Week 12 Recap – St. Louis Rams vs Arizona Cardinals
ST. LOUIS – On November 27, the Cardinals and Rams had their eleventh regular season game this year, now that all teams are done with bye weeks. The Rams are coming off a close loss at home against the Seattle Seahawks and the Cardinals are coming off a blowout loss away against the San Francisco 49ers. St. Louis-based hip-hop music artist Nelly wore a #1 jersey and took part in the pre-game coin toss.
Pre-game notes: The last time these two teams played, three weeks ago, the Cardinals managed to win the game in overtime with a punt return for a touchdown; the Rams are slight favorites today. The Rams signed T Thomas Welch, G Brian Mattison and WR Nick Miller, placed T Jason Smith (head), CB Marquis Johnson (lacerated spleen) and WR Mark Clayton (knees) on injured reserve, took WR Eddie Wide (shoulder) off injured reserve and added CB Kendric Burney to the practice squad. The Cardinals placed DT Dan Williams (broken left arm) on injured reserve, activated DE Ronald Talley from the practice squad, added DT Ricky Lumpkin and LB Brandon Williams to the practice squad and deleted TE Steve Skelton from the practice squad.
Cardinals DE Darnell Dockett, TE Todd Heap, ILB Paris Lenon, RB LaRod Stephens-Howling and RB Beanie Wells (knee) are active. QB Kevin Kolb (toe), OLB Joey Porter and FS Kerry Rhodes are inactive for the Cardinals. QB John Skelton will start for the fourth straight week. Here is a list of the Rams’ inactives: WR Danario Alexander, DT Justin Bannan, LB Josh Hull, T Mark LeVoir, OLB Ben Leber, G Brian Mattison and RB Cadillac Williams. Arizona will look to win seven straight at the Edward Jones Dome in just a little bit.
1st quarter:
On 4th-and-10 at the STL 40, Rams P Donnie Jones punted the ball 33 yards out of bounds at the ARI 27.
On 4th-and-16 at the ARI 33, Cardinals P Dave Zastudil punted the ball 55 yards, which resulted in a touchdown by Miller and extra point by K Josh Brown. Cardinals 0 Rams 7
On 1st-and-10 at the ARI 34, Skelton threw a deep left pass intended for WR Larry Fitzgerald and the ball was intercepted by CB Rod Hood who returned it to the ARI 31.
On 1st-and-10 at the ARI 16, Bradford was strip sacked and the ball was recovered by Lenon who returned it to the ARI 24.
On 4th-and-10 at the ARI 24, Zastudil punted the ball 51 yards out of bounds at the STL 25.
On 4th-and-4 at the STL 31, Jones punted the ball 49 yards and it was returned to the ARI 19.
On 4th-and-10 at the STL 11, Cardinals K Jay Feely successfully kicked a 29-yard field goal. Cardinals 3 Rams 7
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2nd quarter:
On 4th-and-9 at the STL 25, Jones punted the ball 53 yards and it was returned to the ARI 22.
On 4th-and-2 at the STL 47, Zastudil punted the ball 37 yards and it was fair caught at the STL 10.
On 4th-and-7 at the STL 24, Jones punted the ball 57 yards and it was returned to the ARI 35.
On 4th-and-9 at the STL 39, Zastudil punted the ball 39 yards into the end zone for a touchback.
On 3rd-and-goal at the ARI 17, Brown successfully kicked a 35-yard field goal. Cardinals 3 Rams 10
3rd quarter:
On 4th-and-6 at the STL 19, Feely successfully kicked a 37-yard field goal. Cardinals 6 Rams 10
On 3rd-and-9 at the STL 28, TE Lance Kendricks caught the ball and then fumbled it, which the ball was recovered by LB Sam Acho who returned it to the STL 28.
On 1st-and-goal at the STL 7, Wells rushed the ball up the middle, which resulted in a touchdown and extra point by Feely. Cardinals 13 Rams 10
On 4th-and-6 at the STL 25, Jones punted the ball 55 yards, which resulted in a touchdown by CB Patrick Peterson and extra point by Feely. Cardinals 20 Rams 10
4th quarter:
On 4th-and-8 at the ARI 30, Brown successfully kicked a 48-yard field goal. Cardinals 20 Rams 13
On 1st-and-10 at the ARI 26, Skelton threw a short middle pass intended for Fitzgerald and the ball was intercepted by ILB James Laurinaitis who returned it to the ARI 37.
On 4th-and-5 at the ARI 32, Brown unsuccessfully kicked a 50-yard field goal wide right.
On 4th-and-5 at the ARI 45, Zastudil punted the ball 48 yards and it was returned to the STL 8.
On 4th-and-7 at the STL 11, Jones punted the ball 44 yards out of bounds at the ARI 45.
On 2nd-and-6 at the ARI 49, Wells rushed the ball and then fumbled it, which the ball was recovered by LB Brady Poppinga who returned it to the ARI 43.
On 1st-and-10 at the ARI 16, Bradford threw a deep left pass to WR Brandon Lloyd, which resulted in a touchdown and extra point by K Josh Brown. Cardinals 20 Rams 20
On 4th-and-goal at the STL 4, Feely successfully kicked a 22-yard field goal. Cardinals 23 Rams 20
On 4th-and-1 at the STL 36, Jones punted the ball 38 yards and it was fair caught at the ARI 26.
On 2nd and-1 at the STL 34, Skelton knelt to the STL 35. End game
Post-game notes: The Rams and Cardinals really lost nobody throughout the game due to injury. Rams S Darian Stewart was lost near the end of the game. The Cardinals did lose Wells twice throughout the game, but returned later on each time. The Rams’ offensive line was completely reshuffled.
Miller was re-signed three days before the game and immediately made an impact by taking his first punt return to the house (The Rams hadn’t had a punt return touchdown since Dante Hall in 2007.). Rams RB Steven Jackson was held to only 65 on the ground. Lloyd once again had a decent game by scoring another touchdown. Peterson made history by returning four punts for touchdowns in one season of 80 yards or longer. Wells made franchise history by putting 228 yards on the ground in one game. Rookie Acho had a career game with a fumble recovery, fumble force and two sacks.
In a loss that could have gone either way, the Rams barely lost to the Arizona Cardinals 20-23. The Rams have lost three of their last four games; on the contrary, the Cardinals have now won three of their last four. The game looked good for St. Louis after the punt return touchdown. The game shifted towards Arizona by the end of the third and came down to the final minute of the fourth.
The biggest stat was rushing yards with the Cardinals getting 268 on the ground and the Rams only getting 86. As for the total net yards, the Rams ended up with about 100 less than the Cardinals. Neither team was efficient on offense at all, in regards to third down, red zone and goal to go. Ball control was in favor of the Cardinals with them holding the ball four minutes longer.
The big stats of the game were turnovers, field goals and penalties. Arizona had two interceptions, though St. Louis had none. But Arizona only lost one fumble, while St. Louis lost two. The Cardinals made all three field goals, although the Rams missed one of their three field goals, which ultimately was the difference in the score. The Rams had double the amount of penalties (8).
The season is looking even worse for the Rams, now that they are 2-9 in the regular season; they are still seven games behind the San Francisco 49ers with San Fran losing to Baltimore on Thanksgiving night. There is no way the Rams will make the playoffs, now that they are practically eliminated from clinching a wild card berth.
By Trevor Roe
ProFootball-fans.com St. Louis Rams Correspondent