CHARLOTTE, N.C. — It was the type of play that Puka Nacua has made look routine this year. Go ball, perfect throw from Matthew Stafford, likely ending in a touchdown to put the Rams up 10 before halftime in their wild-card round playoff game against the Carolina Panthers.
Instead, the unthinkable: Nacua dropped the pass, the ball bouncing off his reliable hands. Nacua lay on the turf at Bank of America Stadium, not in physical pain but instead in mental anguish.
“I feel like those are opportunities that we can’t miss on,” Nacua said. “A chance to steal momentum and double up is something that [head coach Sean McVay] talks about, scoring before the half.”
When he finally got up into a crouch, head still down, McVay knelt beside him and told him, gently, to move on. That the team still needed him. And Nacua indeed shook off the mistake to make one of the most critical plays of the Rams’ 34-31 win.
That play was not Nacua’s receiving touchdown, a go route out of the backfield on the Rams’ opening drive. Or his rushing touchdown, a backwards screen pass in which he ran into his lead blocker, kept his balance and bounced inside to score from five yards out.
Instead, it was a pass breakup in the end zone on a near-interception from Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford.
It came on a fourth-quarter drive, the Rams trying to retake the lead from the Panthers. The Rams were 30 yards out of the end zone and Nacua was running a deep route. Stafford thought Nacua was going to go to the goal line and post up and try to use his size to his advantage.
“I was like, alright, let’s see what you got,” Stafford said. “And I threw it and right as I cut loose he kind of cut loose and it was just tough timing.”
Panthers safety Nick Scott settled under the ball, ready to make an interception. But Nacua fought back to the ball and punched it out of Scott’s hands.
“If it’s not me coming down with the ball, nobody can come down with it,” Nacua said. “Maybe I played DB in another life.”
Six plays later, Stafford hit running back Kyren Williams for a touchdown pass. And the Rams needed every point to pull off the comeback win.
“That was such a big play,” McVay said. “He’s a freaking warrior. … He just responds. Even that one drop, he’s so hard on himself but he comes back, he makes the plays, that pass breakup was unbelievable. That’s what great players do, they just play the next play.”
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