Case Keenum will start against Bengals if he clears concussion protocol
By Nick Wagoner

http://espn.go.com/blog/st-louis-rams/post/_/id/24081/case-keenum-making-progress-will-start-if-he-clears-concussion-protocol

EARTH CITY, Mo. — St. Louis Rams quarterback Case Keenum did not participate in the team’s light practice Tuesday afternoon because of the concussion he suffered last week against the Baltimore Ravens.

But coach Jeff Fisher offered hope that Keenum could be ready to participate in some capacity as soon as Wednesday.

“Yeah, he was in the building … looked at a lot of tape,” Fisher said. “[He] has not been cleared for any activity for [Tuesday], but we’re hopeful that [Wednesday] he’ll be ready to do some things outside. So, he’s feeling pretty good actually.”

Keenum, of course, made his first start for the Rams on Sunday and finished the game despite getting a concussion when he hit his head on the ground on the team’s final possession. The play left more questions than answers about how the Rams and the league handled it after Keenum stayed in the game following the injury.

The NFL, which is investigating the series of events that led to Keenum staying in the game, held a conference call with doctors and trainers from all 32 teams Tuesday night to discuss possible ways to improve the system of in-game concussion evaluations.

“It’s an important issue,” Fisher said. “I mean, it’s really a serious issue and the league’s taking it very serious and you can understand why. So, the league’s gathering information and we’re looking at the system under which we operate right now to see if there’s anything we can do to where we avoid that kind of situation that happened to Case. So, there will be a conference call and the league’s going to gather the information and they’ll adjust the features ever so slightly, I guess, on game day.”

Asked if he had any suggestions for changes he’d like to see made to the system, Fisher declined.

“As far as recommendations and suggestions as to how something like this doesn’t happen again, I can’t go there because there’s too many entities right now,” Fisher said. “They’re discussing their opinions of exactly what happened.”

In the meantime, Keenum continues to go through the normal concussion protocol. Fisher reiterated that Keenum would start against Cincinnati this week so long as he passes the proper tests, something Keenum is apparently on track to do.

“No setbacks,” Fisher said. “No, he was fine. He just hasn’t been cleared for any physical activity. He’s in the protocol and that’s typically the way things work on Tuesdays. So, he’ll go through some more testing and then we’re hopeful that he’ll be released for activity tomorrow.”

wv wrote:

Slight chance of a win, but only if Quinn
is a hundred percent. They would have
to win it on Defense, and without Quinn
the D aint scary enough.

I’m assuming Quinn is not going to be
a hundred percent the rest of the year,
so, thus, consequently:

Rams 5
Bengals 20

w
v

Did you watch the last game? Just curious.

Oh and btw, you’re right, cranberry/walnut bread toast is great.

.

wv wrote:

…as I recall there were zero OLine injuries
in 99.

Nutten was out a couple of games. Which is of course negligible.

BTW how many people know that everyone routinely misspells “Nutten”?

He kept it germanized, with the umlaut. It’s actually “Nütten.”

Also, btw, in 99 Nutten was a 5 year vet who had played in Canada and Amsterdam before the Rams signed him.

.

Rams trying ‘different things’ to get Todd Gurley back on track

Nick Wagoner

http://espn.go.com/blog/st-louis-rams/post/_/id/24046/rams-trying-different-things-to-get-todd-gurley-back-on-track

EARTH CITY, Mo. — After the most prolific four-start beginning to a career by a running back in NFL history, the St. Louis Rams’ Todd Gurley was bound to have at least a minor drop-off in production.

Logic dictated that Gurley would see more defenses keyed on stopping him and daring the Rams’ anemic passing attack to beat them. And sure enough, Gurley’s output over the past three games has paled in comparison to his first four starts.

Which has put the onus on Rams coach Jeff Fisher and his staff to find a way to get Gurley and, by extension, the Rams offense, going.

“We have to run the football better,” Fisher said. “We’re working on that right now, as we speak. We have to do some different things in the run game. Todd’s longest carry [Sunday] was 7 yards and the longest last week was 9, so we have to do a better job up front.”

In Gurley’s first four starts, he had three touchdowns on 88 carries for 566 yards, an average of 6.43 yards per attempt. In the past three weeks, he has the same number of touchdowns on 61 carries for 200 yards, an average of just 3.28 yards per attempt.

When Fisher referred to doing a better job up front, he also mentioned the outbreak of injuries that have made Gurley’s job more difficult. The offensive line has been plagued with injuries, losing starting guards Rodger Saffold and Jamon Brown for the season. Right tackle Rob Havenstein is dealing with a calf issue and has missed two of the past three games. And rookie tackles Andrew Donnal and Darrell Williams have missed chunks of time.

Todd Gurley
In Todd Gurley’s first four starts he averaged 6.43 yards per carry. In the past three weeks he has averaged 3.28 yards per carry.
Even before all of those issues, the line wasn’t consistently creating big holes for Gurley to run through. In Gurley’s first four starts he had 15 runs of 10 yards or more and seven carries of 20-plus yards. In the past three games, Gurley has three runs of 10 yards or more and none of 20 or more.

When it comes to yards before contact, a good measure of how much space a line is creating in the run game, Gurley was getting 3.98 yards per carry in his first four starts. Since, he’s averaging 1.8 yards before contact.

By Gurley’s own admission, the line dancing in front of him has made things more difficult, a difference he sees when he watches the film.

“ still running hard, but like I said, it’s kind of a tough adjustment,” Gurley said. “You’ve got four guys down. So, that’s always going to be a tough adjustment, new guys coming in. At the end of the day, we’ve still got to play hard and execute and make the calls and do everything else up front.”

Like a quarterback adjusting to new receivers, Gurley says there’s a period of adjustment where a running back has to get used to the players blocking for him.

“Yeah, definitely, one lineman might react a lot different or his reaction time might not be as quick or as fast as the one before,” Gurley said. “But like I said, everybody’s been doing a great job preparing and putting in the work throughout the week. We’ve just got to come to the game with that.”

Against Baltimore last week, Gurley had his worst outing since becoming a starter, rushing for 66 yards on 25 carries, an average of 2.64 yards per attempt. He also coughed up a fumble, though that came on a run like many others where he was hit almost as soon as he received the ball. With defenders on him so fast, Gurley’s yards after contact has also dropped from 2.45 per rush in his first four starts to 1.48 over the past three.

For what it’s worth, Gurley said Tuesday that his surgically repaired knee hasn’t given him any problems, and that while he generally feels the aches and pains on Sunday, he begins feeling better by Monday. Eight games into his career, Gurley’s dip in production doesn’t seem to be a function of a rookie wall so much as a lack of help.

“Todd is a good runner,” Fisher said. “This is not Todd’s issue right now. This is an offensive issue.”

There’s little doubt the Rams have an offensive issue — it’s one that’s existed for most of the year — but there also doesn’t seem to be any magic pill to fix that problem.

“Coaches have been doing a great job all year, but they implemented some new runs and we’ll try them out this week and see how they go,” Gurley said.

It remains to be seen what fixes to the run game the Rams are making (they’re not offering details at the moment), but there’s little doubt they have to do something, anything to get their best offensive player back on track.

Bump, trying to get more.

Reynolds: “Case said, I need a minute, and then he was all right.”

Jim Thomas

http://www.stltoday.com/sports/football/professional/reynolds-case-said-i-need-a-minute-and-then-he/article_d223a982-39de-59d9-8b3d-776b2bfd74ca.html

Rams offensive lineman Garrett Reynolds makes it a point to help teammates during times of need. Sometimes it’s helping up a running back who went down in a pile.

Or aiding a wide receiver who got roughed up on a route downfield (as was the case with Bradley Marquez against Baltimore).

Or a quarterback who just got concussed. Reynolds, a seventh-year pro in his first season with the Rams, was first on the scene when quarterback Case Keenum went down late in the fourth quarter of Sunday’s 16-13 loss to the Ravens.

“He put his hand out,” Reynolds said. “And just like any other time, any time your buddy puts his hand out, you try to (help). I thought he was just gonna hop up.”

But as Reynolds started to pull up Keenum from the turf at M&T Bank Stadium, the quarterback stayed down.

“I knew something was a little off,” Reynolds said. “He said, ‘I need a minute,’ and then he was all right.

“Once he got back in the huddle, he called the play crisp as ever, just like always. He just seemed to be regular old Case.”

Reynolds said it’s commonplace over the course of the game and a season for players to take a shot in some fashion and need a second to regroup, be it taking a shot to the leg, or the shoulder, getting the wind knocked out, or as in the case of Keenum having your head hit the turf.

“We’re so used to saying: ‘You good? Oh yeah. Let’s go,’” Reynolds said.

If Keenum had been struggling making the plays calls, or otherwise showed signs of distress in the huddle, Reynolds said, “We would’ve sent him out. If you’re that messed up, somebody knows. But there’s been times in football, like with Case where you might need a second (to regroup).

“Sometimes you get hit and it hurts. That’s on any part of your body. You say, ‘hey give me a second’ and you’re all right.”

Earlier in the game, Reynolds came to the rescue when Marquez took a late hit from Baltimore linebacker C.J. Mosley, but was penalized for unnecessary roughness for shoving Mosley off of Marquez.

“It’s football,” Reynolds said. “Stuff like that’s gonna happen. But I’ve gotta be smarter than that for the team. You see a buddy and you want to take care of him.”

Mosley also was flagged for roughness, and earlier on the same play, wide receiver Kenny Britt was flagged for an illegal block above the waist. So because of offsetting penalties, a 31-yard gain by Marquez to the Baltimore 18 was nullified, effectively killing a potential Rams scoring drive.

But back to Keenum. Reynolds’ thoughts aside, the slow-motion television replays of Keenum’s head hitting the turf, Keenum holding his head from behind his helmet, and then being slow to initially get up, set off a firestorm of sorts in NFL circles.

Rams coach Jeff Fisher said Monday he was unaware of the concussion until after Sunday’s game and even after Fisher met with the media postgame. Some observers found that hard to believe.

On Tuesday, Keenum was held out of practice as he works his way through the league-mandated concussion protocol of tests and examinations. Nick Foles got the work with the starting offense.

“Case was in the building,” Fisher said. “He met, looked at a lot of tape. Has not been cleared for any activity (Tuesday), but we’re hopeful (Wednesday) that he’ll be ready to do some things outside. He’s feeling pretty good actually.”

Fisher said Keenum has not experienced any setbacks.

“He’s fine,” Fisher said. “He just hasn’t been cleared for physical activity. He’s in the protocol, and that’s typically the way things work on Tuesday.”

In other words, no practice.

“So he’ll go through some more testing (Wednesday) and we’re hopeful that he’ll be released for activity tomorrow,” Fisher said.

Since Keenum did not practice Tuesday, per Rams policy he was not made available to the media. Fisher re-iterated that if Keenum does not pass the concussion protocol, Foles would start Sunday in Cincinnati. And if that’s the case, as expected, Fisher said rookie Sean Mannion would be elevated to the No. 2 spot.

Because of the Keenum situation, a league-organized conference call took place early Tuesday evening to review concussion protocol with team doctors and head athletic trainers of all 32 teams.

The call was led by Dr. Hunt Batjer, co-chair of the NFL head, neck and spine committee, as well as NFL chief medical advisor Dr. Betsy Nabel, and Dr. Thom Mayer of the NFL Players Association. Also taking part was Dr. Robert Heyer, president of the NFL Physicians Society.

“It’s an important issue,” said Fisher, now knee-deep in preparation for the Bengals. “It’s really a serious issue and the league’s taking it very seriously, and you can understand why.

“The league’s gathering information, we’re looking at the system under which we’re operating right now to see if there’s anything we can do to where we avoid that kind of situation that happened to Case.”

The solution seems simple: give the independent press box spotter more authority to stop the game for a medical timeout. And instruct the spotter to always err on the side of caution.

When asked if there were any suggestions he had to adjust game day concussion protocol, Fisher said, “I can’t go there. There’s too many entities right now that are discussing their opinions and exactly what happened.”

Agamemnon wrote:

Jim Thomas ‏@jthom1 ·
Team source confirms that Bailey has been shot. Team thinks he’s OK, but again, team is still collecting info.

=====

Rams receiver Stedman Bailey was shot in the head Tuesday, FS1 NFL Insider Mike Garafolo confirmed through a team source. Garafolo reported the team would have an official statement on the incident later in the evening.
Garafolo also reported that Bailey is conscious, though he will need extensive surgery.While much of the details surrounding the shooting and Bailey’s injury remain unknown, multiple reports indicated Bailey was shot in South Florida (he is from Miami), and that he was also shot in the hip.

The Houston Chronicle’s Aaron Wilson reported that the surgery is scheduled for Wednesday.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/nfl/rams-receiver-bailey-shot-in-head/ar-BBnpBtm?li=BBnbfcL&ocid=UP97DHP

Source: Stedman Bailey has been shot

Mike Florio

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2015/11/25/source-stedman-bailey-has-been-shot/

Rams receiver Stedman Bailey was shot Tuesday evening in Miami. A league source with knowledge of the situation has confirmed to PFT that rampant rumors of the incident are indeed true.

Per the source, a statement from the Rams is expected within the next hour or so. The source was unable to confirm at this point any specific details regarding Bailey’s condition.

Bailey played college football at West Virginia. He was a third-round pick of the Rams in 2013.

UPDATE 12:28 a.m. ET: Mike Silver of NFL.com reports that Bailey suffered a head wound that is not considered to be life threatening. Per Silver, Bailey is scheduled to undergo surgery in the morning.

PA Ram wrote:

I just find it very hard to believe that Fisher was so unaware of Keenum’s concussion–but who knows.

(not personal but) I find it hard to believe people actually think that.

What is there to gain from ignoring a concussion to the qb in the final minute of a game?

This particular accusation has me baffled. Think about what that is saying. I wouldn’t accuse a coach I personally hated with all my heart of that.

This is one of the strangest periods of recent Rams history.

http://itiswhatitis.weei.com/sports/newengland/football/patriots/2015/11/12/stopwatch-tom-brady-ultra-quick-release-offsets-depleted-offensive-line-in-win-over-redskins/

By our count, Brady took an average of 1.86 seconds from snap-to-throw on his 40 pass attempts, which was his second-lowest mark of the season and lowest since Week 1 against the Steelers when he took an average of 1.85 seconds.

It’s worth noting this number could have been even lower if it weren’t for a completion to Brandon LaFell in the first half that took 4.13 seconds from snap-to-release.

“I’d say we learned a lot last week in the second half of the game about kind of where we’re at as an offense and things we’re going to need to continue to improve on,” Brady said Wednesday. “And like I said, you don’t plan for certain scenarios and all of a sudden they happen. You’ve got to figure out what to do when you’re under fire, and that’s part of the challenging thing about football. I’m glad we came out of it ahead.”

Of Brady’s 40 pass attempts, 24 of them (60 percent) took less than two seconds from snap-to-throw. On those plays, Brady was 17-for-24. Furthermore, on 12 plays Brady took less than 1.5 seconds from snap-to-throw — an insane number.

A major reason for this was the increased number of quick screens to receivers. This could have been because of two reasons: the loss of running back Dion Lewis and the depleted offensive line.

With the offensive line still battling injuries heading into Sunday’s matchup against the Giants, Brady’s quick release will likely be key to the offensive once again.

—

http://suffolkvoice.net/2015/11/19/new-england-dealing-with-injuries/

The common reaction from the Patriots fan, when asked about the state of the offensive line is, “Well Brady gets rid of the ball so quickly, it won’t effect them.”

…

Of late that has changed.

Of course they are scoring quite often, it just is not coming as easily and it is a direct result of the injuries. Against the Redskins the offense was rolling until both Dion Lewis and Sebastian Vollmer went down. After that the playbook was essentially thrown out and they just wanted to get out of that game in one piece.

In this past Sunday’s thrilling victory over the Giants, the Patriots offense looked awkward and desperate at times. Forcing big plays down field to Brandon LaFell and Aaron Dobson. Again a direct result of the offensive line injuries and Julian Edelman going down.

Rams lose another offensive lineman to injury

Jim Thomas

http://www.stltoday.com/sports/football/professional/rams-lose-another-offensive-lineman-to-injury/article_bebb199b-22f0-5248-a5da-29f67967560b.html

BALTIMORE • For the third time in two games, it looks like the Rams have lost a rookie offensive lineman to a season-ending injury.

Andrew Donnal, who started at right tackle in place of the injured Rob Havenstein, suffered a knee injury on a second-quarter passing play in Sunday’s 16-13 loss to Baltimore.

“We’ll know (Monday), but it’s the knee,” coach Jeff Fisher said. “I’ll just say it doesn’t look good, unfortunately for him. He was playing well.”

Donnal, a fourth-round pick from Iowa, was making his second NFL start, having started at left guard two weeks ago in Minnesota.

Last week, the Rams lost starting guard Jamon Brown (fractured leg) and backup tackle Darrell Williams (wrist) for the season, with both injuries occurring chasing Chicago linebacker Willie Young on an interception return.

Yet another rookie, sixth-round pick Cody Wichmann of Fresno State, made his first NFL start Sunday — at right guard.

When Donnal went out, the Rams switched starting left guard Garrett Reynolds to right tackle, moved Wichmann to left guard and brought Demetrius Rhaney off the bench to play right guard.

“It made it a little more difficult for us, just because we were throwing guys in there — guys that hadn’t practiced that position all week,” center Tim Barnes said. “We just had to do the best we could.

“We know that’s why the guys are on the team — because they can do it. It just made it a little more adverse for us. We just gotta make sure we finish.”

MASON BENCHED

Running back Tre Mason, the team’s leading rusher as a rookie last season, was benched for Sunday’s contest. Mason was a surprise member on the team’s pregame inactive list.

“He violated team rules (Saturday),” Fisher confirmed in his postgame news conference.

He did not elaborate. After leading the Rams in rushing with 765 yards as a rookie last season, Mason has become nearly a forgotten man this season. He had a chance to establish a foothold in the backfield early in the season, before rookie Todd Gurley was fully recovered from last season’s knee surgery while at the University of Georgia.

But Mason was slowed by a preseason hamstring injury, missed the opener entirely because of that injury, and hasn’t been a factor so far this season. He has 44 carries for 129 yards, averaging 2.9 yards a carry, getting much of that work in mop-up time against Chicago and San Francisco.

Minus Mason, the Rams went with just three running backs against the Ravens: Gurley, third-down specialist Benny Cunningham, and special teams core player Chase Reynolds.

QUINN SITS

For the second time in three games, the Rams were without two-time Pro Bowler Robert Quinn at defensive end. Quinn was ruled out on Saturday because of a hip injury, and thus was among the Rams’ pregame inactives for Baltimore.

“He’s dealing with a hip and a knee,” Fisher said. “The knee is OK. I think the knee’s good enough for him to play, but he’s dealing with some other things now.”

Eugene Sims started once again in Quinn’s place, and undrafted rookie Matt Longacre of Northwest Missouri State provided depth, playing in his second NFL game.

Other Rams inactives were QB Sean Mannion, S Christian Bryant, TE Justice Cunningham (finger), OT Isaiah Battle, and Havenstein (calf). There were unconfirmed reports that Battle also was benched for disciplinary reasons, but he may have been a pregame inactive anyway.

LONG PLAYS

After missing four games with a bone fracture following a knee-to-knee collision in Green Bay, defensive end Chris Long returned to action. William Hayes got the start at left defensive end, but Long was part of the defensive line rotation.

Long was frustrated with the loss and frustrated with his play.

“I just wish I could’ve helped us more,” Long said. “I felt OK, I just played like a (bleep). I can’t wait to hopefully play up to my standards, and next week help us win more.”

RAM-BLINGS

With Sunday’s loss, the Rams are 14-23-1 under Fisher in non-division games. They are 10-10-1 against NFC West foes.

• All 10 Baltimore games this season have been decided by eight points or less, the longest such streak to begin a season in NFL history.

• Gurley didn’t have his best game, but with 775 yards in just eight contests, he has the fourth-most rushing yards by a Rams rookie in franchise history.

• To combat Baltimore punter Sam Koch’s directional skills, the Rams deployed both Tavon Austin and Wes Welker as returners on most punts.

Another bitter Rams loss puts season on brink

Jim Thomas

http://www.stltoday.com/sports/football/professional/another-bitter-rams-loss-puts-season-on-brink/article_76afdc46-65fa-58e6-ae60-5822f501bf60.html

BALTIMORE • In a rapidly crumbling season, the Rams couldn’t move the football with any consistency, couldn’t hold on to the football and couldn’t hold a late 10-point lead.

The result was another numbing defeat, a 16-13 loss to a 2-7 Baltimore team on a game-ending 47-yard field goal by Justin Tucker.

For the second time in three games, the Rams have lost on a last-play field goal. Sandwiched between a 21-18 overtime loss to Minnesota two weeks ago and Sunday’s bitter setback was that 37-13 humiliation to Chicago.

So what was once a promising 4-3 season now sits at 4-6, casting doubt on the ability of coach Jeff Fisher, general manager Les Snead and executive vice president Kevin Demoff to get an organization that hasn’t had a winning season since 2003 over the hump.

Under normal circumstances, Sunday’s loss at M&T Bank Stadium is the kind of defeat that helps get coaches and GMs fired. But with Rams owner Stan Kroenke preoccupied with trying to move the team to Los Angeles, these are far from normal circumstances.

The organizational signals at the outset of the season were that only a disastrous 2015 campaign would lead to a coaching and/or GM change. After squandering a 10-point fourth-quarter lead Sunday, and with a road game next week against a formidable Cincinnati squad, this may rapidly become a matter of semantics. Namely, what constitutes a disaster?

“Well, that one was a hard one,” Fisher said after the Rams lost for the sixth time in seven games this season against a non-NFC West foe. “Probably one of the hardest I’ve been around since I’ve been here. It’s difficult when you lose that way, in a game that we somewhat controlled or dictated. Gave up the lead.

“But nonetheless, it’s hard to overcome four (turnovers) against a Super Bowl-winning quarterback.”

The Rams lost four fumbles on a chilly, windy afternoon at M&T Bank Stadium — leading to 13 Baltimore points.

The last fumble, on a sack of quarterback Case Keenum, gave the Ravens the opening they needed to pull out the victory. On third-and-5 from the St. Louis 36, Baltimore linebacker Courtney Upshaw got around Rams left tackle Greg Robinson, knocking the ball loose from Keenum.

Ravens defensive end Lawrence Guy recovered at the St. Louis 41 in a 13-13 game with 54 seconds left to play. The Ravens were out of timeouts but didn’t need any. After an incomplete pass, two runs by Javorius Allen produced 12 yards and a first down.

Quarterback Joe Flacco, the one-time Super Bowl MVP, finished out the game despite what was a season-ending knee injury. He spiked the ball with two seconds left and out came Tucker to kick the game-winner.

He had missed a 51-yarder with 1:13 to play, wide right. Rams counterpart Greg Zuerlein had missed a 52-yarder just 28 seconds earlier, wide right.

“I don’t think I hit it as well as I could have,” Zuerlein said. “I could feel my foot scrape the ground a little bit before I hit it. And then I should’ve picked a better target, really; little bit more inside (to adjust for the wind).”

Keenum apparently suffered a concussion two plays before his sack fumble, on a play where he was sacked by defensive tackle Timmy Jernigan. That sack didn’t count because of an offside penalty on Ravens linebacker Elvis Dumervil, but Keenum was clearly shaken up on the play — the second-to-last Rams offensive play of the game.

Fisher didn’t mention the concussion during his postgame news conference and sounded as if he were unaware of the injury.

Because when asked what else could be done to address the Rams’ offensive struggles, Fisher replied: “I’m gonna give Case a good week of practice. I expect him to do better than he did today. You can see he’s mobile, he can move around, he can do things.”

It was more than 25 minutes after the game that Rams officials said Keenum would not be available to reporters because he had been diagnosed with a concussion. The league had no comment Sunday night, but it’s standard policy for the league to look into all procedures when a player suffers an apparent concussion.

Keenum struggled for most of the day, completing 12 of 26 passes for 136 yards on a day when the Rams lost another offensive line starter — rookie right tackle Andrew Donnal — to what looks like a season-ending knee injury. More often than not, Keenum was under pressure as the Rams’ patchwork and inexperienced line struggled to protect him.

The Rams managed only 213 yards against the league’s 20th-rated defense. Running back Todd Gurley scored a touchdown for the fifth consecutive game but was held to 66 yards rushing on 25 carries. In addition, he lost one fumble and was part of another on a botched exchange with Keenum.

“At the end of the day, we put the ball on the ground four times,” Gurley said. “That’s never a good sign.”

(The other Rams fumble came on a muffed punt by Tavon Austin late in the second quarter — a turnover that set up the first of three Tucker field goals.)

“The fumble wasn’t Todd’s fault,” Fisher said. “That was defensive penetration; that was a problem up front. He hadn’t got his hand on the ball. It’s penetration that created the exchange problem, too, inside (on the botched exchange).”

Keenum tripped and lost his balance on the botched handoff.

“That’s what I said — it’s penetration,” Fisher said. “The (Baltimore) defensive line got penetration and pushed our guys back, and that’s where he tripped.”

Keenum’s 30-yard touchdown pass to wide-open tight end Lance Kendricks with 6:14 to go in the third quarter seemingly put the Rams in control. Even when Zuerlein’s extra point was blocked, the Rams led 13-3. The Baltimore offense, which lost running back Justin Forsett to a broken arm in the first quarter, was having trouble stringing together first downs.

But the Ravens started nibbling at that lead. A Gurley fumble on the second play of the fourth quarter resulted in Baltimore’s only TD of the day. Two Tucker field goals followed, and that 13-3 lead became a 16-13 defeat.

“It stings. It hurts,” safety T.J. McDonald said. “You never want to lose in this type of fashion. The fact that we did, it sucks.”

“It just really hurts the way we gave it up in the fourth quarter like that defensively,” linebacker James Laurinaitis said.

In seven seasons with the Rams, Laurinaitis has played for teams that are 34-71-1. So he’s endured plenty of losses, but this one may have stung the worst.

“Just the way it happened, and the fact that the whole game you feel like they can’t move the ball on you a lot,” Laurinaitis said. “And then the fourth quarter. … Yeah, this one hurts like none I can remember.”