The Los Angeles Rams exhibited how potentially dangerous their offense can be with a 20-point outburst in the second half to secure a road win in Tennessee, 33-19.
After a slow first half ending in a tied score at halftime, the Rams clicked on both sides of the ball, outscoring the Titans 23-6 in the second half.
Despite being in his 17th season in the NFL, Stafford remains one of the best quarterbacks in the game. Quarterback Matthew Stafford threw for 298 yards and two touchdown passes.
Star wide receiver Puka Nacua reiterated the faith the team has in him in his postgame press conference.
“We are all pretty confident in our guy number nine and his ability to put it in the right spot.”
Nacua led the Rams offense with 136 total yards, 45 of which were on a fourth-down jet sweep turned touchdown early in the first half.
Head Coach Sean McVay emphasized how “critical [Nacua is] in crunch time situations.” Nacua showed this once again today with multiple third-down conversions.
Wide receiver Davante Adams also hauled in his first touchdown as a Ram, in one of his six receptions over the game, eclipsing the 100-yard mark. However, Adams still struggled to pull down many of his targets, only catching six of 13 throughout the game, with four of those missed targets coming in the red zone.
The Rams’ front-seven followed the game plan of putting constant pressure on the rookie Cam Ward with five sacks and eight quarterback pressures, two of which came from Byron Young, who also forced a game-changing fourth-quarter fumble.
Ward struggled through most of the game with only 175 yards, but showed flashes once again with a video-game-like scramble drill to a cross-field throw for a touchdown to wide receiver Elic Ayomanor in the second quarter. Running back Tony Pollard also shone compared to the rest of the offense, rushing for 92 yards.
“I was pleased with the way we finished that game. I thought we had really great command in the second half,” McVay said. “That’s a really tough football team.”
“When we execute with the players that we have and the scheme that we have, we got a… high probability of being successful,” Stafford said.
With the skill position weapons Stafford has around him, there is no reason the product seen in the second half today should not be the baseline for the rest of the year.
Second-year running back Blake Corum broke into the end zone for the first time in his NFL career late in the fourth quarter as the cherry on top of a dominant Rams win.
The Rams now move to 2-0 in an NFC West that features three undefeated teams and zero out-of-conference losses through two weeks.
Heading into Week 3, the Rams return to Los Angeles to face the reigning Super Bowl Champion Eagles in an NFC Championship Game rematch. These are two teams expected to be at the top of the NFC, and this game should provide fans with insight into who is the true front-runner.