Rams Beat Commanders 20-13 as Myles Garrett Notches Three Sacks, 1 Caused Fumble and Puka Nacua Adds 150 Yards on Offense!

Myles Garrett had more sacks in a win against the Commanders than the entire team had in seven of eight games.

Myles Garrett had more sacks in a win against the Commanders than the entire team had in seven of eight games this year. Plus, he caused a fumble. Puka Nacua had 14 receptions and 150 yards with one more touchdown. Matthew Stafford was 26 of 43 with 228 passing yards.

“He was awesome,” McVay said. “That’s one of the things that we want to be able to show as coaches, is show confidence to come right back to you. He made a bunch of plays. We needed all 14 of those catches.”

It was not pretty, let alone at first, which I am still not comfortable with: these slow starts, game after game. I still feel the team will break out or do what they need to do in the end, but at the same time, not only is this not a great way to live each week, I have also mentioned a few times that these games are closer this year. In this case, the team was dumbed down, so to speak, against the Washington Commanders (2-6-1) at Northwest Stadium in DC.

“I thought our guys did a great job of being able to find a way,” coach Sean McVay said. “There was a lot of opportunities that we missed offensively to make plays, extend drives, but they did enough. I love the way that Matthew responded after the turnover where he leads us down the field, had a bunch of gutsy conversions.”

The Defense

We mentioned the sacks and the fumble that he caused. Garrett also had three quarterback hits and close plays behind the line of scrimmage. He had three tackles, all for losses. Aaron Donald, who finally got to play in a game with Garrett, had one tackle (assisted).

Overall, the Defense still had a ton of missed tackles and missed easy tackles and plays. I do not believe in Jayden Daniels, and so I thought he would make a mistake. The Rams D-Backs did have their chances for interceptions. I think there were anywhere between 1 and four passes that could have been INTs. Some passes were so bad that the backs could not even react fast enough. Stafford had an interception, but that was just a horrible pass with no place to go but into Nick Cross’s hands. There was no concern, though, and the Rams started to get into the groove to surge ahead for in the third quarter, and then the team went into prevent mode. Because it was the Commanders and Jayden Daniels, a seven-point lead was enough to hang onto the 3rd and 4th quarter.

Jayden Daniels did throw for 274 yards, but again, the Commanders’ offense was all over the place.

Again, the Rams pretty much controlled the entire game. On defense, mistakes would happen that allowed the Commanders down the field a bit, and then something like a third-and-5 sack by Myles Garrett would push them back 12 yards, out of field goal range, and they had to punt it back to us.

How It Unfolded

For instance, the Commanders’ Running back Rachaad White scored on a screen pass from Daniels that went for 45 yards, to the Rams’ 7. Daniels then threw a seven-yard touchdown wide receiver Van Jefferson. That gave the Commanders its 10-3 lead in the second quarter.

Each team had a forced fumble and a fumble recovery late in the second quarter. One of them was Puka fumble picked up by the Commanders to then when Garrett forced his fumble before inside linebacker Omar Speights picked up that ball, and therefore, the Rams’ offense had the ball again with 2:20 until the Half.

Then, when you would see the Myles Garrett factor and how fast the guy is and how strong he is, the Rams’ defense took over the game. The Rams then held them back to either a punt or a turnover on next five Commanders sets of downs.

The Rams ended up getting them down to the Commanders’ 2-yard line. McManus kicked the 20-yard field goal as time expired in the first half. The half ended with the Rams down, 10-6.

We got that ball back before we finally took the lead, 13-10, after Blake Corum’s 1-yard into the end zone and on the opening drive of the second half.

The Rams also almost had their first third-down conversion ion those first sets downs, but one was called back after the Commanders challenged it, overturning the 20-yard pass play to tight end Tyler Higbee. That challenge, which was one of three the Commanders had in the game, still left the Rams without a third-down conversion, just like last week’s game, in the middle of the half (7:33, third quarter).

At the end of the third quarter, Stafford completed a 19-yard pass to Nacua, bringing the Rams down to the Washington 17-yard line. The Rams took the lead again, which they kept, 20-13, on a 7-yard pass play, again to Puka Nacua. That left 12:51 in the fourth quarter.

The Commanders would get the ball back two times with that time remaining in the fourth quarter. After some good punts by Ethan Evans all day, Washington started this final drive at their own 9-yard line, but then, after one big 41-yard pass to Stefon Diggs, D.C. was already at midfield. Tack on an offsides penalty on the Rams’ defense, and that got them down to the Rams’ 45-yard line.

The Offense

On offense, again, the Rams did not get their first third down until there was 2:48 left in the third quarter. The offense was 0 and 9 up until then, while somehow Puka was open all day, gaining more stats. Of Stafford’s passes, 19 of those attempts went to him. He also had a 7-yard touchdown catch in the back corner of the end zone. That touchdown broke the 13-13 tie early in the fourth quarter.

“It’s been something that we’ve been calling on our offense, to be able to execute on those critical downs,” Nacua said. “Obviously, still putting the defense out there at the end in that fourth quarter is something that we want to try to avoid, but when we’re getting points in the red zone, it feels a lot better. Something that we can continue to improve upon.”

Special Teams

The Rams also kicked two more field goals, giving them four total since the Mevis Harrison era ended a few weeks ago. Brandon McManus is now 10 for 10 on point-after attempts and 3 for 3 on field goals, two of them coming in this game from 20 and 34 yards out. Mevis was 5 for 9 this year. Mevis was also 10 for 10 with point-after attempts before he left. Center Joe Cardona was out due to an injury. Jake McQuaide replaced him at Center.

The Commanders

The Commanders had the lead, 10-6, going into the half after they held back the Rams as the time trickled down, to a field goal. Earlier in the second quarter, Van Jefferson had a 7-yard touchdown catch on a pass from Daniels for the only touchdown in that first half. Besides the one Field Goal in the third quarter, that was Washington’s only score in the final 44 minutes.

“All that said, it’s a short week,” Quinn said. “It’s our division leader on the road. And we’ve got to go. We have to play all three phases together. Seen too much of it where it’s part of it, not the whole thing. It has to get right — it has to. We’re too far along to not have it all working together.”

Two Washington drives in the final minutes ended without points, including a lateral play as time expired.

“Frustrating game,” coach Dan Quinn said. “Once again, we have not nailed our complementary football and I’ll keep saying it until we do. We’re halfway through the season, and that all has to click. After stops, I don’t think we capitalized.”

“All that said, it’s a short week,” Quinn said. “It’s our division leader on the road. And we’ve got to go. We have to play all three phases together. Seen too much of it where it’s part of it, not the whole thing. It has to get right — it has to. We’re too far along to not have it all working together.”

Injury Report

Injuries for the Rams: Most notably, I thought Garrett would return in less than a week or two, but in this game, shocked and excited me because I found out basically at game time.

Nacua is now the biggest issue for the Rams. He did something to his knee on the final play of the game and, therefore, will go for an MRI today. He was also under concussion protocol during the game but was able to player afterward.

Offensive lineman Steve Avila left the game in the middle of the second quarter with a hamstring injury. Beaux Limmer replaced Avila at left guard, and aside from one penalty, I think he played flawless. If not for nuttin’, that is big mofo. He is literally huge.

Kobie Turner, the defensive lineman, is on IR. Coach Sean McVay said that he could be activated soon and that he could be back on the field shortly.

Davante Adams is out for up to 10 total weeks from his initial diagnosis last month. That leaves about 6 more weeks without Adams.

Jaylen Watson is expected to be placed on Injured Reserve.

Trent McDuffie, Terrance Ferguson and Joe Cardona also missed the game.