A lot went wrong for the Los Angeles Rams in their 27-24 loss to the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday. The offensive line struggled, Matthew Stafford threw two interceptions and the 49ers went 9-for-14 on third down.
But the loss can be summed up by one single statistic from Pro Football Focus. The Rams missed 19 tackles against San Francisco on Sunday.
That’s a jarring number, one the Rams didn’t come close to touching all year. It’s also about the total you’d expect after watching Deebo Samuel, Elijah Mitchell and Jauan Jennings bobbing and weaving through the Rams’ defense all afternoon.
No single position group was more at fault than others, either. A’Shawn Robinson missed four tackles, Nick Scott missed three, Troy Reeder, Dont’e Deayon and Aaron Donald each missed two, and six other players missed one each. The only Rams defenders who played at least 20 snaps and didn’t miss a tackle were Jalen Ramsey, Darious Williams and Taylor Rapp.
Mitchell was the most elusive player for the 49ers, forcing eight missed tackles on his 21 rush attempts. Jennings forced three, JaMycal Hasty forced three and Deebo Samuel forced two total. George Kittle also got in on the fun, forcing one miss by the Rams.
Prior to Week 18, the Rams’ highest number of missed tackles in a game this season was 14 in Week 10 – also against the 49ers, which is no coincidence. They also missed 12 in Week 12 against the Packers and 10 in Week 7 against the Lions, which were the only other games in which they missed at least 10.
To put their 19 missed tackles into perspective, consider this: The Rams missed a total of 18 tackles in their previous three games combined.
Things won’t get any easier against the Cardinals, either. In each of their two games against Arizona, the Rams missed nine tackles. They split the season series with Arizona, but the Cardinals moved the ball in both games.
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