Turf Show Times
The Los Angeles Rams beat the Baltimore Ravens by a final score of 17-3. The Rams’ offense, for the second game in a row failed to show up for most of the first half, but their defense fought hard, and Kyren Williams responded to last week’s fumble with maybe the best catch he’s had in his career as he was the one (along with Matthew Stafford) who kicked-started the offense, and helped L.A. secure this much needed win.
The Rams started this one off, and that’s putting it nicely. Joshua Karty missed a 26-yard field goal early and Matthew Stafford had a momentum changing fumble after Quenten Lake’s first career interception. Through two quarters, the Rams made a number of mistakes and miscues, and were doing the thing they said they didn’t want to do: “Beat themselves.”
The good news for the Rams is that the Ravens made ample mistakes too, so the game went into the half knotted at 3-3 after a terrific four-down stand by L.A.’s defense on the goal line.
In the second half, the Rams showed some life. Kyren Williams had a special catch on a fourth down to put the Rams in scoring range, and he followed that up with an easy walk-in touchdown.
A few players later, Matthew Stafford found Tyler Higbee for another touchdown as L.A. took a 17-3 with most of the second half still to go.
L.A.’s defense made some silly mistakes including some bad offsides and neutral zone infractions which literally at times moves the sticks for the Ravens, but they also forced an interception and at least two fumbles (officiating took some of those fumbles away), so the defense showed-out as they should against an injured Ravens offense, and they kept the Rams in the game, but neither the offense or defense exactly put Baltimore away.
L.A. special teams remained a liability, and in the fourth quarter, Sean McVay had a chance to send out Karty for a 20-3 lead, but instead he opted to go for it on fourth and short in the red zone, the call failed, but it told anyone watching that the Rams have a clear problem with their kicking unit.
After the missed kick, the Ravens had some life as they replaced Cooper Rush with Tyler Huntley at quarterback, but again the Rams defense stood strong in the redzone and functionally got the ball back for L.A. to ice the game away with less than 4-minutes to go in the contest.
No style points in the NFL, and the Rams didn’t earn any points for style today, but they notched a win and they moved to 4-2 as they prepare to take on the Jacksonville Jaguars in Week 7 for a London game.
Which team will show up in the London? The team that can take a 19-point lead against the Philadelphia Eagles, or the team that struggled to put away the Ravens today? We’ll find out in Week 7.
