EARTH CITY, Mo. -- Looking back at the three things to watch from the St. Louis Rams' 27-3 loss to the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday:
1. Getting the bounces: The cliche about turnovers making the difference in a game is cliche for a reason: Because it's true. In the Rams' win against Arizona back in week 4, they were plus-three in turnover margin, getting three takeaways and not giving up any of their own. It was just enough to steal a two-point victory.
St. Louis figured to need a similar margin in order to have a chance against Arizona on Sunday. Opportunities presented themselves for takeaways as linebacker Mark Barron had an interception thrown directly to him that he dropped and defensive tackle Michael Brockers was unable to recover a fumble in bounds. But ultimately, the game's only turnover came on an interception by Rams quarterback Nick Foles. Because of this, the Rams never really had a chance.
2. Red zone denials: In the first meeting, the Rams defense kept them in the game by forcing Arizona to settle for field goals instead of touchdowns when the Cardinals traveled inside the Rams' 20-yard line. The Cardinals had just one touchdown on five such trips in that meeting, allowing the Rams to keep it close enough to finish the job.
Sunday's game had all the makings of a repeat early before being on the field for most of the game finally caught up to the Rams. Arizona finished with two touchdowns on four red zone trips but with the state of the Rams' offense, two touchdowns was more than enough for the game to be over.
3. A Foles repeat: If there was some silver lining to be found in Foles returning to the starting quarterback job this week with Case Keenum still in the concussion protocol, it was to be found in the fact that Foles had played one of his two best games earlier this season against Arizona. In that game, Foles managed things well with zero turnovers and three touchdown passes.
To get another win against the Cardinals, the Rams needed Foles to offer another strong performance. It didn't happen -- not even close. Foles was 15-of-35 for 146 yards with no touchdowns and an interception on Sunday for a passer rating of 43.3. It wasn't his worst start of the season, but it wasn't far behind his struggles in the loss to Green Bay.