PHILADELPHIA — It’s rarely sunny in Philadelphia for Sean McVay and the Rams.
Before Sunday’s game against the Eagles, McVay was 1-6 against them, 1-4 at Lincoln Financial Field and 0-4 against Eagles coach Nick Sirianni.
The last time the Rams visited here, the Eagles blocked a field-goal attempt and returned it for a touchdown on the final play.
And for much of the game Sunday, gloom once again engulfed McVay and a team that opened the season as a heavy Super Bowl favorite.
But it finally lifted midway through the fourth quarter, with quarterback Matthew Stafford leading two touchdown drives that gave the Rams a come-from-behind, 24-20 victory.
“A lot of gutsy efforts,” McVay said, “and I have a headache from hell right now.”
No doubt stress-induced.
While McVay enjoyed watching Kyren Williams rush for two touchdowns and receiver Puka Nacua rush for another, the Rams had to overcome turnovers, penalties and special teams miscues to improve to 2-2.
After sitting out two games because of a hip injury, Nacua caught nine passes for 125 yards, several during the final two scoring drives.
“I’m excited to get on this plane and get up out of here,” Nacua said. “Hopefully, they have some Philly cheesesteaks for us.”
The Rams had mostly had their fill of Philadelphia after losing an NFC divisional game here in 2024 and last year’s debacle that ended with the blocked field goal and touchdown.
“We obviously haven’t found a way to get it done here,” McVay said, “and our guys found a way today.”
The Rams can thank their defense.
The Eagles were without receiver DeVonta Smith and left tackle Lane Johnson, and star running back Saquon Barkley left the game in the first quarter after suffering a hamstring injury.
The Eagles were 0 for 12 on third downs. They converted only one of four fourth downs and managed just 172 yards.
“When it was the time for us to make a play, the defense stepped up,” said edge rusher Byron Young, who had 2½ of the Rams’ four sacks, “and we had to do what we do.”
Despite their elation over Sunday’s victory, the Rams have plenty to fix.
Stafford was great down the stretch but otherwise did not look like the reigning NFL most valuable player. He completed 32 of 51 passes for 317 yards with two interceptions.
The Rams, historically one of the league’s least-penalized teams under McVay, had 13 penalties for 91 yards in last Sunday’s 30-26 defeat by the Denver Broncos. On Sunday, they were flagged eight times for 100 yards.
“Any way you could shoot yourself in the foot — we were doing it on the offensive side of the ball,” Stafford said.
Special teams also continued to be an issue. The Rams gave up a long punt return that set up a touchdown, and usually reliable kicker Harrison Mevis missed a 48-yard field-goal attempt.
But the defense kept the Rams within striking distance.
“You’d like to see [us] play as a team where you go and score, and then hold ‘em, score and hold ‘em and score,” receiver Davante Adams said. “But sometimes that’s not how it plays out.
“[The defense] did their thing to put us in a position to win it, and we went down there and finished the job.”
The Rams trailed, 20-10, at halftime, as the Eagles turned two interceptions into 10 points, and Jalen Hurts tossed two touchdown passes to receiver Darius Cooper.
After Mevis missed, it got uglier.
Near the end of the third quarter, it finally looked like the Rams’ defense would be rewarded for a good play: It stopped Hurts on a fourth-down tush push, giving the offense a first down at the Eagles’ 38-yard line.
But Nacua’s penalty for an illegal block stymied the possession, and Stafford’s fourth-down pass for tight end Tyler Higbee fell incomplete.
McVay rallied the offense on the sideline.
“He said, ‘Make things go. Wipe it. Get to the next play,’” Higbee said.
Stafford said McVay was “trying to put some belief” in the team.
“I think we had it,” Stafford said, “but it was great to hear from him.”
The defense came up big again, stopping the Eagles on downs at the Rams’ two-yard line.
On came Stafford, who ranks fourth all time in fourth-quarter comebacks.
“We call it the Mamba period,” said Williams, who rushed for 80 yards in 15 carries and had 10 receptions for 67 yards. “We knew we had to get things done. … Matthew, man, he got us all together. He said ‘Let’s freakin’ do it’ and we did the dang thing.”
Stafford engineered a nine-play, 98-yard drive that Williams finished with a one-yard touchdown run to cut the deficit to 20-17 with less than four minutes left.
Stafford got the ball back with 2:55 left at the Rams’ 21-yard line. He connected with Nacua three times and Higbee once before Williams scored on a seven-yard run with 1:10 remaining.
The play included Williams’ trademark second and third efforts.
“I wasn’t looking at any defender,” Williams said. “I wasn’t looking at any blocks. I was just having that smell, that nose for the end zone.”
Next up: Josh Allen and the 3-1 Buffalo Bills, a 29-26 loser Sunday against the New England Patriots.
The Rams will go into the game a .500 team riding the high of a comeback victory rather than trying to get out of a 1-3 hole.
At some point, the Rams will welcome back edge rusher Myles Garrett, defensive lineman Aaron Donald, who sat out because of a sore back, and tight end Terrance Ferguson, who like Garrett is on injured reserve. They are still more than capable of becoming the team that was hyped throughout the offseason.
So Sunday’s victory — rather than another loss in Philadelphia — could pay dividends.
“Hopefully,” Stafford said, “it was really important come later in the year.”
The post ‘Our guys found a way.’ Rams defy their Philadelphia history in thrilling comeback win appeared first on Los Angeles Times.
