Rams Hold off Falcons’ Late Rally for 31-27 Victory

The Falcons and Rams went into Sunday’s game looking for their first wins of the season with the Falcons continuing their customary winless start of the season going into Week 2 for the third straight year.

Falcons quarterback Marcus Mariota threw for 196 yards, 2 touchdowns and 2 interceptions, completing 26 of 17 passing attempts in Sunday’s loss.

Despite moving the ball well most of the first half, the Falcons hurt themselves with just too many self-inflicted woods that made it hard for them to establish the consistency they needed to play above what was needed to win this one against the defending Super Bowl champions.

At first glance, the Rams appeared to put the game away leading the Falcons 21-3 at the half and then scoring again after starting the second half off with a long 10-play 75 yard ending with Copper Kupp’s second touchdown catch for 10 yards and a 28-3 lead.

Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford threw for 272 yards, 3 touchdowns and 2 interceptions, completing 36 of 27 passing attempts.

Stafford and the Rams offense were able to take advantage of the cushion the Falcons secondary was giving up and exploited the spacing in the slot their entire game. After a quiet first quarter, Cooper Kupp broke out with 11 catches for 108 yards and touchdowns in the second and third quarters to help keep the Rams ahead of the Falcons.

The game’s momentum would eventually swing towards the Falcons as they started to fight their way back into the game. Rookie Drake London would make his first career touchdown catch and the Falcons would also score on their next drive after an 11 yard touchdown catch by Olamide Zaccheaus to give the Falcons meaningful points on the scoreboard but still trailing the Rams 31-17 with just over 8 minutes left to play in the fourth quarter.

The Falcons defense would come up big after shutting down the Rams offense on their next possession including blocking a punt on fourth down and scoring after Lorenzo Carter’s 26 yard return for a score and successful 2-point conversion that cut the Rams lead to 31-25 with five minutes left to play.

The Falcons would net and additional 2-points on a safety that the Rams chose to absorb rather than risk another blocked kick with 13 seconds left to play as the Rams hold off the Falcons comeback defeating the Falcons 31-27, getting their first win of the season.
In order to win their first game of the season, the Falcons must quickly fix their red-zone and consistency problems after falling to 0-2 in season openers for the third consecutive year.

Up Next:
Falcons: Travel to play the Seattle Seahawks Los Angeles Rams Sept 18, at 4:05 pm on FOX
Saints: Host Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers Sept, 18 at 1:00 pm on FOX

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