through McVay’s minutes at the podium after that, there it went. And McVay admitted that these past three weeks — first an offensive overhaul in both run and passing games that stymied a three-game losing streak through November with a win against Jacksonville, then a shorthanded win against a rolling Arizona Cardinals team on the road, then the unprecedented nature of the past several days — had been heavy. Emotional. Difficult to navigate, and, in parts, had forced a head coach who has grown accustomed to being “the guy with all the answers” to admit he had very few.

“I’m grateful for this team,” he said. “I’ve been reminded — not really ‘reminded’, but you’re just so appreciative of the guys you go to work with. Our organization, our players, our coaches, that’s why you go to work and you work so hard — to experience moments like what we just had in the locker room.

“Sometimes that adversity, I look at it as every single week representing a chapter in the book. And these guys are writing a special book right now. … I’m just appreciative to do this with people I love and care about. And I am, I’m tired right now. This has been … emotionally and physically exhausting. But we’ll get some rest and we’ll get back at this thing tomorrow.”

Stafford said he has learned more about McVay through this time of chaos and November’s bleakness.

“He’s ultra-resilient. He’s really smart and confident in himself, and he should be,” Stafford said. “He’s got a great mind and great ability to connect with people. This whole week was led by him, and some of that is vulnerability, too, like, ‘Hey guys, I don’t know what the answer is and I don’t know what the answer is gonna be tomorrow. We just don’t know.’ That resonates with us in the locker room. Somebody who is real, who doesn’t sit there and say, ‘I’ve got all the answers’ …

“That’s something that, as a player, you love from a coach. … Just happy to be playing for a guy like that. I’ve got a lot of trust in him and have a bunch of fun playing and working with him.”

The Rams are 10-4, and tied for the division lead after a game that was not without some struggle on the offensive side, and certainly not without controversy. Welcome to The Pile. Let’s start poking around.

Defense has found itself

It took the entire first half for Stafford and the Rams offense to get going (and they still stalled from time to time through the second half, too). Stafford threw an interception (“a bad throw,” he said postgame) in the second quarter and the Rams took four first-half trips into Seattle territory but only came away with three points. Stafford finished the game 21-of-29 for 244 yards and two touchdowns, with one interception.

Yet a defense that has begun to firmly establish its identity over the second half of the season kept them in the game. They held Seattle to three first-half points and 214 net yards, had three sacks and six quarterback hits, held Seattle’s running backs to 80 total yards and a touchdown on 19 carries (4.2 yards per carry), with the longest a 10-yard run by Rashaad Penny, and allowed just three third-down conversions (one via pass-interference penalty called against cornerback Jalen Ramsey) in 11 Seattle tries.

Highlights among the Rams’ third (and fourth) down stops included:

• Aaron Donald (who finished the game with a sack on quarterback Russell Wilson and two tackles for loss) sniffed out a third-down screen in the first quarter and blew up the play. The Rams had two solid run-stops on the plays prior to set up the long third down.

• Ramsey had two pass breakups, and both were on third down (one in the second quarter and one in the fourth; more on those in a moment). Ahead of Ramsey’s second-quarter pass breakup, outside linebacker Leonard Floyd had one of his own as he was dropped deep downfield in coverage with Wilson attempting to extend the play. Floyd also sacked Wilson, his ninth of the season.

• Outside linebacker Von Miller had his first sack as a Ram, also on third down, and it was the dunk to the alley-oop that Donald set up a play earlier on second-and-11, where he got heavy pressure on Wilson via a nasty swim-move to force an incomplete pass. Miller only “tested out” of his reserve/COVID-19 designation on Tuesday morning ahead of the league deadline and he didn’t even get the new defensive calls until that afternoon at SoFi Stadium.

“It was a crazy night, I got my first sack, it was a great day,” Miller said. “Russ, he’s a great quarterback. I don’t know what it is, he just gives me sacks. My whole career, thank you Russ! I love you! That’s my guy off the field. You know, I’ve been playing Russ for a long time and got a lot of respect for him. He’s just been my guy. I appreciate that.”

• On third-and-4 in the third quarter, cornerback Dont’e Deayon made one of the more difficult plays of the game when he stretched to break up a long pass intended for Dee Eskridge.

• Defensive lineman Greg Gaines got heavy pressure on a third-and-5 that forced an incompletion. On fourth-and-2 deep in the fourth quarter and with the Seahawks attempting to mount a comeback, Gaines blew up the gut like a barrel rolling down a hill and hit Wilson as he tried to release the ball (there was also a badly missed call on this play, more on that in a moment).

Wilson was 17-of-31 for 156 yards and no touchdowns, plus an interception, and in fairness, was without top receiver Tyler Lockett (reserve/COVID-19).

Meanwhile, according to Next Gen Stats, Ramsey aligned against standout Seattle receiver DK Metcalf on seven targets. Metcalf caught two of them, for 21 yards (one a 12-yard catch on third-and-8 that helped set up the Seahawks’ lone touchdown in the third quarter). Ramsey was flagged for a costly pass interference on a third down, but made a stop a few plays later. Both of his pass breakups were against Metcalf, the latter of which was made even after Metcalf got a step on him and Wilson underthrew the ball.

“On the first one, he ran a 7-route and I tried to bait it, to be honest, I tried to make it seem like I lost my leverage a little bit so I could undercut it,” Ramsey said. “He threw it a little bit too long so I could only tip it (away) and not get a pick.

“The other one, the deep ball, was a little stutter-and-go and, to be completely honest about it, after (Metcalf) did the second stutter, I turned because I was like, ‘There’s no way (Russell Wilson) is going to throw this. Then I saw the ball in the air and I just sped up and knocked it down.”

On multiple occasions, it was apparent that Donald and Ramsey even helped direct traffic pre-snap and at one point, McVay called a timeout ahead of a third-and-17 alongside coordinator Raheem Morris to communicate something specifically to Donald, who helped arrange the front and the defense held on the down.

“Those two guys are so special to us,” said McVay, of Donald and Ramsey’s efforts. “They’re team captains … Aaron and Jalen are first-team All-Pro players for a reason. They are legitimate ‘Defensive Player of the Year’ guys. They’re one of one. Their leadership, their ability to bottle (the emotion of the week) up, I think anybody who is great at what they do has a mental toughness and a resilience. Those two guys really stand out and check the boxes on both of those things.”

Safety Taylor Rapp iced the game for the Rams late in the fourth quarter with an interception, his third of the year.

Kupp tracker

Kupp was named to his first Pro Bowl (seriously?!) this week as a part of the NFL’s handful of early released names. He’s at 122 catches for 1,625 yards and 14 touchdowns, and he’s averaging 13.3 yards per catch. True to his style, Kupp said he had no idea that he had set the franchise receptions record with his performance on Tuesday until he was informed of the milestone postgame.

“It’s a great honor, considering the receivers that have come through this organization,” Kupp said. “Tremendous respect for the receivers who have come before us. They have set a pretty incredible legacy.”

“He is truly one of the most humble, special players I’ve ever been around,” McVay said of Kupp. “He doesn’t need all of the accolades … I don’t know how he’s not going to be a first-team All-Pro player (and) I think he’s a legitimate candidate for a lot of awards, but he is about our team. He’s interested in leading the right way, making the plays that are instrumental and vital to the outcomes of our team’s success.”

Sony Michel never tires

Sony Michel had a 9-yard run, then a 39-yard run in the third quarter (complete with stiff-arm) that helped set up Kupp’s (and the Rams’) first touchdown of the day. A 24-yard catch-and-run by Michel in the fourth quarter set up Kupp’s second touchdown, and then Michel also had a 17-yard carry as the Rams were trying to wind down the final minutes on the clock after which he smartly stayed in bounds to keep the time running. Michel finished with 18 carries for 92 yards (5.1 yards per carry, despite a handful of negative plays behind a reshuffled offensive line).

“I thought Sony Michel ran tough, physical and hard,” McVay said. “Sony got the majority of the workload (and) I thought Darrell (Henderson) came in and did a nice job. He was really kind of getting his wind underneath him (and) he had a couple of big-time carries. But I thought Sony was outstanding today. … Sony was outstanding, and Darrell did a nice job with the opportunities that he had today.”

Without some of the personnel along the offensive line who had helped in some of the style of run-blocking in which Michel, and the Rams offensive overall, has found recent success, there were certainly periods of inconsistency and even a couple of negative run plays. But as McVay has repeated, and as is apparent to anyone watching, Michel’s sturdy, physical presence and his overall demeanor line a thread of steadiness throughout the offense as a whole.

“I think he’s really brought a toughness to our offense,” McVay said. “You saw the body of work that he had in New England. Really, I think about when they ended up beating us in the Super Bowl, that stretch run, they really shifted their identity where they leaned on him and they were pounding, they were physical. We’ve been able to do that with him.”

The Rams got rookie running back Jake Funk back this week (he had suffered an early season hamstring injury that was initially characterized as season-ending but was able to play on special teams on Tuesday) and also still expect to get second-year back Cam Akers active in time for a playoff run, if not sooner. McVay told The Athletic in October that Akers (who tore his Achilles when working out off-site before training camp) was on track to make a postseason return. He may actually be able to at least return to practice in some capacity in the weeks prior to any postseason run, although the Rams will be smart with his workload.

Bottom of The Pile

• The Rams are still missing right tackle Rob Havenstein (reserve/COVID-19), who has been very steady for them over the past two seasons. They also were missing backup tackle Joe Noteboom (reserve/COVID-19) and so started Bobby Evans in his place. Center Brian Allen also returned from a knee injury (he also had been dealing with an elbow issue). The line apparently missed Havenstein at times on that right side, and on one third down Evans was pushed all the way back nearly into Stafford, who was then sacked. Stafford was sacked four times (three times by Carlos Dunlap), but a couple of them were clear coverage sacks where it was smarter for Stafford to hold the ball instead of force a throw.

• The Rams were also missing starting tight end Tyler Higbee (second-year player Brycen Hopkins had his first-ever reception, on a crucial third-and-5 while filling in), starting safety Jordan Fuller (rookie inside linebacker Ernest Jones called the defensive signals in Fuller’s place) and key role-players in outside linebacker Obo Okoronkwo and Terrell Burgess.

• McVay made the right decision on a fourth-and-2 in the first half, when he elected to go for it on the Seattle 32-yard line. A successful play added 2.1 percent in win probability, but the Rams’ execution on the play was off. An extremely rare drop by Kupp (who had the catch secured but it dribbled away in the last instant) meant the play failed. It likely wouldn’t have been shouted about by the public (as many fourth-down decisions have been this week) if McVay ultimately went for the field goal and the three points, but I personally appreciated the aggression as the offense tried to push the ball downfield.

• Among a couple of interesting officiating decisions throughout Tuesday night’s game was a no-call that was legitimately pretty egregious: A missed pass-interference on fourth-and-6 with 3:27 in the fourth quarter, that should have been called against Jones and could have changed the entire trajectory of Seattle’s drive. They were down just seven points at the time.

“The refs threw a lot of flags they could have kept and they didn’t throw the flags they needed to throw, in my personal opinion,” said former Rams tight end (now a Seahawk) Gerald Everett postgame. “I’m not an officiating referee, I don’t know the rules or the threshold of when to throw a flag or when not to. We’re all ball players playing physical. If I were a referee I would have thrown that flag, despite the way the game has gone. But, it’s not my call.”

• I had no issue with the Rams special teams unit on Tuesday night. Kicker Matt Gay made his 19th and 20th consecutive field goals (he has not missed since the first week of October; Tuesday he even hit a 55-yard try) and the Rams may have hit on a spark player in return specialist Brandon Powell. There were no catastrophes, no turnovers and, actually, the group put together a pretty consistent evening despite being so shorthanded as the reserve/COVID-19 list did have a big ripple effect there. Happy holidays, everybody!