Rams have one touchdown pass over last 7 games against Bears

Through some of the darkest years in franchise history, specifically in this case 2008 to 2012, the St. Louis Rams only scored 18 points over three games against the Chicago Bears. Every point came via field goal.

Then in 2013, the 4-6 Rams hosted the 6-4 Bears and on the third play of the game Tavon Austin ran for a 65-yard touchdown.

Then on Chicago’s first play of the game, Matt Forte fumbles it back to St. Louis. Four plays later, Zac Stacy runs it in from one yard out, giving the Rams a fantastically early lead of 14-0 only 2:20 into the game.

Presumably feeling great about the lead, Rams quarterback Kellen Clemens had one of the better drives of his career — plus Stacy added a 35-yard run — and the fourth completion of the drive was a six-yard touchdown to Jared Cook.

To find the last time previous to Clemens-to-Cook that a St. Louis quarterback threw a touchdown pass against the Bears, you’d have to talk to Marc Bulger, who had three of them in a 2006 loss to the future Super Bowl team.

The find the next Rams quarterback to throw a touchdown pass against the Bears since Clemens, Sean McVay and Jared Goff hope you’ll have to talk to them after Monday night’s game at SoFi Stadium.

In 2015, Jay Cutler threw three touchdowns in a 37-13 win over St. Louis. The Rams scored early on a six-yard touchdown run by Todd Gurley but they didn’t gain more than 14 yards on any of their next eight drives. The quarterback for the Rams that day: Nick Foles.

The quarterback for the Bears on Monday: Nick Foles.

Foles went 17 of 36 for 200 yards and threw an interception in the loss. When the teams met again three years later, McVay was the head coach and Goff was the quarterback. The Rams were 11-1 but fell to 11-2 after the 15-6 loss; coincidentally, when the Bears went to the Super Bowl in 2006, they were 11-2 after facing the Rams.

In 2018, it was the Rams turn to play the Bears and then go to the Super Bowl. But in this Sunday Night Football game, Gurley was held to 28 yards on 11 carries and Goff threw four interceptions. It was quite notably been seen as the turning point in LA’s season. Then in 2019, again on primetime, the Rams built a 10-0 lead at halftime after a one-yard touchdown run by Gurley. Chicago scored on a 14-yard pass from Mitchell Trubisky to Tarik Cohen, but LA finished it off with a five-yard touchdown run by Malcolm Brown.

Goff finished 11 of 18 for 173 yards with an interception.

Neither team has done much scoring against the other during the Matt Nagy and Sean McVay regimes — Chicago’s only other touchdown in the last two games other than the Cohen reception was a two-yard throw to right tackle Bradley Sowell — but will something give on Monday night?