ST. LOUIS -- Rams losses are beginning to follow a disturbingly familiar pattern.
At one point in the game, either the start or finish, St. Louis looks in complete control on both sides of the ball and good enough to beat a quality opponent. Other times, the Rams and quarterback Austin Davis look out-of-sync, while the defense looks incapable of stopping opposing offenses from putting up points.
Still, by the time the game reaches the final two minutes, St. Louis and its new quarterback have one final chance to win -- or at least tie -- with a touchdown. But since Greg Zuerlein hit a game-winning field goal to beat the hapless Bucs in Tampa Bay, victories have seemed more out-of-reach with each passing week.
"That's where hopefully my experience will help," Davis said after Monday night's 31-17 loss to San Francisco. "The more opportunities I get, I'll learn from it. You've got to be able to go win games at the end."
Few quarterbacks could go 91 yards in 1:12 with no timeouts against a stout 49ers defense, which is what Davis would have needed to do just to get his team to overtime. Instead, he threw an ill-advised pass on the second play of the drive that turned into an interception returned for a touchdown by Dontae Johnson.
The week before at Philadelphia, the Rams scored 21 straight points before stalling out at midfield to lose 34-28. Another interception sealed a home game against Dallas, when Davis started at his own 14 but needed just a field goal to tie.
Of course, that loss felt especially painful because St. Louis blew a 21-0 lead, and a certain sense of deja vu existed in the Edward Jones Dome on Monday night. The Rams fed off the energy from the crowd and raced out to a 14-0 lead in the first quarter, when nearly every play call by offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer seemed to work.
Flip through our photo album of NFL cheerleaders.
"Once again, it just comes down to playing consistently," guard Rodger Saffold said. "You get that big of a lead, I don't think that we're coasting but we just need to continue to play efficient."
It's tough to pinpoint exactly what has gone wrong offensively, although Davis probably speaks for the whole team when he acknowledged a need to do a better job of making adjustments. The lack of a true go-to player can be counted as another weakness, particularly late in games, and it was made even more glaring when leading receiver Brian Quick caught just one pass for 10 yards against San Francisco.
No Rams running back has rushed for even 75 yards this season, and a steady diet of small chunks of yardage only goes so far. St. Louis got at least three yards on nine of its first ten carries Monday night and may have been better off sticking with the run more, but that kind of grinding offense doesn't often work for 60 minutes.
Big plays can make up for a lot of deficiencies or alter the course of a game, as the Rams have learned the hard way during their three-game losing streak. Thanks in part to little help from the once-vaunted defensive line, the secondary has given up four passing touchdowns of longer than 30 yards the last three games.
All the work of solid open-field tackling by safeties T.J. McDonald and Rodney McCleod can be undone by one big play, like Brandon Lloyd's 80-yard touchdown pass to cut the lead to 14-10. It may not have been as poorly defended as Dez Bryant's 68-yard touchdown for Dallas two weeks ago, but this one was more inexcusable since cornerback Janoris Jenkins got caught looking into the backfield with less than 20 seconds to play in the first half.
"Yeah, well it was a double move and he should stay on top," coach Jeff Fisher said. "In retrospect we should probably not put him in that position, letting the clock run down. I even pondered using a timeout there to try to get the ball back, but it looked as if they were just going to take a shot."
He also cited a questionable pass interference call against Brian Cook as another huge momentum changer when the Rams still held a 14-3 lead. Instead of a clutch third down conversion to get to the San Francisco 25-yard line, St. Louis got pushed back and had to punt two plays later.
But no single moment or even a single phase of the game has led to the Rams' inconsistencies, with the notable exception of the shocking lack of sacks. Still, the pass defense had been statistically one of the best in the league before Monday night, when Colin Kaepernick threw for 343 yards and three touchdowns.
On the other side of the ball, Davis played his worst game of the season and wasn't afraid to take a significant portion of blame for the loss. But his offensive line certainly could have done a better job of protecting him.
At 1-4 with a schedule that only gets tougher, Fisher and his players didn't seem interested in finding the silver linings of their inconsistencies or wondering what could have happened. But even if progress has stalled, the fading memory of the season-opening 34-6 loss to Minnesota serves as a reminder that things could still be worse.
You can follow Luke Thompson on Twitter @FS_LukeT or email him at lukegthompson87@gmail.com.
