After 'week off,' Rams ready for playoffs
Jan 2, 2018 - 2:40 AM THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. -- The Los Angeles Rams essentially took a playoff bye week Sunday in their season finale against the San Francisco 49ers, resting most of their key starters to get their bodies rested and healed up ahead of the first round of the postseason.With nothing more at stake than finishing with the third or fourth seed, they opted for prudence over pride.
It was a shrewd decision, even though it contributed to a loss to their Bay Area rivals.
Thanks to a late rally by the Buccaneers to topple the Saints, the Rams maintained their hold on the third seed and will open the playoffs against the Atlanta Falcons.
More important, with the NFL opting to put the Rams on prime time on Saturday night rather than on Sunday, the Rams avoided a short turnaround for their key players by sitting them out of Sunday's season finale.
"I think anytime you go into a football game, you're certainly going to try to win the game," said Rams head coach Sean McVay. "But, I do think when you look at the way we approached it, we feel good about being able to allow some of our players to get some rest, a little bit of recovery time that I think is much needed for some of those guys and then you keep a couple guys out of harm's way."
The attention now turns to the Falcons.
"I think when you just look at their personnel -- Matt Ryan becoming an MVP last year, you look at two of their backs with (Devonta) Freeman and (Tevin) Coleman are two of the best kind of all-purpose backs that can contribute as runners, but also excellent receivers," McVay said.
"Julio Jones is one of the best players in this league and he can kind of do a little bit of everything, I think they do a nice job mixing up some of their personnel groupings on defense -- very similar schematically to what we've seen from San Francisco, Seattle and the Jacksonvilles where it's kind of all predicated on some of those three-deep, four underneath principles and playing some man coverage and things like that.
"Obviously (Falcons outside linebacker) Vic Beasley is a dangerous rusher, but haven't really had a chance to dive into the deep preparation. But, we know it's going to be an exciting week for us, our players will be juiced up to be able to get this preparation going and I certainly know that our coaches feel that way as well."
It's the Rams' first home playoff game at the Coliseum since 1978. And while they will go into it coming off a loss, they will take the physical and mental rest over a meaningless win anytime.
--After last year's miserable rookie season, it's almost hard to believe second-year quarterback Jared Goff is only days away from making his first playoff start. Goff concluded a remarkable turnaround season in which people were seriously considering him a bust to earning Pro Bowl alternate honors in his second season.
The Rams open the playoffs Saturday against the Atlanta Falcons at the Coliseum.
"I feel good; I think we match up well," Goff said. "I think any of those teams that we would've ended up playing -- all of them present challenges. No different with Atlanta. It'll be a fun game. We're excited to get to it next week and it'll be fun."
Nevertheless, Goff is trying not to make too big a deal about it being a playoff game.
"Prepare no different than any other game," he said. "I've played in playoff games before. It was a lot of pressure. It was a lot of implications, but you can't treat them any different."
--The competitor in wide receiver Robert Woods wanted to play on Sunday in the Rams' season finale against the 49ers.
But with the playoffs looming he also knew it was better to be prudent. Which meant Woods, like plenty of other Rams starters, were held out on Sunday in order to preserve their health ahead of the wild-card round against the Falcons this week.
"It kind of worked in our favor. We ended up getting a lot of guys healthy, a lot of guys able to rest," he said. "Our biggest thing is just speed and how we play on Sundays, how we feel. I think (resting) will help a lot of the guys to be able to prepare this week and just really get ready for this (week) just to be full speed, full go and it's the start of our run."
NOTES: QB Sean Mannion made his first career start and completed 20 of 34 passes for 169 yards, including a long of 50 yards. ... WR Mike Thomas hauled in a 50-yard reception in Sunday's season finale. The Rams have six players with receptions of 50-plus yards: Thomas, Robert Woods, Gerald Everett, Sammy Watkins, Todd Gurley II and Cooper Kupp. Thomas led the team in receiving yards with three catches for 75 yards. ... CB Kevin Peterson intercepted 49ers QB Jimmy Garoppolo on Sunday and returned it 38 yards to the San Francisco 22-yard line. He added a second interception. The last Rams player to have two interceptions in a game was Trumaine Johnson vs. Oakland on Nov. 30, 2014.
REPORT CARD VS. 49ERS
--PASSING OFFENSE: C-plus - The Rams went vanilla on the 49ers for the most part offensively and that's reflected in how they attacked them through the air. Sean Mannion got the starting nod ahead of Jared Goff and finished with 169 yards on 20 of 34 passing. He didn't throw a touchdown or interception.
--RUSHING OFFENSE: C - Again, the Rams were a watered down offense on Sunday opting against showing their cards ahead of the playoffs. They ran 26 times for 102 yards with Malcolm Brown leading the way with 54 yards on 14 carries.
--PASS DEFENSE: C - Playing mostly backups, the Rams surrendered 292 yards and two touchdowns to Jimmy Garoppolo and the 49ers. But they also intercepted him twice, although they didn't register a sack.
--RUSH DEFENSE: D - The Rams were pummeled by the 49ers while giving up 171 yards on 30 carries - an average of 5.7 per carry. Backups or not, it was not the kind of effort the Rams are used to.
--SPECIAL TEAMS: B - Sam Ficken was good on both field-goal attempts and Johnny Hekker averaged 48 yards on seven punts. In a season in which the Rams have made significant plays on special teams, it seemed a very mundane effort.
--COACHING: B - The Rams got what they wanted out of Sunday: rest their key players ahead of the playoffs, stay healthy, and end up with the highest seed possible going into round one of the postseason. Even though they lost to the 49ers, they kept hold of the third seed in the NFC playoffs and will be healthy going into next week's playoff opener against the Falcons.
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