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DETROIT – The Rams entered Ford Field already short-handed for their playoff rematch with the Detroit Lions. Those concerns escalated quickly in the first half, as receiver Puka Nacua and offensive linemen Steve Avila and Joe Noteboom left the game with injuries, and soon the Rams found themselves down by two touchdowns.
It would take a perfect storm for the Rams to make this game competitive. A Kyren Williams touchdown, some Matthew Stafford-to-Cooper Kupp magic and a John Johnson III interception with nothing but his knuckles separating the ball from the turf was enough to get the Rams the lead back in the fourth quarter. The Rams defense even forced the Lions to punt, giving Stafford the ball back with 4:10 to play.
But a difference of opinion on third down gave the Lions life, and an 18-yard pass to Sam LaPorta compounded by a helmet-to-helmet penalty on rookie Kamren Kinchens put the Lions in field goal range. Only an open-field tackle by Quentin Lake in the red zone forced Detroit to kick and send the game to overtime.
By that time, the Rams defense which had fought so valiantly all game was out of gas. The Lions won the toss and pushed the ball all the way down the goal line until David Montgomery ran it in from 1 yard out to deal the Rams a gutting 26-20 loss in the season opener.
“It’s tough when you come out here and you go toe-to-toe,” head coach Sean McVay said. “They gave themselves a chance, we just came up short.
Given how the game started, there was little reason to expect it would be so close.
Stafford had no time to operate on the first drive of the game, a quick three-and-out, and the Rams used Kupp as an extension of the run game on the second drive. Kupp caught five passes in the first quarter, a career-high, while Williams carried the ball just twice.
However, as the first half progressed, Stafford began going deeper into his progressions, trusting that Noteboom and Warren McClendon, starting at right tackle in place of Rob Havenstein (ankle), would give him the time he needed.
But then lightning struck twice at the end of a drive. Nacua slid for a catch and came up limping with a right knee injury. Noteboom rolled his already-taped left ankle. And, insult to injuries, Kupp dropped a tipped pass on fourth down to turn the ball over on downs.
With a 36-yard pass to Jameson Williams, the Lions moved down the field in seven plays for a Jahmyr Gibbs touchdown. Meanwhile, Nacua sat in the injury tent for 10 minutes and Noteboom was carted off the sidelines and into the locker room.
Down 10-3 with 1:57 left in the first half, Nacua started the drive on the field but quickly returned to the sidelines and sat alone on the bench. A.J. Arcuri, elevated Saturday from the practice squad, took over at left tackle for Noteboom.
The Rams still managed to get down to the goal line, but Stafford threw an interception in the end zone trying to fit the ball into Tyler Johnson on a crossing route.
“I don’t hate the decision, I just don’t like the ball that I threw,” Stafford said.
As the Rams went into the halftime locker room, a cart came to take Nacua, who missed much of training camp with a knee injury, off the field. When the Rams returned for the second half, they were without Avila, who played every snap for the Rams a year ago as a rookie.
McVay did not have updates on the three injured players’ statuses following the game.
This pushed Jonah Jackson back out to left guard while rookie Beaux Limmer came in at center as the Rams quietly went three-and-out with their first drive of the second half.
“It’s what we practice,” Stafford said. “I was really proud of the way those guys played, to be honest with you.”
As the offense found its footing, the Rams defense under new coordinator Chris Shula kept the team in the game. The unit held all-pro receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown to three catches for 13 yards and LaPorta to four for 45. It forced four three-and-outs, and had two sacks – one from Byron Young, one from rookie Jared Verse – against the Lions’ talented offensive line.
“They played hard; you could see they had them off-balance,” McVay said. “To have three points at halftime, to have some of the opportunities that we missed offensively … I was really proud of this group.”
Still, the Rams dared the speedy receiver Jameson Williams to beat them, and he did withfive catches for 121 yards. His 52-yard score put the Lions up by two touchdowns in the third quarter, a seemingly insurmountable lead given the Rams’ various injuries.
Still they fought back, first with Williams’ touchdown run and then with a field goal to get within four. The Rams nearly tied the game there, but a holding penalty on Arcuri negated a Jordan Whittington touchdown run.
But Stafford, who completed 34 of 49 passes for 317 yards, and Kupp, who caught 14 passes for 110, gave them the lead back. After a no-look pass to Johnson, Stafford found Kupp along the sidelines for a toe-tapping completion, then again in the flat inside the Lions 10. Kupp lowered his shoulder and got into the end zone.
“That’s vintage Matthew,” Kupp said. “He’s battling out there. I think he rolled his ankle early on, but no one would know. He’s not making a fuss about it. You can tell he’s hurting, but man, being able to grind things out, being able to just hop back into the huddle, snap back, it almost feels un-human, what he’s able to do.”
And when the defense forced a three-and-out, its fourth of the game, the Rams got the ball back with 4:10 to play and the chance to put it away.
A quick first down worked the clock down to around three minutes. But a run for a 2-yard loss by Kyren Williams and a false start by McClendon put the Rams in a passing situation. Another Williams carry made it third-and-10.
Kupp lined up to the right of the line and crossed the field, adjusting to cut off an undercut by the Lions defensive back. Stafford, however, expected Kupp to angle further upfield and lofted his pass accordingly.
“It was one of those situations where we were both making the right decision,” Kupp said, “but it wasn’t the same decision.”
Stafford had his hands on his helmet as he walked off the field after that throw, and the Rams never gained another first down.
“That was the game,” Stafford said. “I had a chance to win it.”
It wasn’t a chance the Rams seemed likely to have in the third quarter. But that didn’t take away the sting of the loss.
“We’re a really young team, and we had a lot of things that went our way and didn’t go our way tonight,” McVay said. “When you come up short, this is a real learning opportunity, growth op for us. I know that this group is going to respond the right way.”
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