10 Takeaways From Rams' Overtime Loss to Bills: Special Teams Disaster, McVay's Big Mistake, and More

The Los Angeles Rams fell to the Buffalo Bills on Monday Night Football in overtime, 37-34. It was another game that the Rams should have won, but special teams continue to be a thorn in the Rams’ side on a weekly basis. Coming out of that one, it’s understandable that the Rams would have a sour taste in their mouths.

“I’m really proud of our group. I thought offensively and defensively we battled,” said head coach Sean McVay. “We did some really good stuff and in the kicking game, especially with our PAT field goal, not even close to good enough. It cost us the game tonight.”

The Rams are now 2-3 after five weeks and their last two losses have been difficult to swallow. Here are 10 takeaways from Monday night’s loss to the Bills.

Rams Offense Returns to Heavy Personnel

With Colby Parkinson back in the mix, the Rams got back to their multi-tight end sets on Monday night against the Bills. While Max Klare was inactive, the Rams operated out of 12 personnel at a 24.4 percent rate. Going into Monday’s game, they were at around 4.5 percent. After using 13 personnel at a 1.3 percent rate last week, it was back up to 30.8 percent on Monday night.

Tyler Higbee had a vintage performance with five receptions for 83 yards. He has three games with 60 or more yards for the third time in his career. He is the only Rams tight end to have a three-game streak of 60 or more yards in the Super Bowl era.

Harrison Mevis Is Becoming a Liability

This goes beyond the blocked field goal as we’ll get to that later. The Rams had a promising opening drive lasting 14 plays and over half of the first quarter. Despite working hard to go down the field, the Rams came up empty as Harrison Mevis missed from 50 yards.

While Mevis is reliable from inside 45 yards, that’s simply not good enough in today's NFL or a world that the Rams can live in consistently. In a league where kickers are consistently making field goals from 50-plus yards, the Rams are having to manage games completely differently because of their kicker. Mevis has four misses this year, three of which have come between the 45-50 range. It’s simply not sustainable.

Mental Mistakes Are Becoming a Pattern

While it’s true that penalties are up this year, there are situational and pre-snap penalties happening that are very uncharacteristic of a Sean McVay-coached team. On the opening drive, Kyren Williams had a 9-yard run that picked up a first down, but it was called back because of a holding penalty. The Rams had to settle for a 50-yard field goal that was missed. At the end of the half, the Rams took over at the 43-yard line. A false start on Warren McClendon pushed them back five yards.

The situational penalties have been killers. In the first half, the Rams defense had a 1st-and-20 that was wiped away due to a penalty on Quentin Lake. Later on the same drive, they got a stop on 3rd-and-goal, but a hold on Josh Wallace gave the Bills a first down. Allen would throw a touchdown pass three plays later. Between 2021 and 2025, the Rams had two games total with 10 or more penalties. The Rams have picked up 10 or more penalties in two of the last three games.

Bills Expose Defensive Issues in the Open Field

The Bills gained 16.3 yards after the catch per reception against the Rams. It was the highest average by any offense in a game since the start of the Next Gen Stats era, which began in 2016. The Bills' running backs alone had 125 yards after the catch and 57 yards after the catch over expected. Due to the injuries at wide receiver, the Bills didn’t have much of a downfield passing game.

In the second half, the Bills had a touchdown drive go 80 yards in just five plays. The only pass beyond the line of scrimmage on that drive was the two-point conversion. Josh Allen had over 100 yards rushing.The Rams struggled in space and in the open field on Monday night as players at the second and third levels consistently missed tackles and took bad angles. Defensively, the Rams are at their best when they can stop the run and get pressure on the quarterback. Much like in Week 1 against the San Francisco 49ers, the Rams couldn’t stop it.

Puka Nacua Remains the Engine of the Offense

Puka Nacua’s stat line is almost insane to look at. The Rams targeted Nacua 24 times on Monday night. Yes, they targeted him 24 times. That’s the most targets for a Rams wide receiver in a single game in franchise history. It’s only the third time it’s happened in NFL history. The last player to do it was Brandon Marshall back in 2009 with the Denver Broncos.

Puka Nacua Route Chart — NFL Next Gen Stats

“He can access all areas of the field,” said Matthew Stafford. “I think that's one of the major things for him. He’s fantastic in the screen game, underneath, middle of the field. Made some plays out on the perimeter as well today.”

In a sense, it would be nice for other players to get involved. That type of workload, given Nacua’s injury history, isn’t sustainable. However, when Nacua is playing as well as he did on Monday night and is part of what makes the offense go, how do you not keep giving him the ball? Nacua finished with 17 catches for 138 yards. In both games since his return, Nacua has over 100 yards receiving.

Stafford Delivers His Best Performance of the Season

While the yards weren’t there for Stafford in the first half, he remained efficient. While he had a couple of misses, he generally looked more comfortable than he had in previous weeks. In the second half, Stafford went off, completing 21 of 26 passes for 237 yards and two touchdowns. He finished with a career-high 40 completions for 383 yards and three touchdowns.

With that said, the Rams need to do a better job supporting Stafford. These are games that Stafford consistently lost in Detroit because he didn’t have the support. Over the last two seasons, the Rams have lost four games in which Stafford has thrown for at least 370 yards and three touchdowns. That can’t happen. As a team, the Rams need to be better.

Matthew Stafford Passing Chart — NFL Next Gen Stats

Overtime Decisions Come Back to Haunt McVay

Given how the offense was moving in the second half, an argument can be made that if the Rams had kept operating the offense as usual, they would have ended up in the end zone. However, after Stafford found Nacua for 21 yards to put the Rams at the 35-yard line, McVay got conservative.

On the first play, McVay called a quick pass from under center that fell incomplete. The next play was a screen pass to Nacua to set up 3rd-and-5. Instead of going for the first down, McVay called a run that picked up zero yards.

“I wish I would have had a better play call and gone forward, got it a lot tighter. I'm sick right now with myself,” said McVay. “I'll be regretting kicking that and not having a better call to be able to go forward on third down and go to fourth or whatever it was. That's on me.”

Despite the problems with the field goal unit, McVay seemed content with settling for a 48-yard field goal. That sequence is one that will haunt McVay for a while. For as much as the blocked kick is on the field goal unit, it’s just as much on McVay for settling in that situation.

Another Special Teams Meltdown Costs the Rams

It’s easy to say that the Rams need to make changes on special teams, but what does that even mean at this point? The Rams could fire Bubba Ventrone, but they’ve gone through three special teams coordinators over the last two years. They could move on from Mevis, but this is a team that’s gone through kickers such as Joshua Karty, Brett Maher, and Lucas Havrisik over the last few years. There doesn’t appear to be a clear answer to fix a glaring issue.

With that said, something needs to change. McVay acknowledged that after the game, saying, “Yeah, I'm going to evaluate everything.” The Rams can’t stick with this as the status quo and call it good. The kickoff coverage bounced back, but allowed a 70-yard return on the opening kickoff. In a game where points are at a premium, the field goal unit left six points on the board. The Rams can’t keep losing games because of special teams.

The Rams Are Reaching a Turning Point

This is at least the fourth game in the last two years that the Rams have lost that can be directly tied to a special teams mistake. At some point, that starts to have an impact mentally on the team as a whole. McVay himself sounded defeated in his post-game press conference.

“None of it makes me feel good right now. I'm proud of the effort, but none of how I feel is positive other than I'm proud of the resilience, the guts that our team displayed,” McVay said. “But there's no... I don't even know what you want to call it.”

This isn’t to say that McVay is in danger of losing the locker room, but the Rams can’t keep losing games like this without it having an impact mentally on the players. It can’t continuously be one unit that lets the team down.

While the defense didn’t have a great game, they at least had a timely turnover. It seems like every time the special teams unit is called upon, they don’t rise to the occasion. The Rams are 2-3 and will have a short week. They’ll need to move on fast before Sunday’s game against the Arizona Cardinals. The Rams need to start stringing wins together if they are to turn the season around. A get-right game against the Cardinals might be exactly what the doctor ordered.

The NFC West Is Slipping Away

The Rams sit at 2-3 after that loss to the Bills. While the loss was to an AFC opponent, the Rams are now well behind in the NFC West race. After the 49ers beat the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday, the Rams are 3.5 games back. Even if the Rams were 3-2, competing for the NFC West would be a lot more doable.

This isn’t to say that the Rams can’t or won’t make the playoffs. It’s not even to say that the Rams don’t have a chance as long as they are in the playoff picture. However, their road gets a lot more difficult if they don’t win the NFC West. As much as the Rams traded for Myles Garrett and Trent McDuffie to help get them over the hump, it was also to help set themselves up better in January. Right now, the Rams are looking at having to win three straight road games and that’s a very difficult task in the NFL. There’s a reason it’s been done only a handful of times in NFL history.

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