The Los Angeles Rams beat the Washington Commanders by a final score of 20-13 in Week 9 of the NFL season. Chris Shula finally had Myles Garrett back, and Garrett returned to the Rams brilliantly with a forced fumble to go along with three sacks, including a massive sack in the fourth quarter to nearly put away the game.
Garrett looked terrific in his return, and it was needed while the Rams offense continued to struggle to dominate as well as their overall defense did. There’s been a theme of Shula’s
defense keeping the Rams in games until Sean McVay and Matthew Stafford get going on offense, and that trend continued in Week 9.
The overall offensive play in this game started slow with each team exchanging field goals early to knot the game at 3-3. The Rams started especially stagnant as they failed to convert a third down in the first two quarters. Washington scored the only first half touchdown when Jayden Daniels found former Ram Van Jefferson to take a 10-3 lead over L.A.
Jefferson had a solid day against his former team with his TD score and some big grabs. Jefferson ended up with more receiving yards than anyone on the Rams outside of Puka Nacua.
The Rams wouldn’t find the endzone until the second half as their offense struggled mightily for any positive consistency outside of Nacua and some credit to Blake Corum for looking like the best running back for the Rams today.
Corum scored for the fifth game in a row in Week 9 when he scored L.A.’s first touchdown after halftime. Later on, Stafford would find Nacua to help the Rams take a 20-13 lead.
The Rams had some chances to open the game up further after that Nacua score, instead, the offense slowed down again by failing to take a two possession lead, and keeping the Commanders well in the game.
The Commanders gave L.A. a scare on their final drive of the day as Stefon Diggs got loose for a long grab with under a minute to go, but the Rams defense survived, and the team escaped with a win.
As it a pretty for L.A.? Not at all, but they did enough to keep their playoffs hopes alive as the NFL season heads towards Week 10. The Rams are 5-4 and will look to get to 6-4 in their next matchup against the Arizona Cardinals. The Cardinals beat the Rams earlier in the year, but in Week 9 the Rams won, and they’ll go from there.
