Stafford suffers a hip injury, shows grit on way to victory
course and figure out a way to kind of piece it together at the right times.”
The Rams led 20-0 at halftime. They fell apart after increasing the lead to 23-0 early in the third quarter.
Colts quarterback Anthony Richardson passed for two touchdowns and two two-point conversions and ran for a touchdown to tie the score with just under two minutes left in regulation.
Stafford, who said he suffered the right hip injury in the third quarter when a Colts defensive player fell on him, got two chances to engineer scoring drives but the Rams fell short, sending the game into overtime. Receiver Ben Skowronek correctly called tails on the coin flip, giving Stafford a third chance to win the game.
“We put the game in his hands,” McVay said of Stafford.
Stafford, 35, willed his way through the second half. He said the hip issue “was kind of just shutting down my leg.” But he “kept it warm” on the sideline between series after he was initially injured.
“It just started chirping right then, kind of just shouting at me a little bit,” he said.
But when the Rams got the ball to start overtime, Rams players said there was no doubt Stafford would come through.
“He’s done this for a long time,” receiver Van Jefferson said, “and you can just tell he’s got a straight dawg mentality…. When you need [No.] 9, he’s going to be there.”
Said Nacua: “Just the confidence that oozes out of him.”
Stafford started overtime by completing a 20yard pass to Nacua. Three runs by Williams and two by Ronnie Rivers moved the ball to the Colts’ 22-yard line.
One play later, Stafford found a wide-open Nacua in the middle of the field.
“It felt like a little bit of a blown coverage,” Stafford said. “I felt like I’m looking down the middle going, ‘Man, I’m not seeing somebody in there.’
“Threw it a little bit higher just thinking somebody was standing there – and there wasn’t.”
Nacua also was surprised to be alone. “I turned around and I was like, ‘Wait, there’s nobody there…I was in shock as well.”
Nacua caught the ball and ran into the end zone.
Nacua atoned for an earlier mistake when he missed a blocking assignment that resulted in Stafford suffering the hip injury.
“It’s like a video game — you keep pausing when you’re losing so you make sure that you get the right play at the very end,” Nacua said. “It was sweet.”
Stafford completed 27 of 40 passes for 319 yards, with an interception. But it was his final pass to Nacua that will reverberate as the Rams move ahead.
“He delivered in a big way,” McVay said, “with a vintage performance that’s in alignment with who he’s been throughout his career.”