https://sports.yahoo.com/rams-reach-red-zone-final-005614384.html
It was a cold way to end a season.
The Rams came to Lincoln Financial Field with an opportunity to win an NFC divisional-round game and host the NFC championship.
The Philadelphia Eagles were having none of it.
On a snowy and windy day, Eagles running back Saquon Barkley once again dominated the Rams, who could not overcome two late fumbles in a 28-22 defeat.
The Eagles will play the Washington Commanders in the NFC championship game next Sunday at Lincoln Financial Field.
“I’m happy to be a part of this team and proud of this group, coach Sean McVay said. “And I’m really bummed out that this journey is over.”
Read more: Saquon Barkley continues to make history with one of the greatest seasons ever
As they did in 2021, when they defeated the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the lower-seeded San Francisco 49ers defeated the top-seeded Green Bay Packers in the divisional-round games, the Rams would have hosted the Commanders with a chance to advance to Super Bowl LIX in New Orleans.
“You don’t minimize how difficult it is to put yourself in positions where you’re on the precipice of hosting an NFC championship,” McVay said. “I think we all wanted that a lot, and it didn’t go down for us today.”
Barkley played a huge role, scoring on runs of 62 yards in the first quarter and 78 in the fourth quarter. He finished with 205 yards rushing in 26 carries.
The Rams had seen that act before.
On Nov. 24, Barkley rushed for 255 yards and scored on runs of 70 and 72 yards in a 37-20 victory over the Rams at SoFi Stadium.
“Whenever he gets up to the second and third level [of the defense], that’s really when he becomes really dangerous,” tackle Kobie Turner said.
This time Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts also scored on a long run, and the Rams lost two fumbles in the second half. Hurts completed 15 of 20 passes for 120 yards and also rushed for 70 yards.
“I was really proud of this group, really all season and the way that we battled,” said quarterback Matthew Stafford, who played through a rib injury and passed for 324 yards and two touchdowns, but lost a fumble. “It wasn’t perfect by any means, but this group really stuck together. … It’s disappointing to end it this way but proud of the way we battled.”
Three years ago, Stafford needed only 42 seconds to engineer a game-winning drive to defeat Tom Brady and the Buccaneers in a divisional-round game at Tampa.
He engineered one late scoring drive Sunday, but his fourth-down pass at the 26-yard line in the final minute fell incomplete.
Read more: Hernández: Is this the end for Cooper Kupp with Rams? And what about Matthew Stafford?
“I didn’t see it going any other way than us winning that game 29-28,” McVay said. “Just had a couple things that we couldn’t overcome.”
Stafford agreed.
“Felt like as an offense we had them on the ropes, and I bet they probably felt it too,” he said. “We were moving the rock really well the last two drives and just a couple unforced errors here and there.”
Stafford completed 26 of 44 passes for 324 yards and two touchdowns.
The Rams contained Barkley at times and they followed up their nine-sack performance against the Minnesota Vikings with seven against the Eagles.
Rookie edge rusher Jared Verse, who riled the Eagles’ rabid fan base last week by saying he hated Eagles fans and found them annoying, had two sacks.
Verse said he thrived on the hostile environment — “It doesn’t faze me, it hypes me up more,” he said — but lamented the defeat.
“I could have been better,” Verse said. “There’s more I could have done.”
The Rams trailed, 28-15, late in the game after Barkley broke free for his 78-yard touchdown.
Stafford engineered a drive that he capped with a touchdown pass to tight end Colby Parkinson with 2:48 left.
The Rams got the ball back with 2:23 left and were driving again, but came up short.
The defeat ended a season in which the Rams were forced to weather numerous injuries during training camp and the first few games en route to a 1-4 start that put them on the brink of playoff oblivion.
But by Week 9 they were 4–4. The November loss to the Eagles dropped the Rams to 5-6.
Read more: 🏈 Rams-Eagles summary
A few days later, McVay addressed his players and wrote on a whiteboard the number 39, the number of days left in the regular season. He challenged them to commit to getting the most out of each one.
The Rams won five games in a row before and clinched the NFC West by strength of victory before McVay rested starters in the season finale against the Seattle Seahawks.
Because of safety concerns caused by the wildfires in Southern California, the NFL moved the Rams wild-card game against the Vikings to State Farm Stadium in Arizona. With McVay and his players saying they were “Built for This,” the Rams won and set the stage for the divisional-round rematch against the Eagles.
“Love this team,” McVay said. “It’s just hard because you didn’t want it to end.”
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
https://sports.yahoo.com/rams-reach-red-zone-final-005614384.html
