WOODLAND HILLS, Calif. – Colby Parkinson had only one catch against the Patriots on Sunday, but he sure made it count.
The Rams tight end's impressive 19-yard grab was made near the back left corner of the end zone for quarterback Matthew Stafford's fourth and final touchdown pass of the day in Los Angeles' 28-22 road win at New England.
For Parkinson, it marked his first touchdown as a Ram, and of the season.
"It was awesome," Parkinson said. "It's been a long time coming. Excited to finally check that one, get the monkey off my back, and it was a lot of fun, especially such a timely touchdown be able to help extend our lead a little bit at that time and get the win."
L.A. has rotated its tight ends more often since head coach Sean McVay said everything would be evaluated entering their Week 6 bye with a 1-4 record. For Parkinson, that's caused his snap count to drop over the last three weeks: He consistently cleared at least 79 percent of the team's offensive snaps through the first five games, but has played 37, 16 and 42 percent over the last three games.
Parkinson's 6-foot-7, 265 pound frame flashed in training camp as friendly red zone target for Stafford, but that hadn't come to fruition until Sunday against the Patriots.
"It's huge," McVay said of having someone with Parkinson's size and athleticism as a friendly target for Stafford in the red zone. "That's been a theme that we've talked about with you guys a lot throughout this year is when we're able to finish drives in the red zone, when we're able to do some things in the run game, a lot of nice things come off that. I think that's where he made his positive contributions felt so that was big. It was good for him to be able to see a lot of the work that he's put in pay off with some of the ops that he had yesterday. That was cool for him."
Stafford likewise enjoyed seeing Parkinson score, and indicated his only regret was how far Parkinson had to extend his arms to bring in the throw.
"That was great," Stafford said Wednesday. "Had a little bit of a feeling pre-snap that they might try to play a little bit of an aggressive front. We'd run the ball really well recently in that drive and the drive before, so figured they might be playing us a little bit tighter. And it was a great call by Sean. Got in the huddle, told everybody 'hey, be live here, we got a chance.' And he did a great job sneaking through and making a great catch, obviously. I mean, that was – if I had to do over again, maybe (throw it) a foot shorter, so he's not reaching. But it was a hell of a catch to hold on to it and get both feet down."
With the attention wide receivers Cooper Kupp and Puka Nacua have drawn, and will to continue draw, Los Angeles could use Parkinson's red zone playmaking against an Eagles defense allowing the second-fewest passing yards per game (173.2) in the NFL entering Week 12, and also tied with the Giants for the league's fifth-lowest red zone touchdown rate for opponents (46.4 percent).
"I was really pleased with him," McVay said of Parkinson. "I thought he did a nice job. We didn't have many snaps offensively as a whole, but I thought he maximized the ones that he did play. Obviously, it was a great throw and catch by him and Matthew on the touchdown. I thought he did some really good things in the run game. I think he's practiced well. [Tight ends coach/pass game coordinator] Nick Caley's done a great job with that group as a whole where you've seen improvement from Colby, you've seen Hunter Long, you've seen Davis Allen, and they're trending in the right direction. I thought Colby did a really good job and I was proud of Colby yesterday."
