Alexander: No late miracles for Rams this time
SEATTLE — Well, the Rams did have one small triumph on Sunday evening.
Lumen Field can seem like a cauldron of noise when Seahawks fans get going – primarily when the opposition has the ball – and these ominous notes showed up on one of the auxiliary scoreboards: Seattle’s fans have been responsible for 302 false start penalties, and the single-game record is 11.
The Rams didn’t jump, or twitch, or flinch once at the line of scrimmage Sunday. That and five bucks or so will get you one of this city’s most famous products – and yes, they serve Starbucks in the press box here.
But it’s not going to win the Rams a championship this year.
And after two weeks of pulling games out at the end and getting rid of the rancid taste of those two losses in the final three weeks of the season, they ran out of answers. The Seahawks lived up to their No. 1 seeding – achieved in part at the expense of the Rams – and earned a Super Bowl berth with a 31-27 victory.
(Which means, incidentally, a Seahawks-Patriots rematch in two weeks in Super Bowl LX at Levi’s Stadium. Given the circumstances when the teams met in Super Bowl XLIX, when Seahawks coach Pete Carroll called a pass at the goal line in the final minute and Malcolm Butler intercepted it to secure New England’s 28-24 victory, do you think there may be a campaign for the Seahawks to sign Marshawn Lynch to a two-week contract just in case?)
While the podium was wheeled out Sunday night, as the confetti fell and the “NFC Champions” T-shirts and hats were passed out to the home team, the visitors pondered a season cut short and a championship ambition thwarted. They may have shone in one small aspect of the game, but there are others about which they’ll be asking themselves, “What if?”
For instance, there was the punt by Seattle’s Michael Dickson after his team sputtered on its first series of the second half. It turned into a 56-yard gain for the Seahawks instead, when Xavier Smith’s left leg buckled and he fell to the turf and muffed the catch. Dareke Young recovered for Seattle at the Rams’ 17, and on the next play, Sam Darnold fired a touchdown pass to Jake Bobo for a 24-13 lead.
He wasn’t available after the game, as you might expect. Matthew Stafford was asked what he would tell Smith.
“I’ll tell him I love him, and I do,” he said. “Guy wants to go out there and make every play he possibly can. And sometimes it doesn’t happen. I’ve been in those situations and it doesn’t change how I feel about the human being and the person and the player. I love the guy, trust him and wish nothing but the best for him.
“Obviously, a mistake that he doesn’t want to have happen, but we had our opportunities after that to grab hold of the game and make enough plays to win it, we just didn’t do it.”
There was a Darnold the Rams haven’t seen much of in their last few meetings: No interceptions, one sack. In the two regular season meetings with the Seahawks this year, he’d thrown six picks, and he was sacked four times in Seattle’s 38-37 overtime victory in December. A year ago, in the Rams’ playoff victory over Minnesota, Darnold was intercepted once and sacked nine times.
But it wouldn’t be unfair to say that these were the two best teams in the NFC, and not just the last two standing. Maybe – maybe – even the two best teams in the league, as the top finishers in the NFL’s toughest division.
That’s not much comfort now for the Rams.
“Didn’t (ever) really expect this,” Coach Sean McVay said. “We came here with the expectations to win. We had our chances. They made their plays, and it was a great back and forth game by two great teams, but it’s a couple critical errors that ended up costing us.
“I think the finality of all of it … you don’t allow yourself to even think about anything other than just advancing. I felt like we were gonna be the team on that podium, and we weren’t. And you know, give Seattle the credit. I love this group, and I’m never really short on words, (but) I am right now.”
Stafford may turn out to be the league MVP, and he engineered late magic in the first two rounds of the postseason against Carolina and Chicago. But a 374-yard, three-touchdown game wasn’t enough Sunday, and none of that late magic materialized even after the Rams had cut Seattle’s lead to 31-27 on a 34-yard touchdown pass with 2:06 left in the third quarter.
A drive to the Seattle 6-yard line fell short midway through the fourth quarter, and by the time the Rams got the ball back, there were just 25 seconds left. They began the possession at their own 7, and it truly would have taken a miracle – not just one answered prayer but multiple Hail Marys – to even get this one to overtime.
Is this the last we’ve seen of Stafford? There’s speculation that he might be ready to call it quits, but he parried that question thusly: “I can’t generalize six months of my life 10 minutes after a loss. So, appreciate the guys in the locker room, whole hell of a lot, everybody that helped me and helped our team be as successful as we were this year. And that’s all I have for you.”
In any event, this will be a different group when it convenes for training camp in July, because a certain amount of roster churn is a way of life in the NFL. And many of the comments among the Rams Sunday night expressed disappointment that this particular group wouldn’t have at least two more weeks and one more game together.
“Just super proud of these guys, the way that we continue to fight, regardless of what it looked like, regardless of what it felt like,” defensive end Kobie Turner said. “And honestly, just honored to be a part of this team and to have been on this journey with these guys. That’s the most special part of all of this. Obviously, this one stings, but the most special part is this journey.
“… I can’t wait to be able to come back next year and to continue to build on this.”
jalexander@scng.com