The Los Angeles Rams ground out a 12-6 road win over rival San Francisco on Thursday night, pushing Sean McVay's club closer to the postseason while all but eliminating the Niners' playoff chances.
The Rams turned a 1-4 start to the season into an 8-6 record, half a game behind Seattle for the NFC West lead, with their seventh victory in nine weeks. It marked the first time L.A. swept the 49ers since 2018 and gave the Rams a three-game win streak against their rivals.
"Being able to do that, knowing how good of a team they are and knowing the history with the two organizations, it's huge," running back Kyren Williams said, via the Los Angeles Times. "And it shows that we're the big brothers now."
Big brother didn't exactly have a sterling game in the streaking rain, as both teams struggled to move the ball. The clubs combined for 10 punts and two field goals through two quarters.
The Rams offense woke up as the rain slowed in the second half, with Williams doing most of the heavy lifting. The running back generated 108 rush yards on 29 carries in the touchdown-less game. Coupled with Sunday's 29 totes in the win over Buffalo, Williams carried the rock 58 times in a four-day span.
Los Angeles' win over San Francisco marked the first game in 2024 without a touchdown scored, featured the second-fewest points in a game (Tennessee-Jacksonville, 16 in Week 14), and saw just 25 combined first downs, tied for the fewest in a contest this season. The 12 points were the fewest for the Rams in a win since Week 10, 2016 (beat N.Y. Jets, 9-6).
"It serves us well that there's different ways we can win a football game," McVay said. "Now, we'd like to be able to put it all together, but to be able to do that, that's a real strength."
The Rams' three-game win streak over San Francisco comes after the Niners took nine of the previous 10 meetings.
Thursday marked the first game of McVay's career that the Rams won without scoring a touchdown (previously 0-7 in such games, including playoffs). It was also the first game of Kyle Shanahan's career that the 49ers lost without allowing a TD (previously 8-0).
Given that the clubs combined to score 82 points in their games on Sunday, the low-scoring affair was surprising. But it was the Rams defense that made the big stops late to secure the big division win.
"Our team showed we can win football games kind of any way you want in about a four-day span," quarterback Matthew Stafford said. "You score 44 four nights ago or whatever it was and come out here and score 12. They both count for one."
The win puts pressure on Seattle to keep pace Sunday against the Green Bay Packers. A Seahawks loss gives the Rams the division lead. L.A. finishes the season with tilts against the Jets, Cardinals and Seahawks.
"You can just feel the momentum," tight end Colby Parkinson said. "You can feel the team coming together each and every week a little bit more and we're peaking at the right time. It's exactly what we want."
