Joshua Karty made four field goals and the Los Angeles Rams beat the San Francisco 49ers 12-6 on Thursday night in a key game for the NFL National Association West title.
Four days after beating Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills 44-42 in the Goodell Tour’s most offensive game of the season, the Rams (8-6) defeated the 49ers (6-8) on a rainy evening to get within half a game of the Seattle Seahawks, section leaders
It was the Rams’ first win without a touchdown since 2016.
“What’s really cool is this team has found a lot of different ways to win football games,” Rams head coach Sean McVay said. You come out of a game 44-42 the other day and then you win 12-6. Our group did what it took to achieve this.”
The Niners led 6-3 entering the fourth quarter, but were unable to maintain their lead, dealing a blow to their playoff hopes.
It was the fourth time this season the 49ers lost to a section rival after leading by at least three points in the fourth quarter.
“It’s the story of our season,” admitted 49ers linebacker Fred Warner. We didn’t do enough to win games. We didn’t play complementary. We were missing that little something.”
Karty capped a 17-play drive with a 23-yard field goal to tie the game early in the fourth quarter, then kicked a 27-yard field goal after Matthew Stafford completed a 51-yard pass to Puka Nacua.
The Niners then drove down the field enough to make a field goal, but Brock Purdy was intercepted on a long pass in the end zone by Darious Williams, who helped the Rams secure their first sweep against the 49ers since 2018.
Stafford then led a long series of plays, which was capped by Karty’s fourth-down field goal with 18 seconds left. Stafford completed 16 of 27 passes for 160 yards, including 137 in the second half.
“In the second half, the weather was good enough that everything went as planned,” Stafford explained. We had the feeling that this match was going to be this way and that it would be a duel like this. We scored 44 points four nights ago and we come back here and we score 12, but those are two wins.”
Purdy finished his evening of work with 14 of 31 completed passes for 142 yards. It was the first time since 2019 that the Niners did not score a touchdown in a game.
The first half was played in pouring rain and this had a major impact on the offensive performance with neither team able to move the ball.
The Rams didn’t have a first down on their first four possessions of a game for the first time since 2013 before getting a late field goal to tie the game.
The two teams combined for 11 punts, nine first downs and 197 yards, four days after both reached season highs in scoring.
The rain largely stopped by halftime, but the offense still continued to struggle.
