When Rams running back Kyren Williams had a touchdown run with 3:59 remaining and another touchdown run with 1:10 remaining to finish his team’s fourth-quarter comeback win over the Eagles on Sunday, he was doing something that hadn’t been done in the NFL in a decade: No player had scored multiple rushing touchdowns in the final four minutes of the fourth quarter of any NFL game since 2016.
Then, later on Sunday afternoon, it happened again.
With 3:21 remaining in the fourth quarter on Sunday in Las Vegas, Kansas City running back Kenneth Walker ran for a two-yard touchdown that gave the Chiefs the lead. The Raiders fumbled the ensuing kickoff, the Chiefs recovered, and on the next play Walker ran for a 22-yard touchdown that sealed the Chiefs’ win.
Williams and Walker became the first NFL players in 10 years to score two rushing touchdowns in the final four minutes of the fourth quarter of an NFL game. Or, to be precise, Williams became the first player to do it in 10 years, and then Walker became the first player to do it in three hours.
Before Williams and Walker, the last player to score two rushing touchdowns in the final four minutes was Washington running back Rob Kelley, who scored had touchdown runs with 3:54 remaining and with 2:26 remaining in a win over Green Bay on November 20, 2016. Kelley was an undrafted rookie running back who surprisingly became Washington’s starter midway through that season and had his greatest game that day against the Packers, carrying 24 times for 137 yards and three touchdowns. Unfortunately, Kelley never reached those heights again, and his NFL career was over two years later.
For Williams and Walker, who have been two of the NFL’s top running backs for years, it’s no surprise that they stepped up when their teams needed them. But their late-game heroics on Sunday represent a surprising feat for any player, let alone for two players to accomplish mere hours apart.
Rams Clips
When the Rams take the field against the Bills on Monday night, they’ll be doing something no NFL team has ever done before: Playing their fourth prime time game within the first five games of the season.
The Rams are the first NFL team to play four of their first five games in prime time.
In Week 1, the Rams played the 49ers, in a game that kicked off on Friday morning in Australia but was televised on Thursday night in the United States. In Week 2, the Rams were on Monday Night Football against the Giants. In Week 3, the Rams were on Sunday Night Football against the Broncos. In Week 4, the Rams played their first Sunday afternoon game against the Eagles. And in Week 5, they’ll be back on Monday night against the Bills.
A combination of factors led to the Rams’ unusual schedule, primarily that they were expected to be the best team in the NFL, meaning the league wanted to showcase them, and the league plays a lot more prime time games than it used to. In the old days, when Monday Night Football was the only prime time slot, the NFL would never have put one team in four of the first five Monday night games. Now that there are prime time games on Sunday, Monday and Thursday every week, and occasionally other nights of the week as well, it’s easier for the league to find prime time slots for marquee teams.
But when the NFL is putting the best teams in prime time, it weakens the Sunday afternoon slate. The NFL now plays more games in prime time than ever before, more Europe games on Sunday mornings than ever before, and more games on holidays than ever before, including Thanksgiving Eve, Black Friday and Christmas Day. Those games tend to feature top teams the league wants to showcase before a big audience, and those games have to come from somewhere, and that somewhere is Sunday afternoon.
After Monday night against the Bills, the Rams play their next five games on Sunday afternoon, assuming none of them are flexed into a prime time slot. But they still have a Thanksgiving Eve game against the Packers, a Thursday night game against the Chiefs and a Christmas Night game against the Seahawks ahead.
The Rams have the kind of schedule that couldn’t have existed for most of NFL history.
The Rams have added a notable veteran to their practice squad.
Los Angeles announced on Tuesday that the club has signed linebacker Eric Kendricks to its practice squad.
Kendricks, 34, was most recently with the 49ers last season as the club experienced several injuries at linebacker. He appeared in three games with one start in the regular season before starting both of San Francisco’s postseason games, including the club’s victory over the Eagles. He registered 19 total tackles with three tackles for loss in the playoffs.
A second-round pick in 2015, Kendricks spent his first eight seasons with the Vikings, becoming a first-team All-Pro in 2019.
Kendricks spent 2023 with the Chargers and 2024 with the Cowboys.
Rams quarterbacks coach Dave Ragone got a 15-yard penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct on Sunday after he stood too close to the field and collided with an official who was running down the sideline. Rams coach Sean McVay says that can’t happen.
When talking about some of the mistakes the Rams made in the first three quarters before turning things around and beating the Eagles with a fourth-quarter comeback, McVay noted that the coaches aren’t exempt from the criticism that the team hasn’t been focused enough at times.
“Focus, concentration and situational awareness, we have to do a better job on that,” McVay said. “When it rains, it pours. Shoot, we’re getting penalties on our staff now too. Thank God we won that one. Rags would have never lived that one down. He felt bad about that one. So he took great accountability. We’ll get everybody the hell out of the way. And I need to get the hell out of the way as well.”
It was one of several costly penalties for the Rams, who were flagged eight times for 100 penalty yards. They won the game, but McVay wants to make sure everyone, players and coaches alike, knows that can’t happen.
Rams defensive end Myles Garrett has to be on injured reserve for at least one more week. The Rams aren’t sure whether he’ll return after that.
Coach Sean McVay said that Garrett is coming along in his rehab from knee surgery but McVay doesn’t know how many more games Garrett might miss.
“I know he’s making really good progress. We haven’t talked specifics like that,” McVay said.
McVay said he and Reggie Scott, who runs the team’s sports medicine department, will review Garrett’s rehab this week and will have a better idea of Garrett’s timeline soon.
“That’ll be something that I talk with Reggie about in the next couple days,” McVay said. “Probably be better equipped to give you some clarity about that on Thursday.”
Garrett struggled to play through his knee injury in Week 1 and hasn’t played since, which is a big disappointment for such an important offseason acquisition. But the most important thing is getting Garrett healthy now, and having the Garrett of old on the field down the stretch.
Some of the Rams assistant coaches did not win gracefully on Sunday. Videos on social media show coaches in the team’s booth taunting Eagles fans, with one assistant banging on a window in the booth before gesturing at them.
A cup and a water bottle are thrown from the stands at the glass windows of the booth in retaliation.
Rams head coach Sean McVay said he and his assistants have discussed the incident.
“We’ll be better in those situations,” McVay said, via Sarah Barshop of ESPN.
The Rams rallied for a 24-20 victory against the Eagles, scoring two touchdowns in the final 3:59. The Eagles had a 97.4 percent chance of winning with 8 minutes, 17 seconds left.
McVay said he understands the excitement and emotion, explaining he was in a similar situation while with Washington calling plays in Philadelphia.
“We’ll learn from that,” McVay said. “We’ll be better. Those fans are really into it, but I know that we want to make sure that we’re representing the class and just the calm steadiness that we want to have while also being emotionally into it. And there’s ways that we can have that reflected.
“We did talk about it, and that won’t be an issue moving forward.”
It sounds like Aaron Donald’s comeback will continue in Week 5.
After Donald did not play in Sunday’s win over the Eagles due to back soreness, head coach Sean McVay told reporters on Monday that the hope is that Donald will return for the coming Monday night matchup against the Bills.
“That’s the direction it looks like it’s trending in,” McVay said, via Stu Jackson of the team’s website.
Donald, who has been dealing with back soreness, has played 54 percent of Los Angeles’ defensive snaps across two games this season. He’s registered four total tackles with one for loss and one quarterback hit.
Additionally, McVay noted the team is hopeful cornerback Jaylen Watson will be able to return this week after missing Sunday’s game with a shoulder injury.
The Rams’ first injury report of the week will be released on Thursday.
The Rams were losing 20-10 to the Eagles in the fourth quarter on Sunday, but anyone who thought the game was over hasn’t been watching Matthew Stafford over the years.
Stafford engineered a 10-play, 98-yard touchdown drive and followed that with a 10-play, 79-yard touchdown drive, and the Rams beat the Eagles 24-20. It was the 40th fourth-quarter comeback of Stafford’s career, and he said after the game that he and his teammates never doubted that they could pull it out.
“If you don’t have belief, then what are we doing? That’s what we put all this work in for,” Stafford said. “We put all the work in Monday through Saturday so that when those instances come up on Sunday, we believe in each other. We understand, this guy has put the work in to do what we do. Not every game is going to go exactly how you want it, sometimes you’re going to have to find ways to win football games and that’s what we did today. I know I believe in everybody in that huddle.”
The only other players in NFL history with 40 fourth-quarter comebacks are Tom Brady with 46, Peyton Manning with 43 and Ben Roethlisberger with 41. Stafford had 31 fourth-quarter comebacks with the Lions, and Sunday was his ninth with the Rams.
Stafford said those are special moments to share with his teammates.
“We’d love to go out there and score every time we touch the ball and stop them three-and-out, and that’s just not the case in the NFL,” Stafford said. “But coming together as a team, finding a way to figure it out and get a win . . . Just proud of our group, proud of our team.”
The boo birds flew early and often in Philly on Sunday, thanks to an offense that couldn’t get off the ground.
The final tally from Sunday’s loss to the Rams: 172 total yards, 68 net yards passing, and 0-for-12 on third down.
Over the last two games, the Eagles have converted only two of 21 third-down opportunities.
After the loss to L.A., Eagles coach Nick Sirianni was asked whether the problems are a result of execution, play-calling, or scheme.
“Obviously, everybody contributed to that,” Sirianni told reporters. “Everybody. So, there’s execution errors, there’s coaching errors. Everybody contributes to it. It’s an ultimate team game. You can’t sustain drives and do the things that you want. Some of our problems offensively has been [that] we’ve been behind, but it wasn’t quite the same case today where we were in second-and-long and all those different things. It was more we couldn’t convert on third down for multiple different reasons. So again, there’s always a lot of contributors to that. I need to go watch the tape before I react to anything. But I know when you’re 0-for-whatever we were today, everybody has a hand in that. Our job is to figure out what happened and get better from it and not assign blame. That’s what we’ll be doing.”
Injuries had something to do with that. The Eagles didn’t have receiver Devonta Smith or tight end Dallas Goedert. Right tackle Lane Johnson was a late scratch. Running back Saquon Barkley injured his hamstring on his only carry of the game.
Quarterback Jalen Hurts didn’t blame injuries. Or play-calling. Or scheme.
“Poor execution,” he said regarding the offensive effort, particularly in the second half. “Poor execution. Yeah, poor execution.”
He was later asked what he means by “poor execution.”
“It’s just you’re finding your flow collectively as a unit,” Hurts said. “I think it comes down to finding a flow, finding a rhythm as a unit, as a group, and going out there and executing at a higher level. We didn’t do that today.”
The next chance to do it comes in six days, in London. Against the 3-1 Jaguars.
While the season isn’t yet on the brink, it’s clear that the Eagles aren’t the team they’ve been in recent seasons. They’re currently not dominant. They’re currently not elite. They’ve got the Panthers and the Cowboys after the trip to England, followed by the Commanders and the Giants.
The Eagles need to win at least three of the next five before their Week 10 bye. If they finish the first nine games at 4-5, 3-6, or 2-7, it could be very hard to get back to the playoffs.
Even if they do, the 2026 Eagles don’t look like a team that can make a climb up the playoff tree.
With Rams receiver Puka Nacua having “core muscle” issues during training camp and then a hip/groin problem that caused him to miss two games, it began to seem as if Nacua might have a hernia.
But coach Sean McVay, during Puka’s recent absence, said the Rams’ top receiver does not have a hernia.
As explained by Erin Andrews of Fox Sports early in Sunday’s Rams-Eagles game, Nacua has a “pre-hernia.”
Basically, there’s a weakness in the wall of muscle that keeps internal tissue from popping through. But, for now, nothing has popped through. So it’s not a hernia yet. But it could still become a hernia.
The question becomes whether the rest has allowed the weakness/strain in the affected area of the hip/groin to improve sufficiently to prevent a hernia from developing. If it ever does, there’s only one way to fix it.
At one point, McVay tiptoed around the situation by saying that “some of the things can be like pre-hernia.” As Andrews put it on Sunday, there’s no “like” about it. Nacua has been dealing with the symptoms of the kind of weakness in the structures that can allow a hernia to form. It hasn’t yet, and that may simply be a matter of luck.
On Sunday, Nacua was able to play — and to play well. He had nine catches for 125 yards. It remains to be seen whether the forces applied as he accelerated, changed directions, etc. will make things worse. The overriding question is whether it can and will heal over time, especially as he continues to apply stress to the affected area.
Either way, it’s a concerning situation for one of the best receivers in the NFL. And it’s something that could still result in a condition that will require surgery, during or after the 2026 season.
