The Los Angeles Rams have in the battle for the crown of the NFC West with an impressive 30: returned 20 victory over the Arizona Cardinals in Week 14th The home side again have to shake twice.
The Cardinals ended their first drive of the game with a 53-yard field goal by Matt Prater. Then they kept the visitors in three-and-out and then marched into the Red Zone. There, however, superstar Aaron Donald came on the scene and forged a pass from Kyle Murray over the middle toward tight end Zach Hertz from critical, so the leather in the arms of linebacker Earnest Jones landed — interception deep in the Red Zone!
The Rams took advantage of this mistake of immediately and turned the game — after ten play down eventually fired Matthew Stafford a laser to Odell Beckham on a slant route in the end zone for a touchdown. A little later increased Kicker Matt Guy keeping the Rams by a 55-yard field goal.
There followed a wild closing stages of the first half. The Cardinals came once more into the Red Zone and this time running back James Conner ran despite contact in the backfield by Donald at 4th and Goal from the one in the end zone to compensate. Then both sides put even more field goals in the final 40 seconds after — Pause as of 13:13.
In the second half, the Rams turned on then. After less than two minutes in the third quarter fired Stafford play-action pass and a roll-out a 52-yard touchdown pass to Van Jefferson, whose father Shawn Jefferson the wide receiver coach the Cardinals. A little later, Murray threw an interception to Edge Rusher Leonard Floyd and as a result, the Rams increased even on a 14-point lead by a remarkable 4-yard touchdown pass from Stafford in a very narrow window to Krupp into the end zone.
Then succeeded the Rams also a stop in their own Red Zone at 4th Down — favored by an extremely rare drop from wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins. The Rams gave the ball, but before the end of the quarter per punt return.
Cardinals vs. Rams: Double setback for Arizona
After a few miracles litters of Murray at Hopkins and A.J. Green the Cardinals were then in no time into position, Conner from the Wildcat then got out of the 8-yard line the rest — touchdown to 20:27 from the viewpoint of Cardinals at the beginning of the fourth quarter. The response of the Rams was a watchable Drive, however, resulted in only a field goal because the referee in the sack of Jordan Phillips against Stafford in 3rd Down in the Red Zone overlooked a clear facemask penalty of the defender. However, clients increased in order to play their leadership on two scores with only 7:20 minutes. The decision was then, when he failed the Cardinals for a third time to utilize a 4th-and-short — the Rams stopped Conner in his own half in the backfield.
However, the Cardinals scored in the final minute even a field goal and captured the onside kick, but then they ran out of time. The finale finally sat Donald with his third sack in the game.
This defeat is doubly bitter for the Cardinals, because for one they lost so first time the top seed of the NFC to the Green Bay Packers. Secondly, they now have only one game lead in the NFC West for the Rams, who are now back within striking distance.
Arizona Cardinals (10-3) — Los Angeles Rams (9-4)
Result 23:30 (3: 0, 10:13, 00:14, 10: 3) Box score
Cardinals vs. Rams — key statistics
Kyle Murray’s interception was in the first half only his second from inside the 5-yard line in his career. The first was against the Packers at the end of the game in weeks. 8
Odell Beckham scored a touchdown in the third game in a row. That was not succeeded since, 2015.
Andrew Whitworth is the first left tackle in the history of the NFL, which is accrued at the age of 40 years as a starter.
James Conner scored his touchdown in the second quarter after being at the 3-yard line had been touched by an opponent first. He is the first player this season, who scored a touchdown from the 1-yard line after being touched in the backfield.
DeAndre Hopkins afforded the 4th-down stop of the Rams end of the third quarter its first drop this season. It was therefore his first drop after 23 games in series without one.
The star of the game: Matthew Stafford (QB, Rams)
After a prolonged period of weakness Stafford reported (23/30, 287 YES, 3 TD) back impressively. Although he wobbled on occasion in the first half, but he improved tremendously with continuous playing time. He scored some impressive passes when the situation required. And he brought the big-time throws with remarkable coolness, also made few significant errors. A strong presentation of the Rams QBs.
The Flop of the Game: Kyle Murray (Quarterback, Cardinals)
Of course, Murray ultimately played back spectacular, but he finally made a few heavy mistakes too much to keep his team here really in the game. His first interception was of course unfortunate because the ball was composited, but Hertz was well conceded in the end zone anyway well. The second pick then went completely on Murray’s cap. In addition, before the break, he had a few too many wild litters in it, who made their targets far, far away. His MVP opportunities suffered a clear setback through this performance. Later he could even have been able to throw a few more picks.
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Analysis: Cardinals vs. Rams — The tactical panel
The Rams, where Corner back Galen Ramsey and Tight End Tyler ZigBee were set to Covid-IR, had to quickly find answers to these failures. In the Secondary, a lot of zones was then played to distribute the load to several shoulders. However, it was noticeable that Ramsey’s Star role was most likely to take David Long, especially in the slot.
The Cardinals in turn attacked Corner back Kareem Orr, which was activated by the Practice Squad, if that was on the court. He then mostly played outside and had a lot of problems in Coverage.
ZigBee in turn was usually not replaced directly. Instead, the RAMs were more common — even in Run situations — on 10-person personnel, whereby the receivers — all ahead of Cooper climb — helped with run blocking. In addition, it was conspicuous that the RAMs usually rely on short passes like screens and plants, instead of taking too much risk. One of the few significant deep shots was then the 52-yard touchdown of Van Jefferson in the third quarter. When a tight end was needed, the Rams liked to turn to Kendall Blanton, which is actually the number 3 of the TE-Depth chart of the team.
Creative, the RAMs were set up especially with a cup, the outside, in the slot, as a quasi-tight-end and even in the backfield, to bring him to beneficial matchups via Scheme.