Instant analysis of playoff loss

The Los Angeles Rams knew they’d be facing a battle on Sunday night against the Detroit Lions, one of the top offenses in the NFL. They went toe-to-toe with Dan Campbell’s group for 60 minutes, losing by the narrowest of margins.

The Rams lost a heartbreaker on the road in Detroit, 24-23, ending their season in the wild-card round. Many said Los Angeles was playing with house money in a year where no one expected this team to reach the postseason, but that doesn’t make the loss sting any less.

It was a back-and-forth game all night long, one the Rams never led. They forced Jared Goff to pick up a couple of first downs on the final drive to ice the game, and that’s exactly what he did. It was nearly a great 11-point comeback after trailing the entire night, but poor clock management and burned timeouts came back to bite Los Angeles.

Here’s a quick recap of how things went down at Ford Field.

(Photo by Nic Antaya/Getty Images)

• This game started with both offenses dealing, moving the ball pretty much at will in the first quarter. The Lions went 75 yards and scored a touchdown to open the game, followed by a 69-yard drive by the Rams that ended with a field goal. On the Lions second drive, it was a quick 75-yard drive that ended with another touchdown, putting them up 14-3.
• The Lions went up by 11 points twice, but the Rams answered both times. They scored a 50-yard touchdown on a bomb from Matthew Stafford to Puka Nacua to make it 14-10, and after the Lions answered with a touchdown of their own, the Rams came right back with a 38-yard touchdown to Tutu Atwell.
• The Lions went into halftime leading 21-17. Stafford had 196 yards and two touchdowns at the break and Jared Goff had 194 yards with one touchdown. It was the first-half shootout everyone expected, with only one punt in the first 30 minutes.
• Nacua picked up right where he left off with 106 yards and a touchdown in the first half alone, catching two passes that went for 21 yards each and the 50-yard touchdown.
• The Rams didn’t get much out of Kyren Williams and the running game in the first half, gaining just 22 yards on the ground with Williams getting six carries. On Williams’ first carry of the second half, he took a big shot from C.J. Gardner-Johnson and had to be evaluated in the blue tent.
• All game long, the Rams struggled to generate pressure on Goff, which allowed the Lions quarterback to pick apart the secondary. Aaron Donald got…