Well, if we really wanted to point fingers, Kupp was wide open in the end zone on the drive that we had to kick the first field goal. It was the first down play. Stafford simply missed him. Those 4 points wins the game.
But pointing fingers is not realistic. Stafford played a fantastic game. Everyone makes errors. Nobody is perfect. If we are pointing fingers, the biggest culprit is the refs holding their flags when Puka was held down by his jersey on the last drive. Another 15 yards should have been added to that PI flag for the second defender hitting Puka in the head. If that call was made, game over in all probability.
There could be lots of fingers pointed:
1. We know that Goff doesn't handle pressure well. Why does Raheem wait to blitz until the second half after Goff ate our lunch in the first half? Got me. Goff did shit in the second half.
2. If Alaric had contained his man Hutchinson, Stafford would have made the 50 yard+ completion to Kupp that ended up sailing out of bounds as Stafford tried to avoid the pressure.
3. If Havenstein hadn't held his guy at the end of the game, doing a takedown, the Rams could have kicked the field goal (presumably cough cough) from 51 yards instead of 61 where McVay opted to punt.
4. On the other hand, we were gifted a flag when our guy jumped offsides but the refs called it on the Lions. Goff was unstoppable at that point but we got lucky. The Lions would have probably scored again.
5. After Goff made the stupid lateral, they were like 2 and 25. Yet, we give up the first down. No blitz on obvious passing????
6. Our use of early timeouts left us with none when we needed them.
7. Even then, all we needed was a 3 and out from our D. They failed.
It was a team loss. Everything was there for a win, but it didn't happen. My biggest grief was with the no-PI call at the end. That was not only obvious, but was the game. Nothing the Rams can do about that.