Welcome back: Los Angeles Rams pull off stunning win in home opener

Los Angeles saw its NFL team win a game before it saw it score a touchdown.

The Los Angeles Rams’ first win in their return to Southern California wasn’t pretty, but try finding anyone who expected them to beat the Seattle Seahawks after looking so awful on Monday night against the San Francisco 49ers. Thanks to three Greg Zuerlein field goals and some great defense, the Rams won their first regular-season game in Los Angeles in 22 years, beating Seattle 9-3. It was the first win for the Los Angeles Rams since Nov. 6, 1994, when they beat the Denver Broncos 27-21. The Rams moved to St. Louis after that season.

Rams win is first 9-3 game in @NFL since 11/5/06 (49ers-Vikings) and only the 16th overall. https://t.co/nBrSjlOi92

— Kevin Kaduk (@KevinKaduk) September 18, 2016

The Rams clinched the win when linebacker Alec Ogletree caused and recovered a fumble by Seahawks running back Christine Michael with 46 seconds left. Ogletree went immediately to go celebrate with the fans at the Los Angeles Coliseum.

The Rams really couldn’t get much going on offense, but it was a defensive masterpiece. Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson, playing through a high ankle sprain, wasn’t his usual self. The Rams never gave up any back-breaking big plays. Credit a Rams defense that has a lot of good pieces, though looked poor against the 49ers at times in the opener.

It’s probably a good introduction to the Rams for all the new fans in L.A. The Rams can look terrible one week, then come to play against an elite team like the Seahawks. They swept the Seahawks last year and still finished 7-9. That’s the Jeff Fisher Rams, folks.

The Rams couldn’t have looked worse in their 28-0 loss last week to the 49ers. The offense was inept and the defense wasn’t great either. The offense still needs a ton of work, though it was a little more competent in Week 2, but the defense was much better on Sunday.

The Rams will try to move toward “entertaining football” at some point down the road. For now it was just nice for Los Angeles fans to have the NFL back, and to grind out a really unexpected win in the process.