INGLEWOOD, Calif. – The return of wide receivers Puka Nacua and Cooper Kupp helped the Rams to a huge win against the Vikings on Thursday Night Football. Quarterback Matthew Stafford had his best game of the year, more than doubling his season-long touchdown total to lead the Rams to their first 30-point game of the season.
Los Angeles won the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball against a Minnesota team that has controlled that area well this season. As a result, Stafford enjoyed a clean pocket more often than not, totaling 279 yards and four touchdowns. The Rams also solved two issues that had plagued them all season long: finishing pressures and scoring touchdowns in the red zone.
Here are five interesting stats from the Rams' 30-20 win over Minnesota:
Under Brian Flores, the Vikings' defense had never generated fewer than seven pressures until Thursday, when they managed just four against the Rams, via Next Gen Stats (NGS)
Flores, the Vikings' defensive coordinator, is known for creating pressure with frequent blitzes from unique looks. On Thursday, however, the Rams' early offensive success forced Minnesota to drop more players in coverage to focus on defending Nacua and Kupp. As a result, the Vikings registered their lowest pressure rate (11.8%) and second-lowest blitz rate (35.3%) of the season.
And even when the Vikings did get pressure on Stafford, he was unfazed, completing all four of his pass attempts for 20 yards and a touchdown. That included a truly spectacular escape from what seemed to be a surefire sack, but turned into a Kupp touchdown. The Rams had an answer for everything Flores threw at them.
The Rams had their best offensive red zone performance of the season, collecting season-highs in touchdown rate (100%), EPA per pass (+0.47) and play (+0.20), yards (40) and yards per play (3.6), via NGS
The Rams came into Thursday Night Football having scored just 11 touchdowns on 23 trips to the red zone. They scored touchdowns on all three of their red zone drives against the Vikings. Despite accounting for only one of the Rams' four touchdowns, Kupp and Nacua demanded so much attention in the red area that it opened up the rest of the field.
The Rams were significantly better inside the 20 than they'd been in any game this season. The difference in the execution and play-calling with a healthy wide receiver room was on full display.
Stafford didn't throw a single incompletion to the right side of the field, finishing 8-for-8 with 94 yards and two touchdowns, via nflfastr
Stafford saw the field extremely well on Thursday, and that was increasingly evident while throwing to his right. Both of Demarcus Robinson's second-half touchdowns went to the right side of the field, along with six other completed passes.
Stafford had a 22.5% completion percentage over expected on throws to the right side, meaning the average likelihood of those passes being completed was 77.5% (based on statistical models). His biggest toss went to Robinson on a go ball, resulting in a huge 25-yard touchdown in the third quarter. That pass had just a 34.1% expected completion percentage. Only four other quarterbacks have completed eight or more passes to the right side of the field in a game this season without an incompletion.
The Rams generated their best pressure-sack ratio of the season (30%), via NGS
All year, the emphasis has been on finishing sacks. The Rams are tied for the third-highest pressure rate in the NFL this season (39.6%), but they hadn't been able to finish many of them with sacks. That changed on Thursday, as 30% of the Rams' pressures resulted in sacks against the Vikings.
The Rams turned 10 team pressures into three sacks on Thursday Night Football, including a game-clinching safety from outside linebacker Byron Young. Young and his counterpart, Jared Verse, combined for eight pressures and 2.5 sacks on Thursday, meaning they had a hand in all of the Rams' sacks. It was the L.A.'s most efficient pass rush performance, and they also held the Vikings to their fewest rushing yards of the season (64).
When targeting Kupp and Nacua, Stafford went 12-for-17 with 157 yards, one touchdown and a 119.0 passer rating
Nearly all of Stafford's throws to Kupp and Nacua were catchable balls. As offensive lineman Alaric Jackson told theRams.com postgame, those three players "are on the same page," and that helps the entire offensive operation.
Nacua finished with seven catches for 106 yards, while Kupp brought in five balls for 51 yards and a touchdown. The offense looked completely rejuvenated with Stafford's two top targets back in the lineup. After the game, Stafford said "it's what you envisioned (for this offense) when training camp started and it's nice to have those guys back."
