The Rams’ defense bent. The Bears’ defense broke.
You know who wins when that happens.
On an Opening Night that could have not been more serenely routine, the Rams showed that they spent the off-season concentrating only on fixing the things that had come apart.
And even though last year’s defense ran out of answers during the Rams’ exit loss at Green Bay, it can still stifle teams that have offensive uncertainty, which are most of them.
The Rams turned a six-point halftime lead into a 34-14 victory. They got Matthew Stafford to bring the drone strike back to the offense, and he did that on touchdowns to Van Jefferson and Cooper Kupp. They didn’t run the ball much at first, even with Sony Michel on the roster, but then they used Michel and Darrell Henderson to close the show against tired Chicago pass rushers.
The offense had the ball nine times, scored six times, punted once, ran out of time twice and never trailed. That brings the Rams back to what is known as “complimentary football,” which has nothing to do with saying nice things about your teammates’ musical tastes and everything to do with the gears meshing.
Reluctant to let Stafford light up the sky, Chicago coach Matt Nagy decided to go for it three times in fourth down. He wound up with a fumble and two stoppages, and the Bears scored just two times even though they had the ball for 35:14 and picked up 24 first downs.
Linebacker Justin Hollins forced the fumble, and Jalen Ramsey broke up a fourth-down pass to Allen Robinson. Richard Rochell, a rookie from Central Arkansas, made a Scottie Pippen-style leap to break up a fourth-down pass in the fourth quarter.
While Rams receivers were taking plays 67, 58 and 37 yards, Andy Dalton’s long completion for the Bears was only 19 yards.
For Rams’ coach Sean McVay, the long and slow drive is every bit as annoying as trying to figure out how to apply a fitted sheet. He admitted as such last January when it was time to explain trading Jared Goff to Detroit for Stafford, who rarely had the luxury of front-running with the Lions.
Goff’s Lions fell behind San Francisco, 38-10, on Sunday and then made a frenetic move to lose by only 41-33. The Rams have rarely been that competitive against the 49ers lately, but Goff had to throw 57 times to get to the point. Stafford is familiar with that type of stress. He was 20-for-26 Sunday night and was sacked once, a world that he isn’t accustomed to but would like to be.
The Rams might not have stirred up the havoc that they sometimes did under old coordinator Brandon Staley, but new boss Raheem Morris guarded against the big play and tried to play rope-a-dope. That might not be what he does every week, but it worked here.
If the film shows the Rams any worries, it would be David Montgomery’s 41-yard run on the Bears’ first possession and his generally effective runs thereafter, and also the fact that Dalton was allowed to resemble a viable NFL quarterback. That initial drive died when Kenny Young deflected a pass that David Long intercepted, but Dalton was 3-for-3 on a subsequent drive and hot-footed his way to the 1-yard-line, from where Montgomery scored.
The other touchdown came on a drive that looked like a tractor-trailer trying to scale the Grapevine. It took nine minutes and 38 seconds for Chicago to go 81 yards in 19 plays, but the Bears converted all three third-down situations and ended it with a scoring run by rookie QB Justin Fields.
Fields is the future in Chicago, but Dalton, the longtime Cincinnati quarterback, is his drivers’ education instructor. It might surprise you that Chicago fans and media are demanding that Fields run the show right this minute, so Dalton’s generally good play on Sunday won’t settle their stomachs.
It didn’t bother the Rams because Stafford re-started the microwave offense. A 37-yarder to Tyler Higbee and an 18-yarder to the continually amazing Kupp, and the Rams got the final yard from Henderson and had their comfortable lead (27-14) back in only two minutes, 55 seconds.
In the offseason the Rams lost John Johnson II, Troy Hill and Michael Brockers thanks to cap demands. Maybe Brockers would have helped against the run Sunday, but Jordan Fuller has taken over for Johnson and is calling the defensive plays, and Long’s presence was obvious. Again, general manager Les Snead’s meticulous mid-to-late-round drafting has been a vaccination against free agency.
So an elastic defense is all that was needed. When the time comes, expect the Rams to break things.
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