Rams-49ers Game Post Game Coverage

[RamBill]

Rams Suffer OT Defeat to 49ers in Season Finale

By Myles Simmons

View: http://www.stlouisrams.com/news-and-events/article-1/Rams-Suffer-OT-Defeat-to-49ers-in-Season-Finale/9060bc1d-2bde-41b6-8369-b7dd073601eb


SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- The Rams had their chances, but did not do enough to win, falling to the 49ers in overtime, 19-16, on Sunday afternoon at Levi's Stadium. With the loss, St. Louis finishes the 2015 season 7-9.

The St. Louis offense was effective early to take a quick lead. On the first play of the Rams’ second drive, quarterback Case Keenum dropped back for a play action pass and fired off a deep ball to the right side. Britt had a step on the San Francisco corner and went up to make the catch for a 54-yard gain to the home team’s 33-yard line. The long play set up a Greg Zuerlein 33-yard field goal for the Rams to take an early 3-0 lead.


But after that, St. Louis had trouble defending a pair of explosive plays, both of which led to San Francisco points. For the first, Niners quarterback Blaine Gabbert found Anquan Boldin in the middle of the field to open the second quarter. The wide receiver then shed his defender and walked into the end zone for a 33-yard touchdown, putting the Niners up 7-3.

San Francisco then used a 47-yard run by DuJuan Harris on 3rd-and-3 to move all the way up to St. Louis’ nine-yard line. The defense held the home team to a field goal, but the explosive play set up the Niners to increase their lead to 10-3.

But after the field goal, the Rams got back on the board with a 12-play drive. Promoted this week from the practice squad, running back Malcolm Brown received his first carries and gained positive yardage, helping the visitors move the ball into San Francisco territory. Eventually, Zuerlein converted a 32-yard field goal to make the score 10-6.


St. Louis then capitalized on a golden opportunity to get points off a takeaway. With just under two minutes remaining in the second quarter, Gabbert dropped back to throw a screen, but defensive tackle Aaron Donald read the play and tipped the ball in the air. Defensive end Eugene Sims came down with it and then showed some strong athleticism, returning the ball all the way to the San Francisco 3-yard line.

From there, Tre Mason did the rest, running the ball in on a pitch play from 4 yards out on second down for a touchdown. Mason’s first score of the season got the Rams back in front, 13-10.

The visitors increased that margin with a quick drive at the end of the second quarter. The defense forced a Niners punt, and the Rams got going with a 40-yard run by Benny Cunningham. The MTSU product put St. Louis at the San Francisco 26-yard line, and Zuerlein connected on a 44-yard field goal to increase the lead to 16-10.


The two teams traded field-goal attempts in the third quarter, but only the home team’s Phil Dawson was able to connect. After Zuerlein’s miss from 52-yards out, Trumaine Johnson narrowly missed his eighth interception to break up a Gabbert fourth-down pass.

But with a long fourth-quarter drive, the Niners tied the game. A 12-play, 60-yard drive advanced as far as the St. Louis eight-yard line, but Gabbert mishandled a pitch to Harris from that spot. The running back recovered the fumble at the St. Louis 20, and Dawson made a 38-yard field goal to tie the game at 16.

Neither team scored again in regulation, and the game went to overtime.

San Francisco got the ball first, but a Gabbert 3rd-and-10 pass at midfield sailed as Donald made a QB hit.

The Rams got the ball back and proceeded to move to the San Francisco 30-yard line. But Zuerlein’s 48-yard field goal was blocked, giving the 49ers another chance to win the game.

That they did, as a 33-yard pass from Gabbert to Quinton Patton set the Niners up at the Rams’ 5-yard line. From there, Dawson made a 23-yard field goal to send St. Louis home with a loss.

 

[RamBill]

Jeff Fisher: Todd Gurley missed game with 'mild turf toe'
By Nick Wagoner

http://espn.go.com/blog/st-louis-ra...er-todd-gurley-missed-game-with-mild-turf-toe

St. Louis Rams running back Todd Gurley was a pregame inactive for Sunday's 19-16 overtime loss to the San Francisco 49ers.

It was the first game Gurley missed since Week 2 when he was still recovering from the torn ACL he suffered in 2014. But the Rams didn't want to take any chances with Gurley after he battled a foot injury all week.

After the game, Rams coach Jeff Fisher offered a little more on the nature of Gurley's injury.

"So, just a little bit of detail on Todd and his status, he’s got a mild turf toe," Fisher said. "Nothing that’s going to set him back, nothing that’s going to be a problem for him, but we didn’t feel like it was necessary to mess with it and create the possibility where we could damage the joint a little bit more. So, we decided to hold him today.”

That was probably a wise decision considering that the Rams had nothing more than the chance to get to .500 on the line in this game. Despite holding Gurley out after he missed practice all week, he finished third in the NFL in rushing yards with 1,106. He also rushed for 10 touchdowns, good for a tie for fourth in the NFL and only one behind the three backs tied for first.

All of that production came in just 13 games, one of which was Gurley's debut where he was only getting his feet wet against Pittsburgh. Those numbers should be enough to land Gurley squarely in the conversation, along with Tampa Bay quarterback Jameis Winston and Oakland receiver Amari Cooper, for the Offensive Rookie of the Year award.

Even without Gurley against the 49ers, the Rams still managed to rush for 133 yards on 33 carries but 77 of those came on four runs, meaning the Rams averaged 1.93 yards on their other 29 carries. That's not enough to keep the chains moving on a consistent basis or put points on the board. That inability to keep moving forward was especially costly in overtime when the Rams went conservative before attempting a game-winning field goal that was eventually blocked.

“They’re a stout front," Fisher said. "Disregard their rankings, their rushing defense, they’re a stout front. They’re hard to move. When they anticipate run, they play it well. They’re sturdy. We ran the ball, and we had over 100 yards rushing. We had the big play by Benny Cunningham. It’s just hard. I’m just disappointed for them, because once Kenny [Britt] made the catch, we got down there and said, ‘Okay, let’s run three times and not give up any minus yards and kick the field goal and go home’ and we weren’t able to do it.”

 

[Merlin]

‘Okay, let’s run three times and not give up any minus yards and kick the field goal and go home’

:headexplosion:

 

[RamBill]

Bitter ending by the Bay for Rams
• By Jim Thomas

http://www.stltoday.com/sports/foot...cle_033eb812-b230-5218-8bd1-38bc7cecee4f.html


SANTA CLARA, CALIF. • If this was it for the “St. Louis” Rams, what a bitter way to go out. A week after leading the mighty Seattle Seahawks wire to wire, on Sunday the Rams couldn’t put away one of the league’s worst teams.

After a dominating close to the second quarter resulted in a 16-10 lead, the Rams’ offense got stuck in neutral the rest of the way. A pair of Phil Dawson field goals for San Francisco forced overtime, and then another won it for the 49ers — 19-16 — with 3 minutes, 27 seconds remaining in overtime.

If this indeed was the last game played for the franchise before relocating to Los Angeles, some of the lingering memories will be of catchable passes by Brian Quick, Tavon Austin, Kenny Britt and others ending up on the turf at Levi’s Stadium.

Penalties. More penalties, a trademark of coach Jeff Fisher’s teams in St. Louis. There was a costly roughing the passer flag against defensive end William Hayes, one that jump-started the 49ers’ game-winning field goal drive.

The last two kicks of what was Greg Zuerlein’s worst NFL season went awry. A 48-yard attempt that would’ve ended the game was blocked by San Francisco’s Dontae Johnson with 4:49 left in OT. Earlier, a 52-yarder that would’ve given the Rams a 19-13 lead late in the fourth quarter sailed wide right.

Throughout the game, a Rams defense that was ranked fifth in the league at midseason gave up one big play after another against a weak 49ers offense that entered the game ranked 31st.

San Francisco quarterback Blaine Gabbert, the University of Missouri and Parkway West High product, eluded Rams pass-rushers time after time in throwing for a career-high 354 yards. Included in his 28 completions were eight of more than 20 yards. Included in that group were gains of 44, 33 (twice), and 31 (twice).

Cornerback Janoris Jenkins fell down on the first of those 33-yard receptions, allowing Anquan Boldin to score the 49ers’ only touchdown of the day 8 seconds into the second quarter

The ’Niners also had a 47-yard gain by running back DuJuan Harris, whom they plucked off the street a couple of weeks ago, to set up the first of four Dawson field goals.

“That’s not characteristic of us,” Fisher said, referring to all the long-gainers by the 49ers (5-11).

The last of those big plays proved to be the killer — an underneath pass from Gabbert to Quinton Patton in which strong safety Maurice Alexander over-pursued on what should have been a short gain. Free safety Rodney McLeod then whiffed on a tackle attempt at the St. Louis 25.

After a 33-yard gain, Patton was finally brought down at the St. Louis 5. Out trotted Dawson for the game-winner from 23 yards, and the Rams were done for the season and perhaps done for St. Louis.

So much for trying to finish 5-1 in the NFC West for the first time since 2004. So much for trying to win four games in a row for the first time since 2003.

And so much for finishing at .500 for the first time in nearly a decade.

“It really wasn’t about 8-8,” defensive end Chris Long said. “That would have been a byproduct of us winning the game. I mean, our goals were bigger than 8-8.”

Maybe so, but 8-8 would have at least meant a sliver of progress. Instead, it’s a 7-9 finish for the Rams, extending their league-worst stretch of losing seasons to nine in a row. Four of them have come under the watch of Fisher, who appears to be in absolutely no danger of losing his job, according to team sources.

“Well, that was a tough way to end it,” Fisher said. “We practiced hard, we played hard. In games like this you’ve got to find ways to make plays. And they made the plays.

“We had opportunities. We had opportunities to catch the ball. We had opportunities to kick the winning field goal and it didn’t happen.”

The Rams played without Pro Bowl running back Todd Gurley, who was a pregame scratch because of what Fisher called a mild case of turf toe suffered late in last week’s victory in Seattle.

How much did the Rams miss Gurley?

“Well, we missed a lot of players out there today,” Fisher said. “They’re not excuses, but Rob Quinn’s a good football player. So is Alec Ogletree. And T.J. (McDonald). So it’s hard to say.”

All true, but the offense wasn’t the same without Gurley, who rushed for 1,106 yards in 13 games. His replacement Sunday, second-year pro Tre Mason, did score his first touchdown of the season, on a 4-yard run with 1:31 to play in the second quarter to give the Rams a 13-10 lead.

The play was designed to be a halfback pass, but with no one open Mason kept the ball and scooted across the goal line around right end.

But Mason had only 44 yards on 18 carries. Take away a 40-yard run by Benny Cunningham that set up a Zuerlein field goal in the waning seconds of the first half, and the Rams averaged less than 3 yards a carry with 93 yards on 32 attempts.

In the end, a week of practices in the Napa Valley, designed to keep the Rams fresh and avoid jet lag, didn’t lead to a crisp, focused performance. The Rams missed more tackles than they had in weeks and were penalized 11 times for 105 yards.

All in all, the Rams looked more like the team that lost five game straight games in November and early December, than the squad that defeated Detroit, Tampa Bay and the Seahawks entering Sunday’s game.

Owner Stan Kroenke, who wants to move the team to Los Angeles, was in attendance Sunday. With his entourage in tow, he walked past several media members on his way to the Rams’ locker room after the game without comment.

As has been the case all season, Fisher and Rams players had little that was new or revealing to say about the potential move of the team to Southern California.

“It’s over my head,” said defensive end Eugene Sims, whose 42-yard interception return, on a Gabbert pass tipped by Aaron Donald, set up that Mason touchdown. “I don’t have any authority to say anything about that. So we’ll see how that goes.”

Rams quarterback Case Keenum, who completed 22 of 37 passes for 231 yards but wasn’t as sharp as he’d been in recent games, said: “I’m not qualified to say any of that (relocation) stuff. But I love representing St. Louis. My wife and I have been accepted by the community. It’s been great.”

For much of the season when quizzed on the relocation subject, Rams players and Fisher talked about focusing on the task at hand — meaning that week’s game. Now that the games are done for another season, is it a topic they’ll think about now?

Fisher wouldn’t bite.

“This game ended about 20 minutes ago,” he said “So I’ve got injury issues, and check-out physicals, and all those things we have to deal with. And we’ll see where we are.”

And see where the Rams are after 21 seasons in St. Louis.

 

[RamBill]

St. Louis Rams report card: Game 16

Jeff Gordon grades the St. Louis Rams following their 19-16 overtime loss in San Francisco

http://www.stltoday.com/gallery/spo...n_c695a5d6-b49b-567d-bdff-243c4bef91a4.html#0

 

[RamBill]

Following a 19-16 loss to the 49ers to end the Rams’ season at 7-9, coach Jeff Fisher says the offense is his priority for next season. He talks with Steve Savard right after the game.

Listen to Fisher's Post Game Comments

 

[RamBill]

Zuerlein's kicks go awry against 49ers
• By Jim Thomas

http://www.stltoday.com/sports/foot...cle_ca5eb510-3187-5188-8ceb-4f4259bb1572.html

SANTA CLARA, CALIF. • With a blocked field goal in overtime and a missed one late in the third quarter, it was a rough end to a rough season for place-kicker Greg Zuerlein.

After making his first three field goals Sunday against San Francisco, Zuerlein had a chance to send the Rams home winners with just under 5 minutes to play in overtime. But 49ers cornerback Dontae Johnson swooped in around the left side of the Rams’ line to block a 48-yard attempt.

“I thought I hit that pretty well,” Zuerlein said following the Rams’ 19-16 loss. “Obviously, if I was too slow in my operation, or what happened on the block, we’ll see on film tomorrow.”

On the play, tight end Lance Kendricks was the last blocker on the left side. But he took an inside rusher instead of Johnson, and that’s usually what players are instructed to do in such situations — because the inside rusher has a more direct path to the kicker.

Earlier, Zuerlein missed a 52-yard attempt, wide right, with just over a minute to play in the fourth quarter and the Rams leading 16-13.

“The first one that I missed, I thought I hit it really well,” Zuerlein said. “It was going straight pretty much the whole way and then at the end it just kind of fell off. I haven’t really ever had a kick like that, where I thought, ‘OK, that’s in.’ And then it didn’t go in.”

Zuerlein finished his fourth NFL season making just 20 of 30 field goals, or 66.7 percent. Six of those misses came from 50 yards or more. And for the season, he had three kicks blocked.

“Any time you don’t go out there and convert and do your job, you’re not gonna be happy about it,” Zuerlein said.

A sixth-round draft pick by the Rams in 2012 out of Missouri Western, Zuerlein is scheduled for unrestricted free agency. With the team’s potential relocation to Los Angeles looming, Zuerlein said he has not heard from the club about a possible contract extension.

“Who knows what’s gonna happen with anything,” Zuerlein said. “Everything’s so up in the air. You really don’t know. My main focus is just some time off, rest, get healthy, and just try and get better myself and be the best kicker I can be.”

Zuerlein missed the Rams’ Cincinnati and second Arizona contests with a right groin injury.
SITTING IT OUT

As expected, running back Todd Gurley was designated a pregame inactive by the Rams because of a foot injury. Tre Mason started in Gurley’s place against the 49ers.

Gurley thus finished his rookie season with 1,106 yards rushing and 10 touchdowns. The injury does not need surgery, said coach Jeff Fisher, who provided more details on the injury after Sunday’s contest.

“He’s got a mild turf toe,” Fisher said. “Nothing that’s going to set him back, nothing that’s going to be a problem for him. But we didn’t feel like it was necessary to mess with it and create the possibility where we could damage the joint a little bit more.”

Besides Gurley, the Rams’ other inactives Sunday were QB Sean Mannion, CB Troy Hill, DT Louis Trinca-Pasta, G/C Andrew Donnal (knee), C/G Brian Folkerts and T Isaiah Battle.

Hill, a rookie from Oregon, was claimed off waivers Thursday from New England. The Rams had worked out Hill in Eugene, Ore., before last year’s draft.

“He had a really good workout and the coaches liked him,” Fisher said Friday. “And for some reason he was waived, so we thought let’s take advantage of the opportunity. So we’ll have him in the offseason program.”

OPPONENTS SET

As a result of Detroit’s victory over Chicago and the New York Giants’ loss to Philadelphia, the Rams’ opponents are set for the 2016 season.

In road games next season, the Rams will play at Detroit, Tampa Bay, New Orleans, New England, and the New York Jets — in addition to NFC West foes Arizona, San Francisco, and Seattle.

At home, the Rams play Atlanta, Carolina, Buffalo and Miami, plus Arizona, San Francisco, and Seattle. Although it counts as an eighth home game, the Rams will play the Giants in London.

 

[Ballhawk]

I’m just disappointed for them, because once Kenny [Britt] made the catch, we got down there and said, ‘Okay, let’s run three times and not give up any minus yards and kick the field goal and go home’ and we weren’t able to do it.”

And there is the reason you will rarely see Fisher do better than .500. Playing not to win.