The Los Angeles Rams were widely expected to defeat an injury-riddled San Francisco 49ers team on Thursday at SoFi Stadium and improve to 4-1 on the season. The 49ers were without starting quarterback Brock Purdy, tight end George Kittle, defensive end Nick Bosa and wide receivers Ricky Pearsall, Jauan Jennings and Brandon Aiyuk, and one may have thought that this would be close to a guaranteed win for L.A.
Instead, the Niners jumped out to a shocking 14-0 lead, and while the Rams were able to fight back and force overtime, they made a fatal mistake in the extra period.
While facing a fourth-and-one on San Francisco’s 11-yard line and needing a touchdown to win and a field goal to keep the game going, Rams head coach Sean McVay elected to leave his offense on the field rather than attempt what would’ve likely been a chip-shot field goal. The team handed the football off to running back Kyren Williams, and he was stuffed by Niners defensive backs Deommodore Lenoir and Marques Sigle.
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McVay admitted later that his decision to go for it on that snap was a big mistake for him.
“It was a bad call,” he said, per Dov Kleiman. “It was a bad call by me. … I’m sick right now because I put our players in a [expletive] spot, and I’ve got to live with that.”
McVay was hired by the Rams in 2017 when he was just 30 years of age, and he remains one of the NFL’s youngest head coaches today. He’s regarded as one of the league’s best offensive minds, just as Kyle Shanahan, the Niners’ head coach, is.
Overall, L.A. didn’t exactly play a poor offensive game on Thursday. It had 45 more net passing yards and 49 more total yards than San Francisco did, and wide receiver Puka Nacua continued his sizzling start to the season with 10 catches, 85 yards and one touchdown. Quarterback Matthew Stafford completed 30 of 47 pass attempts for 389 yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions.
But it was its miscues that cost it the game.
With just over a minute remaining in overtime, the Rams were down 23-20 and had a chance to take the lead. They had the football on the Niners’ three-yard line and had Williams barreling down the middle approaching the goal line, when Niners rookie defensive lineman Alfred Collins punched the ball loose and recovered it. The Rams would have to settle for a field goal on their next offensive series to force overtime.
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Los Angeles seems to have enough talent to reach the Super Bowl this winter. But it now has a 3-2 record, and both of its losses have been of the inexcusable variety. It had blown a double-digit lead and lost to the Philadelphia Eagles in Week 3, and losses like that can compound over time and cost a team a chance to be successful when it matters most.
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