Los Angeles improved to 8-0 on Sunday, taking down Green Bay 29-27 in a tight battle at the L.A. Coliseum. With the Rams remaining the leagues only undefeated team in 2018, here are five takeaways from the latest W.
1) WORKING IN TANDEM
Teams in the NFL are often at their best when each of the three phases work together in order to make an impact. That's exactly what happened for Los Angeles late in the second quarter.
After a Los Angeles drive stalled at the home team's 47, punter Johnny Hekker bounced a kick deep in Green Bay territory and cornerback Sam Shields downed the punt at the one-yard line. On the next play, linebacker Mark Barron stuffed running back Aaron Jones inside the end zone for a safety — giving L.A. its first two points of the day.
Then after getting the ball back on the ensuing free kick, the Rams drove 72 yards and finished the possession with wide receiver Josh Reynolds first touchdown of the season.
That was an ideal sequence and got Los Angeles right back in the game before the half.
2) "MR. AUTOMATIC"
With everything that has gone on in the Rams' last two victories, it might be a bit easy to overlook one of the team's biggest factors in the wins — kicker Greg Zuerlein.
In what has been a particularly rough year for kickers cross the league, Zuerlein has been as consistent as they come. He connected on both of his field goal attempts on Sunday, from 43- and 34-yards out. And he also put four of his six kickoffs in the end zone — three of which Green Bay elected to keep in the box for touchbacks.
The one returner Ty Montgomery elected to take out of the end zone? Linebacker Ramik Wilson made him pay with a forced fumble late in the fourth quarter that led to the Rams icing the game.
So far in 2018, Zuerlein has connected on 9-of-10 field goals — with his only miss coming off the infield dirt in Oakland during Week 1. He's also hit 8-of-8 extra-point attempts.
The Rams take on the Packers at the Coliseum in Week 8.
