INGLEWOOD – Walking into the Rams locker room Sunday evening, you’d have been forgiven for thinking the team had lost. No music, no celebration of any kind after a 41-34 win over the Detroit Lions that clinched a playoff appearance.
Perhaps that had something to do with the reality of turning their bodies around for a Thursday night game against the Seattle Seahawks. Or maybe it was more reflective of the mindset these Rams have embraced, not speaking once this week about their clinching scenario, instead focused on winning practice and then winning a game and not the bigger picture.
“A playoff spot doesn’t mean too much. If you don’t do anything with it, it don’t mean too much. We still got three more games,” outside linebacker Jared Verse said. “This is the way we are; short-term memory. We beat ‘em, boom, Seahawks next.”
But let’s take a moment to look at how these Rams won this game, and what it could mean for their formula in January.
The Rams (11-3) found themselves down 10 with 30 seconds left in the first half, guaranteed to go to the locker room down for the first time since Week 5. Set to receive the second-half kick, it would have been easy for head coach Sean McVay to decide to take a knee and regroup. In fact, it’s how he’s played it several times in his career.
But McVay decided to be aggressive, just as he was earlier in the game when he sent the punt unit out on fourth-and-four before calling a timeout to go for it from the Detroit 45. And then going for it on fourth-and-eight later that same drive.
“You knew it was going to be that kind of game where there was some good back-and-forth and you needed to be able to know that points were going to be really important for us,” McVay said, “and our guys delivered in a big way.”
Indeed, they did. After the two fourth-down conversions, running back Kyren Williams scored the first of his two touchdowns. And instead of taking a knee, the Rams went down the field in two plays – including a 37-yarder to Puka Nacua on a play that quarterback Matthew Stafford was quietly begging his coach to call – to kick a field goal and cut the Lions’ lead to seven.
“Those are confidence builders. I think you, as a coach, you go out there and you instill confidence in your guys,” Williams said. “Most teams are punting the ball, but we’re different. Coach McVay has shown that throughout the season.”
That field goal kicked off a 20-0 Rams run, turning a 10-point deficit into a 10-point lead. The defense that gave up 271 yards and 24 points in the first half came out and held the Lions (8-6) to three consecutive three-and-outs to open the third quarter.
There were no major adjustments. Just a decision that with the run game properly bottled up – the Rams held Detroit’s renowned duo of Jahmyr Gibbs and David Montgomery to 20 carries for 70 yards – that the pass rush had the green light to take more risks in getting after quarterback Jared Goff instead of being conservative on play-action looks.
“If it looks like pass, if it smells like pass, go get after it,” defensive tackle Kobie Turner said after he picked up a sack and the pass rush contributed eight second-half quarterback hurries.
With that kind of pressure, the secondary that gave up chunk plays in bunches in the first half settled down and held Goff to 117 passing yards on 11-for-21 passing in the second.
“Even if things aren’t going our way,” linebacker Omar Speights explained, “it’s just that confidence in our group to just know that. ‘They can only do this for so long, at some point the table’s going to turn and everything will come together at the right time.’ And it did.”
Meanwhile, the offense scored on four consecutive possessions. Williams and Blake Corum continued their dominant run with a combined 149 yards rushing on 26 attempts, with Corum adding one TD to Williams’ two. Stafford overcame an opening-drive interception to throw for 368 yards and two touchdowns, both to tight end Colby Parkinson to make it six in as many games for the veteran.
And Nacua continued to power the offense with nine receptions and 181 yards, leading McVay to liken him to Pac-Man for his propensity for gobbling up receptions and yards.
Nacua did have one drop on the second possession of the game, one that he and receivers coach Eric Yarber were hard on him for on the sidelines.
But when the Rams needed those fourth-down conversions later in the possession, there was little doubt where the Rams were going. And Nacua still came through.
“Can’t stop us,” Williams said. “You know where the ball’s going and you still can’t stop us.”
It’s that kind of confidence that has infused the Rams’ locker room in 2025. That a win over a team that ended their season two postseasons ago could feel so routine, that so few players realized they could clinch their third playoff appearance in as many seasons, because they understand that if they just take care of business each day, everything else will fall into place.
Like when a 10-point deficit turns into a 10-point lead, just one play at a time.
“You feel unstoppable,” Turner said. “When we’re both firing on all cylinders, man, you put your foot on the gas and you leave people behind.”
