Rams hold off Vikings, refs miss crucial call on game-sealing safety

The Los Angeles Rams picked up a crucial win over the Minnesota Vikings last night on Thursday Night Football but not without controversy. Sam Darnold was sacked in the endzone for a game-sealing safety but the officials missed a facemask penalty on the play that would've extended the Vikings drive. Craig and Cam discuss...

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Time to give you the opportunity to get into the
drawing to win a pair of tickets to see Brooks
and Done March fourteenth at Moody Center. And this is
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(00:20):
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(00:42):
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(01:03):
listening to the Craigway Show, and I heard the keyword
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the message they're on the iHeartRadio app. Real easy to
do with our talk back feature. All Right, I mentioned
I was going to talk about the NFL. You didn't

(01:23):
think I was going to go all of you know,
the whole show without mentioning that Thursday night, the NFL
game last night. I think it just goes to show,
certainly how effective offensively the Rams can be when they

(01:44):
do have two of their biggest weapons back, Hooper Cup
and Puka da Koua. They've both been out several weeks.
They both returned and they were both big factors in
the game. Nakua caught several passes and then of course
so did Cup on that first drive, and Cooper Cup
also wound up getting a touchdown in there as well.

(02:07):
Nikup had nine targets, Cup had eight, and then oh
by the way, Kyra and Williams had seven, and he
ran the ball well and the Rams beat the Vikings
thirty to twenty. Now I also know what one other
much discussed piece of this game is and can't ignore it.
They're up twenty eight to twenty with under two minutes

(02:27):
to go. The Vikings have no timeouts left and they're
backed up inside their own ten yard line, so the
odds were going to be greatly against them being able
to drive all the way downfield get a touchdown and
a two point conversion to tie the score. The Vikings
did not score a touchdown in the second half, but
Sam Darnold was sacked at the end zone for a safety.

(02:50):
And yes, the officials missed what should have been a
face pass call, but they missed it. They didn't see it.
You can't review that. You can't challenge two points on
the board. I was curious to see how the Vikings
were going to do an on side free kick, because
you have to free kick after a safety, and I
was interested to see how they were gonna do the

(03:12):
on side kick, and I thought I was pretty impressed
by the Rams got right under it, but it was
like a little pop fly straight up, like you were
hitting fungos straight up, and it came down and Kyrin
Williams snagged it to make the catch and that sealed
the deal. I completely agree with those who say, yeah,
the officials missed a call, and I'm a RAMS fan,

(03:32):
they did miss the call. They should not have called.
They should have called a face mask. It would have
taken it out to the twenty yard line. It would
have been first down with about I think it was
a minute twenty left, a minute twenty five left, and
they still would have had to go eighty yards in
that time with no timeouts to get a touchdown a

(03:55):
two point conversion. But it definitely took all the guestwork
out of it. With the safety. Now I am not
I'm not in agreement with the people who make references
to the numbers that were being established in the desert
with that deal. The mainly the over I think it
was the over under, wasn't it. It was at forty
eight and a half, and at the time it was

(04:18):
under because it was twenty eight twenty. So if the game,
let's just say they threw the flag and the Vikings
got a first time but they ended up not scoring,
the game would have ended with the under instead of
fifty points as the over. So Cam I think it's
bad beats involved. There is basically what that.

Speaker 2 (04:38):
Was for sure, And back to the face mass penlinity,
Why do we as a sports society all of a
sudden when things like this happened, And then the first
time where there's a big play where there's a miss
call or something, isn't you know, reviewed right, and it's like, oh,
that cost him the game? When it takes away from

(04:59):
the fact that at Minnesota struggled, struggled on offense after
their first two drives. I mean they ended the first
half with two punts Craig and in the second half,
after Stafford's interception, they got down in the five yard line,
couldn't punch it in fuel gold, then another field goal
and then the other putt and then just to say, okay,
they called the face mass you mentioned it, eighty yards,

(05:22):
no timeouts and ninety seconds. Are we sure they're gonna
score touchdown and get the two point conversion? And then
ultimately what when in overtime? I don't understand why so
many people, just Aszume like I saw the athletic just
kind of like like, oh, we're gonna talk about a miscalling.
What a huge miscall. No, the Rams were the better
team in that game in the second half, I mean

(05:43):
huge credit to what Jeohn mcfay and Stafford and the
and the offense did. Those two touchdown drives were huge.
They went seventy yards on both those drives. Craig eighteen
plays total, took off almost seven minutes on their last
scoring drive. So understand why we always do this with
miss calls as if okay, yeah, it's going to go

(06:04):
from the twenty yard line to the one yard line
the very next play. Now, the Rams still were the
better team in that game. And it's crazy what happens
when Matthew Stafford isn't throwing the uber drivers, you know,
when he gets Cooper Cup and Pooking Akoula back all
of a sudden, it's like, hey, look out. And to
your point, Craig talked about it yesterday, look out because
the Los Angeles Rams, now just like that, are three

(06:28):
and four and looking at the NFC West standings, hey,
they could be a half a game back if Seattle
does lose this weekend.

Speaker 1 (06:36):
How ugly is the NFC West Right now? The Rams,
the forty nine ers, and the Cardinals are all three
and four, and they're only one game out of first
because the Seahawks are four and three. Oh by the way,
the Rams play in Seattle next week. And remember last
year the Rams were three and six coming out of
the by and they won seven of their last eight
games to get into the playoffs. They were one in

(06:59):
four out of the Buy, and now they went back
to back games. When lind and I were in Los
Angeles last week to see Joni Mitchell dilly Wood Bowl,
we were driving around LA while the Rams were playing
the Raiders and JB. Long. They're played by play voice
with DeMarco Farr and Maurice Jones Dry. They were talking
about the comparisons between last year's team that was three

(07:21):
and six coming out of the Buy and this one
one in four and can they get on a roll?
Can they get on the roll. The biggest difference this
year is they've got guys back healthy, and that makes
the difference, and it makes Matthew Stafford a better quarterback
for sure. I don't know if they got enough to
overhaul all the other ones. They have a head to head,
went over the forty nine ers, and they start to
play them one more time. They have they had to
head loss to the Cardinals, but they start to play

(07:43):
them one more time, so we'll see, and then they've
got two games against Seattle, so we'll see how that
ultimately goes. I'm not saying that division is gonna wind up.
Remember the year that it was seven and nine, yes Seattle, right, yeah, yeah,
seven and.

Speaker 2 (07:57):
Nine, those of Marshawn Lynch here when he ran over
the same defense, right right.

Speaker 1 (08:02):
Yes, I'm not saying it's going to be that bad.
But it could be nine and eight. It certainly could.
It certainly could be nine and eight wins. That division
first one to nine wins may wind up winning that thing.
I don't know. All Right, we'll be back to wrap
up our number two of the program from here in
Nashville and Sports Radio AM thirteen under the Zone.