The Rams’ season essentially came to an end on Saturday night, losing 34-31 to the 49ers. The loss eliminated them from playoff contention, giving them no chance to defend their NFC title after reaching the Super Bowl last season.
There were 126 plays run in the game, but four key moments stand out among the rest as reasons for the Rams’ loss. Here are the four biggest plays in the game that led to San Francisco’s victory at Levi’s Stadium.
Jared Goff’s pick-six
For the second week in a row, Goff threw an incredibly costly interception just before the half. He did it against the Cowboys and Dallas scored a touchdown on the ensuing drive, and on Saturday night, he threw a pick-six to Fred Warner on a checkdown to Malcolm Brown.
It was by far his worst decision of the night, flipping the momentum and score before the break.
With just over five minutes in the first half, the Rams were up 21-10 and in complete control of the game. The 49ers scored two unanswered touchdowns – the second of which was Goff’s pick-six – in the final three minutes to go into halftime up 24-21.
It was a deflating a play as there could have been for the Rams, who looked like they were going to roll to a win over San Francisco. At the time, the Rams had a 59% chance to win the game, according to NumberFire. After the pick-six, their win probability dropped to 33%.
Failed screen and punt in fourth quarter
On third-and-1 from the 49ers’ 48-yard line with more than 10 minutes left to play in the game, Sean McVay called a screen to Robert Woods. It went for a 1-yard loss and gave McVay something to think about: Go for it on fourth or punt it away?
The play call was questionable, but the real issue was Austin Corbett’s missed block on the defensive back, which forced Woods to hesitate.
McVay has been surprisingly conservative on fourth down this year, with the exception of a few fake punts. He had an opportunity to push the envelope here on fourth-and-2 from the 49ers’ 49-yard line. The Rams were up 28-24 at the time and there was a little more than 10 minutes left to play.
McVay attempted to draw the defense offsides with a few different looks from Johnny Hekker, but after San Francisco didn’t bite, the Rams took the delay of game penalty and punted it away.
Had the Rams gone for it and converted, it wouldn’t have sealed the win or anything. However, they would’ve given themselves a chance to put more points on the board, potentially making it a one-touchdown game or more.
Third-and-16 pass to Kendrick Bourne
On the final drive of the game, Jimmy Garoppolo completed two passes for first downs on third-and-16. The first was a great play by Garoppolo, squeezing a pass into tight coverage between two defenders to Kendrick Bourne.
That kept the drive alive with just under two minutes left in the game. Had the Rams stopped the 49ers on that play, they would’ve taken over with either one or two timeouts remaining, nearly two minutes on the clock and likely decent field position needing only a field goal to win it.
Instead, Garoppolo beat the coverage with a good throw and the 49ers converted to move the chains.
Blown coverage by Ramsey and Rapp
This was the biggest play of the game, of course. Once again needing 16 yards on third down on their final possession of the night, Garoppolo and the 49ers converted. Emmanuel Sanders broke free in the secondary for a 46-yard gain, and Garoppolo didn’t miss him.
It was a blown coverage by Taylor Rapp with Jalen Ramsey playing trail technique underneath. Rapp went to the sideline for some reason instead of maintaining his position in the deep-half, leading to a huge gain by the 49ers.
Three plays later, Robbie Gould drilled the game-winning field goal from 33 yards out. Again, if the Rams had stopped the 49ers on this play instead of allowing a conversion, they would’ve gotten the ball back with just under a minute to play and the game tied. At worst, they could’ve taken it into overtime.
They had a 46.8% chance to win after Samson Ebukam’s sack on the previous play. When Sanders caught the pass for 46 yards, their chances dropped to 15.3%.
