Goff leads Rams past Cardinals, into NFC West lead
GLENDALE, ARIZ. >> Jared Goff first shook off his coach’s criticism and then led his team to the top of the NFC West.
The Rams’ fifth- year quarterback bounced back from last week’s tough outing with one of his best games of the season, completing 37 of 47 passes for 351 yards and a touchdown in a 38-28 win over the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday.
“I responded exactly how I expected to,” said Goff, who was drafted first overall out of Cal in 2016. “I have been through a lot of bad things in my career before and I have consistently responded and this was no different. I just had to keep my head down and keep working.”
Los Angeles (8- 4) has won three of four and is tied for the division lead with the Seahawks, who lost to the New York Giants 17-12.
The Rams had a 24-14 lead early in the fourth and looked like they were going to pull away until Nsimba Webster fumbled on a punt return. The Cardinals recovered at the LA 15-yard line and quickly turned the mistake into a touchdown on Kenyan Drake’s 4-yard run that pulled Arizona within 24-21.
Los Angeles responded on its next drive, and the offense quickly moved downfield. Darrell Henderson sliced through Arizona’s defense for a 38-yard TD run that pushed it to 31-21.
Rams coach Sean McVay was critical of Goff after he threw two interceptions in a 23-20 loss to the 49ers last weekend, but he never lost confidence in his quarterback. For his part, Goff took his coach’s comments in stride, saying he was “a big boy” and that McVay was correct.
Instead of getting mad, Goff got better. McVay had nothing but praise.
“He took great care of the football, distributed, got a lot of guys involved,” McVay said. “We were efficient on third down. It was tough sledding running the football but we did get enough.”
The Cardinals (6-6) have lost three straight and four of their past five. Quarterback Kyler Murray had an inconsistent game, completing 21 of 39 passes for 173 yards and three touchdowns. He also lost a fumble and threw a pick-6 to L.A.’s Troy Hill, who ran it back 35 yards for a 38-21 lead.