The Los Angeles Rams defeated the Baltimore Ravens 17-3 after a dominant start to the second half.
Matthew Stafford threw two quick touchdown passes in the third quarter to secure the lead.
The Ravens played without injured quarterback Lamar Jackson for the second consecutive game.
“It’s early in the season. You don’t take wins for granted,” Rams head coach Sean McVay said. “I’ve certainly learned that. I’m really happy for the group to be able to find a way.”
Finding a way to beat a beleaguered Baltimore squad and figuring out how to contend for a Super Bowl – certainly the goal for the talented group assembled by general manager Les Snead and coached by McVay, the braintrust that led the Rams to a Super Bowl 56 victory – are two different goals. For Sunday, however, the former was sufficient, regardless of how much they tried to beat themselves. The Rams went 2-for-5 in the red zone, and Baltimore held the ball 15 minutes longer than Los Angeles.
“I feel like we moved the ball up and down the field last week and had 400-something yards of offense and lost the game and felt pretty (expletive) about it,” said quarterback Matthew Stafford, who had 181 passing yards while completing 17-of-26 attempts. “Felt good about this one.”
The Rams had last played Thursday, Oct. 2 – a surprising 26-23 loss to the San Francisco 49ers, who were also missing their starting quarterback. Los Angeles had made plenty of mistakes to lose that game despite the offense putting up more than 450 yards, with Stafford accounting for 389 through the air. The Rams’ first-half performance in Baltimore 11 days later, was a continuation of that lack of execution.
Other than the Ravens’ first drive, which ended in a field goal after Derrick Henry ran for 45 of his 122 yards, the defense led the way to victory. Linebacker Nate Landman set a Rams single-game record for tackles (17). They forced three turnovers and forced three turnovers on downs. To start the fourth quarter, Ravens head coach John Harbaugh inserted Tyler “Snoop” Huntley to replace the ineffective Rush. On the other side of the ball, the Rams’ offense was hit-or-miss, Stafford said.
“I don’t think we threw it and caught it as best as we can,” he said. “Sometimes those days happen.”
Stafford – who passed Dan Marino for ninth on the all-time passing yards list – dialed it up out of the locker room, where McVay said he gave his team some added inspiration to live up to their potential. The Rams went on a nine-play, 74-yard touchdown drive that took three minutes and eight seconds off the clock. Davante Adams and Stafford connected for 21 yards on the first play of the half and Stafford also found running back Kyren Williams for a 30-yard fourth-down conversion; Williams scored from three yards out on the next play.
“They’re a team that’s battered and bruised right now, obviously they’re missing their quarterback,” Adams said, “but that’s something we’re not going to apologize for.”
“I feel like we did a good job of figuring out a way to win the game … it’s good. It was a weird one. But we move on and turn the page.”
Ravens wide receiver Zay Flowers, part of the Baltimore offense that desperately missed quarterback Lamar Jackson for the second straight game, coughed up a fumble forced by Rams defensive end Jared Verse and returned to the Baltimore 21-yard line by safety Quentin Lake.
Two plays later, Stafford found Tyler Higbee for a walk-in score and the Rams were up 17-3 with 10:20 left in the third quarter. In less than five minutes, before fans even returned to their seats from halftime restroom and refreshment trips, the Rams reminded everybody why they’re among the NFL’s most dangerous teams.
“We did just enough to win the game,” Stafford said, “which is the name of the game.”
Special teams remained an issue for McVay’s squad. Joshua Karty’s kicking struggles reemerged immediately as he missed a 26-yard chip shot on the Rams’ first possession. His 36-yard field goal in the second quarter had the elegance of a wounded pigeon.
That wasn’t the end of the mishaps. Lake intercepted Ravens quarterback Cooper Rush – starting in place of Jackson, who has a hamstring injury, in the first quarter. Stafford was strip-sacked by John Jenkins on the very next play and Baltimore regained possession.
In the second quarter, a false-start penalty nuked the Rams’ next drive, a three-and-out four minutes before halftime. The Rams punted and forced a fumble on the return. But an ineligible man downfield flag induced a redo of the play. Ravens returner LaJohntay Wester took the next kick 36 yards back to the Rams’ 32-yard line.
It took a goal-line stand by the defense and some suspect Ravens playcalling bailed out the special teams gaffe. The Rams went into halftime tied 3-3 with a team that resembled the corpses of a Halloween display. Whether it was the turnovers or negative plays, McVay knew things had to turn around in the second half.
“The best thing that I saw was the sense of urgency and then the execution that occurred that allowed us to go up 14 points,” he said. “The way that our defense was playing, as long as we didn’t make a catastrophic mistake, we felt like that was enough to control it.”
Stafford and the Rams’ had to navigate a handful of possessions without the league’s top receiver, Puka Nacua. He limped off the field with a left foot injury but eventually returned to the game in the second half.
“Maybe he could have pressed through,” McVay said, “but we were being smart more than anything.”
To start the fourth quarter, McVay left his offense on the field for a fourth-and-3 play from the Ravens six-yard line. Stafford was sacked and instead of making it a three-possession game, the score remained 17-3. Granted, his field-goal unit has not performed at a high level throughout the season, including against the Ravens.
“You’d love to be able to finish some of those drives to close it out,” McVay said.
He added: “We’ll keep growing. We’ll keep learning together.”
