SANTA CLARA, Calif. – It wasn't pretty, but the Rams came out of San Francisco victorious on a rainy Thursday night in December. Last week, an offensive explosion led to 44 points in a shootout win over Buffalo. Four days later, it was the defense that came through in a physical 12-6 battle with the division rival 49ers.
Joshua Karty made all four of his field goal attempts in a game that featured zero touchdowns and 13 punts between the two teams in primetime. And although the offense didn't get in the end zone, wide receiver Puka Nacua (seven catches for 97 yards) and running back Kyren Williams (112 total yards) helped L.A. move the ball well enough to win.
After the game, head coach Sean McVay and quarterback Matthew Stafford spoke with the media about the defensive divisional victory on Thursday Night Football. Here are the top quotes and talking points from the press conferences, which can be viewed below.
"I think what's really cool is this team has found a bunch of different ways to win football games. You come off a 44-42 game the other day and then you win 12-6. And our group did what they needed to do to be able to get it done and the defense just felt like they were coming up with stop after stop." - McVay
The Rams were "resilient," McVay said. In a must-win game where it was hard to grip the football early on, Los Angeles pulled through and played hard. McVay "challenged the guys a few weeks back... after the Philly game," to not let themselves have any regrets. No matter the result, he wanted everyone to make sure they "bring everything that we've got every single day." He thinks they've done that since then, and it resulted in a win on Thursday.
McVay said the rain was "a lot more of an issue" than most people would have been able to recognize on TV or even in the stands. That limited what they were able to do offensively, but when it slowed down, Stafford "made the plays that he needed to make." They were able to move the ball much better in the second half behind Williams' "tough" running and Joshua Karty's four field goals.
"We needed every single one of those (field goals)," McVay said.
"Absolutely man, (December football feels different). This is what it's all about. This is what you work so hard for. I just think back to all the OTA, all the August training camp days, all the early season injuries and struggles and things you have to overcome to try to give yourself a chance to play meaningful football in this month." - Stafford
In the month of December, Stafford is now 11-1 as a Ram. In Detroit, he said there were "quite a few Decembers" that he didn't have anything meaningful to play for. Now, he has the "opportunity to keep our season alive every single time we go out there to play, and that's a whole lot of fun."
Stafford said it was "tough to hold on to the football" in the second quarter, but the weather was "good enough" in the second half for them to put together a decent passing attack. He added that he "put two in harms way today that I wish I wouldn't have," referring to two dropped interceptions in the first half.
"I got to do as good a job as I possibly can at staying aggressive but taking care of the football," Stafford said. "I got definitely some things I can look at and work on from this football game."
