There were a handful of costly mistakes made by the Rams in their 37-31 loss to the Ravens on Sunday, but one of the biggest plays of the game came late in the fourth quarter just before the game-tying field goal. With 16 seconds left, the Rams faced a third-and-6 from the Ravens’ 18-yard line, trailing by three points.
A touchdown would’ve won the game, but Los Angeles couldn’t risk missing a potential game-tying field goal from short yardage to send the game to overtime. With the play clock running down, Sean McVay called a timeout to avoid the 5-yard penalty, which was the Rams’ last timeout of the game.
That changed everything.
With no timeouts and only 16 seconds remaining, the Rams couldn’t risk throwing to the middle of the field and letting the clock run down without kicking a field goal. Therefore, they took a shot to the end zone and settled for the game-tying kick.
McVay explained the decision to call a timeout there, saying the Rams were having issues with their headsets to Matthew Stafford couldn’t hear him and get the play call in time.
“There were some issues with the headsets today where with 16 seconds left, you don’t want to have to use that timeout, but he couldn’t hear me,” he said. “You’re going to have to go backwards, so then that limits some of your options. I thought Lucas did a great job being able to make the kick, but we had our chances as a team.”
McVay explained again in a follow-up question that Stafford couldn’t hear the play call, so they were forced to take a timeout and avoid the 5-yard penalty.
“He couldn’t hear me and there was some miscommunication in regards to why we had to use that timeout,” McVay said.
In overtime, the Rams also had similar situation where they took a delay of game penalty on third-and-4. That time, Stafford was at the line with plenty of time, but the clock ticked down and the play never got off.
McVay didn’t say what happened there, but it seemed to simply be a late snap by Coleman Shelton after Stafford adjusted the play at the line. The Rams failed on third-and-9 and had to punt it away, which is when the Ravens won the game thanks to Tylan Wallace’s 76-yard return for a touchdown.
