Despite one of the best offensive performances of the season from any team, the Rams lost to Seattle 38-37 in overtime of a Week 16 classic on Thursday Night Football. Quarterback Matthew Stafford and wide receiver Puka Nacua both had career days and set NFL season-highs, but it wasn't enough to lift the Rams over the Seahawks, who sealed the victory on a successful two-point conversion.
Here are five interesting stats from the Rams' loss to Seattle.
The Rams set NFL season-highs in total yards of offense (581) and net passing yards (457)
This is the third-straight week that the Rams have totaled over 500 yards of offense, the only team to achieve that in any three games this season. Stafford's 457 yards through the air were his most in a game since 2013, when he threw for 488 as a member of the Lions. It was the most passing yards in a game by a Ram since Jared Goff threw for 517 against the Buccaneers in 2019. The Rams also ran for 124 yards and only had two negative yards the entire game.
The Rams deployed 13 personnel on 54 of their 88 offensive plays (61.4%) against the Seahawks, their 2nd-highest usage rate of the season and most total plays in the Next Gen Stats era
After averaging just 2.7 yards per play and a 16.7% success rate out of 13 personnel against Seattle in Week 11, the Rams didn't shy away from going back to it. They doubled down. This game, they averaged 5.9 yards per play and a 44.4% success rate, scoring four touchdowns out of that personnel grouping.
Since 2016, no team has run as many plays out of 13 personnel in a single game as the Rams did on Thursday. They also have games this season with the second, third, fourth, sixth and eighth most plays out of 13 in the Next Gen Stats era.
Nacua set the NFL season-highs in receiving yards (225), receiving expected points added (16.4) and yards after catch (133), according to Next Gen Stats
No receiver this season has had a game like Nacua just did. He set a new career-high in receiving yards just a week after tying his former record, and also surpassed his previous career-high in yards after the catch by 26. His production added an expected 16.4 points to the Rams' total compared to what the average receiver would achieve in similar contexts. The next-closest player to that level of impact was... Nacua last week with 16.3 EPA.
Nacua's 225 receiving yards were the most by a Ram since Eddie Kennison in 1996
Nacua's performance warrants two stats. Not only did he have the best receiver performance of the season, but it was the best by a Ram in nearly three decades, when Kennison went for 226 against the Falcons in Week 16 that year. The last Ram to go over 200 receiving yards was Cooper Kupp in 2019, who reached 220.
The win probability swung in favor of a different team 10 times in the fourth quarter and overtime, according to nflverse data
It may not have gone the Rams' way in the end, but they had a ton of chances to take this game. They had a win probability over 50% five times in the fourth quarter and overtime, and it was as high as 97% with nine minutes remaining.
