Can LA Rams WR Cooper Kupp keep up this record-setting pace?

If you needed another reason to believe that LA Rams wide receiver Cooper Kupp deserves the NFL MVP Award? Look no further than the job he did on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers secondary. One of the NFL’s most notable single seasons by a receiver is not done just yet.  After finishing the season with 145 receptions (Second highest All Time in a Single Season by an NFL Receiver), 1,947 receiving yards (Second highest All Time in a Single Season by an NFL Receiver), and 15 receiving touchdowns (15th highest All Time in a Single Season by an NFL Receiver), the question was, how much can he do for the Rams offense in the playoffs.

Well, if his first two games of the NFL playoffs so far are any indication? Plenty.

So far, in just two games, Cooper Kupp has hauled in 14 of 18 passes thrown his way for 244 yards and two touchdowns. How’s that for a two-game performance? Particularly in two games where defenses know that the offense will be throwing to him?

Cooper Kupp heroics, one more time

Well, does it matter?  After the Tampa Bay Buccaneers tied the score 27-27 with just 42 seconds to go, everyone in the stadium (if not across the planet) knew that LA Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford would be looking for Kupp to move the chains.  But even armed with that foreknowledge, Stafford was able to find Kupp for 20 yards, and Kupp was able to race to the sidelines to stop the clock.  And then? He found Kupp again for a 44-yard bomb that placed the football on the Buccaneers 12-yard line.

So how did that play go down?

Of course, with no time-outs, it all goes for naught (see the San Francisco 49ers – Dallas Cowboys finish where time ran out) if Matthew Stafford is not completely in command of the moment and spikes the ball with just four seconds remaining.

Rams offense coming together

The LA Rams offense is starting to find itself, starting to assert its identity. In two playoff games, the team has averaged 32 points per game. To nobody’s surprise, much of that success is the fact that the team has averaged 34 running plays in the postseason. While not particularly effective, just 213 yards and two touchdowns on the ground in two games, it has been enough to make defenses hesitate.

That has given enough time for Stafford to throw 41 of 55 passes for 568 yards four touchdowns, and no interceptions. As we’ve seen above, a third of the passes and a full half of the touchdown passes have gone to Kupp.

But it’s not all Stafford to Kupp. Odell Beckham Jr., a player signed mid-season, has caught 10 of 12 passes for 123 yards and a touchdown. Even Van Jefferson has hauled in three of four targets for 70 yards.  But this year, it will be Cooper Kupp who drives the offense.

In three previous playoffs, Kupp has found himself inactive when the team needed him most. In 2018, he was on injured reserve with an ACL injury. In 2020, his knee swelled and he was unable to go in the Divisional Round to face the Green Bay Packers. But this year, it’s as though he is making up for that lost time. Can the Rams count on Cooper Kupp to keep up this record-setting pace?

I don’t know the answer to that one. I just know that I wouldn’t want to be the guy who is tasked with defending him.