The New England Patriots had no answer for the Los Angeles Rams' offense in the opening quarter of Thursday night's 24-3 loss.
The Rams' first two offensive plays went for 25 yards and 35 yards. They scored the game's first touchdown -- a fourth-and-goal sneak by Jared Goff -- less than four minutes after kickoff.
LA's second drive featured a battering barrage of Cam Akers carries: 14 yards, 9 yards, 6 yards, 11 yards. The rookie running back amassed 83 rushing yards on his first eight attempts, and the Rams quickly built a 10-0 lead.
But after that, the Patriots' defense stabilized. The Rams gained just one first down on each of their next two possessions -- one of which ended in a Myles Bryant interception -- then went three-and-out before halftime.
A Cam Newton pick-six and three unsuccessful red-zone trips for New England's offense stretched the deficit to 17-3, but the Patriots at least possessed some modicum of momentum heading into the locker room.
Then came the third quarter.
After the Patriots punted on the opening possession of the second half, the Rams embarked on a 16-play, 90-yard, nine-minute, 42-second touchdown march that vaporized any hope of a Pats comeback.
“They really took the whole third quarter with the long drive," safety Devin McCourty said in a postgame video conference. "We just can’t play that way as a team.”
All of New England's early-game issues reappeared on this drive -- L.A. repeatedly used tight ends and receivers as lead-blockers to clear gaping holes for Akers -- and errors in two key spots prolonged the pain.
The first came on second-and-7 early through the drive. Robert Woods had to slide to catch a low pass from quarterback Jared Goff. Rookie linebacker Anfernee Jennings went to touch Woods down -- which would have set up a third-and-3 -- but whiffed, allowing the receiver to leap to his feet and pick up first-down yardage.
The second miscue was even more costly.
Defensive tackle Akeem Spence, who was instrumental in the Patriots' Week 12 goal-line stand, jumped offsides on fourth-and-1 from the 4-yard line, gifting the Rams a first down. Goff hit Cooper Kupp for a 2-yard touchdown one play later that essentially put the game away.
McCourty singled out both of those plays when discussing the Rams' back-breaking drive.
"We were making some plays and felt like we got in a decent rhythm on defense," he said. "But to let up that long drive -- I think any time you watch long drives, it’s one or two plays where you’ve got to take advantage to get off the field.
"I know we had one where we got them in a second-and-long, they threw a boot and we didn’t tag a guy down and Woods was able to get up. I think that was a big play, and then obviously (fourth) down, the offsides was a big play. You can’t have those kind of mistakes against a good football team. We had those today, and that just didn’t help us."
The Patriots' defense actually held up well outside of the Rams' three scoring drives, limiting them to three total first downs over their other seven possessions. But poor situational football coupled with an inability to stop Akers for long stretches -- 143 of his 171 rushing yards came on those three drives -- doomed them.
“We talk about it every week: if you can’t stop the run, the team will continue to just hand the ball off and run, and we didn’t do that (Thursday night)," McCourty said. "It really didn’t matter anything else that happened in the game. They were able to continuously run the ball and pick up first downs.
"Any time that happens for us defensively, it kind of takes you out of a rhythm, takes you out of some of the play calls you might want to get to. And even though we actually played decently on third down in some of those passing situations, it just didn’t matter because we didn’t do a good enough job in the running game."
