Sunday Night Football has not been kind to the Rams.
Particularly quarterback Jared Goff.
Playing in the national spotlight in the last two weeks, Goff has not played up to the standard that he's set for himself since Sean McVay took over as head coach. In Sunday's 30-23 loss to the Eagles, Goff finished 35-of-54 passing for 339 yards with a pair of interceptions.
Combining those numbers with those from the Bears game in Week 14, Goff has completed just 56 percent of his passes for 519 yards with no touchdowns and six interceptions over past two games. He's also averaging just 5.3 yards per attempt in that span — a far cry from his season average of 8.6 yards per attempt entering Week 15.
Still, Los Angeles' lack of offensive production — especially when compared to where the team was earlier this season — is certainly not all on Goff. And that's how head coach Sean McVay framed it after the game.
"There is concern about just our overall operation, with regards to just the way that we played specific to the offense the last couple weeks," McVay said. "It starts with me — got to do a better job. We've all got to do better."
And yet, there are also elements of the game that Goff clearly must improve. Probably the most glaring from Sunday night was a play late in the third quarter, with Los Angeles down 23-13.
On 3rd-and-1 from the L.A. 34 with 2:21 on the clock, Goff was stepped on as he dropped back from under center — presumably to hand off to running back Todd Gurley. But Goff fell, fumbled, picked up the ball, got back up, and then attempted to make a play by letting the ball go.
But safety Corey Graham was there to pick the ball out of the air, returning the turnover all the way to the Los Angeles 12-yard line.
Two plays later, running back Wendell Smallwood was running into the end zone, giving Philly a 30-13 lead.
"Yeah, I had my foot stepped on and tried to make a play afterwards. And, unfortunately, wasn't able to," Goff said, describing the turnover. "It was a third down, and down in the game, and tried to make the play."
"He's got to make better decisions, especially when we end up falling out underneath the center on 3rd-and-1," McVay said. "Sometimes the only play is to just eat it, take that sack, and let's go ahead and punt it right there. But, you try to make plays."
"We all learn from our mistakes and that's players, coaches alike," McVay continued. "There's certainly some things that we can look at and we've got to be better — everybody."
With seven interceptions — and one lost fumble — in the last three games, Goff has continued to say that he must improve in ball security.
"Just continue to take care of the ball. I need to do a better job of that, but at the same time, I feel like I've grown and learned and made strides in a positive direction regardless of what has happened," Goff said. But then he added, "need to be better in that regard."
Still, there are perhaps two factors that one could look at as silver linings from the offense in this loss.
First, L.A. was able to move the ball better toward the end of the game in the second half. Goff noted that, saying, "I feel like in the second half I started to settle in and started to make some plays. We moved the ball pretty good there at the end, the fourth quarter."
And that's likely at least in part because Goff — as always — was the same guy in the huddle, with his calm, cool demeanor.
"Still the same Jared — poised, never a facial expression change, still leading this group," wide receiver Robert Woods said. "And it's the same expression when we're up 20 points — just fighting back, trying to compete and put up some points."
"He's cool, calm, and collected. You can definitely tell he doesn't flinch for anything — whether we were down 23 points, whether we were up 23 points, he's staying cool, calm, and collected," wide receiver Josh Reynolds said. "So us seeing our leader like that, it's good stuff."
The second takeaway — the mistakes aren't major. They're correctable things, according to Goff.
"[F]igure it out — what do we need to figure out? I don't think it's much. I think it's little things here and there," Goff said. "I need to do a better job. We all need to do a better job across the board. It's nothing that we haven't done — which is a good way to look at it — and it's stuff that's so fixable."
And while there did seem to be a renewed sense of urgency — losing "back-to-back hurts," Woods said — there also seemed to be the feeling that the Rams will get back to looking like themselves on offense.
"[T]hat's just part of the NFL — you're going to have your ups, you're going to have your downs, and you got to take it with a grain of salt and just move on," running back Todd Gurley said of Goff. "He'll respond like he always does, and he'll come back and lead us to a win next week."
