After a tough loss to the Buffalo Bills in Week 3, the Los Angeles Rams were presented with a golden opportunity to get right by hosting the winless New York Giants in Week 4.
For the first time this season, the Rams didn’t look like a playoff team as they slept walked through most of the game. Because they were playing a team as bad as the Giants though, they were able to flip the light switch in the fourth quarter and the offense put a drive together to take a 17-9 lead.
It was then up to the defense to close it out, and they were able to do so as Darious Williams intercepted Daniel Jones on the final drive of the game to finish off the win and help the Rams improve to 3-1.
While it wasn’t pretty, the Rams left SoFi Stadium in sole possession of second place in the NFC West behind the Seattle Seahawks (4-0) and ahead of the San Francisco 49ers (2-2) and Arizona Cardinals (2-2). Here are some observations from Sunday’s win:
A win is a win
As previously mentioned, this game wasn’t pretty for the Rams. They were facing an 0-3 Giants team that just lost, 36-9, to the banged-up 49ers the week before. Many touted this game to be a blowout.
So credit to the Giants for hanging around and competing all afternoon. They had more first down (19 to 15), more total yards (295 to 240), more rushing yards (136 to 58) and won the time of possession battle (33:17 to 26:43).
But ultimately, when it came time to win the game, the Rams were able to do so. With the Rams leading 10-9 in the fourth quarter, Jared Goff found Cooper Kupp for a 55-yard touchdown, and then the defense took care of the rest.
This league isn’t about style points, it’s about wins. The Rams are in arguably the toughest division in football so every game counts, and if they want to miss the playoffs then they can’t afford to lose a game to the Giants, who are quite literally trying to lose games. So while there isn’t a lot to be happy about for the Rams, at least they came away with a victory.
Led by secondary and pass rush, Rams defense dominated
This win for the Rams was all about the defense. No, they were not facing a high-powered offense. Daniel Jones is a promising young quarterback, but his offensive line is bad, his weapons are average and he is without his star running back Saquon Barkley.
With that said though, the Rams defense did what they were supposed to do holding them to nine points by keeping New York out of the end zone all day.
L.A. had a season-high five sacks with Aaron Donald being in Jones’ face all game, as usual. They also came up with the big turnover, an interception by Williams in the fourth quarter, when they needed it.
Brandon Staley’s defense has seen mixed results so far this season, but they definitely seem to be trending in the right direction with the secondary, in particular, improving each week.
Offense was nonexistent against poor Giants defense
The Rams’ offense was rolling coming into this one, but they came back to earth with by far their worst game of the season. They got off to a good start by going 12 plays and 65 yards for a touchdown on their opening drive, using 7:01 of game clock.
It looked like it was gonna be an easy day for the offense after that opening drive, which ended in a rushing touchdown for tight end Gerald Everett. It was all downhill from there though as Everett fumbled on the Rams’ next drive, and then they proceeded to punt on four of their next five drives with the other resulting in a field goal.
Of those four punts, two came on three-and-outs and the other two came after the Rams only got one first down. For some reason, they just couldn’t seem to move the ball against a poor Giants defense, who were getting pressure on Goff and effectively stopping the run game. Sean McVay’s play-calling was off as he was loving the wide receiver screens that seem to never work.
They got it together in the fourth quarter though when Goff found Kupp for the long touchdown, and that was enough to get the job done in this one. McVay, Goff and Co. still have a lot of work to do moving forward offensively though.
Where was Darrell Henderson?
Rams running back Darrell Henderson was a breakout star the last two weeks, but was nowhere to be seen for most of this game for some reason.
When the Rams fell behind to the Buffalo Bills, 28-3, in Week 3, they stuck with Henderson and the run game and the result was them erasing that deficit to take a late lead.
In this one though, the Rams were winning, which would be cause for more Henderson, but instead, he found himself on the sideline for most of the second half in favor of Malcolm Brown.
There’s no doubt Brown is the better pass-protector, so it makes sense to have him in there for some passing downs, especially with the pass rush the Giants were generating. But Brown finished the game with 14 total touches compared to nine for Henderson.
McVay has made it clear all year that it will be running back by committee, but it seemed like Henderson was starting to separate himself from the back with back-to-back strong games while Cam Akers was injured and Browns looking like a backup.
This will be something to monitor moving forward, but to this point, Henderson has clearly looked like the best back and should be getting the lion share of the touches, at least while Akers is out.
Ramsey and Tate get into it
Let’s start this off by giving the necessary background information. Rams star cornerback Jalen Ramsey and Giants wide receiver Golden Tate have a history as Ramsey has two children with Tate’s sister, Breanna. They had a public breakup last year, so it is clear that there is no love lost between Tate and Ramsey, who were squaring off for the first time since the breakup.
On the field, Ramsey was able to get the better of Tate with this big hit on a huge third-down play in the third quarter:
.@jalenramsey bringing the 💥! pic.twitter.com/Ivg8GaEAMo
— Los Angeles Rams (@RamsNFL) October 4, 2020
That wasn’t the only time they would square off on the day though as after the game, the two got into it at center field and had to be separated by teammates:
Following their game today, the Rams and Giants had a huge fight at midfield which included Golden Tate and Jalen Ramsey in the middle of it. pic.twitter.com/nq7A4Qphv1
— Field Yates (@FieldYates) October 4, 2020
It’s unclear what actions the league plans to take after the incident as it is hard to see who started the fight, who threw punches, etc. So hopefully one of the leaders of L.A.’s defense avoids a suspension and will be on the field in Week 5.
Up next…
The Rams finish up their NFC East slate by traveling to take on the Washington Football Team (1-3) in Week 5. It is another game that L.A. should win on paper, so hopefully they come out stronger and put a complete game together to improve to 4-1.
