Mistakes and inconsistencies need to stop

Sunday night’s victory was a hard-fought win. But here’s a hard truth: The Rams don’t win this game against a better team. The Bears aren’t good. The Rams escaped as a result of that.

There were numerous costly penalties in this one: offsides on a punt, illegal formation to take away a touchdown, defensive holding on a third-down stop, offensive holding on a first down, and a running into the kicker that almost gave Chicago a first down. Every one of these could have been avoided.

The Rams also turned the ball over twice early in this game. Gurley’s fumble was unfortunate, but it’s something that happens in football, and unfortunately, the Rams couldn’t come up with the ball. They caught a break when Cooper Kupp had a similar fumble and Mike Thomas was able to jump on it.

Goff’s interception, however, was unforgivable. Goff tried to force the ball to a double-covered Josh Reynolds for absolutely no reason, and it resulted in an interception. Goff has been a turnover machine this season, throwing 10 interceptions in just as many games, with a good amount of them being avoidable. He’s making bad decisions and throwing the ball to blanketed receivers. It needs to stop.

The Rams are a long shot to make the playoffs this year, but the talent exists to run the table and get in. That starts with Goff, who’s been a shell of his 2018 self this year. We’ve seen flashes of brilliance from the 134 million dollar man. Those flashes need to become a steady thing. The Rams can’t afford to make these kinds of mistakes if they want a shot at taking down Baltimore next week.