It’s one thing for us to say it. It carries much more weight when an NFL head coach says it.
Any time there’s a ball on the ground, go get it.
Broncos coach Sean Payton was asked by reporters on Friday about the crazy two-point conversion that morphed from incompletion to recovery in the end zone when running back Zach Charbonnet nonchalantly picked up the ball. The play, thanks to replay review, tied the Rams-Seahawks game at 30 in the fourth quarter.
“I saw the replay of it, and I know the play they were running,” Payton said. “Holy cow, that was — I’d never seen anything like it. Of course, when you looked at it, the No. 1 rule, and I think [former NFL coach] Wade Phillips tweeted this. . . . Any ball on the ground, defensively scoop it. I don’t care if a fan threw it from the — any ball on the ground, scoop it. So there was a unique play though, and obviously had a huge impact in the game. Absolutely, ball on the ground. But I didn’t get to watch any of the game. I just saw that clip.”
Phillips, the first defensive coordinator of the Rams under head coach Sean McVay (and a former Broncos head coach), did indeed tweet it. “That’s why you ALWAYS make your defensive players pick up every ball on the ground no matter what it looks like,” Phillips said.
Charbonnet, by all appearances, was simply getting the ball in order to give it to the officials. All players, on offense or defense, need to know that, even after the whistle is blown, any ball on the field needs to be grabbed.
There’s no downside. As Charbonnet learned, there’s a potentially gigantic upside.
Rams Clips
Rams wide receiver Davante Adams is on track to miss another game with a hamstring injury.
Adams did not play in Thursday night’s overtime loss to the Seahawks after being listed as doubtful on the team’s final injury report. The Rams have an extended break before facing the Falcons on Monday night in Week 17, but head coach Sean McVay said on Friday that Adams is likely to miss the game.
It remains to be seen what the Rams will be playing for in Week 18, but they’ve clinched a playoff spot and it wouldn’t come as a great surprise if they kept Adams on the shelf until their playoff opener in order to give him as much time as possible to heal.
Right guard Kevin Dotson sprained his ankle on Thursday and McVay indicated he is also likely to miss next week. McVay also said that Dotson’s injury did not occur when Seahawks defensive lineman Derick Hall stomped on his leg during the game, but said, via Stu Jackson of the team’s website, that it is something that “doesn’t belong in our game.” Hall was suspended one game for his actions on Friday.
For the first time since the NFL opened the door to a second overtime possession even if the team that gets the ball first scores a touchdown, a team that got the ball second scored a touchdown, went for two, and converted.
Given that regular-season overtime lasts only 10 minutes, Seattle’s decision to go for two was a near no-brainer.
The decision to take the ball second includes both a desire to know what is needed when the possession begins and an interest in avoiding true sudden-death overtime, which is what happens if both teams score the same number of points on their first drives. It also minimizes the possibility of a tie, since two scoring possessions typically will leave far less time for another score by either team.
On Thursday night, a Seattle kickoff would have happened with 3:13 to play. Although the Rams had gone into an offensive funk for much of the fourth quarter, they’d snapped out of it in a big way on the opening drive of overtime. (And they had gained 581 yards against the Seattle defense.) They still had plenty of time to drive into field-goal range, especially if they had ended up with good field position after the ensuing kickoff.
And so, if the Seahawks had kicked the extra point after making the game 37-36 in overtime, they likely were looking at a loss or a tie. (It still would have been possible to force a punt and have a shot at engineering a game-winning field goal.)
A tie would have clinched a playoff berth for Seattle. But it would have given the Rams the head-to-head tiebreaker, since they’d beaten the Seahawks earlier in the season. The Rams would have been wins against the Falcons and Cardinals away from the NFC West title and the No. 1 seed.
So Seattle’s choices were to play for a tie, risk a loss via sudden death, or take advantage of the best chance to walk off with a win.
“Well, yeah, that’s part of the whole thing, you’re trying to get into the playoffs,” Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald told reporters on Friday. “Then do you secure your spot in the playoffs, or do you risk not getting in the playoffs, but the upside is pretty dang high. We chose to go for it.”
The tentative choice to go for two likely was made as part of the decision to kick to start overtime. The goal was both to know what is needed (if the Rams score) and to avoid sudden death against a team with a dangerous offense. Sudden death is sidestepped, obviously, only if the Seahawks score more on the second drive than the Rams did on the first drive.
So it wasn’t a surprise that the Seahawks went for two. Now that, after 13 games under the new regular-season overtime approach, an overtime scenario has played out that way, it introduces another wrinkle into the overtime chess match.
Under what circumstances should the team that scores a touchdown on the opening drive go for two?
A former NFL head coach, reacting to the discussion of the subject on Friday’s PFT Live, suggested that it would be very rare for the team that gets the ball first to go for two. But with a tie giving the Rams the inside track to the No. 1 seed, last night woud have been a time to consider it, since scoring eight points would have guaranteed a tie at worst.
Also, for the same reason a team takes the ball second in order to know what it needs to do offensively, the Rams would have known what they needed to do defensively — prevent a touchdown and a game-winning PAT.
It’s not known whether Rams coach Sean McVay, who has become very aggressive when it comes to going for it on fourth down, considered trying to open an eight-point lead after the first overtime drive. Last night’s outcome naturally introduces the subject into the broader overtime discussion.
One of these days, someone is going to do it. And, if successful, it’s going to put the opposing offense in an unprecedented situation. It will need to drive the field, score a touchdown, and score on a two-point play likely merely to emerge from the game with the most unsatisfying of all outcomes, at best.
The NFL suspended Seahawks linebacker Derick Hall without pay for one game for an act of unnecessary roughness and unsportsmanlike conduct during Thursday’s win over the Rams.
During the first quarter, Hall unnecessarily stepped on the leg of Rams offensive guard Kevin Dotson at the end of a play while Dotson was on the ground. That was a violation of Rule 12, Section 2, Article 8, which prohibits unnecessary roughness and Rule 12, Section 3, Article 1, which applies to unsportsmanlike conduct, including “any act which is contrary to the generally understood principles of sportsmanship.”
Hall will miss the Dec. 28 game against the Panthers, becoming eligible to return to the Seahawks’ active roster on Dec. 29.
Hall has the right to appeal the suspension under the Collective Bargaining Agreement.
Any appeal would be heard and decided upon by Derrick Brooks, Ramon Foster, or Jordy Nelson, the hearing officers jointly appointed and compensated by the NFL and NFLPA to decide appeals of on-field player discipline.
Hall totaled three tackles Thursday night, and in 13 games this season, he has 29 tackles, a sack, 10 quarterback hits and two passes defensed.
Rams wide receiver Puka Nacua’s comments about officials this week have drawn a response from the NFL.
Mike Garafolo of NFL Media reports that Nacua has been fined $25,000 for his public disparagement of officials.
During an appearance on a livestream this week, Nacua said NFL officials are “the worst” and that they make certain calls because they “want to be on TV.” It was noted by one of the livestream hosts that Nacua could be fined for his comments, which Nacua acknowledged in what’s turned out to be a bit of foreshadowing.
Nacua followed up those comments by posting about officials on X.com after Thursday night’s loss to the Seahawks.
“Can you say I was wrong,” Nacua wrote. “Appreciate you stripes for your contribution. lol.”
Nacua later deleted the post and said in a postgame press conference that it was a “moment of frustration.” He also said that he doesn’t believe officials make calls just to be featured on television, but the initial comments were enough to trigger league discipline. It remains to be seen if the deleted tweet will result in another punishment.
It’s not quite Nolan Ryan vs. Steve Carlton, but it’s an interesting wrinkle arising from the surprise unretirement of Colts quarterback Philip Rivers.
Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford entered Thursday night’s game at No. 8 on the all-time passing yardage list. He exited at No. 7.
With 457 passing yards, Stafford leapfrogged Rivers. Currently, Stafford has 63,988 yards. Rivers has 63,560.
Rivers needs 329 yards on Monday night to reclaim the seventh position. (In his first game back, Rivers threw for only 120 yards against a Seattle defense that Stafford torched.)
Stafford likely won’t be looking in the rear-view mirror. With 101 more yards next Monday night against the Falcons, Stafford will bypass Ben Roethlisberger at No. 6 on the career regular-season passing yardage list.
Unless Roethlisberger unretires next week. Which sounds just as crazy now as the notion of Rivers coming back did 12 days ago.
The Seahawks were the big winners on Thursday night, moving to 12-3 and opening up a one-game lead over the 11-4 Rams for the NFC West title and the No. 1 seed in the conference.
The second biggest winners were the 49ers. With the Rams losing, the 49ers now control their path to the NFC West crown, the lone NFC bye, and home-field advantage throughout the playoffs.
It’s that simple, even if it won’t be easy. Win at Indianapolis on Monday night, win at home against the Bears the following Sunday night, and beat the Seahawks in Santa Clara the following weekend, and the 49ers will be two home games away from playing in the third “home” Super Bowl of the decade.
The Buccaneers won Super Bowl LV in Tampa, and the Rams won Super Bowl LVI in Los Angeles.
The 49ers beat the Seahawks in Week 1. A win in the rematch would give San Francisco the first tiebreaker with Seattle. The 49ers, by virtue of a better record in the division, would beat the Rams (if they win their final two games). And a win over the Bears would eliminate the other three division winners from besting the Niners for the top seed.
The fact that the 49ers have a straight shot at the top seed is amazing, given the adversity the team has faced this year. If they pull it off, Kyle Shanahan instantly becomes a viable candidate for coach of the year.
Currently, Patriots coach Mike Vrabel remains the favorite, at +150. Seahawks coach Mike McDonald has moved to +200. Next is Shanahan, at +400.
More importantly, three more regular-season wins would put the 49ers three wins, all at Levi’s Stadium, away from winning their first Super Bowl in 31 years.
If you saw the stats from Thursday night’s game but not the final score, you’d never guess who won.
The Rams’ offense ran up 581 yards on the Seahawks’ defense. The Rams intercepted Seahawks quarterback Sam Darnold twice and recovered a Cooper Kupp fumble. The Rams never turned the ball over. And yet the Rams lost.
To dominate statistically like that while losing the game was unprecedented in NFL history. Thursday night’s game was only the sixth time ever that a team gained at least 581 yards, didn’t turn the ball over, and forced at least three turnovers. Not only were the Rams the first of those six teams to lose when hitting those three stats, the previous five teams all won in massive blowouts: The average score of those previous five games was 62-13.
The previous five times a team reached the same statistical marks that the Rams reached on Thursday night were the Dolphins’ 70-20 win over the Broncos in 2023, the Ravens’ 59-10 win over the Dolphins in 2019, the Eagles’ 59-28 win over Washington in 2010, the Patriots’ 59-0 win over the Titans in 2009, and the Bears’ 61-7 win over the Packers in 1980.
If you put up the kind of stats the Rams put up on Thursday night, you should win the game easily. This was a loss that has to leave the Rams wondering how they let the game slip away from them.
Plenty of players who know that tough questions will be coming after a game find a way to shirk their obligation to meet with reporters. On Thursday night, Rams receiver Puka Nacua faced the music.
And there was a fresh subject for scrutiny, following the final play of the 38-37 overtime loss to the Seahawks: His tweet reiterating his livestreamed criticism of officials. (He later deleted it.)
Nacua was asked about the tweet that likely will put him in line for a second fine, assuming his initial comments trigger discipline from the league office.
“Just a moment of frustration after a tough intense game like that,” Nacua said. “Just thinking of the opportunities where I could have done better to take it out of their hands. Just a moment of frustration.”
Nacua also was asked whether he truly believes (as he said in the livestream) that officials call penalties so that they can be on TV.
“No, I don’t,” he said, via Sarah Barshop of ESPN.com. “It was just a lack of awareness and just in some frustration. I know there were moments where I feel like, man, you watch the other games and you think of the calls that some guys get and you wish you could get some of those, but that’s just how football is played, and I’ll do my job in order to work my technique to make sure that there’s not an issue with the call.”
What specifically was his post-game tweet referrring to?
“Just the opportunities that we didn’t take advantage of, some of the moments that we we put in the official’s hands that I just felt like we could have executed it to not put ourselves in those situations,” Nacua said. “I know it’s something that we’ll improve on.”
Obviously, Nacua needs to improve on one very specific thing — watching what he says publicly, and what he tweets. By all appearances, he went straight to his phone after the game ended, opened his Twitter app, and vented.
Among multiple lessons he’s learned this week, taking a moment and/or a deep breath after a disappointing game will be one of them.
Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald saw his team convert a pair of two-point plays on their way to coming back from 16 points down to tie the Rams in the fourth quarter on Thursday night and he went for the hat trick in overtime.
After Sam Darnold’s touchdown pass to Jaxon Smith-Njigba brought them within one point with 3:17 to play in extra time, the Seahawks picked up a win when Darnold scanned the field and found tight end Eric Saubert for the game-winning points. After the game, Macdonald said it was a situation that he and offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak had planned for and explained his thought process in the moment.
“Well, it was something we had talked about really throughout the season and then really particularly for this game because of the playoff situation,” Macdonald said, via a transcript from the team. “You know, do you play for the tie and lock up a playoff seed. I just felt great about our play and I trusted our guys. To Klint’s credit, he was really confident and then the players ultimately make it happen. Once we got that drive going it was pretty clear what we were going to do.”
A tie would have clinched a playoff spot, but it would have made it more difficult for the Seahawks to win the division and it never felt like a real option for the Seahawks to go that route in overtime. They chose to kick after winning the toss, which meant that they’d know just what they needed to win once they got the ball and suggested that Macdonald would go that route under any circumstances. The amount of time left on the clock when they scored meant the Rams would have plenty of time to position themselves for a game-winning score in the final seconds, so there was every reason in the world for the Seahawks to leave their offense on the field to win the game.
That’s just what they did and it will go down as one of the most memorable victories in franchise history.
