Rams pull away late to open season with 33-13 victory over Oakland Raiders

OAKLAND — As Rams players left their locker room late Monday night, an overwhelming stench of skunk filled the bowels of dreadful old Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum. The punchlines seemed endless.

In a way, perhaps the Rams could relate. They were trapped animals in the first half, unable to run free on offense or capture their prey on defense. Things turned dramatically after halftime, when the Rams sprayed the Raiders from all angles and skittered away with a season-opening 33-13 victory.

Numbers don’t always tell the story, but this time they did. The Rams’ defense allowed allowed 13 points and 254 yards in the first half, and then 0 points and 145 yards in the second half. The Raiders, surprisingly sharp in the first half, mustered nothing once the Rams figured out their offensive scheme.

“It shows how much we really trust and believe in our process,” said cornerback Marcus Peters, who finished the scoring in his hometown with an interception return for a touchdown late in the fourth quarter.

The Rams trailed 13-10 at halftime and didn’t take the lead until the final play of the third quarter, but boosted by three Oakland turnovers and dramatically improved field position, they pulled away. Consider this the ultimately compliment to the Rams: they played half a game and won by 20 points.

“We responded the right way,” Coach Sean McVay said. “We talked about it at the half and guys came out and executed and gave themselves a chance to come out with a win.”

Perhaps an overlooked angle, heading into the game, was the fact that the Raiders basically were a clean slate on both sides of the ball. While their personnel was familiar, nobody knew exactly what Coach Jon Gruden would do with those players in his return to the sideline after a 10-year absence.

Gruden, in the first half, did exactly what he should have done against a fierce Rams defensive front and an aggressive secondary. The Raiders found the soft spots. They ran the ball effectively in the first half and got their tight ends and running backs matched against the Rams’ linebackers.

“It was like a freestyle game,” Rams cornerback Aqib Talib said. “There was nothing really on tape (from the Raiders). It was bland stuff on tape. They ran their real offense today. We had a half to just trade blows with them, and then in the second half we had a feel for what they were trying to do.”

What might be scary for future opponents of the Rams is that their defense can get better. All eyes were on the up-front tandem of Aaron Donald and Ndamukong Suh, but neither made much of an impact. Lineman Michael Brockers and linebacker Samson Ebukam brought most of the pressure, and Cory Littleton, in his first game as a middle linebacker, recorded a game-high 13 tackles and an interception.

Of the Raiders’ 40 pass attempts, only nine went to receivers, and once the Rams clamped down on Oakland’s short-pass game after halftime, the game completely changed.

“The coaches came in and they broke it down good,” Talib said. “They gave us great information and we did a good job of taking it to the field and stopping what they were trying to do.”

That made things far easier for the Rams’ offense, which sputtered in the first half, in part because it only had the ball 8 minutes, 29 seconds, and in part because of some questionable playcalling.

McVay, last year’s NFL coach of the year, clearly spent the offseason hard at work, in an attempt to come up with new plays and formations to keep defenses off balance, but the Rams struggled early on against the Raiders because they went away from their fundamental strength: Todd Gurley.

McVay tried everything in the first half. He used receivers Robert Woods and Cooper Kupp on jet sweeps and reverses and he had quarterback Jared Goff throw deep to new receiver Brandin Cooks. The only thing McVay didn’t really try was handing the ball to Gurley, last year’s NFL offensive player of the year.

The Rams tried to get too cute at times, and credit the Raiders, who played well on defense even though they recently lost star defensive end Khalil Mack in a trade to Chicago. Perhaps, given the slow start, McVay also will reconsider the wisdom of not giving any preseason snaps to his offensive starters.

Gurley touched the ball only five times in the first half, for a total of 38 yards, but he had 20 touches in the second half and finished with 108 rushing yards and 39 receiving yards (and one touchdown).

Goff struggled in the first half and uncharacteristically forced a couple bad throws, but he finished fairly well, as he completed 18 of 33 attempts for 233 yards, two touchdowns and zero interceptions. Cooks, in his first game with the Rams, played well and caught five passes for a team-high 87 yards.

Rust, poor field position and a lack of plays combined to hamper the Rams’ offense in the first half, but still, more was expected, particularly given that the Raiders didn’t offer much of a pass rush.

The Rams generated more optimism in the second half, when Goff looked shaper, Gurley got the ball and the offense totaled 267 yards. The offensive line performed well but the Rams, as they sometimes did last season, struggled in the red zone, with two touchdowns and three field goals in six trips.

“There’s definitely a couple things where I didn’t do a good job with some of the situational play calls,” McVay said. “I was definitely disappointed with myself in a lot of situations.”

Fittingly, in the end it came back to the defense. After kicker Greg Zuerlein made a 55-yard field goal off the Coliseum’s infield dirt to give the Rams a 10-point lead with 9:19 remaining in the fourth quarter, Littleton’s interception led to another field goal. Then, with two minutes remaining, Peters jumped a route by tight end Jared Cook and raced 50 yards for a touchdown.

The NFL might come calling for some cash, given that Peters made something of an obscene gesture as he dove into the endzone, but in the end, the Rams were happy to celebrate after their slow start.

“That’s just the first-game jitters,” Peters said. “You know how things go. You want to be out there playing so bad. We watched everybody play yesterday and we just sat around all day, just anticipating our chance.”

.@JaredGoff16 finds @CooperKupp for the lead!#LAvsOAK pic.twitter.com/nnrKZf9J0P

— Los Angeles Rams (@RamsNFL) September 11, 2018