Darnell Sallins, Blogger
January 19, 2025, 6:28PM
As the Philadelphia Eagles celebrate a hard-fought win, the Los Angeles Rams will travel back to Los Angeles contemplating what wrong in the Eagles 28-22 win.
The Los Angeles Rams will see that Eagles RB Saquon Barkley went for over 200 yards rushing and two touchdowns once again. Touchdown runs of 62 and 78 for Barkley. Jalen Hurts's 44-yard touchdown run to start the game. That's about it on the defensive side of the Rams to contemplate, home-run plays given up as those three plays accounted for 21 of the 28 points for the Eagles.
It's on the offensive side that will be doing the heavy contemplating as the game was in fact, in their hands in snowy Philadelphia. Missed opportunities, blown blocking assignments, and turnovers will be on the minds of Sean McVay, Matthew Stafford and the Rams offense.
Stafford was 26 out of 44 passing for 324 yards with two touchdowns but was sacked five times. At least three of the five sacks were due to blown assignments from the offensive line. The main one coming late in the fourth quarter with the Rams down six inside the red zone where center Beaux Limmer failure to block Eagles DT Jalen Carter for a sack of nine yards.
Stafford will look back at his 18 incompletions and will want back about half of those due inaccurate passes from. Inaccurate passes to Cooper Kupp and Puka Nacua where the Rams had chances to make big plays. An inaccurate pass to TE Tyler Higbee early in the game with Higbee wide open. Even though Stafford did not throw an interception, he did fumble the football, and the Eagles recovered it leading to a field goal.
Speaking of fumbling, RB Kyren Williams will be contemplating long and hard about his fumble, which happened before the Stafford's fumble, that changed the momentum of the game into the Eagles favor. After the Rams defense got a safety off a Jalen Hurts sack in the end zone, two play later, Williams fumbled on the Rams 45-yard line. The fumble was recovered by Eagles CB Isaiah Rodgers and returned 40 yards to the Rams 10-yard line. Eagles kick a field goal to go up four points. Six plays later was the Stafford fumble mentioned earlier.
Both turnovers led to six points for the Eagles as the Rams defense stood tall on both occasions. However, the missed opportunities on the offensive end doomed the Rams aspiration of hosting the NFC Championship Game next Sunday. Instead, it's a long flight back to Southern California with the season officially over.
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