Rams won almost in spite of themselves against Seattle
Jim Thomas
http://www.stltoday.com/sports/football/professional/rams-won-almost-in-spite-of-themselves-against-seattle/article_c417f9a8-c603-534f-b400-a4193e399480.html
NFL studies show that when you’re minus-2 in takeaway-giveaways, you’re going to lose more than 80 percent of the time.
Allow a defensive touchdown, or allow a special teams score, and your chances of winning decrease all the more.
Well, all of the above happened to the Rams in Sunday’s season opener against Seattle, yet somehow they managed to pull out a 34-31 overtime victory.
“I think it speaks volumes from a patience standpoint and a commitment standpoint,” coach Jeff Fisher said. “We just never panicked. We kept playing. Tremendous efforts.”
With even just a little cleaner game, the Rams probably win by double digits. In fact, once Tavon Austin’s 75-yard punt return for a touchdown gave the Rams a 24-13 lead late in the third quarter, the defending NFC champions definitely were on the ropes.
Instead, the Rams ended up scrambling just to make it into overtime.
“The bottom line is we have to do a better job closing out games,” Fisher said. “At the end of the third quarter, we were up by 11 and we had them at second-and-20, basically. We just had some issues, had some mistakes.”
So the Rams have a lot to work on in preparation for their contest Sunday at Washington. But if nothing else, the fact that they were still able to defeat Seattle despite everything that went wrong makes the triumph all the more impressive.
The outcome was regarded nationally, and even by some observers locally, as a big upset. That wasn’t the viewpoint in the home team locker room Sunday at the Edward Jones Dome.
“That’s the thing about this,” defensive end Chris Long said. “We weren’t surprised that we beat ’em. The guys in this locker room expected to win this game. Maybe in years past (that’s not the case). But the difference is, this year we didn’t sneak up on ’em. They knew who we were.”
The Rams have now won three of four at home against Seattle since Fisher took over in 2012. So it’s not like this has never happened before.
“I think this team understands now that you just keep playing,” Fisher said. “I think a lot of that has to do with the entire group’s confidence in Nick (Foles) because Nick was all about that. ‘Hey, let’s keep playing. Defense, give me the ball back. I’ll put a drive together here, we’ll go win.’ … That kind of attitude permeates throughout the team.”
Foles’ leadership attributes certainly have captured the attention of the team, and players on both sides of the ball have responded. But he was just as impressive with the physical part of his game, as impressive as any Rams quarterback has been on opening day in a long time.
To wit, Foles’ passer rating of 115.8 was the highest for a Rams QB on opening day since Jim Everett’s 120.7 rating at Tampa Bay in the 1992 opener. Foles’ rating was better than any Rams quarterback (with at least 25 passing attempts) in any game since Sam Bradford’s 117.6 rating against Washington on Sept. 16, 2012. That contest marked Fisher’s first victory as Rams coach.
On the other side of the ball, defensive tackles Aaron Donald and Michael Brockers were even more dominant in film study than they looked “in person” against Seattle. Coaches’ review of game film showed Brockers with a team-high 13 tackles; Donald had 11 stops, tied for second-best among Rams defenders with linebacker Alec Ogletree.
Defensive tackle isn’t necessarily a big “stat” position, which makes the totals for Donald and Brockers — career highs for both — all the more impressive.
“They both had great offseasons,” Fisher said. “They’re both talented. They’re both healthy and they prepared. They understood what to do. We had a really good plan inside with some stunts and things like that, and just pressuring their interior offensive line. Aaron — not taking away from ‘Brock’ — but Aaron really had one of the best games I’ve seen a defensive tackle play.”
While the fourth-and-1 stop by the defensive tackle tandem to end the game is the play most people are talking about, Fisher said the play before was just as important.
“We wouldn’t have been in that situation had they not on third-and-3½ squeezed and collapsed the pocket, retraced and tackled Russell (Wilson) to create the fourth-and-1,” Fisher said. “So both tackles on back-to-back plays made tremendous effort plays to give us a chance to win in overtime.”
Those were some of the highlights for the Rams, as was the play of cornerback Marcus Roberson replacing injured Trumaine Johnson (concussion).
“Made some nice plays, knew what to do,” Fisher said.
And the work of rookie offensive linemen Jamon Brown and Rob Havenstein in their first NFL starts.
“They were sound,” Fisher said. “They played with a lot of effort. Neither one them played 60 minutes up to this point (in the preseason), and they both finished the game really well.”
But from giving up a punt return for a Seattle touchdown, to a botched snap on a miscommunication between Foles and center Tim Barnes, to some pass protection glitches, the Rams have much room for improvement.
“But it certainly was a reward for them for all the hard work through camp, and some of the negativity that emerged from our preseason games because of lack of points, and lack of production, and things like that,” Fisher said. “It was a great day.”
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