DENVER — With three lead changes in the final five minutes of the game, Sunday Night Football between the Rams and Broncos went down to the final play. Unable to score on the final play of the game, Denver ultimately prevailed, 30-26.
Rams head coach Sean McVay, quarterback Matthew Stafford and cornerback Josh Wallace gave their thoughts on the game from the podium.
"This is sports. You sign up for all of it, and love our group. Just came up short. Give the Broncos credit. They found a way to get it done. We'll look at ourselves and figure out how we can improve." - McVay
After a strong showing on both sides of the ball in the first half, the Rams defense struggled to slow down the Broncos offense early in the second half. McVay noted how "the two-point conversions that they converted on were big. They got the momentum back." When Denver took back the momentum in the second half, McVay saw how "we weren't able to establish much rhythm offensively" either.
Although the Rams found themselves down with 42 seconds left and marched down to the 19-yard line with two seconds left, Los Angeles "just came up short tonight" as Stafford's last second throw ended in the hands of the Broncos.
"We just didn't execute as well. (We) got behind the sticks, had a sack or two. Did a nice job in the run game against us for a little bit, and then we just weren't efficient enough throwing the ball." - Stafford
The Rams out gained the Broncos 273 to 67 in the first half, but lost momentum for the third quarter when Denver had 87 yards to the Rams' 19 yards. "Gotta be a little bit more efficient in some of the stuff that we're doing throwing the football wise, obviously I gotta be better, and I will be," Stafford said.
After throwing an interception returned for a touchdown, Stafford and the Rams offense responded with a touchdown of their own on the next drive to take the lead back, 26-23. Stafford was "proud of the way we came back and threw a touchdown on the next drive, and took the lead right back." But the Broncos responded with a touchdown on their next drive, which ended up being the final points of the game.
"They just got momentum on us. It's always tough when another team gets the momentum at home. So they kind of got a good jump on us, but there's a lot of things we can clean up defensively." - Wallace
Playing at home with a hostile environment on their side, the Broncos took all momentum to start the second half, and it was felt by the Rams defense. Wallace said there were "a couple things that we just didn't execute at the end of the day, so we'll be better."
Wallace had the Rams' lone takeaway on the evening with an interception at the beginning of the fourth quarter that led to the Rams taking a 19-16 lead. "Just making the play whenever (defensive coordinator Chris) Shula calls on me, and he trusts me, and all the DBs in the back end, so just making play when the ball comes our way," Wallace said.
