The Los Angeles Rams traveled to take on the division-rival San Francisco 49ers on Monday Night Football in Week 10 looking to bounce back from the rough loss against the Tennessee Titans, and well, that didn’t happen.
The Rams again came out flat on both sides of the ball, making too many mistakes, which led to a 31-10 loss to drop to 7-3 on the season going into the bye week.
Usually my observations and analysis consist of both positives and negatives, but there weren’t really any positives to take away from this beatdown so let me just get to it.
Deja Vu?
From the jump, this game looked eerily similar for the Rams when comparing it to last week’s loss to the Titans. Matthew Stafford had two early interceptions, one of which was returned for a touchdown, to put the Rams in a hole they just couldn’t work out of.
More importantly than the interceptions and drops by receivers (there were a lot of them) though was that the Rams were just a lot less physical than the 49ers in this game, which was also the case against the Titans.
The Rams were getting pushed around out there on both sides of the ball, and that’s not a recipe for winning football games in this league. I thought Von Miller made a really good point after the game and that’s that it felt like every time the Rams stopped the 49ers to a 3-yard rush or something of that nature, San Francisco’s physicality forced them to push forward and turned it into a 6 or 7-yard gain.
That allowed the 49ers to sustain long drives and kill clock, dominating time of possession 39:03 to 20:57. That is now the blueprint on how to beat this Rams team, so it will be up to them to adjust coming out of the bye and be more physical up front.
Raheem Morris needs to figure it out
I’ve tried to lay off criticizing individuals in this column just because I know every loss is a group effort, but after what we saw against the 49ers, I have to question what defensive coordinator Raheem Morris was doing out there.
Not only did the 49ers run the ball down the Rams’ throats while L.A. refused to stack the box, but they also allowed Jimmy Garapolo to beat them in the middle of the field time and time again on third down.
THEY DID NOT FORCE HIM TO THROW THE BALL DOWN THE FIELD OUTSIDE THE NUMBERS A SINGLE TIME:
LOOK AT THIS TINY LITTLE PASS CHART pic.twitter.com/gDHHymYMXV
— Dieter Kurtenbach (@dieter) November 16, 2021
They say insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results, and well, that’s exactly what the Rams did last night.
And also, as Deebo Samuel was killing them once again (as he has done over and over again), the Rams never decided to have Jalen Ramsey shadow him. That made no sense to me.
Zero reason to blame OBJ
I didn’t feel this was something that needed to be addressed, but after Troy Aikman’s silly comments on Tuesday morning, I think it’s worth mentioning that last night’s loss and the offensive struggles had absolutely nothing to do with Odell Beckham Jr.
The guy had zero practice time since coming to the Rams and probably wouldn’t have played if Robert Woods didn’t get injured. He only played 15 snaps and was targeted by Stafford three times, hauling in two receptions for 18 yards. The third was the interception on the first drive of the game, which was an understandable miscommunication on a ball Stafford shouldn’t have thrown.
But the point is that Stafford was not trying to force-feed Beckham at all, and to suggest otherwise means you probably weren’t watching the game.
Up next for Rams…
The bye week could not come at a better time for the Rams as they now have a chance to regroup as well as some extra time to continue to get Beckham and Miller integrated and familiar with the playbook.
Things don’t get easier for the Rams moving forward though, so they will have to have a productive bye week before traveling to take on the Green Bay Packers in Week 12.
