LA Rams Matthew Stafford to Cooper Kupp gets team second win

The LA Rams did not roll into Indianapolis and roll over the Colts. The Indianapolis Colts are a solid team and showed plenty of resolve in this one.  It came down to two things. In the waning minutes of the game, quarterback Matthew Stafford was able to answer the bell for the LA Rams,  In the waning minutes of the game, Colts quarterback Carson Wentz could not.

This one had all of the excitement of a playoff game. The LA Rams faced their first road game of the 2021 NFL season against a team that was every bit an NFL Playoff team in this one. This was a game of strength versus strength, a test of formidable foes, a contest of willpower.  The LA Rams needed to prove that they could come back to win.

On a mid-September afternoon, the LA Rams did exactly that.

An ugly but pretty win

Some will complain about this game. Some will cite the fact that the defense allowed 24 points. Others will point to the Rams offense only scoring 27 points. On this afternoon, quarterback Matthew Stafford threw 19 of 30 passes for 278 yards, two touchdowns, and one interception.

This one was a mixed bag. But it was a good win, a team win. The Rams fought on defense, the Rams fought on offense, and even in the face of plenty of work to do on special teams, the Rams fought there too. There are still plenty of areas to clean up. But the Rams didn’t have to pay the price of a loss to discover those areas. To be quite frank, after the Rams fell behind by a score of 21 to 17,  the game could have gotten away rather quickly.

Instead, the offense seemed to find a new gear. The connection between Stafford and WR Cooper Kupp is real and spectacular. Against the Colts, Kupp caught 9 of 11 passes for 163 yards and two touchdowns. To round out the scoring, running back Darrell Henderson rushed 13 times for 53 yards and a touchdown. Placekicker Matt Gay kicked two for two field goals and three for three extra points.

With the victory, the LA Rams are indeed proving that the team will emerge from the month of September no worse than 2-1.  Perhaps more importantly, the Rams proved that they could win on the road as well as come from behind to win a game.