The Los Angeles Rams offense and Matthew Stafford struggled to move the ball against the Las Vegas Raiders, one of the league’s worst defenses. They are currently 27th in defensive DVOA, 20th by EPA per play, and have allowed the fifth most points per game, 26.1.
The Rams’ offense could only muster 13 — the defense scored seven points. Furthermore, all of those points came after dominant defensive stops or off of turnovers.
Matthew Stafford Throws For 154 Yards, The Fewest Yards With The Rams
While there are plenty of factors that affected the Rams’ offensive prowess, Matthew Stafford must shoulder his portion of the blame. Something he acknowledged.
“I left some plays out there for sure,” said Stafford postgame. “For the most part, just doing anything I can to help us win. Today that wasn’t launching it over the top and doing a bunch of play actions and throwing it down the field.”
Stafford finished the day going 14-of-23 for 154 yards, an interception, and a 62.6 passer rating. The team particularly struggled on third downs, going 2 for 10. Stafford also recognized a missed opportunity on one of those.
“One of those early third downs I got hit right as I threw it, trying to throw one to [wide receiver] Tyler [Johnson]. They busted on that, didn’t have anybody on him and I felt it just a little bit too late. They did a nice job getting home. …They were definitely playing an aggressive style of defense today.”
The result was Stafford’s fewest passing yards since donning a Rams uniform. In fact, it was the 10th fewest passing yards of his entire career and that includes four games in which he missed time or left the game entirely due to injury. So in reality this was the sixth-lowest performance of his career. He also posted his second-lowest passer rating as a Rams. It was the 22nd lowest of his 212-game career. The one lower Rams performance was in a 46.8 rated game in which he went 21 of 37 for 197 yards with one touchdown and three interceptions against the Rams’ next opponents, the Minnesota Vikings in 2021.
It is hard to chalk this all up to Stafford. As mentioned above there were extenuating circumstances that limited him, namely injuries. He mentioned the aggressive defense that was forcing him to get the ball out early.
This brings up the injuries to intended starters, center Jonah Jackson and left guard Steve Avila.
Stafford has also been without three of his favorite targets, Puka Nacua, Cooper Kupp, Tyler Higbee, and newcomer rookie Jordan Whittington. Kupp and Whittington should be back in action on Thursday against the Vikings.
