One other semi-connection with New England? Los Angeles wide receiver Van Jefferson (50 catches, 802 yards, six touchdowns this season) is the son of Shawn Jefferson, who had 178 catches for 3,081 yards and 14 touchdowns in four seasons (1996-99) for the Patriots. And Sam Francis - the football data analyst for Cincinnati who is on the headsets every week with Bengals coach Zac Taylor - is a product of Newburyport High School and Bates College, where he was a standout in football and lacrosse. The Bengals have senior defensive assistant Mark Duffner, who made his bones as the head coach at Holy Cross from 1986 to 1991 where his teams went 60-5-1. (With the Huskies, Griffin was a 2009 first team All-Colonial Athletic Association selection and led the CAA in rushing.) The Rams assistant strength & conditioning coach is John Griffin, who was a running back at Northeastern and UMass. The personnel connections between the Patriots and the respective conference champions are thin - other than old friend Sony Michel, who is going for his second ring as a member of the Rams this afternoon - but there are a pair of Massachusetts ties when it comes to each coaching staff. ▪ The Bengals will get the ball to start the second half. The same holds true for the Rams’ botched extra point, a ball that was simply dropped by holder Johnny Hekker. As we said at the time, if this one ends up as a one-score game, that’ll be a decision - and play - that we talk about when things are all done. ▪ The decision to go for it on fourth down ended up backfiring on the Bengals, as the Rams took over at midfield and turned it into a touchdown.
(In the context of this conversation, it’s worth noting that the officiating has been pretty good for the first two quarters.) Foolish decision in a game where there’s little margin for error. It cost Cincinnati 10 yards - unsportsmanlike conduct. ▪ Worst decision of the first half? Vernon Hargreaves, who was one of Cincy’s inactives, came off the bench to celebrate with his teammates after the Bengals’ interception late in the first half. ▪ A large part of it is Burrow and his quick release, but the fact that Burrow was sacked only once in the first half might be the most amazing stat to this point in the evening. Beckham went down near the end of the second quarter with a non-contact left knee injury, while Eric Weddle sustained a shoulder injury and ended up sitting out for a spell. ▪ The Rams were the team that suffered the most in the first half, at least from a health perspective. But for the most part, the two teams kept things relatively simple. ▪ The only real surprise over the first two quarters was the trickery we saw from the Bengals on the touchdown pass near the end of the first half, in which Mixon threw the first pass of his NFL career, flipping a six-yard TD to Tee Higgins to make it 13-10. (We’ll see if Beckham comes back from his first-half knee injury.) ▪ For what it’s worth, when it comes to MVP front-runners, we’re trending toward the winning quarterback. But there’s been a bit of a momentum shift as of the midway point in the second quarter, a stretch that included the Beckham knee injury (he’s questionable to return) and the Stafford INT. ▪ Early, this one looked like the Rams were going to roll.
Two quarters are done at SoFi Stadium, and the Rams hold a 13-10 lead.
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