The Los Angeles Rams choked away a golden opportunity to beat the Denver Broncos on Sunday night. Up 16-0 at halftime, Los Angeles looked like it was in cruise control. Then Denver put up 30 points in the second half and won the football game. So now it’s time to get into the winners and losers from the Rams’ second-half collapse against the Broncos’ defense on Sunday Night Football.

Good news before the bad news.

RB Kyren Williams

Williams had over 100 yards from scrimmage early in the game and looked like the most versatile weapon on the football field. He was doing it from the backfield. He was doing it in the pass game. He’s a jitterbug, and he was extremely hard to get on the ground all night long. Win or loss, Kyren Williams is a good football player.

WR Davante Adams

Adams finished with 7 receptions and 137 receiving yards. He had an incredible game start to finish. He had one drop there at the very end, but he was putting Patrick Surtain in a blender, arguably the best corner in the NFL. With no Puka Nacua in the lineup, Adams has shown that he is still a 1A, alpha wide receiver in the league. He did it again Sunday night against arguably the best, if not one of the best, defenses in the NFL.

TE Tyler Higbee

Quiet for the first couple of weeks, Higbee had a huge game. He led the Rams in receptions with 8, tallied over 60 yards, and scored a touchdown. He also had a crazy toe-tap catch on that final drive as Los Angeles tried to go in and score the game-winning touchdown. Tyler Higbee had a big night.

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Losers

Pass protection

The truth is, the pass protection fell apart in the second half. Quarterback Matthew Stafford was uncomfortable. He was moved off his spot. He was rushed repeatedly. The pass protection was not nearly as good in the second half as it was in the first, and it showed up in the final score.

DC Raheem Morris

The defense was the other side of the coin. If a team goes from scoring 0 points to scoring 30, something had to give. Talanoa Hufanga had a pick-6 on Stafford, but the Rams defense still gave up 23 points. Denver scored multiple touchdowns from quarterback Bo Nix. It was not a pretty sight. Because of that, Morris has to take a loss here. He has to be better with adjustments. You have to be able to ride that wave and figure out what’s going on in the game. You can’t just hope that the first half is going to reappear.

QB Matthew Stafford

Stafford made some incredible plays. He threw for nearly 400 yards and had multiple touchdowns. But 2 interceptions lost the Rams the football game. The pick-6 to Hufanga was bad enough, and then another interception to Hufanga on a throw where it’s hard to figure out what Stafford was looking at or where he was throwing the football. That was true on both picks, but certainly on the game-ending throw.

The bottom line is, this was a disappointing collapse from the Los Angeles Rams. A 16-0 halftime lead evaporated, and the Broncos walked away with the win, putting Los Angeles at 1-2 on the season.