INGLEWOOD, Calif. – As reporters swarmed Matthew Stafford in the Rams' locker room, a smile cracked the quarterback's face, and he let out a chuckle.
"I'm not laughing at you," Stafford told a reporter.
He was laughing at wide receiver Cooper Kupp, who was holding his phone up, pretending to video Stafford's responses at the back of the media cluster – "you're doing great!" Kupp said. The ease and comfort of that interaction was indicative of the offensive performance against the Vikings. For the first time this season, they looked calm and collected for the entire game.
"Matthew had a look in his eye where he was going to be ready to go, and it's like, 'hey, you're coming with me, because we're going to go do this thing the right way,'" head coach Sean McVay said.
"When you see him running around and evading rushers and he's kind of looking at the sidelines like he knows 'I'm him tonight,' that elevates everybody," McVay added Monday.
The return of Kupp and Puka Nacua brought a palpable energy to the Rams that was exuded from pregame warmups through postgame interviews. The two accounted for 157 of Stafford's 279 passing yards, helping the quarterback, and the entire team, return to prime form in the 30-20 win over Minnesota. Stafford also threw four touchdowns on Thursday Night Football after entering the game with three in the team's first six games, and his 124.5 passer rating was his best of the season.
"It's what you envisioned (for this offense) when training camp started and it's nice to have those guys back," Stafford said. "It was great for our offense obviously, I was so happy and proud for those guys to be back out on the grass with us, but also really big for our defense, our special teams, (because) everybody feels that when those guys are back in."
Nacua had seven catches for 106 yards in his abrupt return to the field, having practiced with the team just once since his injury against the Lions in Week 1, according to Kupp. Meanwhile, Kupp had more of a full workload over the past week-and-a-half, and he caught five balls for 51 yards and a touchdown.
Against a team that gets to the quarterback at one of the highest rates, Stafford was only pressured four times thanks to elite offensive line play and McVay's schematic success. When he was pressured, Stafford was a perfect 4-for-4 with 20 yards and a touchdown. He wasn't sacked a single time and the score was one of the 36-year-old quarterback's most athletic plays of his career, let alone the season.
On second-and-goal, Stafford escaped the pocket and ducked what looked like a certain sack from defensive lineman Harrison Phillips to find Kupp in the back of the end zone, off-schedule. "Nine and dime" were back in full force.
"Fear is a hell of a motivator," Stafford said of the play.
"I mean he looked like (pro tennis player Carlos) Alcaraz on the court escaping the two rushers to be able to throw Cooper Kupp his touchdown," McVay said.
Kupp added that Stafford had told him before the game that he was "too old" to be making elaborate escapes like that. After the play, Kupp went over and said "you liar." But he had "that Matthew Stafford walk going on the sideline," after that, Kupp said, and his play only elevated from there.
He went on to throw two more touchdowns in the second half, both to wide receiver Demarcus Robinson, who ended the game with just those two touchdown catches for 35 yards. And Stafford wasn't just sharp physically, but mentally as well.
On the 25-yard touchdown pass to Robinson in the third quarter, Kupp had an option route in the slot, but Stafford said he saw something pre-snap. He told Robinson to "be live" on his go ball, thinking he may get single coverage on the second down play. He was right, and the ball was placed where only Robinson could get it, despite the defensive pass interference.
"You can't double cover everybody on the team," Robinson said. "You gotta leave somebody open and those guys (Kupp and Nacua) get a lot of those double coverages, so it leaves me a lot of 1-on-1 time and Matthew was able to see that… I'm a pretty good player myself, too."
Robinson's fourth quarter score put the Rams up 28-20 in the final minutes, and they came out with a huge victory. So much of the team's offensive success could be traced back to the competitive fire and defensive attention that Kupp and Nacua brought to the offense.
Even the offensive line, who didn't allow a single pressure on 12 Vikings blitzes, according to Next Gen Stats, felt that impact. And against a team that is known for creating pressure from distinct looks, that is no small feat.
"Oh my god, that was so nice (to have them back), honestly," offensive lineman Alaric Jackson told theRams.com. "Just because Puka and Cooper and Matthew are on the same page, they see the game the same way."
That made it easier for the offense to flow as they had expected it to this season. From screens (4-of-4, 32 yards) to play-action passes (6-of-9, 68 yards), Stafford executed every assignment. He hit a clutch deep ball, intermediate routes to all fields and feasted in the underneath areas.
Nacua was Stafford's most frequent target of the night (nine targets). Nacua had success all over gridiron, but beyond that, he was "excited to get out there and hit somebody" in the run game. That's the type of eclectic excitement that he, Kupp and Stafford perpetuated throughout the game, and it led to the Rams' highest score of the season.
"(Stafford had) the big dog energy," Nacua said. "Everyone wants to be the big dog, but we know who our leader is and who's the alpha of our pack, and when he's got that mojo, everybody rolls through him."
