By Zakary Haines
DENVER- The Los Angeles Rams had another close game but fell short of winning 17-12. The Rams are 0-3 this preseason, but the good news is that the next time they suit up, it will be in the regular season. With the looming deadline to announce their 53-man roster, the next 48 to 72 hours will be tough on the coaching staff. Some great players have stepped up and made plays that may have secured them a spot. However, it was easy to see who may not be on that final roster in this game.
On the offensive side, past issues from the previous two games were present in this game. The offense was not clicking like last week against the Raiders. The team only recorded 104 rushing yards, most of which came from the starting quarterback Bryce Perkins. As for the running backs, Sony Michel, Darrell Henderson Jr, and Jake Funk did not suit up for this game. For the two running backs that did get touches, Xavier Jones made the most out of his time with 44 rushing yards off of 13 carries. Meanwhile, Otis Anderson only had ten rushing yards off of three carries. As for the receiving game, Tutu Atwell had the best night with eight receptions out of 12 targets for 62 receiving yards. Trishton Jackson also had a decent night with three receptions out of five and 48 receiving yards.
However, all of the scoring in last night’s game came from the Rams’ starting kicker, Matt Gay. Gay was a perfect four of four in field goal attempts, including one 54 yarder. Gay racked up 12 points for himself and capped off a fairly good preseason. This week the Rams had a listed punter with Corey Bojorquez, who had himself a night too. Bojorquez recorded five punts for 277 yards. Three of those punts were within the 20 of the Broncos, and his longest punt of the night was 70 yards.
As for the defense, this was not their best outing. With only one interception and one sack, the defense was relatively quiet. Players who are on the bubble getting in did not perform as well as the Rams hoped. Only a couple of defensive players performed well, including JR Reed. Reed had six total tackles, two of which were solo tackles. Christian Rozeboom was the only individual who recorded an interception against Drew Lock. Lock had pressure and threw into coverage, where Rozeboom was able to pick him off.
In his postgame press conference, Sean McVay jumped right into discussing upcoming roster cuts and had nothing but high praise for this roster. “Really grateful for this group,” McVey said. “This group of men that did an excellent job…we asked a lot of them, consistently showed up and the amount of snaps these guys were able to complete.” McVay also noted some of the players made their decisions easier on him and his staff. The final roster cuts are to be done by August 31st, 4 p.m. EDT.
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