The good, the bad, and the ugly in Rams 24-18 loss

The Los Angeles Rams fell short against the Chicago Bears (24-18) to give up their third loss of the season. While there was some positives from the game despite not getting the win, moving to 1-3 on the season is less than ideal.

The good news? LA will be getting some firepower back on both sides of the ball in the near future which could give them the boost they need to get out of the basement of the NFC West. Until then, here is Week 4’s the good, the bad, and the ugly.

The Good

The defense does enough

This may be an unpopular opinion given how bad the defense has been through four weeks, but like last week against the San Francisco 49ers the struggling unit gave Matthew Stafford a chance to stage another comeback. Unlike last week, the offense came up short.

The defensive line had plenty of pressure on former USC quarterback, Caleb Williams, but had a hard time stopping the run despite playing against one of the worst rushing offenses in the league. D’Andre Swift had his game of the season after averaging just 2.2 yards per rush prior to Sunday’s matchup. He finished the game with 16 carries for 93 yards (5.8 average) and a touchdown while also leading the team in receiving with seven receptions for 72 yards.

Otherwise, the Bears offense was fairly quiet. Williams had one of his best outings as a rookie but still only had 157 yards passing and a touchdown that came against a mismatch between linebacker Christian Rozeboom on DJ Moore. For the majority of the day he was being harassed by both Braden Fiske and Jared Verse who both looked absolutely dominant on passing downs. Fiske nearly gave LA a much needed turnover but the sack-fumble was recovered by Chicago and two of Verse’s sacks were negated by defensive holding.

At the end of the day, the defense gave the Rams a chance to win on Sunday but two turnovers by the offense made their efforts fall short.

The Rams will have the best receiving corps in the NFL

Looking at just the stat sheet the Rams offense looked absolutely dominant against a Bears defense that may be one of the best in the league. Tutu Atwell continued his success from last week with four receptions for 82 yards and preseason sensation Jordan Whittington got more action in Week 4 with 62 yards on six receptions. Despite not having the dynamic duo of Cooper Kupp and Puka Nacua, Stafford was able to move the ball through the air with ease.

With both receivers likely coming back after the bye, they will be returning to a receiving room that has proven to be efficient without them. Stafford is getting a chance to build chemistry with pass-catchers he would have likely not thrown to very often if he had all his weapons at his disposal. That is good news for LA and bad news for the rest of the league. Is 1-3 bad? Yes. But there are reinforcements coming to make a real run at this thing in just a few weeks time. Just be patient.

LA’s run game looks lethal

The offensive line may have looked suspect at times on Sunday, especially on Stafford’s final drop back of the game, but give them credit for opening running lanes for both Kyren Williams and Ronnie Rivers. Together the duo combined for 120-yards on the ground and Williams once again found the endzone to keep his scoring streak alive for another week. He ended the game near the 100-yard mark with 94-yards on the ground on 19 attempts.

Despite their success in the run game, Blake Corum has been absolutely under-utilized in four weeks. It was surprising to see Rivers get a share of the touches on Sunday while Les Snead’s third-round draft pick this season had zero opportunities to touch the ball. After hyping Corum up in the offseason one has to wonder if he is has been struggling as of late and has not earned to coaches trust to get the ball when it matters. For the time being he is not needed, but you would think a back picked that high in the draft would see more playing time.

The Bad

Darious Williams’ return couldn’t come faster

As long as Tre’Davious White is starting for LA we may have to consider giving him a permanent spot on “the bad” part of this list. With Ahkello Witherspoon seeing little action after being promoted from the practice squad, the former Buffalo Bill cornerback continued to struggle—this time in the form of penalties, three of them to be exact.

• An illegal blindside block that negated negative a five yard loss on a short pass to Moore. Result of the drive was a punt.
• A defensive holding call that negated a negative seven yard loss on a Verse sack. Result of the drive was a punt.
• A defensive pass interference call that negated a incomplete pass on 3rd-and-9 in the end zone. Result of the drive was a touchdown.

With Darious Williams hopefully returning soon from IR and and Witherspoon ready to be activated, the secondary could change a lot after the the bye. Even on a quiet day from the opposing quarterback White found a way to negatively effect the team, it may be time to move on from the free-agent experiment as other players come back to the active roster.

The Rams beat themselves

Give Chicago all the credit in the world. They have a very talented offense that did not make the mistakes they are accustomed to making and their defense was able to keep LA in check with two turnovers. That being said, the Rams lost because they beat themselves. In four trips to the redzone LA managed just one touchdown. Joshua Karty made some impressive kicks but missed an important one before the end of the half that would have put the Rams in the lead. The team also was hurt by untimely penalties that kept the Bears in the game when they had no reason to be.

Stafford is not omitted from the blame either. He was bailed out on a endzone interception due to a defensive penalty on a play where there was room to run for the first down, leading LA to settle for a field goal. His fumble and interception could be chalked up to poor offensive line play, but he has to take some partial blame for holding on the ball for too long on both turnovers.

The Rams had everything go right for them last week to secure their first win of the year—they weren’t so lucky this week and their mistakes came to haunt them.

The Ugly

We are at the “what was McVay thinking” part of the season

• What was McVay thinking trading Ernest Jones?
• What was McVay thinking going for two points?
• What was McVay thinking with his play calling late in the game?
• What was McVay thinking not utilizing Blake Corum?

It seems to happen every year. Despite being one of the most intelligent and successful coaches in all of football, there is a point in the season where everyone watching Rams football can’t quite understand what they are witnessing. With three losses we have officially entered that timeframe.

With just 6:25 left in the fourth quarter and the defense getting a much needed stop, LA’s drive began at their own 8-yard line. The sequence went as followed: A run play to the right for a 1-yard loss; a run play in shotgun to the right for a 4-yard gain; a screen pass to Williams for a 5-yard gain; Punt.

With the game on the line and little time on the clock it would make sense to put the game in the hands of one of the most clutch quarterbacks in league history. Instead, McVay ran the ball twice and dumped a screen pass to quickly go-three-and-out and give the Bears an opportunity to win the game. Sure, Stafford would get his chance, but regardless of the interception going 92-yards down the field with 1:03 left on the clock and no timeouts is a tall ask without either Kupp or Nacua to throw to.

Even McVay’s play call on the two-point conversion was suspect. Instead of giving the ball to Williams at the goal line (literally his bread-and-butter), the play call was a short fade to the corner of the endzone. Demarcus Robinson may have came down with the catch, but the timing was all off and his feet ended up out-of-bounds.

LA’s head coach always seems to get it together later in the season and he will have plenty of talent coming back to the roster in the near future, but Sunday’s game was more than winnable.