The Rams ruled Joe Cardona and Colby Parkinson inactive for their Week 8 game against the Chargers on Sunday at SoFi Stadium, leaving Jake McQuaide to handle long snapping after being elevated from the practice squad on Saturday. The game was scheduled for 1:05 p.m. PT on FOX in INGLEWOOD, Calif.
Cardona’s absence mattered because he had been listed as doubtful on Friday before being scratched from the lineup, while Parkinson was ruled out because of a rib injury. Ty Simpson was also inactive as the emergency third quarterback, and Bill Murray and Keagen Trost were among the other Rams on the inactive list.
For the Rams, McQuaide’s elevation was the practical fix. With Cardona unavailable, the long-snapping role had to be covered immediately, and the team turned to the veteran on a short-term basis rather than carrying the uncertainty into kickoff.
The Chargers had their own absences, with Donte Jackson and Rodney Shelley inactive after both were listed as questionable with hamstring injuries. That left both sides shuffling pieces before a game that had already been framed by injury reports, then sharpened by the final inactive list.
What follows is less about who was missing than how each side absorbed it in real time. The Rams went into the matchup without two listed contributors and with McQuaide covering a specialized job, while the Chargers were without two defensive players they had hoped might still be available.
