Rams-Cardinals final score: That one hurt

After last week’s tough loss against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the Rams looked to rebound facing a NFC West foe in the Arizona Cardinals. Both squads were coming off two consecutive losses, meaning both would be extremely desperate for a win. Both teams were without their starting quarterbacks, giving us a battle between John Wolford and Colt McCoy in the big divisional matchup.

Final score: Cardinals 27, Rams 17

The Rams got the ball first, as John Wolford and his offense would have an opportunity right out of the gate. L.A. moved the ball well on their first drive before stalling out, forcing a Matt Gay field goal to give the Rams an early 3-0 lead.

The Cardinals would respond with a nice drive themselves, as Colt McCoy looked comfortable early as they marched down the field with relative ease. However, the Rams defense would hold, forcing Arizona to settle for a field goal themselves, knotting the game up at 3-3 with 13 seconds left in the 1st quarter.

However, after solid opening drives for both sides, both defenses would settle in, as five straight 3 and outs combined would occur following the start of the 2nd quarter.

Arizona would finally break the 3-and-out streak, moving the ball into the red zone with under five minutes to go in the first half. The Cardinals would cash in on the drive as well, as James Conner would score the first TD of the game to make the score 10-3 Arizona lead with 1:56 to go in the first half.

The Rams would finally get a first down on their next possession, however, the drive would end as John Wolford would get the ball knocked loose to mark the first turnover of the ballgame for both sides.

The Cardinals would turn that into another TD right before half, increasing their lead to 17-3 with 24 seconds left in the second quarter. L.A. would then decide to kneel the ball out, taking their 14-point deficit into the halftime break.

The third quarter would start uneventfully, as both teams would exchange in what would become a punt off. Arizona did take a big blow on their second possession of the half, as Colt McCoy would leave the game with what appeared to be a knee injury about midway through the quarter, however he would eventually return.

Following the defense forcing a punt after McCoy went down, the Rams would have their best offensive drive since the first possession of the ball game. The offense marched down the field to score their first TD of the game courtesy of Darrell Henderson, making the score 17-10 Cardinals lead with 4:24 left in the third quarter.

The L.A. defense would step on on the next Arizona possession, forcing an Arizona punt to get the offense the ball back with an opportunity to tie the game with the entire fourth quarter to play.

However, the offense could not capitalize, as they were forced to punt on their first opportunity of the final frame. On that drive, an errant pass to a wide open Cooper Kupp forced Kupp to jump in the air, which led to Kupp’s ankle getting caught underneath Marco Wilson. Kupp was clearly in pain, and would not return to the game following the play.

On the next Arizona possession, the Rams defense would have a shot to get off the field on a huge 4th and 3, but could not get the stop, as Cardinals receiver Rondale Moore made the catch of his life to keep the Arizona drive alive. The Cardinals would turn that into another touchdown, making their lead 24-10 with 7:41 left in the contest.

To make matters worse, Wolford would then commit his second turnover of the game, as a tipped pass was picked off late in the game to shut the door on any comeback for L.A.

The Cardinals would turn that interception into a field goal, making their lead 27-10 with 3:44 left in the fourth quarter.

The Rams would score a garbage time TD to make the score look a little better, as Van Jefferson would haul in his first TD of the season, making the score 27-17 with just :07 seconds remaining.

The Cardinals would kneel it out, and hand the Rams yet another loss.