by Paul Teetor
The Rams were lucky to win Sunday night’s overtime thriller over the Bears that propelled them to the NFC Championship game next Sunday.
But who cares?
They’ll take it.
This game had so many twists and turns you needed a flow chart to keep track of them all.
The most spectacular twist: on fourth and four from the 14-yard line with 17 seconds to go in the game and the Rams leading 17-10, old friend Caleb Williams, the former USC star quarterback now in his second season in the NFL, threw one of the most memorable touchdown passes in football history.
He was chased 30 yards behind the line of scrimmage by a ferocious Ram pass rush, whirled around, and as he was falling to the ground launched a 60-yard moonball that miraculously fell into the hands of tight end Cole Kmet in the end zone for a last second TD that cut the Rams lead down to 17-16.
Then came another shocking twist: Bear Coach Ben Johnson, known as a go-for-broke guy, chose not to go for a 2-point conversion that would have won the game 18-17 right there. It was shocking because the Rams players were stunned by the miracle touchdown just scored by the Bears and were walking around like zombies, their body language shouting dejection, shock and fear of impending defeat.
Meanwhile the Bears and their home crowd of 60,000 screaming fans were pumped up beyond belief. The Bears could have scored on the adrenaline alone; there was so much of it coming from them and their fans. And the stats say 48 percent of two-point tries are successful. So it would not have been a crazy gamble. It would have been a smart move considering the trajectory of the game.
But the Bears chose not to take advantage of all that roiling emotion and instead kicked the sure-thing extra point to tie it at 17-17 and send it into overtime.
In the overtime, after the Rams had failed to score, the Bears appeared to be marching for the winning field goal when Williams launched another memorable pass – this time a 30-yard curve ball right into the arms of Rams cornerback Cam Curl, who made a terrific diving interception.
After that, the ending was inevitable: Matthew Stafford, who had been awful for much of the game – he finished with only 20 completions in 42 pass attempts for 258 yards — took the ball, marched the Rams down the field, and got them far enough so that Harrison Mevis – known as the “thicker kicker” because of his pot belly – nailed a 48 yard field goal to give the Rams an improbable 20-17 win and propel them into the NFC championship game next Sunday at Seattle
Mevis was signed off the street just two months ago, so this was by far the biggest moment in his brief NFL career.
“Just keep my head down and get through the ball,” Mevis said of his inner monologue. “I think even after the kick, I was telling myself that.”
The Rams were kept in the game for much of the day by their defense. The group, which had given up 20 or more points in five straight games, intercepted Bears quarterback Caleb Williams three times and stopped Chicago on fourth down three times. The last was a goal-line pass breakup by Omar Speights with 3:03 to play in the fourth quarter, with the Rams holding a seven-point lead after the second of two Kyren Williams touchdown runs.
Needing just two or three first downs to kill the clock, the Rams’ offense stalled as it had for much of the game. The offense never found its footing, with McVay blaming himself for never getting a feel for the game’s rhythm as a play caller.
“Our guys did a great job defensively and kept us in despite how poor of a job I did for our group,” McVay said.
Stafford struggled all day, but when it mattered most, he made the plays necessary to set up Mevis’ kick.
First, a short pass to tight end Colby Parkinson for 15 yards. Then a dart to Davante Adams on the sideline in the tightest of windows for 12 yards. And then, after a timeout to change plays before third-and-6, Stafford found the great Puka Nacua in the slot on a quick button hook. Nacua turned and ran to the Bears’ 27.
“Playoff football is about winning the football game,” Stafford said, thinking back to last year’s divisional loss to the Eagles. “Last year I played great, threw for a bunch of yards in the snow and we lost, so that f-ing sucks. So I’m happy to have played a little bit worse today and be going home with a win.”
Sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good.
The Rams were both good and lucky on this day.
Dodgers: the rich get richer
The Dodgers did it again: they signed the top free agent on the market with a huge deal and angered the other 29 teams in the process.
The Dodgers gave Chicago Cubs outfielder Kyle Tucker a four-year contract for $240 million. The $60 million average annual value is topped only by the 10-year, $700 million deal that two-way star Shohei Ohtani signed with the Dodgers two years ago.
Ohtani’s deal includes $680 million in deferred money. But Tucker’s contract includes just $30 million in deferred salary. It also includes opt-out clauses after the second and third years.
In All Ball’s humble opinion, the Dodgers overpaid for Tucker, who is a very good player but not a great player. He’s a guy who – at this point in his career – does not appear destined for the Hall of Fame, like Mookie, Freddie and Shohei clearly are.
But what the hell: it’s not my money – or yours. And if the price of a Dodger Dog shoots up from $8 to $10, and a draft beer goes from $18 to $20 to help pay Tucker’s salary, so be it.
It’s only money.
The contract agreement with the Dodgers is an early birthday present for Tucker, who turned 29 on Saturday. A four-time All-Star, two-time Silver Slugger and one-time Gold Glove winner, Tucker spent just one season with the Chicago Cubs after being traded there by the Astros in December 2024.
He hit .266 with an .841 OPS and missed time with a hairline fracture in his right hand suffered in June.
Over his past five seasons, Tucker was a .277 hitter with an .878 OPS, 134 home runs and two 100-RBI seasons including an American League-leading 112 in 2023 when he finished fifth in the AL MVP voting.
Again, a very good player, but not a great player.
Along with chasing a third consecutive championship, the Dodgers are almost certain to repeat as the team with the highest payroll in MLB – and the highest Competitive Balance Tax (CBT — penalty payment for exceeding the MLB payroll threshold). The Dodgers’ 2025 payroll was $417.3 million and they paid a record tax bill of $169.4 million. The signings of Tucker and reliever Edwin Diaz drove the Dodgers’ projected payroll for 2026 to more than $330 million – and it’s sure to go even higher.
The Dodgers have also led MLB in attendance while winning the past two World Series and are believed to be the first MLB franchise to top $1 billion in revenue.
Cue the whining from the other 29 teams about the so-called “Evil Empire” scarfing up all the shrimp and crab legs like a fat man at a seafood buffet.
But now there’s a new twist to all the whining: If you listen to the “experts” on social media, the Tucker signing makes the implementation of a salary cap in baseball more justified than ever. In other words, if a lockout follows the 2026 season because of that issue – as it almost surely will — it’s all Dodger General Manager Andrew Friedman’s fault.
Wrong.
The Dodgers are winning because the owners are committed to doing anything and everything they can do to win.
If the other clubs had the same level of commitment to winning, there would be no need for all this whining about the Evil Empire.
The Dodgers aren’t evil: they’re just smarter, richer and more aggressive than everyone else.
Contact: teetor.paul@gmail.com. ER
