As always, let's be honest here: it's been fun to have a football team to care about for the past month. The Patriots (6-7 overall, 2-5 away) had won four of their last five games including Sunday's 45-0 pasting of the Chargers (3-9) to theoretically get back in the AFC playoff hunt. Playing in the same city-Los Angeles-and at the same futuristic stadium-SoFi-four days later, New England was on the other end of a humbling result. In spite of their mediocre quarterback Jared Goff (16-of-25 for 137 yards, TD, INT), the Rams (9-4 overall, 5-1 home) are a really good team and they proved that the Pats were no match for them tonight in a 24-3 win that didn't feel nearly that close. With three games left in the regular season, the Patriots have their most losses since 2002 (also their last season with less than 10 wins) and as a result, they will most likely miss out on the playoffs and their standard AFC East title for the first time since 2009.
New England had 220 total yards and quarterback Cam Newton (9-of-16 for 119 yards, INT) was pulled in the fourth quarter in favor of Jarrett Stidham (5-of-7 for 27 yards) but it made little difference. Before you get your hopes up that Stidham could start next Sunday afternoon (1, CBS) in Miami (8-4), Pats head coach Bill Belichick squashed that potential juicy storyline in his postgame press conference as he stubbornly stood by Newton for whatever reason. Ugh. LA has one of the better defenses in the league and they racked up six sacks including two by defensive tackle Michael Brockers and one-and-a-half by future Hall of Fame defensive tackle Aaron Donald. The two main factors that helped Los Angeles roll were that rookie running back Cam Akers (29 carries, 171 yards) had by far his best day as a pro (1st career 100-yard game) and linebacker Kenny Young had a 79-yard pick-6 early in the second quarter which made it 17-0 Rams and effectively ended it with tons of time left on the clock.
The Rams are trying to win the loaded NFC West and secure home-field advantage in the playoffs so they weren't messing around when they went right down the field on the opening drive (6 plays, 75 yards in 3:39) capped off by a one-yard sneak by Goff. Other than that rough start, the Patriots defense was fine. They only allowed 10 other points on a 35-yard field goal by Matt Gay later in the first quarter and a two-yard touchdown catch by Cooper Kupp in the third quarter. They even set Newton and the offense up with great field position after an amazing interception by undrafted rookie cornerback Myles Bryant who wrestled the ball away from Rams wide receiver Robert Woods. Bryant returned it for a touchdown but he was ruled down by contact so the Patriots got the ball at the Rams 32-yard line only trailing 10-0. After two carries by Pats running back Damien Harris (11 carries, 50 yards), Newton looked for him on a screen pass but it was overthrown (after Donald briefly held him) and Young took it to the house. On the ensuring drive, the Patriots drove to the Rams 2-yard line before offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels called some sort of fake option pitch where Newton got tackled for a loss of two yards. Goodnight Patriots. Nick Folk's 29-yard field goal with 1:04 left in the first half was all that they could muster in 60 minutes.
I don't look at this as revenge for the Super Bowl two years ago since not only have the teams changed drastically (ie. no Tom Brady) but as we all hopefully understand, you cannot compare a regular season game to the NFL title game. LA head coach Sean McVay is no slouch but he has his work cut out for him trying to win a Super Bowl with Goff. Other than him, the Rams basically have everything you want (talented running backs and receivers, decent tight ends, a great defense, one of the best punters ever) in a true contender. As long as Goff as their starter though, I can't see them going all the way. Luckily, the Rams have tons of money invested in him so he probably isn't going anywhere anytime soon.
Of much more interest to us, a Bills (9-3) win on Sunday afternoon vs. the Steelers (11-1) guarantees that either Buffalo or Miami will take the division this season. Furthermore, with playoff spots and seeding to jockey for, it's tough to picture the Patriots beating the Dolphins or Bills (who they host the following week on Monday Night Football) before the season finale against the Jets (0-12) who likely will be cementing a winless masterpiece. In the few times that we have seen Stidham in an actual NFL game, he has shown very little to inspire much confidence that he'll be a starter anytime soon on a good team. With that said, don't you have to at least give him his first career start (not against the Jets) the second that the Patriots are officially eliminated from playoff contention-in the next few days or weeks-just to know what you really have (if anything) in him? It's abundantly clear that Newton's best days are long behind him and whispers about Cam coming back next season to start once again are enough to give us all nightmares. If you don't have a good quarterback, you are doomed and right now, your guess for who will be the next great Pats quarterback is as good as mine.
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