LOS ANGELES — Cooper Kupp made a move, caught Earl Thomas flat-footed and, for one fleeting moment, found himself free, a Jared Goff pass zipping toward him for what could become the game-winning touchdown. Kupp dove towards it and reached out his hands, his body now well into the west end zone at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. But the football ricocheted off his fingertips and fell helplessly to the ground.
“Let’s face facts,” Kupp said, “I gotta make that play.”
The Los Angeles Rams made numerous mistakes on Sunday, most of them on offense. But Kupp’s wasn’t among the worst of them. Their 16-10 loss to the Seattle Seahawks — and, thus, their blown opportunity to take a two-game lead in the NFC West — had culprits elsewhere.
“We turned the ball over five times today,” Rams coach Sean McVay said. “That’s not a recipe for winning football. That’s not something we can afford to do if we can expect to win games moving forward.”
In a game underscored by mysterious under-usage of running back Todd Gurley and wide receiver Sammy Watkins, the Rams failed to capitalize on a spectacular defensive performance and appeared to make a costly mistake every time a positive development took place. When they marched up the field on their first drive, Gurley ran to the outside, reached for the pylon and fumbled into the end zone and out of bounds, giving the Seahawks the ball for a touchback.
“Obviously, I’ve got to do a good job of taking care of the ball,” Gurley said of his fifth fumble, which ties his total from all of 2015 and 2016. “No ifs, ands or buts about it.”
But that was only the start.
When Rams receiver Tavon Austin dropped his second punt of the game, a rookie named John Johnson, who started in place of safety Maurice Alexander, made up for it by intercepting a Russell Wilson pass and returning it 69 yards — but the Rams settled for only a field goal.
When the Seahawks put a kickoff out of bounds inside of two minutes before halftime, the Rams, with the ball at their 40-yard line, went three-and-out, helping the Seahawks tie the game with a field goal on the ensuing drive.
When the Rams drove into the red zone to start the second half, Greg Zuerlein missed a 36-yard field goal — after making his previous 28 attempts inside of 40 yards.
When Goff went deep, Watkins — targeted only four times, with zero of those passes caught — pulled up in the middle of his route and watched the ball sail over his head.
When the Rams got to the Seahawks’ 15-yard line, Goff slipped on a play-action rollout, lost 10 yards, then threw high of Gurley on a screen pass for an interception.
When Robert Woods made a full-extension diving catch to set up a first down inside enemy territory, Goff threw a wobbly pass into no-man’s land for his second pick.
When the Rams’ defense forced an ensuing three-and-out, and Tyler Higbee made a 29-yard catch, Frank Clark came around the edge and forced a fumble by Goff with three minutes left remaining.
And when the Rams drove down the field with only seconds left, getting a 35-yard catch from Higbee and a 20-yard catch from Woods, Kupp dropped the winning score.
“It wasn’t so much that we weren’t moving the ball; we just weren’t finishing drives,” said Goff, who went 22-of-47 for 288 yards and three turnovers. “That’s what it came down to. We weren’t finishing drives. We got into the red zone, and we didn’t do a very good job. It shows up.”
The Rams, as Goff alluded, had 13-, 11- and 9-play drives that did not finish in a score. They came up with three points in four trips to the red zone, their only touchdown an Austin run from 27 yards out. Gurley carried the ball only seven times after the first quarter, and Watkins failed to make a catch for only the second time in 42 career games. Their defense registered two interceptions and three sacks, bringing constant pressure to a very mobile and dangerous Wilson. But the Rams, now tied with the Seahawks at 3-2, could not capitalize.
Afterwards, though, it was Kupp who was distraught.
Goff offered a pep talk.
“He’s a very serious kid and a very good player, someone who knows he wants to make that play,” Goff said. “I know it’s a tough, tough catch. It was a really tough catch, and it would’ve been an incredible catch if he would’ve come up with it. But to him, his standards are so high. That’s the type of play he likes to make. I just told him, ‘Don’t worry about it. It’s a long season, and we’re going to have so many situations — hopefully throughout our career together — just like that.'”