The Los Angeles Rams traveled to face the Seattle Seahawks in Week 16 needing a win to clinch a postseason berth and put themselves in the driver’s seat to win the NFC West.
Unfortunately, the Rams laid an egg for the second consecutive week, failing to score a touchdown for the first time all year in the 20-9 loss to their division rivals.
At 9-6, the Rams now have no chance of winning the division and likely must beat the Arizona Cardinals in Week 17 to avoid missing the postseason altogether.
The last couple of weeks have been an unexpected turn of events for a Rams that was rolling just a few weeks ago. The main reason for their struggles has been the poor play of Jared Goff and the offense as the Rams outgained the Seahawks as far as yardage goes but couldn’t punch the ball into the end zone all day.
After the game, Rams star cornerback Jalen Ramsey was not willing to put the blame for the loss on the team’s offense, via Greg Beacham of the Associated Press:
Rams CB Jalen Ramsey: "Losing is frustrating, but we do it as a team. That’s our job to pick (the offense) up, and if it’s going to be our job to lead this team, then we need to lead even better than what we’ve been putting on the field. I’m not here to put it on anybody else."
— Greg Beacham (@gregbeacham) December 28, 2020
Ramsey was seen motivating Goff on the sidelines during the fourth quarter and while he wasn’t willing to reveal what was said, it was good to see him being a leader when his teammate needed it.
The fact of the matter is though that even while Ramsey wasn’t willing to call them out, the Rams offense simply needs to be better if this team is going to do any damage in the postseason.
L.A.’s defense did a solid job of holding Russell Wilson and the high-powered Seahawks offense to 20 points and 294 total yards, but with the offense not being able to find the end zone, it wasn’t enough.
The Rams will have to turn things around quickly next weekend against the Cardinals, and Goff is dealing with a thumb injury so there is a chance they will be without their starting quarterback in the regular-season finale.
