Just about nobody went into Week 1 of the NFL season telling themselves, “I can’t wait to watch the Rams and Colts!” The two teams weren’t good in 2016, and were not expected to be good in 2017. We also knew the Colts would be even worse off, with Andrew Luck out due to injury.
6 highlights from the Rams’ blowout win over the Colts
The Rams destroyed the Colts on Sunday. Here’s how it happened.
Richard Mackson-USA TODAY Sports
However, the Rams just tore into the Colts, and that’s one thing we didn’t particularly expect. The Rams were fun to watch for some of last season, just because of how bad they were. But on Sunday, they looked like an NFL power, and the Colts looked like a team capable of going 0-16.
Here are the highlights from the Rams’ 46-9 shellacking of the Colts.
Not a lot of people were there to see it.
Tickets were cheap for this one. The Coliseum seats 90,000, and people in Southern California are understandably not in a rush to see the Rams play a bad Colts team.
But you could get tickets for $6!
The Rams announced 60,128 in attendance, which still looked like a pretty empty stadium. But if the Rams can somehow keep up a performance like Sunday’s (lol) then that will change.
It’s almost as if Scott Tolzien was trying to help the Rams.
Scott Tolzien is officially your early-season pick-six king. Trumaine Johnson got first dibs, taking one back 39 yards in the first four minutes of the game to make it 10-0 Rams.
Lamarcus Joyner got in on the fun in the third quarter with a 29-yard interception return for a touchdown to make it a 37-7 game.
Tolzien nearly got a third, but was bailed out by Donte Moncrief, who got a facemask penalty instead. It stopped Tolzien from tying the NFL record for pick-sixes in a game, with three.
Tolzien would see his afternoon end early in the fourth quarter, when the team brought in Jacoby Brissett. Tolzien finished completing 9-of-18 passes for 128 yards, and two picks.
Jared Goff wasn’t bad.
Jared Goff looked like a mess last season. Part of that was being thrown in during the middle of the season when things hit the fan, part of it was a coaching change, and part of it was that there just wasn’t a lot of talent around him.
The Rams still aren’t going to be great this season, but Goff was better. He finished the game 21-of-29 for 306 yards and a touchdown, which went to rookie Cooper Kupp.
Goff was also sacked just one time. The Colts are not a good team so this one should be taken with a grain of salt. But teams that are actually good handle bad teams the way the Rams did on Sunday, and they should be happy about that.
Jacoby Brissett got in, and threw a gorgeous 50-yard bomb.
So if you read above, Scott Tolzien was bad on Sunday. It forced coach Chuck Pagano to give Jacoby Brissett a chance in the fourth quarter with the Colts down 37-3, and the game out of reach.
Brissett came in, and handed the ball off to rookie Marlon Mack a few times, before dropping this dime to Donte Moncrief. It was the first sign of life the Colts showed all afternoon.
But as the Colts afternoon showed, things would only get worse.
Adam Vinatieri missed an extra point.
Adam Vinatieri is one of the best kickers in NFL history. He’s made clutch kicks in Super Bowls, and is the No. 13 most accurate kicker of all time. As far as extra points go, he made 786 of 799 attempts coming into Sunday.
When the Colts finally got on the board, he missed.
That’s rare for Vinatieri, based on his previous years of experience. He’s made 98.4 percent of all extra points before — and he just hooked one to the right.
Things didn’t get better for Indianapolis.
Mack lost the ball after a vicious strip by Cory Littleton, where Brissett collected it in the back of the end zone for a safety. Rams DB Blake Countess did his best referee impression as his teammates fell on Brissett.
This is a trip to Los Angeles the Colts are going to try to forget as quickly as possible. For the Rams, they should enjoy the dominating win.
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