It was an NFL game so ugly you’d rather watch political ads.
Twenty penalties. Four interceptions. A blocked punt, blocked extra point and a star receiver ejected.
Yet Sunday’s 26-20 victory over the Seattle Seahawks was just what the Rams needed, a reminder that one of the league’s youngest teams ultimately has to rely on its most experienced players.
With the trade deadline approaching Tuesday, the Rams need to lean on their never-waver wire, guys such as Matthew Stafford and Demarcus Robinson — who combined for the winning touchdown in overtime — and Cooper Kupp making a key block to give the quarterback an extra half-second of protection.
After staggering into their week off at 1-4, the Rams have won three in a row and are 2-1 in the NFC West. They have a heartbeat and it isn’t a faint one, with winnable games against 2-6 Miami and 2-7 New England coming up.
Back in the dismal days when the season was circling the drain, there was ample talk about trading Kupp. But that kind of chatter is as quiet as Lumen Field was when Robinson reached up with one hand and reeled in that perfectly placed touchdown pass.
By every indication, Kupp is here to stay. He didn’t have a touchdown reception, but he led all receivers with 11 catches for 104 yards and did the little things — such as diverting rushing linebacker Tyrel Dodson on that winning play — that really turned out to be big things.
He was the security blanket, especially after the Rams lost receiver Puka Nacua, who was ejected in the second quarter for throwing a punch. Nacua was the intended target on the play in question, and the pass was picked off by Riq Woolen. Nacua and Dodson scuffled after the whistle and the otherwise mild-mannered receiver was tossed for taking a swing.
Nacua did a lot of pacing the next couple of hours, watching the remainder of the game from the visitors’ locker room on a modest TV that might sell for $100.
“There was a police officer in here and we were chatting for a little bit,” he said with a wide smile. “I may have overreacted and caught him a little off guard, but an overtime one-handed catch like that, it brought me out of my seat.”
Seattle quarterback Geno Smith embodied the yin and yang of this wild game, throwing three beautiful touchdown passes but offsetting those with three interceptions. The Rams beat him up — he was sacked seven times — and afterward he beat himself up.
“The things I did today, mistakes that I made, they affected us negatively and really cost us the game today,” Smith said. “Me, knowing myself, I know how much this is going to hurt.”
Rams rookie Kamren Kinchens made two of those interceptions, returning one 103 yards for a touchdown. He could have safely downed that one for a touchback, but then again…
“No, there was no thought process behind it,” Kinchens said. “As soon as I caught it, I didn’t see anybody in front of me and it was time to run. I blanked out and just went to running.”
Typical of this game, there was the bad to go with the good. Kinchens casually dropped the ball just before — or maybe just as — he crossed the goal line. He had the good sense to scoop it back up to secure the score.
“I’m going to get on him in the team meeting,” Rams coach Sean McVay said.
“I don’t know if he finished. We’ll show these guys not finishing all the way to the end zone and if he added to the reel, he’s lucky he had the presence to realize what the heck he was doing and to get back on it.”
That’s one of the lessons these Rams, especially the younger ones, can take away from this sloppy experience. It’s on them to finish strong.
They might be tempted to burn this game footage, to put this behind them, but this is one of those strange games in which they’ll be sifting through the rubble of … a win?
“You don’t want to dwell too long on it,” McVay said. “But you do want to demonstrate, all right, hey, we’ve got the ability to respond. There’s a lot of opportunities for us to play cleaner football. … Yes, we’ll absolutely be able to use this to draw on.”
The Rams need to be more disciplined, more consistent and better in the red zone. But the important thing for them is, they’ve got a chance to make this season memorable in the right way. A few weeks ago, they couldn’t say that.