Washington got it as close as 24-16 on Chris Thompson’s fourth-quarter touchdown, but Roethlisberger responded again, taking the Steelers 77 yards to set up Williams’ 15-yard touchdown run.
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The game plan was to limit Gurley and force quarterback Case Keenum to beat the 49ers through the air. Of course, most teams don’t find their identity until around the week 4 or week 5 mark of the season, however the first game can be very telling. The offense was non-existent and the defense could only stop the 49ers so many times before something had to give.
The faith had to be quickly depleting from the Rams but they kept their game faces on and tried to head fake the Niners to gain their first TD of the night. “It’s not something that I’ll go out and think about, but this team deserves better plays from its quarterback and I intend on doing that”, Keenum said.
Gabbert’s passing performance was showcased with an 18-yard reception to wideout Jeremy Kerley under a 4th-and-6 scenario from the Rams 39, it was his second-longest completion of the night. Carlos Hyde ran all over the Rams defense in the first and some of the second half last night.
The 49ers’ defence held the Rams to 185 total yards. Of their 14 offensive possessions, 11 ended if punts – the Rams first six possessions all ended in punts, with the exception of one, which was intercepted by 49ers inside linebacker NaVorro Bowman.
GOFF WAITS: Despite the struggles by Keenum, who was frequently off-target and struggled to get the ball down field at all, Fisher is not ready to turn the offense over to No. 1 overall draft pick Jared Goff.
And it’s not all that hard to figure out why.
“We felt good about our defence going into this game, but you never know until you get a chance to go out there”, Kelly said. It would probably be worse to watch Goff flail around on the field next week than it will be to watch Case Keenum do, well, the same thing.
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But what about the rest of the team? The youngster didn’t show much during the preseason, leading to the decision, but paying him top dollar to sit, doesn’t make much sense either. They are L.A.’s new-old team, after all, and to some extent, the move from St. Louis felt like the Rams were getting a fresh start.
