Rams' season comes to early end against Falcons

The Rams inexperience was evident last Saturday in the NFC wildcard matchup with the defending conference champion Atlanta Falcons. The Rams were defeated in Los Angeles, 26-13, in the first playoff football game in Tinseltown in over 24 years. 

Jared Goff seemed uneasy in the first quarter but the second year quarterback eventually settled down in his playoff debut. Goff was pressured by the Falcons defense but managed to complete 24 of his 45 pass attempts for 259 yards and a touchdown. He was also sacked three times.

Goff’s favorite receivers, Robert Woods and Cooper Kupp, led the aerial attack with a combined 211 yards receiving. Woods caught nine passes for 142 yards and Kupp caught eight for 69 yards and a touchdown.

Goff protected the football, which was one of the most important keys to victory but Todd Gurley wasn’t utilized to his full potential. Gurley has been the most valuable player on the Rams, if not the entire league, all season but only carried the ball 14 times for 101 yards.

Gurley averaged 7.2 yards per carry with a long of 33 yards.  He should have been fed the ball the second half and utilized more in the passing game.  He only had four catches for ten yards and was unable to find paydirt on the ground or through the air.

The biggest surprise Saturday was the silly mistakes made by the Rams’ usually solid special teams. After an entire season of near perfection, John Fassel’s squad coughed up two costly fumbles. 

Pharoh Cooper was invited to the Pro Bowl after a stellar season returning punts and kicks but he had a disappointing outing on Saturday. He averaged just 1.8 yards per punt return and fumbled a kick return that set up a short Falcon touchdown drive in the second quarter.

The Rams defense kept them in the game but the highest scoring offense in the league could not put up any points to help the cause.

Aaron Donald was double teamed all day but managed to get a half sack on Matt Ryan and finished with five tackles. Lamarcus Joyner was a tackling machine, leading all players with 11 total tackles. 

Atlanta’s fastest linebacker, Deion Jones, was flying around the field creating havoc. He led the Falcons with ten tackles including one for loss.
    
On offense, the Falcons were much more methodical and balanced than the Rams. The Falcons ran 72 plays on offense: 33 pass plays to 39 runs. The Rams ran the ball just 16 times and called on Goff to throw the ball 48 times. 

Why would anyone ask a second-year quarterback in their playoff debut to throw the ball 48 times? It is a miracle Goff didn’t turn the ball over once.  

Why wouldn’t you ride the horse that led you to the postseason once you got there? Gurley should have touched the ball a minimum of 25-30 times. He should have had at least 20 rushes and eight to ten screen passes thrown to him. 

I know it is easy to coach from a couch, or in my case, a computer screen, but it was bewildering to see McVay depend so much on Goff down the stretch in the biggest game of his life.

Regardless of the results of last week’s performance, the Rams and their fans have a lot to look forward to in the years to come. Many players and coaches in the organization believe this is just the beginning.

Unfortunately, they already lost Greg Olson, Rams quarterback coach. Olson will join John Gruden in Oakland as the Raiders new offensive coordinator. The Rams are on the hunt for Goff’s third QB coach in three years.

Sean McVay was named the NFC Coach of the Year, Todd Gurley was named the NFC Offensive Player of the Year, and Aaron Donald was named the Defensive Player of the Year on Wednesday.