The Los Angeles Rams (5-6) suffered a crushing loss at the hands of the red hot Philadelphia Eagles (9-2) on Sunday Night Football at SoFi Stadium. Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford addressed the media postgame
The Eagles were able to pressure Stafford for a majority of the night, earning five sacks for 45 lost yards and 11 quarterback hits. The Rams did all they could in the first half to keep it close, but the quarterback pressure was overwhelming and the Eagles dominated offensively.
Rams running back Kyren Williams lost a fumble on the opening drive, but quickly responded with a rushing touchdown on the following drive. He was solid tonight, but no running back in the league would be able to compare to Eagles' Saquon Barkley's season-high 255 rush yards and two scores.
"They rushed four the majority of the night, that's kind of what they do," Stafford said. "[They] didn't do anything that we didn't expect, just executed a little bit better than we did, had to stay ahead of the chains a little bit better than we did. First couple drives were nice, we were moving the ball in the first one, had the unfortunate turnover. Second one, went down and scored, one score game at half time. Obviously, had those three drives at the end of the first that ended as three and outs, which were not ideal, putting our defense out there, but they kept us in it. And then just didn't do enough in the second half to keep it close."
One of the bigger issues that has plagued this Rams offense for a majority of the season has been their ability to convert on third down and maintain longer drives that lead to points. The Rams were 0-8 on third down conversions in the loss, failing to put themselves in easy third down situations.
For much of the game, the Rams were set up with third and long scenarios due to a few sacks, a penalty here or there, and 12 incompletions from Stafford.
"We didn't put ourselves in a lot of favorable ones today, so you don't do that against that defense, it's going to be difficult no doubt," Stafford said. "There are some that we can convert on, look back on, but it takes great execution by everybody to convert on third down. We just got to do a better job."
Going forward, the Rams are tied for last in the NFC West with the San Francisco 49ers (5-6). With six games left to play, the Rams will need to go on a similar run from last year when they won seven of their final eight games to clinch a Wild Card spot.
That goal will start on the road against the New Orleans Saints (4-7) in Week 13. Stafford offered his experience in games such as this and the approach to the final stretch of the season in hopes of stringing together enough wins to possibly climb back and win the division.
"Obviously look at the tape of this one, figure out where to go from there as far as what you did wrong, how can we correct those things, not going to let these guys beat us twice," Stafford said. "This is the NFL, you play this game long enough, you're going to have unfortunate nights. You're going to have nights where you don't play as good as you possibly can. You don't ever want them to get out of hand like they did, but got to move on to the next one and give your full attention to the next team."
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This article was originally published on www.si.com/nfl/rams/ as Rams' Matthew Stafford Had Blunt Words Following Loss.