FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – Puka Nacua's body was parallel to the ground.
After a strip-sack from Braden Fiske ended up in Kobie Turner's hands on the Patriots' 12-yard line, the Rams needed just one play to hit pay dirt. Matthew Stafford stood in the pocket and lofted a pass to Nacua on a crosser, who went full extension in the end zone with both arms secured underneath the ball for his first touchdown of the season, battling the sun all the while. It was textbook teach tape on how to secure a diving catch.
"Matthew put the ball up out there, and then just left the rest up to me and be like, 'Man, I gotta get this to that ball,'" Nacua said postgame. "... Trying to be even better in my route position, because, you know he's going to put in the one spot it can be. So, when you win a good route, and you actually work the technique at the top of the route, and you create separation, a great ball makes it look like seven yards of separation."
Nacua stayed down on the field after the score, but after being evaluated in the medical tent, he trotted back out onto the field for the next drive, during which he was a key contributor. Nacua ended the first half with six catches for 117 receiving yards and a touchdown, which would have been the most receiving yards for a Rams player in a whole game this season, not just a half.
Nacua totaled seven catches for 123 yards and a touchdown in the Rams' 28-22 win in New England. As usual, he excelled in the intermediate area and showed off elite awareness with multiple sideline grabs. Stafford and Nacua were on the same page all game long, and he helped seal the deal in the fourth quarter with a clutch third-down grab.
The mental link between Stafford and Nacua was on full display during the Rams' two-minute drill at the end of the first half. Stafford layered a throw to Nacua on the sideline, who chopped his feet to secure the first down on the second play of the drive.
Then, with 16 seconds remaining, wide receiver Tutu Atwell cleared out the safety, opening up Nacua on a corner route. Stafford hit him in stride and Nacua scampered out of bounds for a 21-yard gain to give the Rams a shot at the end zone. They didn't convert and then missed the chip shot field goal, but that two-minute drill was a culmination of the Rams' offensive success, and they were rewarded for that in the second half with a 69-yard touchdown grab from Cooper Kupp on the second play.
"I was running a scout route on the other side," Nacua said. "I turned around and I see Cooper walking in, so I put my hands up, walked straight to the sideline like, 'Hey, series, don't get better than that."
Apart from that touchdown, Nacua said New England played less man coverage than they were expecting, but they took advantage when that opportunity presented itself.
After a first-half explosion, Nacua wasn't targeted again until late in the fourth quarter. On a must-have third-and-three, Nacua's quick in cut generated enough separation for him to pluck Stafford's pass out of the air for the conversion. It was followed by a guttural scream of celebration. On the next set of downs, Nacua had a chance to put the game away for good, but the ball was knocked away. Rams safety Kamren Kinchens came down with the game-sealing interception shortly after on a deep ball that surely wouldn't have been attempted with more time on the clock.
"I thought it was a huge third-down catch that he had to be able to extend the drive and run some more clock off," said head coach Sean McVay. "The best thing about Puka is he'll probably tell you he wanted to make the one that he didn't make."
It was a classic Nacua performance. He broke tackles, made smart decisions with the ball in his hands and feasted on horizontally breaking routes. His speed and precision matched with Stafford's untethered touch was too much for the Patriots' defense to overcome.
"Puka's a stud," McVay said. "No moment is too big for him."
