The Falcons and Rams are slipping all over the place in their Wild Card matchup in Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. The turf is in bad shape, and it’s looking worse minute by minute.
The field quality seemed fine before the game, according to NFL Network’s Steve Wyche. It drizzled today, but there hasn’t seemed to be any precipitation since the game kicked off. Still, the field is deteriorating fast.
Players are slipping, and it’s making it hard for either offense to get much going. The Rams had just 14 total yards of offense in the first quarter. Todd Gurley had just 15 total yards with just under six minutes left to play in the first half. It’s hard to get yards when you can’t keep your feet.
After not quite one full half of football, you can see huge divots and clumps of turf all over the field.
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Matt Ryan fell prey to it, also. His back leg went out from under him, and he went down and had an ugly collision between his head and Rams outside linebacker Robert Quinn’s knee.
In the fourth quarter, Ryan was able to keep just enough footing to find Julio Jones for a touchdown to go up 26-13:
A new field was installed at the Coliseum after the college season wrapped up. Cris Collinsworth said on the broadcast that when a new field is put in, and with the humidity in the air, players’ cleats just can’t get any traction.
It’s not an ideal playing surface, to say the least.