Sean McVay spoke the words sitting on the tongue of every spectator following the Los Angeles Rams’ inexplicable comeback win over the San Francisco 49ers.
“Holy s—,” McVay beamed.
Sport
UNLEASHED: ‘Stafford is no stranger to the comeback’ “NFL is an improbable business, You Have to know what’s gonna happen!!
In the battle of the California Walking Woundeds, the Rams trailed the Niners by double digits deep into the fourth quarter. Down 24-17, 4:14 remaining and the Niners driving, L.A.’s win probability was as low as 3.2%, per Next Gen Stats.
Then, mayhem broke out.
Niners kicker Jake Moody missed a 55-yard field goal that would have put San Francisco back up 10 points. The Rams took just three plays from scrimmage to set up a Kyren Williams 3-yard touchdown run to tie the game with 1:54 left. The defense then forced a Niners punt, which Xavier Smith returned to the 50-yard-line. A deep shot from Matthew Stafford drew a defensive pass interference penalty, setting up Joshua Karty’s game-winning field goal.
“I’m not into improbable, probable,” Stafford said, via the Associated Press. “NFL is an improbable business, I’ll tell you that much. You never know what’s gonna happen week in and week out. You’ve got to go out there and earn it and prove it, and we did that.”
Stafford is no stranger to the comeback. Sunday marked his 45th game-winning drive in the fourth quarter or overtime in his 16-year career, the seventh-most since at least 1970.
However, this week, he did so without his top two receivers, Cooper Kupp and Puka Nacua, as McVay shifted from his standard 11 personnel into more 12 personnel (two tight ends).
While the Rams celebrated their improbable victory, the Niners lamented the miscues.
“You’ve got to take their hope away,” Shanahan said per ESPN. “You give Stafford too much hope [and] you put a ball in his hands at the end, it’s not a situation you want to be in.”
The Niners, who themselves were missing Christian McCaffrey, Deebo Samuel and George Kittle on offense, got a three-touchdown performance from Brock Purdy and a breakout performance from Jauan Jennings (11/175/3).
However, the usually stout Niners D couldn’t get a stop, allowing the Rams to score on each of their final four possessions.
“It was unacceptable,” linebacker Fred Warner said. “We can’t do that. We can’t beat ourselves. Can’t make those type of mistakes again. All three phases have got to play better. We’ll look at the tape, fix it and move on.”
Shanahan’s club fumbled a chance to add to their 14-7 halftime lead, watched Moody miss a long kick, couldn’t generate a game-sealing first down, and allowed a fake punt conversion and a big punt return.
“That’s where I thought we had a chance to run away with it, not give them any hope,” Shanahan said. “That gave them a lot of hope. Got them back in it … those are three big plays in the game.”
The sliver of hope is all McVay’s club needed to avoid a 0-3 start.
It marked the first game the Rams won in which they had a 14-plus point deficit at any point of the game since Week 2, 2012 against Washington (a club with Shanahan and McVay on the coaching staff). L.A. had been 0-28 in such games in the McVay era.
