Case Keenum is holding tight to job as Rams’ starting quarterback
Rams quarterback Case Keenum looks to pass to running back Todd Gurley as he is harassed by Cardinals linebacker Markus Golden during second-half action.
Reporting from GLENDALE, Ariz. — As he showed Sunday on a zigzagging scramble that seemed to last a minute, Rams quarterback Case Keenum can move backward and forward, this way and that, finding pockets of breathing room when everything is breaking down around him.
The only thing Keenum won’t do is step aside.
With No. 1 overall pick Jared Goff waiting for his chance to play, Keenum is only tightening his grip on the starting job.
“He’s preparing every week and he expects to win,” Coach Jeff Fisher said of Keenum. “That’s how he is. That’s why months ago we said that he was our starter, because we have confidence in him and he can win games.”
Keenum had a memorable afternoon against Arizona, completing 18 of 30 passes for 266 yards, two touchdowns, no interceptions, one fumble, and a lofty passer rating of 111.2 to help the Rams to a 17-13 win, their third consecutive victory. That after a 28-0 loss at San Francisco in Week 1, when Keenum and his teammates were flatter than a Johnny Unitas haircut.
Dating to last December, the Rams are 6-2 in the last eight games Keenum has started. Only Denver has a better regular-season record during that span at 7-1. The Rams’ average margin of victory in those wins? Six points.
The Rams remain in first place in the NFC West after a 17-13 victory over the Arizona Cardinals.
“Good teams win close games,” Keenum said. “That’s this league. You go across the board every week and most games, if not all of them, are one or two possessions. Some of them are just a field goal or two. You see time and again, the good ones find a way to win those.”
The Rams are far from an offensive juggernaut. They were the NFL’s only team to go without a touchdown for the first two weeks of the season. But they ground out a 9-3 victory over Seattle at the Coliseum, won at Tampa Bay in a 37-32 shootout, and Sunday had to come from behind late in the fourth quarter.
With 2 minutes 36 seconds to play, Keenum made a four-yard, back-shoulder throw to Brian Quick for the go-ahead touchdown. That capped a clutch drive that started with a 47-yard punt return by Tavon Austin — augmented by a 15-yard facemask call tacked on at the end — and included an eight-yard reception by Todd Gurley on third and eight.
Making that Keenum-to-Quick touchdown pass even more remarkable is it came with the wrong personnel on the field. Although Keenum wouldn’t say who specifically was out there who shouldn’t have been, he confirmed that there was a mix-up.
“We just had to get everybody lined up and the play clock was at 4,” he said. “There was one wrong guy in there, and he was at the wrong position. We got it figured out, though.”
There were a couple of big plays by Keenum that didn’t work out so well because they were wiped out by penalty flags. One was that wild third-down scramble in the fourth quarter, when Keenum slipped away from at least three tackles before finally connecting on a short pass with tight end Lance Kendricks, who turned it into a 27-yard gain. That was nullified because tackle Greg Robinson, who had lost track of Keenum, had started run blocking upfield.
In the third quarter, Keenum broke loose for a 27-yard run, then popped to his feet, pumped his fists, and yelled in jugular-bulging celebration. He didn’t notice the penalty flag — a holding call on Robinson — behind the line of scrimmage.
“I felt a little foolish when I had to walk back 40 yards to the huddle,” Keenum conceded. “But we overcame it in the end … Good teams overcome those things.”
Unbelievably, the same Rams who looked so inept in their opener are now atop the NFC West with Seattle and have a two-game lead over the defending division champion Cardinals.
“It says we’re fighters,” said Keenum, whose team plays host to Buffalo on Sunday. “We’ve won two road games in a row. We’re not going to dwell on where we are. We’re looking at where we’re going.”
Keenum took his time getting dressed and packing his duffel bag for the short flight home. His right leg was wrapped in cellophane that held ice bags in place. Walking out of the locker room with Gurley beside him, Keenum moved somewhat gingerly but with the confidence of a quarterback and team leader who knows the starting job belongs to him.
sam.farmer@latimes.com
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