With Rams season about to turn ugly, Alec Ogletree thinks fast to save the day

LOS ANGELES >> The irony is Alec Ogletree was hopelessly out of position mere seconds before making the play that may have saved the Rams season.

The game-saving tackle. The heads up fumble recovery. The delirious eruption from more than 90,000 at the Coliseum that blew the roof off Los Angeles and, finally, Ogletree’s sprint to his mom and dad to proudly present them with the football he scooped up was agonizingly close to never happening.

That it did means Ogletree is etched in Los Angeles Rams lore forever. And it’s a place he’ll cherish forever.

“It was an amazing feeling being out there today,” he said. “It was a historical day. And I was glad to be a part of it.”

• Box score

• Photo gallery

More immediately, it saved the Rams from a nightmare only the fans they left behind in St. Louis would wish on them.

“Thank you Lord,” Rams cornerback Trumaine Johnson screamed. “Thank. You. Lord.”

He could breathe easy now.

But just a few minutes before it was high drama as the Seahawks went knocking on the Rams door in the closing minute and threatened to blow the whole homecoming thing to smithereens

Clinging to the six-point lead in their first game back in Southern California in 22 years, the Rams defense scrambled to get back to the line of scrimmage as the Seahawks set up at the 35-yard line.

All around them, the crowd roared.

“We could hear the fans, and we fed off them,” Johnson said.

They needed them.

With the Rams offense still unable to get on track, the entire afternoon was a defensive slugfest.

Predictable, but frustrating.

And taxing.

“I’m not going to lie, I was winded,” Johnson said.

And fans were anxious.

With Russell Wilson on the field and 57 seconds left on the clock the concern was everywhere.

“The Seahawks finish games,” Johnson said. “Ever since I’ve been in the league, they’ve finished games.”

And that meant the very real possibility of the Rams beginning their triumphant return home in a 0-2 hole.

“To take it further, 0-2 in our division,” Johnson emphasized.

He didn’t need to explain the horror that presented.

But there were the Seahawks, marching into scoring position after Wilson and Tyler Lockett hooked up on a 53-yard completion.

Advertisement

Knowing it was touchdown or bust, the Rams were in man coverage and tried to build a wall across their goal line.

Ogletree, the sharp and talented middle linebacker in charge of getting his team lined up correctly, started roaming backward. Out of instinct more than anything else.

“I dropped like 30 yards deep,” he remembers.

But there was a problem.

“I don’t even think I was supposed to do that,” he said.

At the last second, Ogletree recognized Wilson checking down to a different play. At that moment, something triggered in Ogletree’s head.

“I just started running (toward the line of scrimmage).” he said.

It proved to be a fortuitous bit of foresight.

Wilson threw short to running back Christine Michael, where Rams linebacker Mark Barron herded him to his left. Ogletree, still in full stride, burst onto the scene and immediately slammed into Michael to knock the ball loose.

From his knees, Ogletree saw the ball on the turf.

“And thought, ‘Let me go get it,’ he said.

One thing swirled in his head.

“Get on the ball,” Ogletree said. “Get on the ball as fast as possible and hold on tight because everybody is going to come diving onto the pile to get the ball away from me.”

As the officials blew the play dead and bedlam erupted and the Rams celebrated on the sideline, Ogletree rose to his feet and made like Usain Bolt down the sideline toward the corner end zone section of the Coliseum.

There, his mother and father and wife were waiting for him.

A special moment on a historic day needed the proper celebration and acknowledgment.

“I wouldn’t be here without them and I’m so thankful to have them both in my life, and my wife of course.” Ogletree said. “All of my family and everybody that’s supported me.”

This was as deep a win as you can imagine.

Yes, the Rams have essentially sold out their home schedule at the gigantic Coliseum. But selling the tickets and giving the fans reason and hope to keep using them are two different things.

And while the hardcore Rams fans run deep, there is a whole bunch of new fans to cultivate and reel in. Nothing turns off would-be fans like a boring, struggling team.

Meanwhile, after falling on their faces in the season opener against the San Francisco 49ers and with a cross-county trip to Tampa Bay looming followed by a tough division game at Arizona the week after, the Rams could ill-afford to start the season 0-2.

“We talked all week about this being a must win,” Johnson said.

Rightfully so.

And while Sunday’s win over the Seahawks was no work of art – the Rams offense has gone two complete games without scoring a touchdown – for a team and fan base desperately needing a victory, no one was complaining.

Thanks to some quick thinking by Ogletree, the closing seconds at the Coliseum looked as glorious as the sun setting over the Pacific Ocean. The only thing missing was a window table at Moonshadows in Malibu.

“Someone needed to make a play,” said Rams head coach Jeff Fisher. “And he got near the ball and made the play.”