Turf Show Times
The Los Angeles Rams won in dramatic fashion on Saturday night, defeating the Los Angeles Chargers, 23-22 in the final seconds. Stetson Bennett pulled off his best Matthew Stafford impression with a fourth-quarter comeback and game-winning drive. With Aubrey Pleasant serving as the head coach, the defense also made plays when needed. Let’s jump into this week’s takeaways.
Prior to the game against the Chargers, a Rams spokesperson was asked to confirm whether quarterback Matthew Stafford worked out as scheduled. That person declined to comment and said that McVay would address the situation on Monday. Acting as head coach, Aubrey Pleasant was asked about Stafford after the game. Pleasant declined to comment and deferred all questions to McVay on Monday.
It’s easy to jump to conclusions one way or the other in the situation. However, if there was nothing to hide, the Rams would likely just say that Stafford worked out as planned. There seems to be something more here, and it’s something we may learn on Monday as McVay addresses the media. Still, one week after having confidence that Stafford would be back at practice, there is much more uncertainty heading into this week.
The Chargers came out on Saturday playing many of their starters. Justin Herbert got the first drive on offense. Had it not been for a perfectly placed throw against Charles Woods in coverage, the Chargers would have been forced to punt. Still, the Rams defense held the Chargers to a field goal. On offense, Stetson Bennett led the Rams 60 yards for an opening drive touchdown that was capped off by a throw off of play action to Konata Mumpfield. Blake Corum also had a few nice runs on the opening drive.
While Herbert only had the one drive, KeAndre Lambert-Smith and Tre Harris remained in the game for a while. For the most part, the Rams defensive backs held up nicely. Simply put, it was nice to see the Rams depth players hold their own against another team’s starting unit even if the scheme was vanilla and only for a limited time. It speaks to the overall depth of this Rams team.
Coming into Saturday, it was important to see the same comfort level and confidence from Stetson Bennett that he showed in the opener. For the most part, that’s how Bennett looked to start the game. On the opening drive, he went 3-for-3 for 31 yards and a touchdown. While he had several nice throws throughout the game, the decision-making problem reared its ugly head. Bennett easily could have had three interceptions. He had a defensive back drop a pick six early in the game and then another dropped interception late. Bennett misplaced a ball outside the numbers that was nearly jumped and then finally threw an interception to a defensive lineman.
Bennett has yet to play...
