Trailing by six points with 52 seconds left in the fourth quarter, the Los Angeles Rams were facing second-and-3 from the Arizona Cardinals' 6-yard line. It was an undeniably advantageous position to be in, even given the Rams' struggles on offense.
They scored a touchdown on the play as Matthew Stafford hit Colby Parkinson in the flat, leaving 47 seconds on the clock. The ensuing PAT put the Rams up one, but some were worried that they left too much time for the Cardinals to come down and win the game.
On Monday, Bill Simmons blasted Sean McVay and the Rams for scoring as quickly as they did instead of running out the clock more, knowing Arizona didn't have any timeouts. Simmons even called Parkinson a "dumba--" for reaching out and trying to
score when he was at the goal line.
"They gave them great field position after they scored the touchdown, gave Arizona the ball on the 35 because their special teams is so bad," Simmons said. "He doesn’t care about that. So Arizona, one pass over the middle, the penalty and all of a sudden they’re in field goal range. But the biggest thing, I thought they scored too soon. I don’t understand how teams are still getting this wrong. You just want to run like three, four more plays. You never want them to get the ball back. They call the quick out to Parkinson, who then, this dumba-- reaches the ball over the goal line to score with 47 seconds left. It’s like, well, we know how bad their special teams are, this is a gift. They’re going to need two passes and the Cardinals are going to win the game. What were they doing?”
Simmons' podcast partner, Cousin Sal, agreed with the premise that the Rams should've killed the clock more instead of scoring when they did. He even argued that they should've run the ball on second-and-3 from the 6.
That's easy to say in hindsight, but have they seen the Rams' short-yardage offense? Have they seen how many holding and false start penalties the Rams have had in the red zone this season? If Parkinson doesn't score there, it's far from guaranteed that the Rams get into the end zone at all.
One holding penalty on a run play and they're back at the 10-yard line.
Heck, they tried a two-point conversion earlier in the game and Matthew Stafford was nearly snapped in half because Davante Adams – seemingly the only target on the play – didn't get open right away. Nothing about this Rams team makes a touchdown guaranteed from inside the 5.
They needed to take the touchdown when they had the chance. The problem is the defense gave up a 21-yard pass over the middle, and Josh Wallace was called for a phantom unnecessary roughness penalty where his shoulder barely grazed the receiver as he was going to the ground.
It's not the offense's fault for scoring too quickly against a Cardinals team that didn't score a single touchdown all game. It's the fact that the defense couldn't make one stop with 47 seconds left and no timeouts for Arizona.
This article originally appeared on Rams Wire: Bill Simmons blasts Rams, Colby Parkinson for late TD vs. Cardinals
