INGLEWOOD – Yeah, they say hope springs eternal. But the Rams were certainly pressing the issue Sunday afternoon, weren’t they?
The chances of an NFL team starting its season 0-3 and getting into the playoffs were considered only a little better than the chances of any of us winning a Powerball jackpot. Just four of 162 teams since 1990 that started 0-3 have reached the postseason, and since the turn of the century only one team done so, the 2018 Houston Texans. None of those teams won the Super Bowl.
So when the injury-riddled Rams fell behind 14-0 to the San Francisco 49ers, playing in a home stadium where the red-clad fans of the visitors appeared to make up 65 to 70 percent of the crowd, it looked grim. No, make that darned near hopeless.
And maybe Sunday was the Revenge of the Darned Near Hopeless. A half hour or so after Shohei Ohtani and Mookie Betts hit back-to-back homers in the ninth inning to complete the Dodgers’ comeback from a 5-1 deficit, beat Colorado and retain a three-game NL West lead, Rams kicker Joshua Karty completed his own team’s improbable finish, banging a 37-yard field goal with four seconds left to bring his team back from a 14-0 deficit in the first quarter and 24-14 with 11:57 left in the game.
Final: Rams 27, 49ers 24, and the Rams’ video crew gleefully put shots on the huge Infinity screen of 49ers fans heading up the escalators to the parking lot, or those still in the stands with anguished looks on their faces. Sometimes there are benefits to watching the other team’s fans overrun your stadium, especially when you can watch them slink away in defeat.
But this was a victory that could have effects way beyond this week, even given the NFL mantra that every game is its own separate entity.
A team that lost both of its high profile receivers to injury, and has had to shuffle its offensive line as well, played with what coach Sean McVay described as “a lot of guts, a lot of grit.” And while the end-of-game hero was rookie kicker Karty – that is, once the 49ers’ attempt at a rugby-style play in the game’s final five seconds was snuffed out – an equally improbable hero might have been Xavier Smith, a second-year receiver from Florida A&M who was promoted from the practice squad Saturday and sent out to return punts.
The original plan was for Kyren Williams to return punts, along with his duties at running back. He returned two for 12 yards in two games, plus a fair catch, and maybe it dawned on McVay and his staff that, since Smith was on the roster to bolster receiver depth, why not try him on returns as well?
He returned one, and it may have changed the Rams’ season. With the game tied 24-24 and the Rams defense having held the 49ers at their own 45 with 55 seconds left, Smith fielded Mitch Wishnowsky’s punt at his own 12 and returned it to midfield before he was pushed out of bounds.
That set up the ending. Tight end Colby Parkinson drew a 25-yard pass interference penalty on De’Vondre Campbell Sr. – and in fairness, the Rams also had defensive holding and illegal use of hands infractions to choose from on the same play. Williams then carried for 6 yards off right guard to the 49ers’ 19 to give Karty his star turn.
Smith was quick to credit the guys who blocked for him, saying they “had just as pivotal a moment in this game as I did.” But it had to be a moment that reinforced the possibilities in his own mind, and I asked him what that meant to him.
“Just knowing that the preparation that I put in from Monday all the way up until the game day, (that) I did everything I could to prepare myself in order to play in this game,” he said. “Just … having a peace of mind, knowing that I did everything I could, so whenever the moment presents itself, I’ll be ready to take it.”
Way before that, late in the second quarter, another normally unsung hero changed the momentum of the game. Ronnie Rivers took a direct snap that appeared intended for punter Ethan Evans on fourth and 6 from the Rams’ 23, with the 49ers leading 14-0 and, to that point, having had 32 offensive snaps to the Rams’ 19 at that point.
Rivers turned that direct snap into a 7-yard gain, and that first down led to the first of Williams’ three touchdowns, a 15-yard reception from Matthew Stafford on which he hurdled a San Francisco defender and did a somersault into the end zone. Instead of an impending rout, it was a ballgame.
And if there was another improbable yet indispensable play, it came from Tutu Atwell, thrust into the spotlight with Puka Nucua and Cooper Kupp sidelined. Atwell was targeted five times and had four catches for 93 yards, the biggest a 50-yard play down the sideline with 2:43 left in the fourth quarter, with the Rams still training 24-17 and having just gotten the ball back after 49ers’ kicker Jake Moody was wide left on a 55-yard field goal try that might have iced it. (Or might not have, the way the day was progressing.)
Instead, Atwell got the Rams down to the San Francisco 5, Williams got them in the end zone to tie the game with 1:51 left, and the fun was just beginning.
“A game like that, (when you’re) 0-2, it’s really easy to just be like, ‘Looks like last week again’,” said Rams linebacker Troy Reeder. “But there was just no quit in this group and I’m just really proud of them and how they fought and hung in there and then eventually were able to pull it out.
“I was walking up and down the sideline and I just felt like everybody was confident that at some point we were going to get a momentum swing. And eventually we did. And we were able to kind of put some points back on the board on offense and make some stops on defense.”
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Last week’s drubbing in Arizona did not have a residual effect, unless it was to add to these players’ determination. Now the trick is to use Sunday’s result positively, beginning next week in Chicago.
“Three hours will never define you, good or bad, unless you allow it to,” McVay said. “We’ve got to do a good job of being able to build on this.”
But when a team demonstrates resilience and tough-mindedness – to itself, never mind those on the outside – there’s always hope.
jalexander@scng.com