Upset In Inglewood, Cardinals beat Rams in Sofi

Pre-Game

Coming into this week, the Arizona Cardinals were dealing with some controversy as Cardinal fans felt frustrated with the state of the team following a blowout loss to the Detroit Lions last week and trading former fourth overall pick Marvin Harris Jr. to the Houston Texans this week. As for the Los Angeles Rams, they were coming in after a brutal Monday night, overtime loss to the Buffalo Bills and we’re expected to beat the Cardinals. were 12.5-point favorites at home according to FanDuel, as this was a get right game for the Rams, however this turned into a nightmare for Sean McVavy’s squad.

Game recap

In the first half of the game, the teams mainly traded field goals as Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford later connected with Blake Corum on a 15-yard touchdown, but they failed a two-point conversion only being ahead 9-6 before the Cardinals tied it before halftime. In the third quarter, the Cardinals will kick a field goal to go up 12-9, and another one in the fourth quarter to go up 15-9. With just 47 seconds left, Matthew Stafford found tight end Colby Parkinson for a 6-yard touchdown, putting the Rams ahead by one point 16-15. In the final seconds, however, Arizona Cardinals quarterback Jacoby Brissett led a quick game-winning drive. He threw a 21-yard pass to Jalen Brooks, which led to a penalty: an unnecessary roughness penalty against the Rams. That put the Cardinals in field-goal range. Cardinals' kicker Chad Ryland would make the kick from 43 yards out as time expired, with the final score at 18-16.

For the Cardinals, the biggest game changer for them was their kicker Chad Ryland who had six field goals and went a perfect 6-6 and he accounted for all of Arizona’s 18 points as his 43-yard kick to call game was the difference. For the Rams side, Matthew Stafford had 222 passing yards on two touchdowns, having a clean game.

Biggest takeaways from the game

One of the biggest takeaways of the game was the Cardinals' persistence and success on special teams, while the Los Angeles Rams let the win slip away. Despite the Cardinals never scoring a touchdown, Ryland's flawless kicking throughout the afternoon kept them close enough to steal the win despite the offense struggling to score touchdowns in the red zone.

For the Rams, it was a very frustrating loss as the game was in reach but they failed to score offensively despite their defense, keeping them in the game, as they failed to capitalize on the offensive opportunities.

Both teams move the 2-4 on the season in completely different directions. The Rams have a lot of things that need to be cleaned up, and the team that was projected to be the most dominant in the NFL in the preseason might not even make the playoffs, and they have to get answers soon next week versus the Las Vegas Raiders. For the Cardinals, it was a great win following the three-game losing streak that they were on; however, they have to clean up a lot of the offensive issues, which isn’t helped as they face a tougher test against the Denver Broncos next week.