Rams squander opportunities in overtime loss to Ravens

The Rams can’t say they didn’t have their opportunities against the Baltimore Ravens. From a three-point lead at halftime, to a go-ahead Demarcus Robinson TD with 4:41 to play, to a game-tying field from Lucas Havrisik with seven seconds to play, to a three-and-out forced by the defense to open overtime.

Even after the Rams had their own three-and-out, they had not one, not two, but five opportunities to tackle punt returner Tylan Wallace. Instead, Wallace returned it 76 yards, steadying himself just enough to leap into the end zone and break the Rams’ hearts with a 37-31 loss.

There may have been a block in the back on the return, but head coach Sean McVay did not see it in the moment.

“I saw a good return, a lot of missed tackles,” McVay said. “My mindset was on there was some things that we could have certainly learned from to not be in that punt situation.”

After Robinson put the Rams (6-7) ahead against his former team, the Ravens (10-3) broke up a two-point conversion that would have made it a seven-point game. The Rams defense let Baltimore move down the field with relative ease as soft coverage allowed receivers to get open underneath. Still, a Byron Young sack had the Rams situated to get the game-winning stop with third down at the Rams 21.

But Lamar Jackson found Zay Flowers for a touchdown and subsequent two-point conversion to give the Ravens a three-point lead with 1:16 left.

Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford quickly marched downfield with chunk plays to Robinson and Cooper Kupp. Facing third-and-six with 16 seconds left, Stafford, after a game full of headset issues, could not hear McVay’s play call and had to take the Rams’ final timeout of the half. The Rams could no longer aim for a first down, and instead Stafford’s end zone shot to Robinson went out of bounds.

“To end it there would have been nice,” Stafford said. “There’s a million plays in a game, right? I mean, there’s a million of them. The two-point conversion that they PBU’d, maybe the game’s different there, a field goal wins it for us. There’s a million of them.”

In came Havrisik, who nearly lost his job to veteran Mason Crosby this week, and he snuck a 31-yarder inside the right upright to send the game to overtime. But the Rams weren’t able to capitalize on his heroics.

The Rams took some ownership of the line of scrimmage early. Outside linebacker Michael Hoecht had a third-down stuff to give the Rams a long-awaited stop on the opening drive after giving up touchdowns to start games in three straight weeks.

Then the Rams rolled out nine consecutive run plays to open the game, gaining 52 yards to get to the Ravens 9. It was the first time since 2004 that the Rams opened a game with nine carries.

Oddly, though, the Rams abandoned the run in the and-goal situation, throwing three straight incomplete passes just to settle for a field goal.

After a couple of punts, the Rams and Ravens traded aerial shots that belied the rainy, windy condition at M&T Bank Stadium.

The first shot came from the Ravens. Tight end Isaiah Likely went in motion and found himself wide open on the right side of the Rams defense. None of the three DBs on that side of the field recognized what was happening, and only safety John Johnson III tried to react from the opposite half of the field before Jackson hit Likely for a 54-yard touchdown.

Stafford responded by hitting Robinson for 22 yards and Kupp for 27 before throwing a ball up into the corner of the end zone before Kupp had even broken outside. Still, Stafford’s faith was rewarded as Kupp came down with the six-yard score.

It took Baltimore five plays to retake the lead as former Ram Odell Beckham Jr. beat Jordan Fuller deep for a 46-yard touchdown, rolling into the end zone. The Rams appeared poised to go three-and-out, but the Ravens went offsides on fourth down to extend the Rams drive. Stafford made them pay by hitting rookie Davis Allen for his first career touchdown.

Despite a 20-17 halftime lead, the Rams opened the second half with four consecutive punts. Their only points in the third quarter came courtesy of a safety, with Jackson kicking a loose ball out of the end zone rather than allow a defensive touchdown. The Ravens managed two field goals and took a 23-22 lead.

After a chaotic fourth quarter and overtime, the Rams found themselves on the wrong side of the result.

“I’ve never been a part of that,” McVay said when asked about the walk-off punt return.

The Rams now enter a critical stretch of their season, still in the hunt for a wild card spot with four games to play. That starts with a two games at home in five-day stretch, first against the Commanders next Sunday and then against the Saints on a Thursday night.

“We want to be able to come away with the win but I think there’s a lot of things that when you know what you’re looking at, we can take this right way,” McVay said. “It’s ok to hurt right now — that was a gut-wrenching loss, guys put a lot out there — but we’re not going to let the Ravens beat us twice, I can promise you that.”