The Los Angeles Rams couldn’t have asked for a much better opportunity to take a late lead against the Seattle Seahawkson Sunday night. With about 5 minutes remaining and the Seahawks leading 31-27, the Rams faced fourth-and-4 from Seattle’s 6-yard line.
One completion and the Rams would’ve had their first lead since 13-10 in the second quarter. But Matthew Stafford’s pass intended for Terrance Ferguson in the back of the end zone was broken up, giving the Seahawks the ball – and consequently, the win – on a turnover on downs.
If you rewatch the play, you can see Matthew Stafford’s first read was Kyren Williams to his left. Williams had beaten his man, Julian Love, but another defender carried him upfield to take that throw away.
Stafford was forced to go off-schedule and couldn’t find anyone open, resulting in the incompletion. After the game, Sean McVay and Stafford both said the Seahawks “lucked into” double-covering Williams on that play, suggesting it was a busted coverage that worked in their favor.
“They kind of lucked into having two guys peel on Kyren right there,” McVay said. “I know that can’t be part of their design, so it’s a fortuitous bust by them. But they’re an excellent team. You don’t take away anything. They earned the win and they’re NFC champs for a reason.”
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He discussed the play a bit further, saying the Seahawks brought a zero blitz and wound up double-covering Williams – something that never happens on a running back.
“They were bringing a zero,” he said. “They ended up peeling two guys – can’t imagine that’s what they were really trying to do. Tried to move off-schedule. I’ll have to go back and look at it but there were other opportunities on the previous play that we could’ve converted on that one, too.”
Stafford spoke briefly about the play, echoing what McVay said during his press conference.
“They double-peeled on the back,” Stafford said. “It was just a mishap by them. Lucked into covering our guy. Couple chances down there, didn’t make it happen.”
As Stafford said, the Rams had multiple chances to take the lead after getting into the red zone. They had first down from the 12, second-down from the 6 and third- and fourth-down from that same spot.
A run for no gain on second down didn’t move them any closer, and Stafford’s next two passes fell incomplete. The Seahawks took over, picked up a few first downs on the next drive and nearly ran the clock out before punting it away.
It’s a tough break for the Rams because most of the time, busted coverages lead to big plays. But in this case, the blown assignment resulted in Seattle doubling the guy Stafford wanted to throw to.
This article originally appeared on Rams Wire: Rams-Seahawks: How Seattle ‘lucked into’ stopping LA on key 4th down