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PHILADELPHIA — The season began for the Rams amid talk of a perfectly crafted roster, Super Bowl expectations, and at least one forecast of an unblemished record to accompany their supposedly inevitable celebration under falling confetti on their home field in February.
Things have played out thus far in decidedly less idyllic fashion.
They’ve been hit by key injuries, ill-conceived travel plans, a debatable pass interference call, and uneven results. Their record easily could have dropped to 1—3 on this gray, rainy Sunday at Lincoln Financial Field.
Instead, the Rams regrouped in the fourth quarter and—perhaps with some assistance from the Eagles—emerged with a highly improbable 24–20 win to keep their season from unraveling.
“Man, you know, there were so many things that we can clean up,” Rams coach Sean McVay said. “But for our group to come alive when they did and find a way to make the plays and so many different guys—really proud of ‘em.”
According to Next Gen Stats, the Rams’ win probability was as low as 3.2% with just more than eight minutes remaining. Just as McVay stepped into the media interview room before addressing reporters in his postgame news conference, he said: “You’ve got to be shitting me.”
The Eagles, with a 20–10 lead, passed up a field goal and failed on a fourth-down attempt from the L.A. 2-yard line. The Rams followed with a 98-yard touchdown drive, then went 79 yards for a touchdown on their next offensive possession.
“I think the cool thing about our group is we were steady the whole game,” Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford said. “Things weren’t going our way. … Any way you can shoot yourself in the foot, we were doing it on [the] offensive side of the ball. But we just kept the belief. Our defense … kept us in it, gave us opportunities to stay in that game. And just proud of the resilience of our group.”
Maybe the early vulnerabilities of the widely acclaimed Super Bowl favorite will add to the drama of the NFL season and serve to boost interest and perhaps even viewership in a league built on parity and an “any given Sunday” narrative. Perhaps the Rams still will find their groove and end up playing in Super Bowl LXI at SoFi Stadium on Feb. 14.
But for now, all that mattered is they kept themselves from having to dig out of a somewhat deep early-season hole.
“I’m excited to get on this plane and get up out of here,” wide receiver Puka Nacua said in the postgame locker room. “Hopefully they’ve got some Philly cheesesteaks for us.”
McVay and Stafford addressed the members of the then-sputtering Rams’ offense on the sideline after tight end Tyler Higbee failed to grab a slightly off-target fourth-down pass to stall a drive early in the fourth quarter.
“[McVay] said, ‘Make this thing go. … Wipe it and get to the next play,’ ” Higbee said by his locker afterward. “He’s got confidence in us. We’ve got confidence in each other. … He’s the best leader I’ve ever been around.”
When the Rams traded for Myles Garrett in the offseason and welcomed Aaron Donald back from retirement just before the season, their five combined NFL Defensive Player of the Year awards promised to make them one of the most fearsome defensive-line combinations in league history.
They joined a star-laden roster that included Stafford, the reigning league MVP, and Nacua. The Rams also have a foundation of young talent from their wise use of those draft choices they didn’t trade, belying their “Fuck Them Picks” reputation.
The Rams gave a dud of a performance in their season-opening loss to the 49ers in Melbourne after choosing to travel to Australia just ahead of the game. They lost to the Broncos in Week 3 in Denver after being victimized by a debatable defensive pass interference call late in the game.
McVay said at a news conference Wednesday the Rams had been told by the NFL that call was wrong. The league’s game operations manual says such conversations between the NFL’s officiating department and a team are supposed to be confidential. The league reminded all teams of that in a memo Friday. There is no indication, at least for now, that McVay was fined by the NFL, as the manual says is possible for such a violation.
Donald was on the game-day inactive list Sunday because of a back injury. Garrett remains sidelined after undergoing knee surgery following the opener. Nacua played Sunday after missing two games because of hip and groin injuries.
But injuries are part of NFL life. The Eagles had offensive tackles Lane Johnson and Fred Johnson, wide receivers DeVonta Smith and Hollywood Brown, tight end Dallas Goedert, and linebacker Zack Baun on the inactive list Sunday. Star running back Saquon Barkley had two carries, limped off the field with a hamstring injury, and didn’t return to the game.
The Rams trailed, 20–10, at halftime after a calamitous end-of-half sequence. Stafford threw an interception to Philadelphia’s Cooper DeJean and the Eagles benefited from a defensive pass inference call on the Rams—sound familiar?—to capitalize with a touchdown.
The miseries continued in the third quarter with an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty called on the Rams’ bench for an assistant coach impeding an official along the sideline during a play, followed soon after by an offensive pass interference call on Nacua. Even a stop of an Eagles fourth-down tush push didn’t immediately turn things around.
But the turnaround did come.
“You can’t win it until the fourth quarter,” McVay said. “And our guys came alive when they did. Lotta gutsy efforts. And I have a headache from hell right now. But I am really proud of this group. I think a lot of teams would have folded in those situations. But our defense kept giving us a reason to believe.”
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