Matthew Stafford takes full blame for costly penalty vs. Panthers

Matthew Stafford is as experienced as anyone in the NFL, but even he’s not immune to a mental error in the biggest moments. He made a critical mistake late against the Carolina Panthers that likely cost the Los Angeles Rams a chance to at least tie the game at 31 when he took a delay of game penalty on third-and-5 with 2:34 left in the fourth quarter.

The Rams were already at the Panthers’ 17-yard line, only needing 5 yards to move the chains and keep a potential game-winning drive alive. But Stafford didn’t get the snap off in time, putting the Rams back in third-and-10 from the 22.

The next play? A strip-sack by Derrick Brown, which was recovered by Carolina to all but seal the game. Stafford took full responsibility for the penalty, which was the Rams’ only one of the game.

"Yeah, I can't take that. That's on nobody but me,” he said. “I just gotta get that thing off. I thought I had enough time and I thought I was gonna be snapping it kind of right at one/zero. I don’t know. I gotta go look at it, but I thought I did a good enough job, but I did not, so that one’s just on me.

“Going from third-and-5 to third-and-10 makes a big difference on us. I’ve got to do a better job of getting the first one off.”

The game didn’t end with that penalty, but there’s a massive difference between needing 5 yards and needing 10. On third-and-5, the whole playbook is open, even a run if the Rams got the right look. But on third-and-10, the defense knows it’s likely a passing situation, allowing them to get after the quarterback and generate pressure – and that’s exactly what they did.

Even after the delay, Stafford can’t cough the ball up on third down when the Rams are already in game-tying field goal position, compounding one error by making it worse with another.

“Find a way to hold onto that last one because we’re in field goal range. Give us a chance to tie that thing up and let us go play defense,” he said.

It was Stafford’s third turnover of the game, and even he admitted the Rams won’t win “a whole lot of games when I turn it over three times.”

Turnovers haven’t been an issue all year, and Stafford doesn’t expect them to become a problem moving forward, but they were costly in Sunday’s frustrating loss on the road.

This article originally appeared on Rams Wire: Rams' Matthew Stafford takes blame for costly error late vs. Panthers