In a game that was FAR too similar to the tampa bay playoff win last season, the Rams evened their record at 1-1 by flushing the falcons at SoFi by the score of 31-27. Up 21-3 at half and 28-3 after a second Stafford to Kupp td pass on the first drive of the third quarter, the Rams appeared to be coasting to a blowout. However, a blocked punt for a td and a horrific fumble by Cooper Kupp, along with an ugly Stafford interception put atlanta in position to win the game with a first down on our 20 yard line a little over a minute to go and down only by 5. A Jalen Ramsey interception in the end zone effectively finished the game, but even after that the Rams still almost gave us a cardiac episode by punting the post safety free kick out of bounds to give atlanta a play from midfield. I am not sure i have EVER seen a free punt after a safety kicked out of bounds in the nfl, and yet, the Rams managed to survive that debacle when Hollins sacked mariotta and donald recovered the fumble to end the game. Nice to get the win after the humiliation against buffalo, but the Rams are going to have to play a LOT better over the full course of a game if they want to have a realistic shot at contending for a shot at another title.


The Good

Kupp had a strong game after getting no targets in the first quarter, he wound up with 11-108 and two touchdowns, including an acrobatic catch late in the first half on a perfect throw from stafford to give the Rams a 21-3 lead. Kupp surpassed 90 yards for the 15th consecutive game, adding to his NFL record. He also had a sensational block on the henderson 12 yard td run. He also had an amazing spin to get away from the defender after the catch down in the red zone late in the game. His third down catch late should have ended the game, did a great job getting open, just couldnt hold the ball which was awful (see below).

Stafford played much better today, but of course a lot of that was the FAR improved play of the offensive line. He made the throw to kupp on third down to put the game away as a practical matter, but the kupp fumble gave atlanta the shot to win. He threw 3 td's, hit his first 12 throws, got the ball out quickly, and finished 27-36 for 272 for a rating of 100.7 and was only sacked once. Room for improvement for sure (see below) on a couple of misses and really bad decisions, but nice to see him bounce back after last week. Not getting sacked 7 times and having at least some semblance of a running game (not great, but functional) sure helped a lot. He was pretty effective on play action and finally got Robinson involved with a nice early fade route one yard td and a HUGE 30 yard catch late in the third quarter on third down. Robinson played well also at 4-53, i look for his role to continue to expand as the timing improves with stafford (the fade in the end zone should have been a td and will be later in the season, their timing was off just a bit). Robinson...

The Los Angeles Rams (0-1) are back at home this week, taking on the Atlanta Falcons (0-1) on Sunday at SoFi Stadium (1:05 p.m. pacific time, FOX)....