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Bills stun special teams-plagued Rams in 37-34 OT win

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Bills stun special teams-plagued Rams in 37-34 OT win

The Rams and Bills delivered a high-energy, tightly contested game that lived up to its "banger" billing, though the Rams ultimately lost due to a combination of critical mistakes and systemic flaws. Special teams failures—most notably a blocked 48-yard field goal in overtime—were central to the collapse, reflecting a long-standing organizational neglect of this aspect of the game under Sean McVeigh’s leadership. Despite a strong offensive performance from Matthew Stafford and a 400-yard passing effort, poor situational decisions, including a risky arm punt and a failed third-down conversion, undermined their chances. The Bills, on the other hand, showcased a well-coordinated offense led by Josh Allen, who excelled through scrambling and effective use of mismatches, particularly against the Rams’ weak defensive alignment. The Rams' defense struggled to contain the Bills’ running game, with James Cook posting multiple explosive carries past the second level. Additional issues included a lack of pressure from the defensive line, excessive penalties (24 total), and questionable clock management. While the Rams’ offense showed promise, the game highlighted deep structural problems in their special teams and defensive schemes. The outcome underscores the need for the Rams to prioritize special teams development and defensive consistency, especially as they remain a top seed contender. Despite the loss, both teams demonstrated high-level football, and the game remains a compelling example of how tactical missteps can alter outcomes in close contests.

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Welcome to the athletic football show brought to you by the US bank smartly visa signature card. I'm Robert Mays. Rams Bills was a banger. Really fun Monday night game between two very good teams. Unfortunately for the Rams, same old story, special teams, situational decision making, doing them in in a big game against the very good team. We dug into that a monster performance from Josh Allen on the ground, just a strange but enjoyable game on a lot of different fronts. Dig into all of it with me, and Dave Hellman. Let's get to it right now. If we talked about special teams on this show, this would be the episode to do it. But alas, we don't. How dare you? Absolutely not. That's where we're going to start. I was hoping you were asked. I was hoping you were hoping you were going to say, Dave, where do you want to start with such a wacky game? And I was going to say teams right now, do you speak it? I am, I am so mad. You like look at the big brain on Sean half the reason thank you for picking that up. Half the reason that special teams has kind of like become my niche meme is just because I just have to keep saying, Hey man, this is this is a part of the game that you shouldn't ignore. And teams notably the LA Rams just continue to disagree with me. And that's how you wind up trying to figure out how you lost this game quickly. Really impressive stuff from the bills in general. Just a fun game. You find a way to win this when it looked hopeless. I don't want to discredit that entirely. But but LA Rams, I mean, from the, from the word go in this game, they bookended it 70 yard kick return to open this thing. You miss a fuel goal early on. And then obviously the block and over time. So you miss six points of your own and hand the bills three at the beginning of this game. Because that they didn't even, they didn't even gain yards on that opening possession like great Davis goes 70 yards. They don't gain any yards after that and kick a fuel goal. So you hand the bills three and screw up six in an overtime loss. I am in sense. If you can't tell it almost feels like and I know this isn't real. I know he this is self-imposed. There is a little bit of it that feels like this Faustian bargain to me. The Sean McVeigh has made where you get to be the defining coach of a generation and the most influential figure in the NFL in a lot of ways over the last 10 years. But the price you must pay written in blood is that you have to have the kicking game that the Los Angeles Rams have. It's a quality joke. And I appreciate it. I'm not like coming at you. But I don't know at what point is it not charming anymore? It's not charming. It's got ridiculous. And I every year and credit to Mike Sano does a phenomenal job at this stuff where he spends so much time kind of looking through the cracks of the league and figuring out all right. This is just something hiding in plain sight. What's actually take a deep dive look into it and how it's influencing the way that the NFL operates and his project that he did this off season was all about these trees that just do not value special teams. And what they do is and the Rams went through the exact same song and dance this off season. Special teams are terrible. They fire chase Blackburn in the middle of last season. We're going to get a new coordinator in here. The new coordinator is going to fix everything and then nothing changes. And it really is an organizational thing. The way that you approach special teams, how you man special teams, the way that you build the roster in order to make sure you have the right players on there, all of it. McVeigh specifically, but a lot of the guys associated with this tree just have not been coaches that value this in the right way and it continues to come back and bite them. And on top of it, we should be slamming the Rams for this multiyear issue that they've had. Along with that, one of the, to me, an even bigger sin in this game specifically, you are cooking on offense, cooking the play. The ideal that on third and five, you just have no interest in trying to get a first down. If you had Cam little or Evan McPherson or Brandon Aubrey or any of these guys, the way that we'll record is playing right now. You know, how impressive you that I can name like five kickers by the way. Really love the way you just reeled off a bunch of good kickers. Those are all the kickers I know. If you have those guys, maybe, maybe you could justify this. They have a guy that has been so incredibly unreliable. The idea that we're settling for like a 48-yard field goal in this moment. I just can't believe it. I can't believe that was the choice. Not only that. Okay. Yes. If the Rams had a better kicker, the Rams also have Matthew Stafford. Why are, like, why are we running give-up runs and like just playing cowardly in this situation? And you're a team that does such an incredible job at manufacturing easy completions. They've been doing it all night. You have the best. I will spit the ball out to him and he will gain five yards player, potentially in the entire NFL. You threw him the ball 25 times tonight. What's one more? Not only, I mean, and Puka was incredible. Another part, the Rams backs in this game were fantastic. You can't leak Korum or Kyron out into the flat on third and five and do more with it than what you got and you don't trust Matthew Stafford to do that. What did I say to you? 45 seconds, maybe two minutes before the field goal was blocked. I was like, you know, we have like Gregor so has been a non-factor in this game. It is not as if the bills were affecting the Rams passing game and causing chaos and well, we can't drop back on third down because something terrible could happen. That did not feel like the story of this game at all. So to very blively, say, well, guess we got to let Harris and Mevis kick a 48 yard field goal to try to win this thing. It's unbelievable. And on top of that, the kick procedure, I mean, getting getting blocked like that in a in a must have moment and it's the third special teams gaffer the night. There have been special team gaffes in other Rams games, even Rams wins. I said this on the preview show a long time ago at this point. I probably wouldn't harp on it as much if the Rams weren't the overwhelming favorite to win the Super Bowl. And now they're two and three. They're two and three. And that's you go back a year ago and we talk about that Seattle game is the reason that they weren't the one seed. What if they don't get a field goal blocked by the Eagles and win that game? There are so many crucial season changing moments where this has come up for them. And now you're sitting there two and three. What's your best case scenario in a division with the Niners in the Seahawks? You're an 11 and six wild card team now, which is fine. That's a good season for a lot of people, but not when you came into the year with the expectations that this team did. It sounds crazy to say because like the Rams, I mean, the offense was cooking in this game. Like Stafford look good. Well, actually Stafford was hit and missed. We can talk about some bad throws that he had in this game. He had like two or three that were off target, including the first drive. He had another one to poop it down in the red zone. And then he had the one to carry Williams over the middle. But I overall, I was really encouraged by the way that he played because it was 400 yards give or take. That hadn't happened so far this year. Like they're passing him hadn't been cooking like this. You could how much of that is the bill's defense in the current state of it. But the the fact that he had a few misses, those did happen. But Matthew Stafford played his best game of the season, I think by far main point for a team that just went punch for punch with the bills and Stafford did his thing. Puka and Devante were there. It was all kind of rolling for the Rams in a game where you knew it was you were going to have to score a lot of points. It still feels like the margin is razor thin now. If you want to accomplish, I mean, you want won't feel the advantage. How sick would it be to not have to leave Sofie even for the Super Bowl? I don't know. I'm not ready to say that. I don't know. Oh man. Two and three look in the way that they do. And let's talk about the defense. I mean, we can get to that conversation if you want to. It's not just that the special team is bad tonight. It's that the defense was bad tonight, which I wanted to bring this up. So special teams is the Rams big curse. The other thing that they don't really value is linebacker, self and post. These are issues that you could avoid if you chose to make different choice. If you made different decisions in your life, Nate Landman did three things in this game where you're like, Holy shit, Nate Lamon. Like good play, dude. And then the rest of the night you were like, Nate Lamon should not be chasing Josh Allen around. This is bad. Well, we have not mentioned his name yet. What Josh Allen did in this game? What a bizarre game from the Bill's offense overall. The idea that they scored 37 points and won this game. I haven't looked at the actual team wide numbers on it. I'll pull him up right now. The bills. That's always a great place to start. So the bills had a 51% success rate overall in offense. They had a 65 and a half percent dropback success rate while throwing the ball. I mean, no bills past catcher had more than four targets in this game. The only one receiver got more than two total targets, only one wide receiver in this game had more than one catch for the bills. And that was Khalil Shakir. Yeah. And he did all his work at overtime. And he still had a, the bills had a 65 and a half percent dropback success rate because the quarterback rushed for 120 yards almost entirely on scramble because the Rams had absolutely no answer for it. Middle of that thing did not look very good, not not in crunch to time. And yeah, it's actually, it's worth saying. So DJ Moore got ruled inactive ahead of this thing. Could Leo Shakira had the big catch and run and overtime, but for the most part was not a big part of this game plan. I mean, you're God bless my guy. You get meaningful snaps from Skylar Bell, which when you're playing the Rams on Monday night football, maybe he wasn't quite ready for that stage. And Josh Allen just made it work. This is a fantastic performance from him. Combination of, if you look at all the scrambles, it's a little bit of everything. There are some plays where there's just no one in the middle of the field. There are some plays where Nate and Lamman has absolutely no shot, but no matter what the issue, the Rams had no answer anytime he wanted to take off. Absolutely no throw in. I mean, to say it specifically, Ty Johnson and Ray Davis accounted for half of his passing production. And it was a similar story where once those guys got space past the line of scrimmage, there was nobody there to deal with them over the middle of the field. Even the one, I think it was the one of the Ty Johnson big completion, the first one that he had in the game, the first big reception on the left side line. That is another play that is created by Josh Allen extending because Cam curl was on tight Johnson in man coverage on that play. He has to account for Josh Allen as a runner and he just pops it over him. Overall, even though it was a funny game, I mean, the fact that Ty Johnson led the bills and he had four catches, no one else other than Clio Shakir, no one else had more than one. And until that Clio Shakir big long reception, Ty Johnson and Ray Davis were the leading receivers on the Buffalo bills in this game. It's just a very strange game overall, but there were elements of the game plan that I actually really liked. And the Rams, the bills, I think that bills did a really good job of using some of the Rams tendencies against them in this game. So the Rams pretty often will match personnel to down in distance. And at one point in this game on James Cook's for 16 carries, nine of them had come out of 11 personnel. At that moment, the bills had played 21 snaps in 11 personnel. The Rams had matched with dime on all 21 of those snaps. And so the bills knew if you're we put three receivers in the field, they're going to match with dime and we can gash them on the ground. They were doing that because they were dealing with light bodies, but Joe Brady did a think phenomenal job. All the motions they were using to bleed out one more player in addition to already playing against those dime looks. They were just absolutely gashing them 90% light boxes on those nine runs, four runs of 10 plus yards, 7.9 yards per carry, 77% of the yards on those plays came before contact. I charted this like before the game was over and you know, the the live stats or take some time to catch up like you have to chart that stuff before it goes in. But I looked this up. I think like right around the time we went to overtime. So like late fourth quarter, the bills had 11 rushes for 94 yards against dime personnel. And it went up over the last like stands of this game. And I thought James Cook's touchdown toward the end of regulation was such a great example of it. Cause I think it was either kitchens or curl. One of the safeties came in to like fill curl played more saps in the box today than he had any point in this of the season so far. He was down there a lot. And Quentin Lake has mostly been playing a lot of deep safety after being in the slot and week one. And so I assume it was curl is what I'm saying when and you see that when Cook gets past the line down near the goal line and curls the one trying to fill and dime is cool. But you can get out physical real quickly, especially when you're playing a team like the bills and it felt like that was the case time after time in this game. I mean, how many how many runs did James Cook have not only explosive runs, but he had he must have had four or five carries in this game where he was like past the second level before anybody even got a hat to him. Because the bills were just moving people out of the way. I'm just the state of the Rams defense in this game. I think there are elements of it that do make sense. Right. If you're going to this is the most tailored for the Rams game plan, I can remember from an opposing offense since all the Shanahan ones, like everything he does against this team is it's the old Stephen Louise microscope meme from like eight years ago where he just has Nate Lamin in his sights every single game. But other than Shanahan, I think this is the most we have a bespoke game plan for how we're going to attack this team considering their weaknesses. We're going to throw the ball to the running backs. I don't think the scrambling was maybe an explicit part of what they were doing, but it applies. And we have a plan for how we're going to run the ball. That make that all makes sense. The part of this to me was most surprising. And the bills, offensive line is good. I know Spencer Brown got hurt in this game. Three quick pressures in this entire game for the Rams defensive front. Three, even without miles Garrett, we're still talking about a group that has Byron Young Kobe Turner, Braden Fisk, Aaron Donald Josiah Stewart, and it just didn't happen. They just were not affecting the game. And so that to me, all the other stuff, even if it's disheartening, if you're a Rams fan, the way that this game went and the way that the bills were able to hammer you, you can probably predict some of it based on how the Rams are built. That part of it, if they're not going to be able to affect the quarterback as they're built, it's a non-starter. Like that to me was the most surprising. And I guess because it was so surprising, maybe not so concerning, but that's something where that needs to change. Like if that front is not controlling games, then what is the entire point of the way the Rams have built this roster? That, I mean, it's a very valid point. And I'm sure the Rams answer is to hope like hell miles, Garrett's return is right around the corner, but I can't believe that to your point. It doesn't, it shouldn't, it shouldn't need to. It shouldn't need to. And I know the, I mean, the bills offensive line has been tremendous, but I mean, it was last, last week, we were worried about Dion Dawkins. Like last week, the bills offensive line looked very gittable. And that was not the case in this game. Before we move on, let's take a quick break. Anything else? Like what, what jumps out to you in terms of other stuff you want to hit from this thing? I mean, I already, I think in both, on both sides of this, other than James Cook, James Cook needs to take care of the football. I think that's not new. I think that these were his third and fourth fumbles. And one of them could have cost the bills this game outside of those two very big miscues, though, just the running backs in this game were tremendous. Like James Cook ran well and ran hard other than the fumbles. We already mentioned what Ty Johnson and Ray Davis did. Kyron Williams and Blake Korum were awesome. The Kyron Williams catch on third down in the dying seconds to, you know, he picked up third and seven, got him to the goal line. And then they decided not to use a time out and took it in from there. I thought that was a tremendous catch. Kyron Williams drew a DPI on Davis and Ignosan in the red zone earlier in the game. Blake Korum, the gear Blake Korum showed on the 34 yard catch run. I'll be honest, I don't, I don't think I knew he had that in him. That's the, that's the selling point is that he's got a little bit more giddy up than Kyron Williams. I'm not even though Kyron Williams has been tremendous this year. I'm not saying I thought he was slow, but that was just an eye popping amount of burst from Blake Korum. And yeah, I'm both in both of them. I thought we're awesome. Tyler Higby. Tyler Higby had a really cool sequence in this game where he screwed it up for the Rams. He had a false start on fourth and one while they were driving to score immediately. He caught the curl on fourth and six to pick that up because they decided to go for it anyway. I think he had another catch right after that. And then on the, it was a Kyron Williams run where he inserted and blew up the linebacker and got Kyron Williams into the end zone. And I was like, even with the flag, this was just a really fun sequence where Tyler Higby was doing a little bit of everything for the Rams. They were those two Higby catches. It was two big chunk plays to Higby in the second half. There wasn't as much of that in the first half as you'd want to see against the bill's defense. The Rams offense overall this year has just been less explosive than they were last year. Coming into this game and even maybe through the first half of this game. I was looking up the numbers in real time. They were like 16th and explosive pass rate. The construction of the passing game overall, and part of that might be Puka hasn't been playing. But even in the first half of this game, I mean, on Puka's like first 10 catches, he had 72 yards. A lot of it was underneath. And that has been a bigger part of the Rams passing game overall this season than it was last year. So in this game, Matthew Stafford through 20.4% of his passes to players coming out of the backfield. He was 8 of 11 on those steps. On the season coming before this game happened, 17.8% of Stafford's pass attempts have gone to players coming out of the backfield. Last year, it was 11.2%. That among like the 75 quarterback seasons over the last two years is the sixth lowest rate of any player. That 17.8 from this year, very tellingly, is wedged between 2026 Joe borough and 2025 Joe borough. And so that has been the Rams offense has felt more like what you might expect from the Bengals offense in terms of the areas of the field that they're attacking this year compared to last year. It's not totally analogous because a lot of the Rams underneath completions come off play action. Like their play action game is a lot of spitting the ball to the flat and creating easy completions off of that where obviously the bills are operating or the Bengals are operating more out of the gun. But I have taken notice that we're getting the backs more involved and we're living underneath as the Rams offense more than we have in previous years. Two thoughts. I mean, it's Puka's third game. And so I, but even a lot of his targets in the first half, taken stuff away over the top. Um, I mean, I'm, let's, let's see how it ages. And then the other part, which this is something they're going to have to cope with, Terence Ferguson is on IR. And so like, that is an explosive downfield part of this. They said on the broadcast that Sean McVeigh wants to up to two at well snap count, even if it's just a, I mean, that's probably more as like the top taker offer. Right. But still, uh, it's prince, not having Terence Ferguson. And I just, I, we'll see what Puka brings to this thing over a larger sample size like, I think it's probably fine. And even with all my abitching about the special teams, my overarching opinion of this is like, everybody's probably fine. We, we were hopeful that this was going to be a banger. And it was albeit, I'll be it pretty sloppy. That's worth mentioning too. Like what was it? Like 23 flags in this game or something like that? I'm just so tired of this shit, man. It's, I'm just so tired of this. Like, why? Who at, who's asking for this? Who's asking to see 20 flags again? 24, excuse me, I shorted them one. And coming into the week, I was curious when we see this a lot where, and maybe this is the distinction, we see this a lot in the NFL, where you'll have to find points of emphasis coming into the year. Shake it's called ad nauseam over the first month. The league is like, I would probably over did that. Let's pull it back a little bit. There were more accepted penalties in the first four weeks of this NFL season than in any single year since 1978 when they started tracking flags. Who wants that? Like who wants to come into an NFL game and see 20 flags thrown in 200 yards of penalties? Like what is the benefit of that? There is none. And so I have no idea why it's been such a flag habit start to the year. There are certain things the league will, where the league will put its thumb on the scale and it's in service of points and just making the game a better entertainment product. But why throw 25 flags a game? Like I just, it hurts the rhythm of things. It hurts offense. It hurts everything that I think you should be caring about if you're the NFL. I would just tell these guys to chill because it's been a real negative to the watching experience over the first five weeks of the season. My generous interpretation, not that I believe this, but hopefully it's like you're you're over correcting and like sort of trying to like teach teams what you're looking for. And so like over time, A, you aren't as strict about it and B, you condition teams to like be on the screws. And so if it looks better in November because of it, maybe that's okay. I want to say again, no, it's bad. And you shouldn't be setting records that have stood since the late 70s. That's ridiculous. I just why is the league better if offensive players are more aware of whether they're getting holding flags and why? I don't know. This is like a hobby horse of mine from the last in the first month, which is like, why are we doing this? Okay, don't understand. But to go back to the larger point, we hope this would be a banger and it was. And both teams, even with their warts, looked good and fun. And if you had like, if I had to say right now, like I bet these teams will be playing, they'll definitely be playing on divisional weekend, if not conference championship weekend. And so I'm not going to react to a lot other than that. Sean McVeigh has got to do something about the special teams. That's my only like firm take from this whole thing. I expect the Rams defense will look better when they're not playing Josh. Yeah, when they're not playing arguably the best football player in the world. The bill's defense. That is probably the unit among these four. Well, well, there's six units involved in this game. I have to keep reminding myself. That's right. Among the six units involved in this game, they are probably second high. If we're stacking them up in terms of concern level, I'd probably put that unit at number two right now. Based on what we have seen so far, of course. And not still early with a new coordinator, but I'm like, I'm like, Popeye, do something. They played the at full strength Rams. I don't like this. This was the first week where it's really looked like, oh, yeah, that guy won MVP. And that guy could have been offensive player of the year. And that guy used to be the best receiver in the world. And he's still pretty damn good. I don't know. Am I supposed to panic because the Rams looked like the Rams? I mean, I don't think the bill's defense is good. But I came into this thinking the winner needed north of 31 points, probably. So you played the Patriots last week. They played a charger team that's imploding and they played the Lions. And then they played the Texans. Well, the Texans running game hasn't been good this year. The Texans passing game has been good this year. And so you've played in your five games so far. You've played four pretty good offenses in terms of throwing the football. And your, your new coordinator got some young players on the back end. I mean, like Igg Benosan is getting baptized by five. The idea that Maxwell Harrison is just now has been pushed to the side. And Igg Benosan is now the guy. I mean, we're trying to figure out why they were willing to draft him. The idea of, oh, we just wanted to protect ourselves from injuries was, I think, the company line as to why that was happening. Or we're worried about what type of player Maxwell Harrison is. On top of that, we hear over and over again, how the first month of any season at this point is like basically preseason. That's why I'm not overly worried. And you got to, you're a four in one. Yeah, you're a four in one. And you had a chance to even win the Patriots game. And Josh Allen kind of lost his mind there, which by the way, that's one more thing. Well, there's two more things I want to hit. We can hit that. Okay, that's not an arm punt. Let's, let me just say that it can't be an arm punt. If you give the other team that still has two timeouts miraculously, by the way, Sean McVeigh was not burning his timeout three at the end is not burning his timeouts in this game. It can't be an arm punt if you put the other team in position to get points, which he did by throwing it to them at the minus 43 with 40 seconds. Or I think it went down to 20. So Jalen Watson really bailed Josh Allen out by trying to score a touchdown instead of just getting the ball back to the offense. And then the Rams incurred a false start immediately. And it all wound up being okay. But you absolutely set the Rams up to, to at least get a fuel goal at the end of the half. LOL because like maybe we're asking the Rams to like drive and kick a 50-yard fuel ball. Maybe that was it. Maybe that was the dog process. The Rams can't do this. I've done the math. There's no way they can get into fuel goal range with the resources and time they have left. I might as well just let this shit go. I don't think that's a justifiable decision by Josh Allen. And I even looked it up. Their punter has longs of 59 and 63. So when people want to say like, oh, it's virtually the same distance as a pun. Not necessarily. Not if your guy kicks the shit out of the ball. There are worse decisions to make situation with when you are going to throw an interception. But it is still not a good decision. It's not the worst interception. Josh Allen has ever thrown. But I'm not just going to hand wave it off like arm punt. Like no, if the Rams had not lost their minds, they could have they could have scored points there. The other decision making thing that I wanted to talk about just very briefly, the end of game clock management from McVeigh and the way they decided to handle that situation. I was not a fan of it because by ticking it down like that, even if you're in a spot where you're giving them no time after you scored the game time touchdown, you have one shot at the end zone if that run gets stuffed. If you had called time out earlier, you can still play with the clock a little bit and then even if you didn't call time out and spike the ball, you can only give yourself three downs. But the idea of if this run does not, if we don't score on this play, we have one play to score a touchdown to tie the game, not a fan of that. They think there's a different way to approach that situation. I liked it because the idea of like do or die and we don't have any timeouts, scares the shit out of me because even like as good as Matthew Stafford is, maybe in that moment, Jim Leonard has the call of his life and maybe you get an unblocked pressure, maybe whatever, and all of a sudden, well, then maybe just if that's the case without a timeout, you can still dirt the ball and have second down with 18 seconds left in a timeout if you wanted to. I suppose I think there are. They did. I mean, it got really low before they finally snapped it to Kyron. You were guaranteeing that the next play was going to be the last play of regulation. You would have one chance to score a touchdown if you did not on that play. I don't like that. I like having the timeout in my back pocket, but that needed to be faster. I will, I'll meet you there because and like Stafford like he had to go up and adjust the line and like it took a long time to finally get to the point where they were ready to run that play. But I do, I like having a timeout in my back pocket, even if burning it means you're going to have four seconds left to run a play when it's all over. Yeah, I mean, I see your point hindsight, but do you just go for two there? No, not. There are not like in the NFL, like, you know, I watch a lot of college football. Like in college, it makes so much sense where there can be such decided talent advantages where it's like they got 10 NFL guys and you don't like end the game on your terms, but like in a and maybe maybe there are NFL games where you might do that. If you're a supreme underdog. Yeah, yeah, I can I can understand what it's all with the variance. Jalen Daniels making his third start for the bucks, you know, but this is MVP versus MVP Super Bowl favorites. Like I just I feel like both of these teams should feel like they want to play it out on an an extra period with like an even field and not have to resort to weird math shit to get this thing done. I didn't like. No, when you've got I when you have math, Stafford or Josh Allen, it's like, no, man, let's Let's go to overtime and our MVP is going to win us this game. Before we get out of here, do you want to take the Rams off the table? Absolutely not. Let's cut it down to five teams. I won over three team table in week six. I just want Sean McFay to care about special teams. Oh, I think it's too late now, buddy. I think he's going to have to be an off season thing. He said he wasn't off season thing this year. He said it like a hundred times this year. I mean, more than just hiring a new coordinator and pretending that you care about it. Sean, you need like five dedicated special teams players. I know that that just made you throw up in your mouth, but it's hard to do that when you need to carry seven tight ends and 18 defensive backs. I mean, because they were playing, I mean, I can't where which play it was. Oh, it was a Josiah Stewart sack on the bill's first drive. The Rams were in dime and Cam curl was the only like linebacker type out there. They had five other like true DBs plus Cam curl, and then they'd five defensive linemen. If you want to play like that, Joe Brady saw that and said, bet. We're just going to run it through the a gap for the rest of the game, unfortunately, for the Rams. All right. That is all we've got for tonight's that was really fun. That lived up to the hype. I think I meant the show itself. I mean, the show was fun too. But I like it. I'm glad you're enjoying doing the podcast. That was a, like, that was a really fun game. I'm, you know, it's, it's fun when something like that lives up to the billing. Good job. Way to go Rams and bills. Congratulations, guys. All right. That's all we got for tonight. If you have not checked out the week five recap, that is available on your, on your YouTube channel in your podcast feed. If you are watching this on YouTube, especially if you are new to the channel, please like, subscribe, do all that great stuff. I need to be way better about saying that. I'm Katie's mad at me all the time. Please like, subscribe, do all that fun stuff for now. That's all we got. Appreciate you guys listening. We'll talk to you very soon. Thanks for tuning in. Make sure to hit that subscribe or follow button so you never miss an episode. If you enjoyed what you heard, please like, comment and leave a rating. We'll see you next time.

Podcast Summary

Key Points:

  1. The Los Angeles Rams suffered a decisive loss due to poor special teams execution, including a blocked 48-yard field goal in overtime, which stemmed from a long-standing organizational failure to value and build a strong special teams unit.
  2. Sean McVeigh’s coaching philosophy has consistently undervalued special teams, leading to repeated gaffes and a pattern of poor decision-making that has plagued the Rams throughout the season.
  3. The Bills' offense, led by Josh Allen, dominated the game with a 65.5% dropback success rate and effective use of scrambling and personnel mismatches, particularly against the Rams’ weak defensive alignment.
  4. The Rams’ defense struggled, especially against the Bills’ running game, where James Cook had multiple explosive carries past the second level, exposing a lack of pressure and zone coverage.
  5. Offensive inefficiencies were evident in the Rams’ passing game, with increased backfield involvement and a drop in explosive play action, indicating a shift toward a less dynamic offensive style.
  6. The game featured excessive penalties—24 flags in total—raising concerns about poor game management, player awareness, and a lack of focus on game flow and rhythm.
  7. Key individual performances by the Bills’ running backs and receivers, including Kyron Williams and Blake Korum, highlighted their effectiveness and the Rams’ defensive vulnerabilities.
  8. Despite the Rams’ strong offensive production from Matthew Stafford, the game’s outcome was ultimately decided by poor decision-making, especially in critical moments involving clock management and field goal attempts.

Summary:

The Rams and Bills delivered a high-energy, tightly contested game that lived up to its "banger" billing, though the Rams ultimately lost due to a combination of critical mistakes and systemic flaws. Special teams failures—most notably a blocked 48-yard field goal in overtime—were central to the collapse, reflecting a long-standing organizational neglect of this aspect of the game under Sean McVeigh’s leadership. Despite a strong offensive performance from Matthew Stafford and a 400-yard passing effort, poor situational decisions, including a risky arm punt and a failed third-down conversion, undermined their chances.

The Bills, on the other hand, showcased a well-coordinated offense led by Josh Allen, who excelled through scrambling and effective use of mismatches, particularly against the Rams’ weak defensive alignment. The Rams' defense struggled to contain the Bills’ running game, with James Cook posting multiple explosive carries past the second level. Additional issues included a lack of pressure from the defensive line, excessive penalties (24 total), and questionable clock management.

While the Rams’ offense showed promise, the game highlighted deep structural problems in their special teams and defensive schemes. The outcome underscores the need for the Rams to prioritize special teams development and defensive consistency, especially as they remain a top seed contender. Despite the loss, both teams demonstrated high-level football, and the game remains a compelling example of how tactical missteps can alter outcomes in close contests.

FAQs

The Rams made multiple critical errors in special teams, including a missed field goal and a blocked field goal, which directly contributed to their loss. Their special teams performance was repeatedly highlighted as a major weakness, with the head coach, Sean McVeigh, previously dismissing the importance of the unit.

The Rams lost due to poor decision-making on special teams and defensive lapses, especially in key moments. A crucial 48-yard field goal attempt was blocked, and their defense struggled to contain Josh Allen's scrambles and runs, leading to a narrow loss.

The Bills' offensive strategy focused on exploiting the Rams' defensive weaknesses by using running plays and pressure against the Rams' defensive line, especially in dime personnel, which led to significant gains and key touchdowns.

Josh Allen had an outstanding performance, rushing for 120 yards and making several key plays, including a game-winning touchdown. His ability to scramble and avoid defenders significantly disrupted the Rams' defensive scheme.

The Rams' offensive line, despite being solid, failed to generate consistent pressure on the Bills' quarterback. The Bills' offensive line dominated, allowing James Cook and other running backs to gain significant yardage in key moments.

McVeigh was criticized for underestimating the importance of special teams and for making poor strategic decisions, such as allowing a 48-yard field goal attempt in a critical moment and failing to adjust the defensive scheme against the Bills' running game.

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