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Los Angeles Rams
You could see one element of it in their early dominance of a really good Buffalo Bills team at SoFi. The second piece, which showed itself thereafter, was probably more significant.
Sean McVay's crew went haymaker for haymaker with the Bills as the sun went down in Southern California and somehow, with Josh Allen playing at an absolutely mind-bending level, the Rams were the ones standing in the end, surviving for a 44–42 win.
The reality of the situation that unfolded before a crowd mixed of locals and Western New York transplants was that, for the better part of the second half, the Bills had the Rams on the run. After the Rams seized a 31–14 lead in the third quarter—by forcing a three-and-out and then going on an 11-play, 76-yard touchdown drive to open the second half—Allen and the Buffalo offense jammed on the accelerator and didn't ease off the rest of the way.
Allen piloted touchdown drives of 80, 70, 91 and 70 yards. Over those four possessions, Buffalo's final four of the game, the Bills ran up 279 yards from scrimmage on 32 plays, which averages out to 8.7 yards per offensive snap. And yet, as the avalanche of production struck the Rams, they weren't overrun by it and goaded into mistakes or sloppy play.
“It's just going out there and executing,” quarterback Matthew Stafford told me, as he exited the locker room. “It starts up front. Our guys did a great job of owning the line of scrimmage today. We ran the ball efficiently, and they kept me clean in the pass game. When they're doing that, it allows the other guys to go do their job and operate at a high level, and we were able to do it.”
In this case, it allowed for Stafford to keep the Rams' offense on the field. That, in the end, didn't result in a ton of points after L.A. took the aforementioned 31–14 lead, but it did shorten the game—and the opportunity for the Bills to come back.
In no spot was that more critical than the two big ones on L.A.'s second-to-last possession.
The first was a fourth-and-5 with 3:53 left from the Bills' 35. The Rams were up 38–35. And for this one snap, the Bills did seem to solve the Cooper Kupp/Puka Nacua puzzle. So Stafford had to look elsewhere, to a streaking Tutu Atwell.
“Our guys up front did a great job of letting me get to the back side of my read there,” Stafford says. “We were working a little concept with Puka and Cooper to the right, and they did a nice job of taking that away. Tutu was No. 3, on the back side. He did a hell of a job of winning in there and making a nice play.”
Stafford dropped his arm angle to get the ball around a defender's arm, and slung it into a window where Atwell could chase it down.
Three plays later, Stafford had to do it again. This time on third-and-5, and with 2:00 left, the challenge became more mental than physical, with the Bills moving every defender toward the line. The ball was at the Buffalo 19. A field goal would give the Rams a six-point lead. A first down would force the Bills to start burning their timeouts. A touchdown would most likely end it. Stafford's adjustment determined which outcome was coming.
“They were coming out and trying to force the football out with a bunch of guys at the line of scrimmage,” Stafford says. “I was able to get to a check, and our guys executed great.”
That “zero check”—zero referencing the type of blitz coming—called for a screen to Nacua, keyed by a block from Kupp and, as Stafford says, it was executed beautifully. Kupp flared out from the slot and lit into corner Ja'Marcus Ingram, who was lined up head up on Nacua. Nacua cut inside of them and covered the 19 remaining yards.
And it was nice symbolism that it was those two, since those two loom large as a perfect illustration of why the Rams will be a headache for someone, if they make it to the playoffs. It's not like the Bills didn't to cover Kupp and Nacua. It's that the Rams kept finding ways to make it borderline impossible to.
“Sean [McVay] does a really good job of building game plans around those guys and moving them around,” Stafford says. “We're not just breaking the huddle and defenses can know where they're going to line up. We're moving them. We're putting them in different spots in the formation. That allows their physical ability to show.
“It's a whole lot of fun to play with those guys.”
Add that to a Kyren Williams–Blake Corum-fueled run game, and a defense with a rising young group full of stars—guys such as Jared Verse, Kobie Turner, Byron Young and Braden Fiske—and you can see why Sunday may be more than just a fun one we'll forget in a few weeks.
The Rams, who were at one point 1–4, are now 7–6, with McVay at the controls, Stafford with the trigger and a crew of title-tested vets leading a raft of talented young guys. In three more days, they'll get another big test when they visit a desperate NFC champion from San Francisco that’s trying to stay in the hunt. And winning this one only makes that game bigger.
“It keeps us alive.” Stafford says of Sunday's win. “It keeps the games in December meaningful for us. That's what we're fighting for every single week. Doing our job to try to prepare during the week to go out there and play well. And to have no regrets at the end of the thing.”
I can't imagine Stafford has many from Sunday.
