Rams vs. 49ers, snap count report: Scenes from a tie game

Playing an extra quarter of football gives a team plenty more snaps to take. For the St. Louis Rams defense, however, the snap total was relatively low, all things considered. The Rams defense played a total of just 66 snaps, compared to 83 for the offense. Snap count numbers for individual players made for a few surprises.

Team snaps and time of possession

Time of possession isn't always the best indicator of how a game gets played or how a particular unit does. The Rams scored 24 points and led for a total of 20 minutes in this game, compared to just six seconds for the 49ers. Sam Bradford and the offense had the ball for a total of 40:45 in this game, compared to just 34:15 for the 49ers, thus the snap counts for each unit.

In the third quarter, the Rams had the ball for a total of 12:36, versus 2:24, and the Rams had just a field goal. That was flipped in the second quarter, with San Francisco having the ball for just under 12 minutes, scoring a touchdown.

Receiver snaps

I'm still waiting to get the formation breakdown report, but it's pretty clear that the Rams split time between a two tight end and three receiver sets.

Out of 83 snaps, Brandon Gibson led all receivers with 71. Amendola played 70, and left the game for a short period of time in the second quarter. Austin Pettis got the most snaps of any receiver after those two with 45.

Brian Quick played just seven snaps, but he made them productive, catching a touchdown on his only target. A few have asked why Quick didn't play more - most of them asking this a week after wanting him benched. The Rams spent most of the time in regulation running the ball. Quick can be a useful player, but until he gets caught up on the subtleties of the game, he's going to see limited work.

Among the tight ends, Lance Kendricks, who was fantastic all around, played 66 snaps. Mike Mulligan played 35 snaps.

Defensive stalwarts

The defensive snap report looks like most of the others, at least most of the other where the Rams didn't spend the majority of snaps in the nickel package.

One thing that was clear is that Trumaine Johnson started in place of Jenkins. He played 50 of 66 snaps. Cortland Finnegan played all 66 snaps, per usual. Bradley Fletcher played 35 snaps as the third corner. We'll see what the stats say about Johnson when the breakdowns get underway, but Fisher made it clear that Johnson is preferred option without Jenkins.

"He loves to play and he understands what we're doing," Fisher said in his post-game presser. "We backed down on his special teams responsibilities a little bit because he was starting. I'll look at the tape, but we drafted him because he's got talent to play corner in this league."

Matt Conrath played five snaps on the defensive line.