Cooks meant to drop pass before Rams' game-winning field goal

Brandin Cooks is due a bump in his awareness rating.

The Los Angeles Rams receiver revealed he purposely dropped a pass ahead of the game-winning kick during overtime in the NFC Championship Game.

The play that preceded Greg Zuerlein's successful 57-yard field goal was a screen to Cooks. The wideout shuffled a couple of yards behind the line of scrimmage and noticed New Orleans Saints cornerback Marshon Lattimore would likely have tackled him for a loss had he hauled in the pass from Jared Goff.

"I think it's one of those things where you see what happened, one of the (defensive ends) and Marshon, the way that they played it, being able to be in the backfield before I technically really was able to catch the ball and get upfield. I think it was more important to save those yards, not that Greg needs them, but rather play it safe than sorry," Cooks said, according to NFL.com's Jeremy Bergman.

Cooks' quick thinking in the heat of the moment and with a trip to the Super Bowl on the line earned effusive praise from his head coach and teammates.

"Brandin Cooks, talk about a smart football player," Sean McVay said. "Having the presence when I give him a terrible play call on the third down to drop it, knowing that it would have been a terrible play where he intentionally drops it."

"Yeah, I was not aware at the time that he did that intentionally," said Goff. "Afterwards, I found out that that was a pre-decision. I probably shouldn't have even thrown it to him. I should've just thrown it at his feet. But yeah, it was smart. Saved us about four yards there."

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