The Los Angeles Rams hung on to beat the Seattle Seahawks in Week 11 to take over sole possession of first place in the NFC West, but the game was a lot closer than it should’ve been.
L.A.’s defense stepped up in a big way with four interceptions of Sam Darnold. But when it came time to put the game away with the Rams leading 21-19 in the final minutes, the offense was unable to do so.
That forced Sean McVay to punt it back to Seattle, and thankfully Ethan Evans came up with arguably the biggest play of the day. With under two minutes to play, the Seahawks just need to get into field goal range to win the game.
Evans made that as difficult as possible for them as he hit literally a perfect punt down the left sideline. It bounced at the 2-yard line and then bounced again just before the pylon inside the 1-yard line before going out of bounds.
That forced the Seahawks to go the full length of the field and they almost did as they got a look at a 61-yard field goal as time expired that was no good.
After the Rams’ win, Evans explained what he saw on the punt and when he knew it would be the best of his life, via Stu Jackson of TheRams.com:
“I realized on the field because I saw it bounce way up in the air and saw it bounce out of bounds, and then the ref finally called it at the one-yard line,” Evans said. “So then that’s when I was like, ‘Oh,’ and then I just went crazy.”
The Rams likely would not have won if not for that punt, so McVay made sure to give praise to Evans:
“It was big,” head coach Sean McVay said. “It was awesome to be able to see special teams… you’re not taking for granted making all the extra points. We needed every single one of them today. I thought Ethan… He did a great job on those. He had to speed up his delivery on a couple, but the protection was really good. Shaheed’s a dangerous returner and so we kind of had a specific approach that we wanted to take. But what a job by Ethan.”
The Rams’ kicking game has been a work in progress, but Evans has the punting game on lock and could be in line for his first Pro Bowl selection if he keeps it up the rest of the season.
Sean McVay pumped up after Rams win over Seahawks
With the Rams and Seahawks battling for first place in the NFC West, the Week 11 win was a big one and that was reflected by Sean McVay being a little more pumped up than usual during his postgame speech in the locker room.
