The Los Angeles Rams were on the brink of falling to 0-3, but completed an improbable comeback to defeat the San Francisco 49ers, 27-24, in their home opener at SoFi Stadium.
The Rams found themselves trailing by 14 points in the third quarter, but chipped away at the deficit when Kyren Williams scored his first rushing touchdown of the game to bring the team within seven.
Williams found the end zone again with his second rushing touchdown late in the fourth quarter that evened the score at 24 after the extra point.
Williams had his best performance of the season, rushing for 89 yards on 24 attempts with the two touchdowns while adding two receptions for 27 yards and another score through the air.
The Rams defense then got a key stop to give the offense a chance to win in regulation. Helped by Xavier Smith’s 38-yard punt return, Matthew Stafford got the Rams into field goal range and rookie Joshua Karty connected from 37 yards to seal the victory for L.A.
“Holy! What a job by our group just continuing to battle [and] continuing to fight,” head coach Sean McVay said after the game. “There’s a lot of guts [and] there’s a lot of resilience in this group and it’s just one game. I’m really proud of them. I’m really proud of them for a lot of the things that went into it, guys that had to step up. I thought special teams was a huge edge for us today. For Josh Karty, for Ethan Evans [and] for Alex Ward to be able to make their kicks in crunch time, the extra points to tie it up [and] the field goal to ultimately win it.
“What a cool deal for Xavier Smith. [He did a] great job aggressively fielding that thing. [He] got some blocks, got to the sideline [and] got us in good field position right off the jump and then Ronnie Rivers converted on the fake punt. I thought that was a real difference for us. Kyren Williams in the red area came to life in a big way. It wasn’t perfect by any stretch, but I thought those guys did an excellent job when we had to have it. Defensively, we tightened up [and] we got stops when we needed it.
“Matthew Stafford was outstanding. I thought there were some mistakes that we made around him, but he hung in there. He kept his eyes down the field. I thought he delivered the ball accurately all throughout the day. I don’t know what his numbers were, but I thought he was outstanding today. He had crunch time production [and] he had great grit, great leadership. Tutu Atwell was awesome as well. There are a couple hidden yards where you’re talking about down the field penalties. There’s a 48-yard penalty that Tutu got on the penalty when we were in the third quarter. Colby Parkinson ended up drawing the PI right there when they played a man coverage at the end. A lot of guts [and] a lot of grit. I’m really proud of this group. We’ll see how we come back tomorrow and hopefully we don’t have any more injuries.”
The Rams only had a 3.2% win probability with 4:14 left in the game, according to NextGenStats, and they were outgained by the 49ers in nearly every category. “I think just considering the circumstances in the situation, I’m proud of the group,” McVay said of the unlikely win.
“This is a new group. Every year’s a new year. When you look at just some of the different things, some of the adversity that this group’s had to overcome, and it is three games, right? It’s one game. It’s week three of an 18-week season with a buy in between. You [have] 17 of these guaranteed. I’m really proud of the group but I think what comes to mind is mental, physical toughness. Most importantly the mental toughness, the resilience. Those are some of the things that come to mind. Those are the types of men that we have in that locker room. There were some things that went our way. They ended up doing a great job of creating some of the breaks, but there were some things that were fortunate and we’ve got to be able to move forward.
“This league is about how do you continuously move forward. It does seem like we might have come out of this thing pretty clean with injuries, so now you can start developing some continuity. That’s been a challenge for us with all the different moving parts. We haven’t been able to commit to a process because there really hasn’t been one where guys are working together. They’re establishing a rapport, whether that be on the offensive line, (QB) Matthew (Stafford) with some of the receivers.
“I’m hopeful that we’ll get some good news from (Vice President of Sports Medicine and Performance) Reggie (Scott) and we’ll be able to progress with the group that we had out there today.”
Sean McVay hopeful Rams can build on win
After getting in the win column for the first time this season, the Rams will look to keep it going when they face the Chicago Bears on the road next week.
McVay is hopeful that Sunday’s performance will be a building block for the team going forward. “I think it shows that there’s a grit and there’s a mental toughness,” McVay said.
“You look at the week two loss that we sustain, and you give the Cardinals a ton of credit. They forced a lot of the things that didn’t go for us. But even in week one there was examples of us continuing to fight and we just came up short, but there was still a lot of those things that you could witness from this group.
“There’s going to be other adversity that we hit as we continue to move forward. How we handle it, how we act, interact, and respond to all that is going to be key and critical. I think today was a step in the right direction of what these guys are made of.”
