For the first 53 minutes of Sunday’s game, the Los Angles Rams offense matched the Philadelphia weather, dank, damp and heavy-footed, they did just about everything in their power to lose the game. But on their final two drives, they found some dry gun powder and shot down the Eagles 24-20 on Lincoln Financial Field in Philly.
While the offense was all smiles and got the post-game accoladesand interviews,it was the defense that kept L.A. within striking distance, turning in, for all intents and purpose,
a smothering effort.
The Rams used a myriad of pre-snap looks, often mixing and matching seven different players in the box and on the line of scrimmage, all designed to keep Eagle QB Jalen Hurts off balance. It worked.
In all the Rams blitzed on 60+ percent of snaps and created pressure on 13 of 18 of them, allowing just five completions of 16 passes. Overall, Hurts was 12 of 27 passing for 93 yards gross and only two completions and 10 yards in the second half. L.A. blitzed on every third down, until the Eagles final possession. Philly did not convert a single third down in the game (0-12).
Here the snap count review from Sunday, players their snap counts and percentage of play time in bold.
Defensive line
Kobie Turner ( 48, 79%)
Turner is consistently solid, against both run and pass. Hustles constantly and wins a lot of battles. Got back to his 70+ percent play rate and was handful all game for the Eagles offensive line. Maybe he needs more snaps to get a lather up and less rotation.
Braden Fiske ( 44, 72%)
Fiske came back a after a tough game against Denver and had seven pressures by my count and a QB hit. He’s a bit under-sized, but plays with maximum effort. His highest snap count since the middle of last season.
Poona Ford ( 26, 43%), Tyler Davis ( 22, 36%)
While not outstanding individually, they combined for five tackles and played as part of a front line that held a good running team to 104 rushing yards on 27 attempts.
Larrell Murchison (12, 20%), Ty Hamilton ( 11, 18%)
A package deal, the two were inserted into the game together. Not just mop-up, they could be seen on the field as early as the first quarter.
Edge
Byron Young ( 54, 89%)
Young stacked another fine performance. He was in on six tackles, two of those for loss, had 2.5 sacks, three QB hits, and forced a fumble. He passed Leonard Floyd (29) and James Hall (30) and on the Rams all-time sack list and is now tied for with Reggie Doss at 31. Also passed Ryan Pickett and tied London Fletcher (35) for 12th in all-time tackles for loss.
Josaiah Stewart ( 32, 52%)
Not sure if he’s nicked up, but Stewart has not been playing with his usual edge.
Wesley Bailey ( 29, 48%), Desjuan Johnson ( 7, 11%)
Bailey has taken over E#3, his snaps are trending up while Johnson falls back.
Off-ball linebacker
Nate Landman ( 57, 93%)
Good game for Landman. Two plays stood out, a wrenching headlock on the Eagles QB when attempting a tush push (don’t think they tried another) and a hustle play where he navigated through traffic to make a tackle near the sideline.
Omar Speights ( 18, 30%)
His lowest play count since early 2024, his rookie season. Not sure if moving Lake into his position will be a trend or was a one-off. He did get a couple of nice tackles on special teams.
Safety
Quentin Lake ( 61, 100%)
Almost made the finger tip interception that the Eagle receiver was able to juggle in for a score. Lake has played in every defensive snap in 2026 and been lined up all over the formation. After playing predominantly in the “STAR” hybrid position last year, he’s gone back to his base safety roots, 49.6% percent of snaps. He plays less slot this year and replaced it with off-ball linebacker duties (35.2%).
Kamren Curl ( 61, 100%)
Played deep safety on a lot of reps and the Eagles could not get the downfield passing game off the ground. He did, however lose track of his man in end zone coverage and allowed a Philly TD pass.
Kamren Kinchens ( 43, 70%)
L.A. has used dime personnel over 36 percent this season and Kinchens was a welcome addition. He was used as a blitzer numerous time on Sunday and got half a sack, a QB hit, and batted down a pass. He helped set the defensive tone early in the game, triggering downhill and laying the wood to an Eagle receiver on a short completion.
Jaylen McCollough ( 3, 5%)
The Rams didn’t get McCollough involved in the action, instead moving Lake to the second level when Speights subbed out.
Cornerback
Trent McDuffie ( 61, 100%)
McDuffie has accrued more passes defended than he has completions allowed. I love the way he plays the game, vs pass or in run fits. Money well spent.
Josh Wallace ( 61, 100%), Emmanuel Forbes ( 21, 34%)
It’s good news when you hear little about your cornerbacks. The Rams pass rush pressure kept the Eagle pass game underneath, so neither were challenged much deep. While Forbes isn’t much of a tackler, Wallace appears willing and able to stick his nose in on run defense
Special teams
Another game, another poor performance. Punt coverage was drek, kickoff coverage was saved by a couple of shoestring tackles, and returns, both kickoff and punt were sluggish at best. Place kicker Harrison Meevis missed another field goal and made an egregious error sending a fourth quarter kickoff out of bounds.
Quarterback
Matthew Stafford ( 84, 100%)
Another Jekyll and Hyde display from the Rams quarterback. “Bad” Stafford looked unsure and off-target throwing a pair of interceptions and 12 of 21 for 120 yards in the first half. He started to warm up a little in Quarter 3, but had nothing to show for it. “Good” Stafford finally made his presence in the Rams final two drives. cocksure and on target, going 10 for 14 and leading the Rams to the come from behind win. Staff worked out of the shot gun over 2/3 of snaps, lessening the effect of and reliance on play action.
Running back
Kyren Williams ( 70, 83%)
Gutty effort, so fun to watch. Not a true power back nor speedster, Williams has the innate ability to make tacklers miss and sniff out the end zone. His two touchdowns brought him to 48 and tied with Henry Ellard for 8th place on Rams all-time list. For the future, the fact of his 10 catches looms as his most important accomplishment.
Blake Corum ( 13, 15%)
Since joining the Rams, Stafford hasn’t been one to check down or target his running backs, just 11.9%. This year that number is up to 20.4%. To that point, Corum has again lost ground in the snap count. If the Rams offense is going to settle in at 50 pass attempts per game, his dropping check down passes will keep him limited.
Wide receiver
Davante Adams ( 80, 95%)
Hot and cold is the best descriptor for Adams’ performance. For all his time on field, his added value was measured. Broke free for big plays on a couple of reps, but Stafford missed him. On the other hand he had a couple of big drops and ran a half-assed effort route on the Rams final drive that was almost intercepted.
Puka Nacua ( 76, 90%)
How much does the Rams offense miss him? After a relatively quiet first half, he took over in the second, hauling in eight of nine passes. The importance of his strength at catch point and ability to roughhouse for extra yards after the catch cannot be understated.
Jordan Whittington ( 42, 50%)
With all the tight end injuries, the Rams leaned into three wide receiver sets at at an 87 percent clip. While Whittington doubled his season snap average, the role has been as a blocker, not an offensive target. On special teams, he hustles down as a gunner, but needs to get himself under control when approaching the returner. The Eagles kickoff team appeared content to stay away from him and allow Alex Bachman to handle the ball.
Konata Mumpfield ( 23, 27%)
Mumpfield suffered a shoulder injury in the first half, but was able to return later. He made a fine catch, more like pulling down a rebound, on a deflected pass and it was his only touch.
Tutu Atwell ( 19, 23%)
As far as future offensive snaps, being the lone “scat” receiver after the release of Xavier Smith may offer Atwell another shot to resurrect his career. He had his season high in play time and one target, a flat pass where he went up and snagged an off target throw.
Tight end
Tyler Higbee ( 55, 65%)
The Vic Fangio-led Eagles defense was going to lean into two-deep coverage (over 50% of Rams drop backs) and force the Rams offense to methodically matriculate down the field. Higbee stepped into the void left by injuries to Terrance Ferguson and Colby Parkuinson to offer a steady pass target underneath. Over these past two games, Higs has logged 116 snaps, his most over a two game span since early 2023. He’s stepped up to snag 13 of 17 targets for 129 yards. Higbee passed Tom Fears for 7th place on the Rams all-time reception list.
Davis Allen ( 40, 48%)
Huge part of the Rams run game success. All three scores on the ground were behind his blocking. On the game winner, he got a piece of two different guys. The first quarter holding appeared a clean block, driving the defender to the ground. Late in the game, in a nearly identical play, Braden Fiske was knocked over in the line of scrimmage scrum and no call.
Max Klare ( 1, 1%)
It shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone that the Rams are bringing Klare along slowly.
Offensive line
Alaric Jackson, Steve Avila, Coleman Shelton, Kevin Dotson, Warren McClendon ( 84, 100%)
Generally speaking the line had a good day. There were a couple of quick pass rush pressures that scored against, but it’s tough to run 80+ offensive plays, trail to the last seven minutes of the game, and not have a couple of gaffes. The Rams game plan was to sit back in shot gun, that lets the defensive line let their hair down some and the L.A. tendency to snap the ball right at the whistle doesn’t help keep the defense on their toes either. The Rams offense is quite efficient when they go up tempo and it was no different in Philly, the Rams had a 66.7 percent success rate when in it compared to 39.6 percent when going at their regular pace.
Bring on the Bills
Going forward, the Bills defense is questionable, the offense, however, is balanced and a prolific scoring unit., L. A.’s offense will need to get out of the gate and Matthew Stafford will have to make better choices. The Eagles are a poor offensive team and Buffalo will be much tougher to come back on if Rams mistakes put them in favorable positions. Defensively, Keeping Bills QB Josh Allen from extending plays with his running ability is foremost, everything is dependent off his performance.
Any time the Rams can snatch victory from the jaws of defeat, I’m all in. The L.A. defense looks have solidified at all three levels even while missing high-dollar star Myles Garrett. You gotta love their aggressive, attacking style and introduction of more man coverages. The offense shows glimpses of coming around, getting Nacua back in the game should round things out.
Rams fans, esotrically, should have reason to believe that the injury problems and abnormal amount of the bad breaks should start to even out. Plus, it’ll be nice to get some home cookin’ . I’ll take my Bison Burger medium rare, please.
