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znModeratorJAKE ELLENBOGEN@JKBOGEN
#Rams IDL Kobie Turner is leading all interior defensive lineman in stops on the season. He’s been huge in year two and I don’t think that gets talked about enough.all interior defensive linemen in the league? or on the rams?
The league.
In terms of DL generally not just DTs, he’s 2nd. Again, in the league.
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znModeratorRams rally in second half behind Matthew Stafford, Kyren Williams to overcome Saints
Gary Klein
https://www.latimes.com/sports/rams/story/2024-12-01/rams-saints-recap
NEW ORLEANS — They ran three plays in the first quarter.
They were shut out in the first half.
It was anything but easy for the Rams on Sunday in the Big Easy.
Still, Matthew Stafford passed for two second-half touchdowns, Kyren Williams ran for another and rookie edge rusher Jared Verse made a late clutch play as the Rams defeated the New Orleans Saints 21-14 at the Caesars Superdome.
Williams rushed for more than 100 yards and receivers Demarcus Robinson and Puka Nacua caught touchdown passes as the Rams bounced back from an embarrassing defeat to the Philadelphia Eagles to improve to 6-6 and keep alive their playoff hopes.
The Seattle Seahawks (7-5) lead the NFC West, and the Arizona Cardinals (6-6) hold the tiebreaker over the Rams. The San Francisco 49ers (5-7) fell into last place in the division after getting blown out by the Bills during a Buffalo snow storm Sunday night.
The Rams’ Puka Nacua scores the deciding touchdown after a short catch despite a tackle attempt by the Saints’ Pete Werner (20). (Butch Dill / Associated Press)
The Rams have five games left, including Sunday at SoFi Stadium against the Bills and a matchup against the 49ers in Santa Clara four days later. They finish with a road game against the New York Jets and home games against the Cardinals and Seahawks.“One day at a time,” coach Sean McVay said.
Someday — and for the Rams, the sooner the better — McVay’s offense will start a game fast, finish drives and sustain momentum.
That did not happen Sunday.
After the Saints kicked a field goal on the opening possession, the Rams went three and out.
Then the offense waited. And waited. And waited.
The Rams did not run another play until after the Saints kicked another field goal on the first snap of the second quarter.
“You’re sitting there going, ‘Man, there’s plays out there. We gotta go get ‘em, make ‘em happen,’” Stafford said.
It was a “weird situation,” receiver Cooper Kupp said.
“It’s a lot of standing around,” he said, adding, “It is an odd feeling.”
The Rams got the ball twice in the second quarter and Williams and rookie running back Blake Corum ran well but the Rams could not finish drives and they went into the locker room trailing 6-0.
“We got like three drives,” in the first half, veteran lineman Rob Havenstein said. “Normally, you want to get that in the first quarter. We got one and it was three and out, so obviously that was not ideal.”
It also will not be sustainable if the Rams aim to make the playoffs and return to the Superdome in February for Super Bowl LIX.
“We’ve got to be able to figure it out,” McVay said of slow starts and poor execution early in games, adding, “but I also don’t want to overreact.”
The Rams did not panic Sunday.
The second half “was going to be ours,” said Williams, who finished with 104 yards in 15 carries.
“We knew that as a running back group,” he said, “and we knew that as the offensive line and the offense in general.”
Williams scored on a short run midway through the third quarter, and Stafford’s short touchdown pass to Robinson on the first play of the fourth extended the lead.
The Saints tied the score with a touchdown and two-point conversion but rookie Jordan Whittington’s 43-yard kickoff return set up a drive that Stafford capped with a touchdown pass to Nacua.
Verse sealed the win with less than two minutes left and the Saints facing a fourth and two at the Rams’ nine yard-line. Verse rushed off the right edge and got his hand on the ball as quarterback Derek Carr attempted to pass.
What was going through Verse’s mind as he pursued Carr?
“Hold on to that ball, hey just one second longer,” Verse said, chuckling. “Hold on to it. You don’t gotta do anything extra. Just hold on to it a little bit longer.”
Verse’s play was the final one for a defense that had given up 481 yards in a 37-20 loss to the Eagles, including 255 yards rushing by Saquon Barkley.
Saints running back Alvin Kamara rushed for 112 yards but the Rams prevented him from breaking off long scoring runs as Barkley did.
The Rams need their offense to start producing earlier than the second half but Stafford, who completed 14 of 24 passes for 183 yards, did not sound overly concerned.
The 16th-year pro said he has played in enough games to know that teams can quickly build an early lead “before you blink, and then at the end of the game, you’re in a nail-biter.”
It’s a game of ebbs and flows, he said.
“Very rarely do you go down, score 14 points and just run away with the football game,” he said. “So, your time’s going to come.
“You’ve got to find those opportunities and when they come you’ve got to capitalize on them.”
For the Rams, doing that at the start of games would be a start.
znModeratorAccountability from Eagles game in Week 12 translates to closeout game for Jared Verse vs. Saints in Week 13
Stu Jackson
NEW ORLEANS – Early in the first half, Rams outside linebacker Jared Verse was inches away from knocking the ball out of Saints quarterback Derek Carr’s grasp.
In that moment, Carr got the ball out in time for a completion. But when Carr dropped back to pass with 1:13 left in the fourth quarter, Verse got there in time on 4th-and-3 from the Rams’ 13.
Game over.
“You just gotta keep pressing,” Verse said. “You don’t gotta do anything extra, you don’t gotta get out of your position. Just keep pressing.”
Verse finished with three quarterback hits, five total tackles and one pass defensed in Los Angeles’ 21-14 win over New Orleans, the product of himself and his teammates holding Verse accountable this week after being very hard on himself for his Week 12 performance.
Against the Eagles, he had 19 pass rushes but generated just one pressure, according to Next Gen Stats. That pressure rate of 5.3% was by far his lowest of the season; he had hit at least 13.2% in every game previously and at least 20% in five of those games. In fairness to him, though, he was also going against one of the best and most experienced offensive lines in the league.
Against the Saints, Next Gen Stats charted 29 pass rushes for Verse, generating a team-high seven pressures. That translated to a pressure rate of 24.1%.
“It was just a hard week of work,” Verse said. “I had everybody hold me accountable. From B.Y. (Byron Young) to Kobie (Turner) to (Michael) Hoecht, everybody was holding me accountable on everything I did, whether it was, ‘oh, you gotta do this faster,’ whatever it was.”
Clearly, the tough love worked.
“Accountability to himself, to his teammates, to playing within the framework of what he can do to make an impact on this game,” McVay said, when asked what he noticed about the way Verse approached this past week. “I love this guy, and he is growing, he’s maturing, but I do love the coachability, I love the accountability. I think (outside linebackers coach) Joe Coniglio does a great job. I think he’s got some great veteran guys to lean on in that room, but that’s what we need, consistency. And I thought it was poetic that he was able to close out that game. I thought he played really hard. You see the way this guy pursues to the football, and I thought he played within the framework of the system and off some of the play opps that he had within the game. And usually those good things end up happening. The football gods always do it right.”
znModeratorJourdan Rodrigue @jourdanrodrigue.bsky.social
Bobby Brown III on Braden Fiske, he says: “Hard-working cat, man. I would personally think that if A-D was around and got a chance to know him, A-D would love bro. He works his ass off. True embodiment of what you would want from a rookie.”znModeratorFrom @NFLGameDay Kickoff: The #49ers have lost RBs Christian McCaffrey and Jordan Mason to Injured Reserve, likely ending their seasons. pic.twitter.com/CBfCw89BrN
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) December 3, 2024
znModeratorKING KUPP 1/1 👑👑👑 pic.twitter.com/fueZ7hkm3v
— jay__D (@ProminentKingz) December 2, 2024
znModeratorforgot about speights. wow. what a rookie class.
More Omar Speights please pic.twitter.com/ah1CbEds3G
— Sosa Kremenjas (@QBsMVP) December 3, 2024
znModeratorSarah Barshop@sarahbarshop
From Next Gen Stats: Jared Verse generated a team-high 7 pressures. No other Rams defender generated more than 2 pressures in the game.Verse has now generated 58 total pressures and 4.5 sacks this season, tied for the third-most in the NFL and most of any rookie.
JAKE ELLENBOGEN@JKBOGEN
#Rams IDL Kobie Turner is leading all interior defensive lineman in stops on the season. He’s been huge in year two and I don’t think that gets talked about enough.znModeratorSosa Kremenjas@QBsMVP
Cobie Durant is by far the best-performing CB on the team this season (per @NextGenStats):– 274 yards allowed all season
– 26 receptions on 45 targets
– 73.8 passer rating
– 1 TD
– 1 INTznModeratorKyren runs through a tackle==
after a gap play. then this zone, but Williams plants gets upfield, cuts u[field off the butts a few guys pic.twitter.com/NZSOLW6spd— Jim Youngblood 53 (@53_jim70721) December 2, 2024
znModeratorLos Angeles Rams PR@TheLARamsPR
According to @pfref, QB Matthew Stafford orchestrated his 47th game-winning drive vs. New Orleans. He passed Matt Ryan (46) and tied Dan Marino (47) for the fifth-most game-winning drives in NFL history.znModeratorKyren Williams rebounded and was a major catalyst in the victory against NO. He had his best YPC performance this season, showed great burst, & ability to make the first man miss
Kyren ranks 5th in league rushing yards as he closes in on his 2nd consecutive 1000 yard season pic.twitter.com/QMfLCl4KfH
— RAMS ON FILM (@RamsOnFilm) December 2, 2024
znModeratorPFF LA Rams@PFF_Rams
The highest-graded Rams in Week 13 vs the Saints:🥇 Omar Speights – 94.1
🥈 Kevin Dotson – 90.9
🥉 Jared Verse – 89.6
🏅 Puka Nacua – 83.7
🏅 Matthew Stafford – 83.4znModeratorKJ The Rams Fan@KJTheRamsFan
He’s a legend and I’ll love him forever but Cooper Kupp looks extra slow this year, I’m concerned he’s injured and trying to play through it again..and we know how that ends.Gary Klein@LATimesklein
Rams QB Matthew Stafford suffered a lateral ankle sprain against Saints but it is not expected to affect his ability to prepare for Bills, McVay said.znModeratorCorum – tremendous cutback in the hole –sees the line og blockers
play prob off tackle aiming point, bit edge set, he cuts and someone is in his face
Jackson and Allen nice job, IMO pic.twitter.com/2vRfaPNtZX
— Jim Youngblood 53 (@53_jim70721) December 2, 2024
znModeratorRams Bros.@RamsBrothers
Is it wrong to be excited about the final 5 game stretch of the season with these things in mind?
• Finally, a fully healthy offensive line
• Run-first approach, better RZ execution
• Tyler Higbee playing his first game of the year
• Emmanuel Forbes being claimed off waiversznModeratorA guest post.
…
69RamFanOffense.
OL
They played ok,
This was supposed to be the starting Lineup in the opening season,
With the exception of our rookie center in place of J. Jackson.This is the first game playing together in this combination,
They play ok, they still need continuity in the pass protection.
Giving up 2/sacks and 6/QB Hits.Did great in the run game opening up some nice holes for our RBs,
Helping the RB get 156 yds on the ground and 1/TD avg. 5.4yds/carryStafford didn’t have big numbers as for stats in this game,
But made some nice throws.
24/att, 14/cmp, for 58.3% cmp, 183yd, with 2/TD QB Rating 110.2,
Add another 4th quarter game winning drive to his numbers.RB Williams had a nice run game, 15/carries, 104yds, 6.9 avg, 1/TD
While RB Corum did a nice job backing up with, 8/carries, 42yds 5.3 avg.Puka had 5/rec, for 56yds and 1/TD, but made a nice layout catch for a first down.
D Rob just keeps on catching TDs, had 1/TD for today.The RAMs did a lot better on third down conversions.
3rd 4-9 at 44.4%
4th 1-2 at 50%Defense
Our DL was ok
0/sacks, 3/QB Hits, not a lot of pressure.But I’m going to give Verse a sack at the end of the game on 4th down,
The league should review that play and give him the sack,
he knocked the ball out of the QBs hand before his arm was moving forward.The DL didn’t play well against the run, gave up 143yds in the run game.
But the RAMs did well as a whole in the passing game, only giving up 184yds.They kept the 3rd down conversion low,
3rd 5-15 33.3%
4th 2-3 66.7%
And Red zone efficiency was 0-2 0%ST
Whittington did great on the KR game, 3/att, 100, 33.3 avg.
and got one called back from a penalty.Karty hit all 3 XP
Evans had two punts inside the 20yd line out of three attempts.Our ST defense kept KR & PR to zero yds.
Overall, it was a good game.
znModeratorKirk Cousins threw four interceptions and tossed the Atlanta #Falcons’ playoff plans into disarray. Brock Purdy couldn’t handle the snow or the Buffalo #Bills’ defense on Sunday night. Justin Herbert funneled nearly 80 percent of his passing offense through a single player.Those were all… #NFL
znModeratorGodzilla, I mean Jared Verse, right edge (our left)
dominates TE – wouldn't even beak down teh technique … just strength, hands, throws the guy pic.twitter.com/j0jEFnKyWe— Jim Youngblood 53 (@53_jim70721) December 2, 2024
znModeratorBlaine Grisak @bgrisaktst.bsky.social
Sean McVay came out of the half with some great second half adjustments.Offense was shutout in the first half and struggled against the Saints’ tight man coverage. Rams came out with some man beaters and have since been nearly flawless on offense with three touchdowns in four drives.
znModeratorLos Angeles Rams PR@TheLARamsPR
RB Kyren Williams (@Kyrenwilliams23) recorded his 25th consecutive game with 50-or-more scrimmage yards, the second-longest active streak in the NFL behind Christian McCaffrey (31 games).CB Cobie Durant (@One4_era) recorded a single-game career-high two tackles for loss today. He has now recorded four tackles for loss this season, tied for the fourth-most among cornerbacks this season.
Matt Bowen@MattBowen41
Jared Verse is playing at a Pro Bowl level.Stu Jackson @stujrams.bsky.social
Rams OLB Jared Verse is the first rookie since Micah Parsons in 2021 to have three-or-more games with at least three quarterback hits.J.B. Long@JB_Long
With today’s game-winning drive in New Orleans, Matthew Stafford (47) tied Dan Marino for fifth-most in NFL history.Tom Brady – 58
Peyton Manning – 54
Drew Brees – 53
Ben Roethlisberger – 53
Stafford / Marino – 47znModeratorRams Top Highlights vs. Saints: Kyren Williams’ 113-Yard Game, Matthew Stafford’s Best Throws + More
znModeratorHIGHLIGHTS: Kyren Williams’ Best Plays From 113-yard Game vs. Saints In Week 13 Win
znModeratorMatthew to DeMarcus! TOUCHDOWN!
📺: @NFLonFOX pic.twitter.com/AoohI3bVU7
— Los Angeles Rams (@RamsNFL) December 1, 2024
znModerator🗣️ PUUUUKKKKKKAAAAA
📺: @NFLonFOX pic.twitter.com/obFaIDLwaC
— Los Angeles Rams (@RamsNFL) December 1, 2024
znModeratorKyren Williams reads block to perfection on slippery 17-yard pickup
znModeratorSarah Barshop@sarahbarshop
From ESPN Research: Today ends a streak of 129 straight regular season games in which the Rams had a point in the first half, which had been the longest streak in NFL history.Now, the longest active streak belongs to the Ravens at 124 straight, including today.
Jourdan Rodrigue@JourdanRodrigue
That’s two sneaks in three weeks for Matthew Stafford, who teammates said previously they couldn’t remember the last time he had one in a game.J.B. Long@JB_Long
Final thoughts from Rams 21-14 win:
*Limit Kamara to 4.4 yds/touch
*Stafford 2H: 10/14 160yds 2 TD
*Kyren responds: 6.9 ypc, 104 yds, TD
*Havenstein + OL 👏
*Improve to 3-0 when turnover-free
*1st regular season win in NO since ’07
*McVay’s 76th reg season W, most in Rams historyStu Jackson@StuJRams
Cooper Kupp’s third reception today gives him 625 for his career, moving him past Keenan Allen (624) for most receptions in a player’s first 100 games in NFL historyLos Angeles Rams PR@TheLARamsPR
RB Kyren Williams (Kyrenwilliams23) recorded his eighth game this season with at least one rushing touchdown, tied for the third-most in the NFL. He trails Derrick Henry (10 games) and David Montgomery (nine games).znModeratorA big return for @J_Whitt3!
📺: @NFLonFOX pic.twitter.com/AIEMCLHgai
— Los Angeles Rams (@RamsNFL) December 1, 2024
znModeratorbam! pic.twitter.com/QaLKYsZ1Zu
— roberto clemente (@rclemente2121) December 1, 2024
znModeratorRams Bros.@RamsBrothers
Jared Verse today: 6 pressures, 1 forced fumble. Leads all rookies with 11 TFL so far this season.DROY campaign is still progressing in the right direction
Jourdan Rodrigue@JourdanRodrigue
Sloppy game for the Rams offense for many, many reasons – but Kyren Williams has really brought it. Running so hard when he does get the opportunity.Los Angeles Rams PR@TheLARamsPR
WR Puka Nacua (@AsapPuka) surpassed 2,000 career receiving yards in his 24th career game today. He tied Justin Jefferson and Ja’Marr Chase as the second-fastest players to reach 2000 receiving yards since the 1970 merger. Odell Beckham Jr accomplished the feat in 21 games. -
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