Turnovers weren’t the reason the Rams lost to the 49ers on Sunday

The Rams punted seven times and only had three offensive possessions that ended in points.

When looking at the box score from Sunday’s game between the Rams and 49ers, the category that sticks out like a sore thumb is turnovers. The Rams gave the ball away four times, while the 49ers turned it over three times themselves.

It was as sloppy a first half of football as you’ll see, with the teams combining for five turnovers and 10 total points. And while the Rams’ four giveaways were costly – three of which were by Jared Goff alone – they weren’t the only reason Los Angeles lost 23-20.

There’s far more to the story than just those mistakes.

For starters, the 49ers did almost nothing to capitalize on the Rams’ blunders. After recovering Malcolm Brown’s fumble, the 49ers threw an interception on the ensuing drive. Later in the first quarter, Goff threw an unsightly interception to Richard Sherman. The 49ers turned around and gave the ball right back to the Rams on the first play of the drive when Jeff Wilson lost a fumble.

In the second quarter, Goff coughed up a fumble while attempting to scramble for a first down, which was recovered by the 49ers. Surely, San Francisco had to have turned this takeaway into points, right? Wrong. The 49ers ran four plays after recovering the fumble and then missed a 50-yard field goal just before halftime.

So not only did the 49ers fail to capitalize on the Rams’ turnovers in the first half, but they turned it over themselves twice on the next possession. Sure, Goff’s fumble came at the 49ers’ 36-yard line, so it did potentially take points off the board as the Rams were driving. But it didn’t turn into points for the 49ers, either.

Brown’s fumble came at the Rams’ own 45-yard line, so it’s not as if they were in scoring range on that drive. And on Goff’s first interception, the Rams were at their own 36. Again, not exactly driving to score points.

We’d be remiss not to acknowledge that Goff’s pick-six to Javon Kinlaw directly led to points. That was costly right out of the half. But on three of the Rams’ four turnovers, the 49ers didn’t score any points. The opportunities for L.A. to win this game were absolutely there for the taking.

The real issue on Sunday was Los Angeles’ inability to do anything on its other 10 possessions – excluding the kneel-down before halftime. Here’s how the Rams’ drives that didn’t end in turnovers went.

  • 6 plays, 41 yards: Field goal
  • 3 plays, 7 yards: Punt
  • 6 plays, 8 yards: Punt
  • 3 plays, 8 yards: Punt
  • 3 plays, 8 yards: Punt
  • 3 plays, 8 yards: Punt
  • 7 plays, 53 yards: Field goal
  • 3 plays, 68 yards: Touchdown
  • 5 plays, 15 yards: Punt
  • 5 plays, 19 yards: Punt

The Rams punted seven times against the 49ers, including twice on their final two drives of the game. They didn’t have a single drive of more than seven plays and went three-and-out four times.

If not for Cooper Kupp’s 33-yard catch near the end of the third quarter or Cam Akers’ 61-yard run a few minutes later, the Rams probably wouldn’t have scored those final 10 points at the end of the third and the start of the fourth quarter.

Put simply, the offense was inept all afternoon. The turnovers were deflating and were understandably frustrating, but they don’t tell the whole story. Goff failed to execute on offense outside of those three turnovers, with one of his biggest mistakes being an overthrow to Darrell Henderson for what should’ve been a touchdown; it would’ve made the score 17-10 instead of 17-6 after L.A. settled for a field goal.

Goff has to cut down on the turnovers, but he also has to be better when it comes to moving the ball effectively and efficiently. And as for the defense, it failed to step up when the Rams needed it to most.

The 49ers made game-tying and game-winning field goals on their last two drives, which totaled 100 yards of offense. If the Rams had stopped Nick Mullens on either drive, the game would’ve gone into overtime, at the very worst.

It’s foolish to pin this loss on the defense, which we’re not here to do, but Brandon Staley’s unit bent too much late in the game after an otherwise strong performance.