The Los Angeles Rams get back into the win column by eviscerating the hopeless Atlanta Falcons. Los Angeles was lifted by Jared Goff and Dante Fowler Jr.
Apparently, all it takes to get right in the NFL this year is hope the atrocious Atlanta Falcons are on your schedule. After a hot 3-0 start, the Los Angeles Rams had lost three straight to fall back to .500 before taking on the flightless Dirty Birds in Atlanta on Sunday afternoon.
Rams head coach Sean McVay was back in his hometown and at the site where his team lost Super Bowl LIII to the New England Patriots back in February. McVay’s Rams were able to exorcise their Mercedes-Benz Stadium demons by humiliating the Falcons in what could very well be Dan Quinn’s last game coaching the NFC South franchise.
Los Angeles improves to 4-3, thanks to great performances from quarterback Jared Goff and outside linebacker Dante Fowler Jr. in the Rams’ punishing 37-10 win over the Falcons. Goff picked apart the Atlanta secondary as many excellent signal-callers had done before him. He completed 22 of 37 passes for 268 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions.
Goff averaged 7.2 yards per attempt, boasting a quarterback rating of 99.8 in this contest. Though he has had better games in his four-year NFL career out of Cal, this was certainly the type of game that McVay was hoping to see out of his starting quarterback after getting drilled by the division-rival San Francisco 49ers last week. This is the Goff Los Angeles needs to see going forward.
And it wasn’t just sound play from the face of the franchise. Goff got help from his defense all afternoon. One player in particular who played brilliantly was outside linebacker Dante Fowler Jr. Presumably fired up to have his former Jacksonville Jaguars teammate Jalen Ramsey now part of this Rams defense, Fowler had seven sacks and three quarterback sacks of Atlanta’s Matt Ryan.
Ryan was under pressure all afternoon. The Falcons quarterback hit the turf five times and had to leave the game with an ankle injury. The ageless Matt Schaub came in to take his place and it was nothing but pure sadness in Atlanta for the Falcons and their fan base. Goff, Fowler and the Rams took it to Quinn’s Falcons, much like the Rams did when the Falcons were in the NFC West.
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With the depressing badly Cincinnati Bengals next up on the schedule, look for the Rams to have themselves a nice little winning streak heading into their Nov. 10 road date with the Pittsburgh Steelers. The Falcons were embarrassingly bad, but it was nice to see Goff play a great game and Fowler to give Wade Phillips’ Rams defense some much-needed bite.