Week 9 – Los Angeles Rams at Washington Commanders

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November 9, 2026

By Noonefromtampa

First Quarter

The Rams won the coin toss and elected to defer. Rachaad White returned the kickoff to the Washington 33 yard line and carried twice for 6 yards to open the drive. Van Jefferson caught a pass on third and four to gain 9 yards and the first down. The Rams challenged an incompletion to Stefon Diggs, but the call was upheld. Jayden Daniels hit an open Chig Okonkwo. White ran twice for 7 yards, and then Myles Garrett was called for offside on third down. After the first down by penalty, Daniels ran for 1 yard while Austin Ekeler lost 4 yards. Jefferson caught a 9 yard pass but an apparent roughing the passer penalty was called off. Matt Stevens kicked a 37 yard field goal to give Washington an early 3-0 lead.

After the touchback, Kyren Williams ran for two yards and Matthew Stafford threw to Puka Nacua for 9 yards. Williams ran for 1 yard and Nacua caught a 15 yard pass. Williams ran for 4 yards and caught a pass for 4 yards. Williams ran twice for 3 yards to pick the first down. Stafford scrambled for 1 yard. Nacua caught a 5 yard pass and Sonny Styles was called for questionable pass interference call to give the Rams a first down. The defense help at that point forcing a 4 yard loss on a pass, with an incompletion and 6 yard run by Williams. Brandon McManus made a 33 yard field goal to tie the game.

On Washington’s next drive, Ekeler ran for 5 yards and Colson Yankoff caught a 6 yard pass for the first down. Brandon Coleman was called for false start. Ekeler ran for 4 yards and the Daniels found Antonio Williams for 18 yards on a deep out.

Second Quarter

White caught a screen pass and went 45 yards down to the Rams 7 yard line. Jefferson caught a quick skinny past pass for a 7 yard touchdown. The extra point was good, to give Washington a 10-3 lead.

The Rams were called for holding on the kickoff, which negated a good return. Blake Corum ran for 5 yards, but Frankie Luvu tackled him for a 1 yard loss on the next play. An incompletion off the fingertips of Tyler Higbee led to a Rams punt. Ethan Evans punted it 58 yards with no return.

Washington started their next drive at their own 18 yard line. Ekeler ran for 7 yards and Emmanuel Forbes was called for unnecessary roughness, which added 15 yards to the play. Daniels scrambled for 7 yards. Ekeler was stopped for no gain on second down. Daniels missed White low on third down to force a Tress Way punt, which hit the goal line for a touchback.

Williams ran for 4 yards on first down. Tutu Atwell caught a 4 yard pass but dropped a first down catch with a good hit by Quan Martin. Luke McCaffrey returned the punt 10 yards.

White ran for 14 yards behind a great block by John Bates. White lost 1 yard on the next play. McCaffrey caught his first pass for 6 yards. Forbes knock the pass away from Okonkwo to force another Way punt. Washington was able to force a fair catch at the Rams 8-yard line.

Corum ran for 7 yards and Nacua caught a deep throw for 21 yards. The Rams gained 8 yards and faced a fourth down and two to go. Nacua caught a 12 yard pass for the first down. Corum then ran for 12 yards around the right end. Luvu sacked Stafford for 9 yard loss. K’Lavon Chaisson punched the ball out of a Nacua screen and Nick Cross recovered it.

Samuel Cosmi was called for holding negating a good run by White and then Myles Garrett strip sacked Daniels was scrambling and that was recovered by Omar Speights. Stafford had two straight incompletions on a dropped pass and a overthrown under pressure. After the two-minute warning. Nacua caught passes of 7 yard and 15 yards to get the first down. After a 4 yard run by Williams, Stafford hit passes of 10 and 7 yards but followed up with two incompletions forcing a field goal with 5 second left in the half. The 20 yarder was good cutting the lead to 10-6.

Third Quarter

The Rams came out hot after the break. Nacua caught passes for 12 and 15 yards. Corum then ran for 15 yards. Corum followed that up with runs of 7 and 6 yards down the Washington 14 yard line. Dan Quinn challenged the ruling of an incomplete pass to Corum the call was upheld. Higbee caught a 13 yard pass down on the one yard line and Corum scored from there. The extra point was good, giving the Rams a 13-10 lead.

After the touchback, White ran for 3 yards. Daniels scrambled for 6 yards, but Ekeler was stopped for no gain on third down forcing another Way punt.

On the following drive, Nacua caught an 8 yard pass from Stafford. Williams caught a 3 yard pass and ran for 6 yards. After an incompletion on second down, a 20 yard completion to Higbee was overturned on a challenge, forcing a Rams punt.

After an incompletion to Jefferson, Diggs caught a 4 yard pass. On third and six, Williams caught a 3 yard pass short of the first down. Way punted it 56 yards, and the Rams had a fair catch.

The Rams were called for a false start on first down. Pressure forced an incompletion on the next play. Cross knocked down the ball on second down and intercepted it on third down at the Rams 27 yard line.

Okonkwo caught a 3 yard pass to start the drive, but Coleman was called for another false start on second down. White caught a pass but lost 4 yards. Okonkwo picked up 10 yards on third down, but Washington had to settled for a 41 yard Stevens field goal to tie the game.

After another touchback, Williams ran for 5 yard and Stafford threw incompletion with pressure in his face. Stafford hit Konata Mumpfield 13 yards and Atwell for 12 yards. Atwell was called for offensive pass interference making it first and 20. Stafford connected with Colby Parkinson for 5 yards and Williams for 9 yards. On third and six, the Rams were called for a false start putting them back another 5 yards. Nacua caught a 19 yard throw from Stafford to convert the first down to end the quarter.

Fourth Quarter

Williams ran 9 yard down to the Washington 8 yard line. After an incompletion, Williams picked up the first down with a 1 yard run.  After stopping Williams for no gain,Nacua caught a 7 yard touchdown pass to give the Rams a 20-13 lead.

After a 21 yard kickoff return by McCaffrey, Ekeler ran for 3 yards and caught a checkdown for 12 yards. After a 1 yard run by Ekeler, Garrett sacked Daniels for loss of 5 yards, which Washington got back thanks to the Rams defense being offside on the next play. Jefferson then caught a pass for 12 yards on third down. Following an incompletion, Williams caught a short pass for 4 yards. Williams missed a high throw on third down for another incompletion. A delay of game on fourth down forced Washington to punt the ball away to the Rams 12 yard line.

Corum ran for 5 yards, and Nacua ran for 15 yards on a jet sweep. The drive petered out at the Rams 33, with a Corum gaining 1 yard on two carries and Stafford missing the throw to Higbee on third down. Washington was penalized on the punt return, backing the ball up to the Washington 12 yard line.

Okonkwo caught passes of 8 yards and 5 yards to start the drive. Diggs had a 5 yard reception and Ekeler caught a checkdown for 6 yards and the first down. Daniels found Jefferson for 21 yards to move the ball across midfield.  After an incompletion, Daniels scrambled for no gain. The Rams were called for offsides but Garrett sacked Daniels again, Garrett’s third of game, for a 12 yard loss to reach the two-minute warning. Forbes batted the ball away from Jefferson on fourth down to end Washington’s drive.

The Rams ran the ball three times forcing Washington to use its timeouts. The Rams punt was fair caught by Williams at the  -yard line. Daniels found Diggs along the sideline for 41 yards to midfield.

The Rams did not get back onside before the snap, which gave the Commanders another 5 yards. After a 1 yard scramble by Daniels, Jaden Bradley caught a 12 yard reception over the middle. After spiking the ball to stop the clock, Daniels over threw Diggs from the Rams 33 yard line. Okonkwo caught the final pass of the game for 20 yards, but the hot potato game did not work with the Rams recovering the ball to end the game.

Thoughts

Mistakes again this week with false starts and delay of game penalties. Game and clock management continues to be an issue halfway through the season.

I’m now not sure what roughing the passer is now except that if Washington does it, it’s a penalty and if it down to Washington it’s not a penalty.

The defense could not cover Nacua for most of the game, and he had a career day, 14 catches for 150 yards and a touchdown. All other Rams pass catchers caught a total of 12 balls.

Washington could have won this game but did nothing offensively in the second half. The offense line play got even worse after Lucas Patrick went out with a concussion and Matt Gulbin subbed in. Garrett got a huge sack late in the fourth quarter blowing by Gulbin on his way to Daniels.

Washington has a top 10 pick in the 2027 draft and that should not change this week.

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