Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford reverts to prime form in win over Vikings on Thursday Night Football, sparked by return of Puka Nacua and Cooper Kupp

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.

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