1. Davante Adams still has it.
195 yards. Eight receptions. Two touchdowns. Toe taps. Fingertip grabs. Breaking defensive backs' ankles.Yeah… Davante Adams still has it.
With Puka Nacua inactive because of his hip injury, Adams wasn't just good, he was the centerpiece of the Rams' passing game and looked every bit like the elite receiver we've watched for the better part of the last decade.
His 195 receiving yards were the fourth-highest single-game total of his career, and he now sits 23rd all-time in career receiving yards with 12,854.
What stood out to me wasn't simply the production. It was how he was winning. Contested catches, body control along the sideline, separation at the top of routes and the ability to make defenders miss.
He can still take over a football game.
2. Aaron Donald is still a fucking stud.
I don't know what the hell Aaron Donald was doing during retirement, but apparently it involved staying Aaron Donald.After two years away from football, Donald stepped back onto an NFL field and immediately looked like the same problem he has always been for offensive lines.
He finished with three tackles and a tackle for loss, including a huge stop on third-and-short near the goal line that helped force the Giants to settle for three points.
And this is the part that gets me excited:
He did it without Myles Garrett.
PFF's historical data puts into perspective just how absurd Donald's interior production has been. From 2014-23, he generated 840 pressures, 119 more than any other defender, while posting a 15.4% career pressure rate—the highest mark among interior defenders over that span, and last night he had the highest pressure rate among DT's in week 2, 2026. Fucking unreal.
Now imagine trying to block Donald inside while also accounting for Garrett coming off the edge.
Cant wait until No. 95 is back.
3. Matthew Stafford is a gunslinger.
The dude can spin it.Stafford finished 22-of-31 for 327 yards, four touchdowns and one interception, but the box score doesn't really capture how impressive some of these throws were.
That dart to Terrance Ferguson in the end zone was an absolute missile. The arm strength, timing and ability to change arm angles and deliver the football from different platforms are still ridiculous.
And yes, Stafford is going to Stafford.
The interception on the throw to Adams was a perfect example. He tried to fit the ball into double coverage on second-and-5, and it turned into a turnover.
I'm not saying that's a good decision. But I also don't think it's something we're ever going to completely eliminate from Stafford's game. His mentality is essentially: my guy has a chance.
Sometimes that results in a ridiculous completion. Sometimes it results in an interception.
The Rams are going to have to live with some of that because the other side of that coin is a quarterback who will attempt throws that very few quarterbacks in the league can physically make.
Oh, and that performance moved Stafford to 426 career touchdown passes, passing Philip Rivers for sixth all-time.
4. The Puka Nacua injury may force McVay and Stafford to become better offensively.
Obviously, I want Puka healthy. There is nothing good about losing one of the best receivers in football. But from a purely football standpoint, I actually liked what Puka's absence forced Sean McVay to do Monday night. We all know McVay and Stafford can develop tunnel vision when they have a superstar playmaker.McVay wants to scheme the ball to his best players, and Stafford wants to give those players opportunities. We've seen it with Calvin Johnson, Cooper Kupp, Puka and last night Adams.
And honestly, why wouldn't they?
They're fucking awesome.
But the Rams are at their best when defenses don't know where the ball is going.
When you have Adams, Puka, Ferguson, Kyren Williams, Blake Corum and the rest of this offense moving around the formation, defenses should have to constantly figure out who is getting the ball rather than simply waiting for the ball to go to the star.
Monday night felt like McVay was digging deeper into the playbook.
The Rams finished with 481 yards and eight yards per play, while scoring touchdowns on four of their six trips that reached the red zone.
If McVay continues distributing the football like this once Puka returns, this offense becomes significantly harder to defend.
5. The offensive line bullied the Giants.
This might have been my biggest surprise of the night.The Giants have some legitimate dudes up front, particularly Brian Burns, and the Rams' offensive line absolutely handled them for most of the night.
It wasn't just pass protection, either.
They were moving people in the run game and giving Stafford time to operate. The Rams eventually finished with 164 rushing yards, averaging nearly six yards per carry between Kyren Williams and Blake Corum.
Alaric Jackson deserves a lot of credit here.
PFF currently has Jackson at a 67.9 overall grade on the season, with a 66.2 pass-blocking grade and 65.9 run-blocking grade. More importantly, he has allowed zero sacks through the opening portion of the season.
The one play that jumped out to me was the late double-team where Avila was a little late getting off his block, allowing Burns to get home and sack Stafford.
That's football.
Burns made an outstanding play, and Avila had a bad rep.
It happens.
But overall?
What a performance from this offensive line.
6. The linebackers—and Nate Landman in particular—looked much better.
Landman was one of the guys who really stood out to me.There was one communication/spacing issue on a deep crosser involving Watson that turned into a 30-plus-yard gain for New York. I'm still not sure whether Watson didn't get enough depth or Landman got too much and ended up interfering with the route.
Either way, there was plenty of good to take from the night.
Landman was particularly good against the screen game, including a nice play against Cam Skattebo, and he consistently provided support against the run.
But the thing I liked most?
He got off the field on obvious passing downs.
That's important.
The Rams don't need their linebackers to be superheroes. They need them to understand their roles, execute their assignments and allow the defensive front and secondary to do what they're built to do.
7. Kyren Williams and Blake Corum are going to be a nightmare over four quarters.
What a duo.I love what McVay is doing with these two backs.
Keep them fresh. Rotate them. Let them attack a defense in different ways. Then, when the fourth quarter comes around and the defensive line has been taking snaps for three quarters, start pounding them.
And you could see it Monday night. The Giants' defensive front was getting tired, and suddenly the Rams were running the football almost at will.
Williams finished with 85 yards on 12 carries, while Corum added 79 yards on 12 carries. That's a combined 164 yards on 24 carries—6.8 yards per carry.
That's ridiculous.
And yes, Williams fumbled. I'm sure people are going to point that out. But that was also a hell of a play by Jevon Holland. Williams had both arms on the football. Holland stood him up and delivered a perfectly timed punch-out.
Sometimes the other team just makes a play.
You have to give them credit for it.
8. Harrison Mevis and special teams are still a question mark.
I'm still on the Mevis train.He missed a 43-yard field goal at the end of the first half, and there's no way around it—he needs to make that kick.
But I'm not ready to suddenly declare the guy unreliable because he missed one.
His ball flight has looked extremely consistent to me. He doesn't appear to be fighting the ball or constantly pushing kicks left and right. When he hits it, it looks true.
Now let's see how he responds.
The bigger concern for me is special teams as a whole. I'm still not sold. It feels like this unit is always one missed tackle, one bad lane or one bad angle away from giving up a huge return.
Is that a talent issue?
Is it coaching?
Is it simply early-season execution?
We don't know yet. But it's something I'm going to keep watching.
And Evans?
I'm not sure this is going to be his last season with the Rams. The dude has a fucking leg and can absolutely be accurate, but he is way too hot and cold for my liking.
We'll see.
9. Terrance Ferguson keeps flashing—but now he needs to become dependable.
This is the big question with Ferg.Is this finally the year he puts it all together? Because the flashes are there. And they're fucking good.
Ferguson finished with six receptions for 54 yards and a touchdown, including the five-yard touchdown from Stafford in the fourth quarter.
The Rams have talked all offseason about expanding his role and moving him around the formation. PFF's preseason analysis even noted that Ferguson was expected to function essentially as the Rams' No. 3 wide receiver, after posting a 17.9-yard average depth of target last season.
That's a pretty significant role for a tight end. The talent is obvious. but now comes the hard part:
Consistency.
There were opportunities Monday where he left yards on the field, and that's the part of his game that has to clean up. If he can get his hands and his nerves under control, I genuinely think he has the talent to become one of the better receiving tight ends in football.
But will McVay continue feeding him?
Will Stafford trust him when the game gets tight?
Will Ferguson consistently make the plays that are there?
The jury is still out.
But Monday was a step in the right direction.
10. Coaching: What a difference a week makes.
Holy shit, What a difference one week makes.I said after Week 1 that I believed the Australia trip and jet lag probably played a bigger role than people wanted to admit. I'm not going to pretend that explains everything that happened against San Francisco, but the Rams looked like a completely different football team physically and mentally Monday night.
And I really want to give Chris Shula some credit.
The defense looked more aggressive, more physical and much stickier in coverage than what we saw in Week 1.
Shula appeared much more willing to play man coverage and challenge the Giants' receivers rather than sitting back in soft zone and allowing quarterbacks to pick apart the defense underneath.
The results were pretty damn good.
New York managed only 182 total yards, averaged 3.3 yards per play, and never found the end zone. The Giants had only two possessions reach the red zone, and each one was a result of the Rams turning the ball over.
And Trent McDuffie was a huge part of that. He recorded his first interception as a Ram and finished with a career-high four passes defensed in the game. PFF currently has McDuffie with an 83.4 overall grade and an 85.4 coverage grade, both among the top three at his position early in the season.
But here's the question:
Can Shula do this against a better quarterback? That's what I want to see. Does he continue to play aggressive coverage? Does he trust his corners? Does he continue putting his players in positions that match their strengths? Or does he eventually revert to the bend-but-don't-break zone concepts we've seen too often?
Playing McDuffie and Watson in soft zone and asking them to sit back isn't maximizing what those guys can do.
So I'm encouraged. But I'm not ready to declare that the defense has turned a corner after one game against the Giants. If Shula really has changed his defensive philosophy, we'll know soon enough.
Because the Rams are going to face quarterbacks who can punish conservative coverage.
Don't coach scared.
That's what I want to see from this defense going forward.
Final thought
This was exactly the response the Rams needed after Week 1. However, I'm still keeping one foot on the brake.The Giants are not the test.
The Broncos are.
That's where we're going to find out whether this was simply a great bounce-back performance or whether the Rams actually figured some shit out.
