The Los Angeles Rams hosted the Detroit Lions in Week 7 and although it wasn’t pretty, they came away with a 28-19 victory to improve to 6-1 on the season.
All the storylines of this game were off the field, which came as no surprise after the two teams completed the blockbuster trade in the offseason to swap quarterbacks Matthew Stafford and Jared Goff.
On the field, the Rams and Lions are two organizations headed in different directions as the latter is now 0-7 and in the midst of a rebuild while the former has Super Bowl aspirations.
That didn’t look the case when they played on Sunday though as the game was closer than everyone expected and the Lions actually outplayed the Rams for most of the day. So let me start there with my weekly observations and analysis.
Special teams need to be better
Look, everyone knew the Lions were 0-6 coming into this game and that it would be extra personal for Goff playing against his former team. So because of that, it came as no surprise to anyone that the Lions threw the entire kitchen sink at the Rams from the jump.
The Lions received the opening kickoff and immediately went down the field for a touchdown on a 63-yard screen pass to D’Andre Swift.
After that was when the tricks began as Detroit went for a surprise onside kick on the ensuing kickoff and recovered it to regain possession. This was the one special teams mistake I could live with considering you typically don’t expect an onside kick that early in the game. Troy Reeder had a chance to recover it and didn’t. Oh well, that’s a mistake you can live with.
The Rams defense proceeded to force a three-and-out though, so it looked like it would finally be time for the offense to get the ball.
NOPE!
Again, the Lions went to their bag of tricks and surprised the Rams with a fake punt that they converted to keep the drive alive and end up with a field goal to take a 10-0 lead. This came like two minutes after the onside kick! How are you not prepared for that?
It wasn’t done there though as the Lions ran another fake punt early in the third quarter and converted it AGAIN!
McVay said after the game that the Rams were indeed prepared for these plays and just didn’t execute to stop them. I’ll take him for his word on that, but either way, that stuff can’t happen. The Rams are lucky that it didn’t cost them in this game, but now that those plays are on film, it wouldn’t be surprising to see other teams try it in the future as well.
Overall on the season, the Rams have been very poor on special teams so hopefully they can clean that up if they want to achieve their goal of winning the Super Bowl.
Weekly “Stafford and Kupp are amazing” section
Alright, now onto the good. And of course, the good in this game was the connection between Stafford and Cooper Kupp, which has been the case just about every week this season.
Kupp had 10 receptions on 13 targets for 156 yards and two touchdowns, while Stafford was basically flawless, completing 28-of-41 passes for 334 yards and three touchdowns with no turnovers.
Overall on the season, Kupp leads the NFL in receptions (56), receiving yards (809) and receiving touchdowns (9). Only Calvin Johnson and Randy Moss (both pretty good receivers) have had more touchdowns through their team’s first seven games in the Super Bowl era with 10.
Kupp is currently on pace to break Johnson’s single-season receiving record of 1,964 yards. Pretty pretty good if you ask me.
Also, congratulations are in order to Stafford, who became the seventh-fastest quarterback ever to throw 300 touchdown passes.
These guys are fun to watch.
Happy birthday, Jalen Ramsey
You know who else is fun to watch? Jalen Ramsey.
The Rams star cornerback celebrated his 27th birthday in style on Sunday, coming up with a number of big tackles and then sealing the victory with an interception of Goff in the end zone in the fourth quarter.
Every week, Ramsey seems to be getting better and better, which has been huge for a Rams secondary that has been banged up and relying on a number of young, inexperienced players.
Ramsey probably won’t get a ton of consideration for NFL Defensive Player of the Year since the coverage stats aren’t eye-popping (teams typically don’t throw his way). But he should.
Put the McVay/Goff narrative to bed
I think everyone would agree that Goff’s tenure with the Rams didn’t end how anyone wanted. Just two years after signing him to a massive extension, Sean McVay pulled the plug by trading him.
But all the talk going into this game was about their strained relationship with various reports coming out about how Goff hung up on McVay after learning of the trade, McVay himself saying he regrets how he handled things, etc.
Why is that surprising though? McVay sent Goff to DETROIT! Why would he be happy about that after beginning his career on a winning team in LA?
To me, that was all a non-story. Goff is no longer on the Rams. He and McVay don’t need to have a relationship. Sometimes it’s just best for people to go their separate ways when things aren’t working out.
Because of that, I’m glad this game is over with and the Rams and Lions probably won’t be playing against each other for a few years so we can put this narrative to bed. McVay and Goff exchanged a hug and some words after the game and seemed to be cordial. Now let’s all move on!
Up next for Rams…
The Rams finish up the easy part of their schedule by traveling to take on the 1-6 Houston Texans in Week 8. If they take care of business as they have the last two weeks then they will be at 7-1 going into their big Sunday night showdown against the Tennessee Titans in Week 9.
