Rams vs. 49ers recap: The NFL game that explained the entire season so far

If you somehow missed the first four weeks of the NFL season but wanted to feel caught up, all you had to do was tune in Thursday

If you somehow missed the first four weeks of the NFL season but wanted to feel caught up, all you had to do was tune in Thursday.

The night became a microcosm for the previous month.

San Francisco held on in overtime to beat the Los Angeles Rams, 26-23, in the season's 65th game — an outcome that was influenced by the same trends that emerged from the first 64.

Blocked kicks? Including blocked punts, September produced 16 of them, the second-most through Week 4 since at least 1991, per an Associated Press analysis. That included 12 blocked field goals or point-after attempts that flipped wins from losses, and vice versa. The most memorable was Philadelphia's last-second block of Rams kicker Joshua Karty that the Eagles returned for a touchdown as time expired on Sept. 21.

Thursday saw yet another, when a Karty point-after that would have put the Rams ahead, 21-20, early in the fourth quarter was stuffed by San Francisco to keep the score tied. In a game where both teams would later add a field goal apiece and go into overtime, every point was necessary, the block becoming a butterfly effect for the rest of the night.