"I'm pulling for you guys, big time."

Stafford catching up with his old @Lions teammates is special 💙 pic.twitter.com/MJRIG3txW5

— NFL Films (@NFLFilms) October 26, 2021

Tomlin on USC rumors "I don't have time for that speculation. That's a joke to me. I've of one of the best job in all of professional sport. Why would I have any interest in coaching college football? Never say never.But never. There's not a booster with a big enough blank check"

— Brooke Pryor (@bepryor) October 26, 2021

Ramsey himself said he should have stopped his blitz to try and cover Swift when he saw Swift leak out. Still, not certain I would say he was “in coverage” in that situation https://t.co/1BftEsDHR0

— 𝕋𝕠𝕞 – 𝕃𝔸 ℝ𝕒𝕞𝕤 (@TL_LARams) October 26, 2021

EXCLUSIVE: Jan. 6 Protest Organizers Say They Participated in ‘Dozens’ of Planning Meetings With Members of Congress and White House Staff
Two sources are communicating with House investigators and detailed a stunning series of allegations to Rolling Stone, including a promise of a “blanket pardon” from the Oval Office

* https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/exclusive-jan-6-organizers-met-congress-white-house-1245289/

As the House investigation into the Jan. 6 attack heats up, some of the planners of the pro-Trump rallies that took place in Washington, D.C., have begun communicating with congressional investigators and sharing new information about what happened when the former president’s supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol. Two of these people have spoken to Rolling Stone extensively in recent weeks and detailed explosive allegations that multiple members of Congress were intimately involved in planning both Trump’s efforts to overturn his election loss and the Jan. 6 events that turned violent.

Rolling Stone separately confirmed a third person involved in the main Jan. 6 rally in D.C. has communicated with the committee. This is the first report that the committee is hearing major new allegations from potential cooperating witnesses. While there have been prior indications that members of Congress were involved, this is also the first account detailing their purported role and its scope. The two sources also claim they interacted with members of Trump’s team, including former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, who they describe as having had an opportunity to prevent the violence.

The two sources, both of whom have been granted anonymity due to the ongoing investigation, describe participating in “dozens” of planning briefings ahead of that day when Trump supporters broke into the Capitol as his election loss to President Joe Biden was being certified.

“I remember Marjorie Taylor Greene specifically,” the organizer says. “I remember talking to probably close to a dozen other members at one point or another or their staffs.”

For the sake of clarity, we will refer to one of the sources as a rally organizer and the other as a planner. Rolling Stone has confirmed that both sources were involved in organizing the main event aimed at objecting to the electoral certification, which took place at the White House Ellipse on Jan. 6. Trump spoke at that rally and encouraged his supporters to march to the Capitol. Some members of the audience at the Ellipse began walking the mile and a half to the Capitol as Trump gave his speech. The barricades were stormed minutes before the former president concluded his remarks.

These two sources also helped plan a series of demonstrations that took place in multiple states around the country in the weeks between the election and the storming of the Capitol. According to these sources, multiple people associated with the March for Trump and Stop the Steal events that took place during this period communicated with members of Congress throughout this process.

Along with Greene, the conspiratorial pro-Trump Republican from Georgia who took office earlier this year, the pair both say the members who participated in these conversations or had top staffers join in included Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.), Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.), Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-N.C.), Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), and Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas).

“We would talk to Boebert’s team, Cawthorn’s team, Gosar’s team like back to back to back to back,” says the organizer.

And Gosar, who has been one of the most prominent defenders of the Jan. 6 rioters, allegedly took things a step further. Both sources say he dangled the possibility of a “blanket pardon” in an unrelated ongoing investigation to encourage them to plan the protests.

“Our impression was that it was a done deal,” the organizer says, “that he’d spoken to the president about it in the Oval … in a meeting about pardons and that our names came up. They were working on submitting the paperwork and getting members of the House Freedom Caucus to sign on as a show of support.”

The organizer claims the pair received “several assurances” about the “blanket pardon” from Gosar.

“I was just going over the list of pardons and we just wanted to tell you guys how much we appreciate all the hard work you’ve been doing,” Gosar said, according to the organizer.

The rally planner describes the pardon as being offered while “encouraging” the staging of protests against the election. While the organizer says they did not get involved in planning the rallies solely due to the pardon, they were upset that it ultimately did not materialize.

“I would have done it either way with or without the pardon,” the organizer says. “I do truly believe in this country, but to use something like that and put that out on the table when someone is so desperate, it’s really not good business.”

Gosar’s office did not respond to requests for comment on this story. Rolling Stone has separately obtained documentary evidence that both sources were in contact with Gosar and Boebert on Jan. 6. We are not describing the nature of that evidence to preserve their anonymity. The House select committee investigating the attack also has interest in Gosar’s office. Gosar’s chief of staff, Thomas Van Flein, was among the people who were named in the committee’s “sweeping” requests to executive-branch agencies seeking documents and communications from within the Trump administration. Both sources claim Van Flein was personally involved in the conversations about the “blanket pardon” and other discussions about pro-Trump efforts to dispute the election. Van Flein did not respond to a request for comment.

These specific members of Congress were involved in the pro-Trump activism around the election and the electoral certification on Jan. 6. Both Brooks and Cawthorn spoke with Trump at the Ellipse on Jan. 6. In his speech at that event, Brooks, who was reportedly wearing body armor, declared, “Today is the day American patriots start taking down names and kicking ass.” Gosar, Greene, and Boebert were all billed as speakers at the “Wild Protest,” which also took place on Jan. 6 at the Capitol.

Nick Dyer, who is Greene’s communications director, said she was solely involved in planning to object to the electoral certification on the House floor. Spokespeople for the other members of Congress, who the sources describe as involved in the planning for protests, did not respond to requests for comment.

“Congresswoman Greene and her staff were focused on the Congressional election objection on the House floor and had nothing to do with planning of any protest,” Dyer wrote in an email to Rolling Stone.

Dyer further compared Greene’s efforts to dispute certification of Biden’s victory with similar objections certain Democrats lodged against Trump’s first election.

“She objected just like Democrats who have objected to Republican presidential victories over the years,” wrote Dyer. “Just like in 2017, when Jim McGovern, Jamie Raskin, Pramila Jayapal, Barbara Lee, Sheila Jackson Lee, Raul Grijalva, and Maxine Waters tried to prevent President Trump’s election win from being certified.”

Dyer also suggested the public is far more concerned with issues occurring under President Joe Biden than they are with what happened in January.

“No one cares about Jan. 6 when gas prices are skyrocketing, grocery store shelves are empty, unemployment is skyrocketing, businesses are going bankrupt, our border is being invaded, children are forced to wear masks, vaccine mandates are getting workers fired, and 13 members of our military are murdered by the Taliban and Americans are left stranded in Afghanistan,” Dyer wrote.

In another indication members of Congress may have been involved in planning the protests against the election, Ali Alexander, who helped organize the “Wild Protest,” declared in a since-deleted livestream broadcast that Gosar, Brooks, and Biggs helped him formulate the strategy for that event.

“I was the person who came up with the Jan. 6 idea with Congressman Gosar, Congressman Mo Brooks, and Congressman Andy Biggs,” Alexander said at the time. “We four schemed up on putting maximum pressure on Congress while they were voting so that — who we couldn’t lobby — we could change the hearts and the minds of Republicans who were in that body hearing our loud roar from outside.”

Alexander led Stop the Steal, which was one of the main groups promoting efforts to dispute Trump’s loss. In December, he organized a Stop the Steal event in Phoenix, where Gosar was one the main speakers. At that demonstration, Alexander referred to Gosar as “my captain” and declared “one of the other heroes has been Congressman Andy Biggs.”

Alexander did not respond to requests for comment. The rally planner, who accused Alexander of ratcheting up the potential for violence that day while taking advantage of funds from donors and others who helped finance the events, confirmed that he was in contact with those three members of Congress.

“He just couldn’t help himself but go on his live and just talk about everything that he did and who he talked to,” the planner says of Alexander. “So, he, like, really told on himself.”

While it was already clear members of Congress played some role in the Jan. 6 events and similar rallies that occurred in the lead-up to that day, the two sources say they can provide new details about the members’ specific roles in these efforts. The sources plan to share that information with congressional investigators right away. While both sources say their communications with the House’s Jan. 6 committee thus far have been informal, they are expecting to testify publicly.

“I have no problem openly testifying,” the planner says.

A representative for the committee declined to comment. In the past month, the committee has issued subpoenas to top Trump allies, government agencies, and activists who were involved in the planning of events and rallies that took place on that day and in the prior weeks. Multiple sources familiar with the committee’s investigation have confirmed to Rolling Stone that, thus far, it seems to be heavily focused on the financing for the Ellipse rally and similar previous events.

Both of the sources made clear that they still believe in Trump’s agenda. They also have questions about how his election loss occurred. The two sources say they do not necessarily believe there were issues with the actual vote count. However, they are concerned that Democrats gained an unfair advantage in the race due to perceived social media censorship of Trump allies and the voting rules that were implemented as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

“Democrats used tactics to disrupt their political opposition in ways that frankly were completely unacceptable,” the organizer says.

Despite their remaining affinity for Trump and their questions about the vote, both sources say they were motivated to come forward because of their concerns about how the pro-Trump protests against the election ultimately resulted in the violent attack on the Capitol. Of course, with their other legal issues and the House investigation, both of these sources have clear motivation to cooperate with investigators and turn on their former allies. And both of their accounts paint them in a decidedly favorable light compared with their former allies.

“The reason I’m talking to the committee and the reason it’s so important is that — despite Republicans refusing to participate … this commission’s all we got as far as being able to uncover the truth about what happened at the Capitol that day,” the organizer says. “It’s clear that a lot of bad actors set out to cause chaos. … They made us all look like shit.”

And Trump, they admit, was one of those bad actors. A representative for Trump did not respond to a request for comment.

“The breaking point for me [on Jan. 6 was when] Trump starts talking about walking to the Capitol,” the organizer says. “I was like. ‘Let’s get the fuck out of here.’ ”

“I do kind of feel abandoned by Trump,” says the planner. “I’m actually pretty pissed about it and I’m pissed at him.”

The organizer offers an even more succinct assessment when asked what they would say to Trump.

“What the fuck?” the organizer says.

The two potential witnesses plan to present to the committee allegations about how these demonstrations were funded and to detail communications between organizers and the White House. According to both sources, members of Trump’s administration and former members of his campaign team were involved in the planning. Both describe Katrina Pierson, who worked for Trump’s campaign in 2016 and 2020, as a key liaison between the organizers of protests against the election and the White House.

“Katrina was like our go-to girl,” the organizer says. “She was like our primary advocate.”

Pierson spoke at the Ellipse rally on Jan. 6. She did not respond to requests for comment.

Both sources also describe Trump’s White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows, as someone who played a major role in the conversations surrounding the protests on Jan. 6. Among other things, they both say concerns were raised to Meadows about Alexander’s protest at the Capitol and the potential that it could spark violence. Meadows was subpoenaed by the committee last month as part of a group of four people “with close ties to the former President who were working in or had communications with the White House on or in the days leading up to the January 6th insurrection.”

“Meadows was 100 percent made aware of what was going on,” says the organizer. “He’s also like a regular figure in these really tiny groups of national organizers.”

A separate third source, who has also communicated with the committee and was involved in the Ellipse rally, says Kylie Kremer, one of the key organizers at that event, boasted that she was going to meet with Meadows at the White House ahead of the rally. The committee has been provided with that information. Kremer did not respond to a request for comment.

Both the organizer and the planner say Alexander initially agreed he would not hold his “Wild Protest” at the Capitol and that the Ellipse would be the only major demonstration. When Alexander seemed to be ignoring that arrangement, both claim worries were brought to Meadows.

“Despite making a deal … they plowed forward with their own thing at the Capitol on Jan.y 6 anyway,” the organizer says of Alexander and his allies. “We ended up escalating that to everybody we could, including Meadows.”

A representative for Meadows did not respond to requests for comment.

Along with making plans for Jan. 6, the sources say, the members of Congress who were involved solicited supposed proof of election fraud from them. Challenging electoral certification requires the support of a member of the Senate. While more than a hundred Republican members of the House ultimately objected to the Electoral College count that formalized Trump’s loss, only a handful of senators backed the effort. According to the sources, the members of Congress and their staff advised them to hold rallies in specific states. The organizer says locations were chosen to put “pressure” on key senators that “we considered to be persuadable.”

“We had also been coordinating with some of our congressional contacts on, like, what would be presented after the individual objections, and our expectation was that that was the day the storm was going to arrive,” the organizer says, adding, “It was supposed to be the best evidence that they had been secretly gathering. … Everyone was going to stay at the Ellipse throughout the congressional thing.”

Heading into Jan. 6, both sources say, the plan they had discussed with other organizers, Trump allies, and members of Congress was a rally that would solely take place at the Ellipse, where speakers — including the former president — would present “evidence” about issues with the election. This demonstration would take place in conjunction with objections that were being made by Trump allies during the certification on the House floor that day.

“It was in a variety of calls, some with Gosar and Gosar’s team, some with Marjorie Taylor Greene and her team … Mo Brooks,” the organizer says.

“The Capitol was never in play,” insists the planner.

A senior staffer for a Republican member of Congress, who was also granted anonymity to discuss the ongoing investigation, similarly says they believed the events would only involve supporting objections on the House floor. The staffer says their member was engaged in planning that was “specifically and fully above board.”

“A whole host of people let this go a totally different way,” the senior Republican staffer says. “They fucked it up for a lot of people who were planning to present evidence on the House floor. We were pissed off at everything that happened .”

The two sources claim there were early concerns about Alexander’s event. They had seen him with members of the paramilitary groups 1st Amendment Praetorian (1AP) and the Oath Keepers in his entourage at prior pro-Trump rallies. Alexander was filmed with a reputed member of 1AP at his side at a November Stop the Steal event that took place in Georgia. The two sources also claim to have been concerned about drawing people to the area directly adjacent to the Capitol on Jan. 6, given the anger among Trump supporters about the electoral certification that was underway that day.

“They knew that they weren’t there to sing “Kumbaya” and, like, put up a peace sign,” the planner says. “These frickin’ people were angry.”

J.B. Long@JB_Long
Last week’s video of RB Cam Akers working out made me wonder… is he definitely done-done for 2021?

Sean McVay just now: “No.”

Sounds like @RamsNFL might have a chance to add his contributions if they were to play into postseason: “That’s not something I would rule out.”

Jourdan Rodrigue@JourdanRodrigue
McVay earlier in the week said that Tutu Atwell would be a candidate for kick return (Ben Skowronek lined up back there instead), but McVay made it clear today that Atwell was not ultimately a candidate there. Overall said it didn’t matter who was returning, blocking was issue.

Rams don’t pay their ILBs so Young would be a FA after this season. Trading him now instead of simply reducing his minutes just to let him become a FA anyway meant Rams got something back and cleared cap room.

J.B. Long@JB_Long
I’ve been in full Jim Cramer BUY mode on Cooper Kupp stock since at least OTAs. But what I didn’t necessarily expect is that he’d be at career-high levels for average depth of target and deep target percentage.

He’s a vertical threat in this offense, more than ever.

Jalen Ramsey seals weird, off-putting Rams win as Matthew Stafford, Jared Goff see familiar faces: The Pile

Jourdan Rodrigue

https://theathletic.com/2910163/2021/10/25/jalen-ramsey-seals-weird-off-putting-rams-win-as-matthew-stafford-jared-goff-see-familiar-faces-the-pile/?source=emp_shared_article

INGLEWOOD, Calif. — A game that had skidded off the rails from its opening minutes was definitively planted back on track by cornerback Jalen Ramsey on Sunday.

In fact, he ended the dang thing.

Ramsey intercepted a pass by Lions quarterback Jared Goff, his teammate before last winter’s blockbuster trade with Detroit, in the end zone with 5:03 left to play in the 28-19 Rams win. It was Ramsey’s 27th birthday, so naturally defensive tackle Aaron Donald gifted him with a big hit on Goff as the ball came out of his hand around the 12-yard line. Ramsey jumped the route of the tight end to whom the throw was intended and pulled in the pick, then sprinted 23 yards in the other direction.

The play seemed to be a catharsis, of sorts, not only because Goff beat a furious Ramsey blitz off the edge by getting the ball out to the screen receiver for a long catch-and-run play in the first quarter and an early Lions touchdown (a lead the Rams would spend the next quarter and a half picking away at) but also because Ramsey watched at least one of his other major third-down stops, a massive hit on third-and-7, wiped away by atrocious and frankly unaware special-teams play as the Lions ran their first of two successful fake punts.

“Yeah, kinda (was more cathartic),” Ramsey said afterward. “There were a lot of ebbs and flows of the game. It was a lot of adversity that we faced. And it did overshadow some of the good moments that the defense had, right, but that’s a part of the game. Who cares? We just move on, and you go to the next opportunity.”

The play also halted a flood of third-down conversions by the Lions on the drive — four of their six total to that point in the game — and quieted the droves of Detroit fans in the stands at SoFi Stadium (kudos to them for traveling well, in part as an homage to longtime former quarterback Matthew Stafford, appearing for the first time against the team for which he played 12 years before the Rams traded for him this spring).

But wow, was it a helter-skelter game before that play — in every phase at times, sure, and we’ll get to that, but in none more than on special teams.

The Lions successfully recovered an onside kick after their game-opening touchdown, then went on to run two successful punt fakes on fourth down that had the Rams spinning in all sorts of directions, none of them good. The onside kick, and the first of the two fakes, also kept the ball out of Stafford’s hands until 7:23 remained in the first quarter, and at that point, the Rams not only had to play under a deficit but also had to change around their play script because of the time constraint. When the Rams did get the ball back, as Stafford noted afterward, they scored 17 points on their next three possessions and Stafford finished the first half 17-for-23 with 166 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions, with three receivers averaging better than 10 yards per catch.

“It was a strange game, for sure,” Stafford said. “All the fakes, the surprise onside (kick) and all of that, some possessions stolen there. Great plays by them, but just kinda had a weird feel to it and didn’t touch the ball too much in the first half, but when we got our opportunities, we scored with it, which was good.”

Those mishandled special-teams plays forced sudden-change situations for the Rams defense on multiple occasions, and though Ramsey pointed out that the defense held Detroit to a field goal after the first onside-kick/fake-punt drive, then ultimately forced a turnover on downs on the second fake-punt drive, I’ll point out that it’s still not a situation any team wants to, or should, find itself in, and especially not multiple times.

“Obviously, it’s a good wake-up call for us, and something that we’ve got to do a better job of moving forward,” head coach Sean McVay said. “They made the plays and we didn’t, in that phase. And it almost changed the outcome of the game.”

The Rams are 6-1, and buckle up, folks, because we’re starting with a special-teams unit that has been teetering on the brink week to week and finally fell over a cliff Sunday.

Leonard Floyd pressures Jared Goff. (Robert Hanashiro / USA Today)
Welcome to The Pile. Let’s start poking around. Maybe we’ll find a kick returner down there somewhere.

‘Special’ is not the right word
The Rams have to figure out their issues on special teams, and they have to do it yesterday. They gave up three trick plays in this phase, the fake punt conversions and the onside kick recovery, had at least one hold penalty and couldn’t average a kickoff return past the 20-yard line.

Each week has been a “what catastrophe will occur next” bingo card of error. While I certainly give some leeway — because it’s an incredibly young group that features turnover in a few crucial spots, and injuries have added to the mess in some phases — this unit has a complete lack of identity. I watch these guys in practice every day. They play hard, and they’re coached hard by first-year coordinator Joe DeCamillis, a veteran, well-liked coach in the NFL. So why aren’t they putting it together? They don’t need to necessarily run the fakes or even stack up brain-breaking returns. No, they need only to be consistent week over week. That’s the floor. But this unit is in the basement.

The special-teams unit is pinballing up and down each week in DVOA, ranking as high as No. 12 two weeks ago after being No. 30 the previous week, then plummeting back to No. 28. They’ve had every issue presumably possible, from missed kicks to returnable kickoffs to missed tackles to continual penalties to a lack of cohesive, decisive returners. Hell, rookie receiver Ben Skowronek was returning kickoffs for the Rams on Sunday, his first crack at doing so (McVay said earlier in the week that rookie second-round pick Tutu Atwell would handle those duties after the Rams lost Jake Funk to injury, but he was nowhere to be found, there or on offense). Veteran receiver DeSean Jackson even got a look on a punt return over Atwell, and he’s playing on an injury-preventive contract!

Sunday, the special-teams unit was not oblivious to the possible scenarios a desperate, winless team would try. McVay even acknowledged afterward that they saw it coming. But they still couldn’t execute, which prompts the question: Is being ready, and then failing, actually worse than being surprised and failing?

I don’t believe McVay was bluffing, either, when he said the Rams were ready to counter those tricks. The Rams usually work on those types of situations throughout the week and were clearly prepared for a fake punt situation the first time around, considering they sent Ramsey out in coverage contain on the “receiver” near the Lions’ sideline. The pass on the first fake punt, though, went to Nick Scott’s man on the opposite side and totally spun him around for an 18-yard gain.

“That’s what is a little bit disappointing, is that it was not stuff that we were surprised by,” McVay said. “But we didn’t execute, and they did. They ended up creating a bunch of momentum … (those) things were things that we did anticipate and expect, but we didn’t execute, and they did. That wasn’t good, and it was a lot of things that we can learn from.”

McVay, visibly angry when discussing those plays, firmly reiterated that even the second fake was something the Rams were set up to defend by being in a “punt-safe” alignment. Yet the play, a carry around the left end, picked up 28 yards — the first down, and then some.

“We lost the edge,” McVay said.

The bright spot was kicker Matt Gay, who hit touchbacks on his kickoffs and made a 47-yard field goal in the fourth quarter to ice the game.

Stafford and Kupp, rinse and repeat

Stop me if you’ve heard this before: Holy crap, Cooper Kupp.

Kupp had 10 catches on 13 targets for 156 yards and two touchdowns as Stafford’s top receiver Sunday. He’s the fourth player in the Super Bowl era with 50-plus catches, 700-plus receiving yards and eight-plus receiving touchdowns in his team’s first seven games, according to NFL Research, which puts him in the company of Steve Smith Sr. (2005), Torry Holt (2003) and Marvin Harrison (1999). It’s Week 7, and Kupp has 809 yards and nine touchdowns. And there’s an extra game this year!

Sunday, Kupp also averaged 15.6 yards per catch with longs of 59, 29 and 27 yards — but it was the slick work he did in smaller spaces that stood out, first on a juke on second-and-10 that picked up 11 yards and may as well have left his defender’s socks on the field, and next on his first of the two touchdowns. The Rams ran what several savvy viewers noted was a “shield slant,” in which Van Jefferson (who also had an impressive touchdown in the second quarter and has eclipsed his rookie numbers just seven games in) served as a “peloton” blocker, similar to the way competitive cyclists shield teammates in a cluster against the wind and provide a drafting situation, allowing their team leaders to get small in the tunnel created and shoot forward with less in their way. Kupp snuck behind Jefferson on the 2-yard play, and Stafford fired in the ball for the score.

“We got the look we wanted and Van did a great job. It’s really all on Van to be able to occupy the inside defender,” Kupp said. “I just have to catch the ball. … It was pretty cool.”

Kupp said the Rams have had the play in their arsenal for several years.

“Back (in) my first year, second and third year, I was in Van’s position and Sammy Watkins and Brandin Cooks were the ones making those plays. … Just something, a play we have run before and we did a good job executing it,” he said.

But you’ll also note, as ESPN’s Brady Henderson pointed out on Twitter, that the “shield slant” is extremely similar to the now-infamous passing play the Seahawks ran at the goal line in their Super Bowl loss to New England.

Look familiar? This is basically what the Seahawks ran at the goal line in Super Bowl XLIX. Watch what No. 12, Van Jefferson, does to create a clean passing lane. If only … https://t.co/bgqnsrD9kV

— Brady Henderson (@BradyHenderson) October 24, 2021

Robert Woods was the No. 2 receiver Sunday, catching all six of his targets for 70 yards and converting the Rams’ two-point play after Kupp’s second touchdown.

Markedly better on third down

Last week, Kupp remarked that the Rams had been “atrocious” on third down in games against Seattle and New York, and he was right: The offense converted just 4 of 21 third-down attempts in those games. But against the Lions, the Rams were much better, converting on nine of 12 tries.

“I think, throughout the week, we had a lot of stuff to kind of work through and did a great job trimming (the play menu) and giving us a more streamlined approach to what we wanted to do,” Kupp said. “Guys just executed, being able to make plays and progress through things. And then Sean just got us into some great plays, as well, being able to get some stuff (in) ‘hurry-up’ and get up onto the ball and make some plays that way, and then just our third-down play in general. … I thought we did a better job executing.”

“I thought Sean gave us an opportunity to be great on third down today. He does every week, and it comes down to execution,” Stafford said.

Sunday, two notable conversions included Kupp’s 59-yard pickup on third-and-12 and tight end Tyler Higbee’s 14-yard catch on third-and-10 that set up Kupp’s second touchdown and the corresponding two-point conversion, courtesy of Woods.

“Those are huge plays in the game,” Stafford said. “I can’t say enough about those guys. They worked their tails off, and I’m happy that work is paying off for them on Sundays and they’re going to go out there and shine.”

Cornerback injury situations

In his third start (and first at SoFi), Rams rookie cornerback Robert Rochell made a big stop in the first half, but shortly afterward he left the game. The Rams reported a knee injury and that Rochell’s status would be “questionable” in the second half. Rochell did not return.

The cornerback corps is already thin because veteran starter Darious Williams is recovering from an ankle injury. Without Rochell, the team sent back in David Long Jr., who started on the outside this season but lost his snaps after the Rams’ loss to Arizona and didn’t see much time in extra-defensive-backs packages until the very end of last week’s blowout win at the Giants. The Rams can’t afford to lose more personnel here, although they expect Williams back within the short-term injured-reserve window, probably early November. They’re not expected to make much noise at the trade deadline, but if they do get in a bind in the defensive backfield, we probably can’t rule it out.

McVay said he thinks Rochell “will be OK,” although he had not yet met with the medical staff when he had his news conference. He had, however, spoken with Rochell directly.

“He said that the initial tests checked out well, but I’ll be able to give you further clarity (Monday),” McVay said.

Bottom of The Pile

• McVay and Goff opted to greet each other at the end of the game instead of before it, and the two shared a hug and a few words. The Rams played tribute videos for Goff and another well-loved former Rams player, defensive lineman Michael Brockers, before the game.

• Many in the crowd showed up in Stafford’s old Honolulu Blue No. 9 Detroit jersey, which Stafford certainly noticed. He even got a bit choked up.

“It was humbling. It was really nice to see,” Stafford said. “Driving into the stadium today, I saw a few walking around and thought to myself, ‘That’s pretty cool.’ And I really appreciate it. I’ve said it a bunch of times and I truly mean it, I loved my time there. I love all of the people there who treated me, my family, my wife with a ton of respect and a ton of grace for a long time. It was cool to see that. Once the ball was snapped, it was football time and I was ready to go play. But it was cool to see some of the stuff going on around (this morning).”

• Stafford’s touchdown to Kupp marked his 300th career touchdown pass. He sits at No. 12 on the all-time list, now with 301. Directly above him: Fran Tarkenton, with 342.

• Yes, the Rams defense allowed only one touchdown and took the ball away when it needed to seal the game, courtesy of Ramsey. But the Rams couldn’t seem to piece many drives together without missed tackles, bad angles and explosive plays that came courtesy of misses on catch-and-run plays, including the third-and-9 dump-off pass that Goff threw to beat the blitz (this was Ramsey coming hard off the edge, the play on which he said he should have stopped and covered the screen player) and resulted in a touchdown for the first Lions’ lead of the year. I also agreed with Ramsey’s assessment of the pressure the defensive line was able to bring against Goff throughout the game, which came from a variety of fronts and looks, even if the sacks didn’t come until later. (Sebastian Joseph-Day had a sack, and a great quote: “Those guys were rushing their asses off,” while inside linebacker Kenny Young also sacked Goff and contributed to major third- and fourth-down stops.) According to TruMedia, the Rams pressured Goff 17 times, hit him four times and hurried him 15 times on passing downs (outside linebacker Leonard Floyd led the effort with four pressures).

A reporter asked whether Ramsey felt that Goff, who finished 22-for-36 for 268 yards, a touchdown and two interceptions, successfully handled the standard pressure the Rams brought as well as the designed pressure.

“Really, I guess we think differently on that,” Ramsey said. “They only had one touchdown today. The rest was field goals. Their run game did pretty well. They had a couple good passes here and there, but I don’t think we struggled. … He’s an NFL quarterback, he’s able to do those things. I don’t really feel like that was anything for us to worry about.”

But better teams than Detroit can, and have, capitalized on those types of catch-and-run plays, which can be so difficult to contain. And the Rams, as mentioned, are thinner than ever at the cornerback spots that are supposed to act as “overhangs” and contribute to some of that containment and tackle support. On the second level, linebacker Troy Reeder missed on at least two tackles that led to larger plays, and Young also had a miss that safety Jordan Fuller had overcommitted to near the box, which led to a big gain (Fuller led the Rams defense with nine tackles, including two big run stops). And late in the fourth quarter, Detroit converted four of its six third downs on a single drive, including on a set of downs that started as a first-and-20. The Rams allowed an all-too-easy third-down draw that got more than the 11 yards needed. The margins are thin, and they will get thinner in November and December. Those types of drives can’t happen. The Rams also allowed just 105 rushing yards between the two Lions backs, Jamaal Williams (12 carries, 57 yards) and D’Andre Swift (13 carries, 48 yards), but the major issues here were the runs of 10-plus yards and when they happened (both players had at least one run of 14 yards, and one 11-yard run by Swift converted a third-and-11). Another 28 rushing yards by the Lions came courtesy of that second fake punt.

• The Rams’ decision to go for it on fourth-and-1 at the Detroit 46-yard line was absolutely the correct one, and McVay, if you’re reading this, don’t stop doing that. According to Ben Baldwin’s fourth-down algorithmic bot, the Rams would have added 5.1 percent in win probability by going for it there, had they have converted the play.

Stafford, however, missed the throw intended for Higbee — he could have converted the play himself by tucking and running for the “gimme” yards in front of him — and was pretty blunt with himself about it afterward, going out of his way and off-topic to point it out.

“Somebody tell me to run the dang thing,” he said. “It’s so open. I just don’t know what the hell to do in space. I gotta run that thing, get the first for us.”

Sosa Kremenjas@QBsMVP
Someone called Cooper Kupp “Vanillatron”

J.B. Long@JB_Long
Things you love to see: DeSean Jackson on the field as the punt returner for the first time with Rams.

Chris Burke@ChrisBurkeNFL
Dan Campbell said it himself. The Rams are “a different-caliber team” than the Lions. A team that’s been built over years.”

To get there, the Lions have to go through this. And that’s OK, if they keep making progress.

Marcus Mosher@Marcus_Mosher
The 5-best teams in the NFL are all in the NFC… right?

Cardinals
Rams
Bucs
Cowboys
Packers

J.B. Long@JB_Long
Things you love to see: DeSean Jackson on the field as the punt returner for the first time with Rams.

6 key takeaways from the Rams’ 28-19 win over the Lions. https://t.co/o2qplNifvn

— Rams Wire (@TheRamsWire) October 25, 2021

Josh Kollack@real_kylo
Cooper Kupp has 809 yards and 9 TDs through 7 games. He’s on pace for 1965 yards and 22 TDs

Flipper’s Anderson@dcfilmninja
Another game that makes a case McVay should give over playcalling. 4th and 1 pass. Calling the game tight. Team not prepared.

Chucky Santiago@madmanxxl
That INT does not happen if Ramsey isn’t the DB. The man is a DB god. And AD gets the assist

J.B. Long@JB_Long
Teams with 20+ points scored in every game this season: Rams (7) Cowboys (6)

Jourdan Rodrigue@JourdanRodrigue
Jalen Ramsey agreed that his game-sealing interception felt a bit more cathartic in the end, because it provided a definitive stop to things. Earlier, and especially in the first half, some big moments on third down had been wiped away by fakes on special teams (my words).

Stu Jackson@StuJRams
Sean McVay hasn’t met with Rams medical staff yet but did talk directly to CB Robert Rochell, who told him initial tests on his knee checked out well.

McVay said he’ll have more clarity tomorrow.