Los Angeles Rams wide receiver Puka Nacua got off to a historic start to the 2025 season, although he unfortunately went down with an ankle injury early in the team’s Week 6 win over the Baltimore Ravens.
That injury kept Nacua out of the Rams’ Week 7 matchup with the Jacksonville Jaguars in London, which made sense considering the team has a bye in Week 8. That will give the star nearly three weeks off to rest his ankle and get back to full health.
Given Nacua’s production to start the season, a lot of people expected the Rams’ offense to crater without him. That was not the case though as L.A. had arguably its best offensive performance against Jacksonville.
Matthew Stafford completed passes to 10 difference receivers, including five touchdown passes with Davante Adams catching three and rookies Terrance Ferguson and Konata Mumpfield catching one each.
While a player like Nacua being out of the lineup is never ideal, Rams head coach Sean McVay explained how it actually could have been a blessing in disguise during his appearance on The Rich Eisen Show:
“I think what ended up happening is sometimes these things that are challenges can be blessings in disguise. What I mean by that is we’re always going to have Puka. When he’s up, as a focal point, but also, hey let’s let’s not in the meantime lose sight of, you know, we’ve got Puka, we’ve got Davante [Adams] but we’ve got these other players that we want to take advantage of. We’ve got these great players that we want to take advantage of them, and I thought that was illustrated by being able to have multiple personnel groupings, multiple guys involved, and where they’ve got some plays where they could maybe be the primary in a progression. Then it allows those other guys to be a little bit fresher.”
McVay is right that the Rams have a lot of talent on the offensive side of the ball and it was nice to see Stafford spread it around in Nacua’s absence.
When the Rams return to the field in Week 9 they will host the New Orleans Saints, so it will be interesting to see if the star receiver is back in the lineup or if they give him enough week to ensure he is full healthy and not rushing back.
Matthew Stafford explains how Rams beat Jaguars blitz
The Jaguars blitzed the Rams a lot, but that didn’t seem to affect Matthew Stafford at all as he explained how they were able to beat it.
“They’re an aggressive team,” Stafford said. “I think their defensive coordinator does a nice job bringing different blitz packages. It was kind of one of those games, like a little bit of tough, tough game to kind of throw and catch with the ball and just the way the field was going. So they were playing sticky coverage a lot and and bringing some pressure. So hats off to them. They’re an aggressive-style defense, they’re really good front. Bunch of first round picks all over that all over that front. I thought most part our guys did a really nice job of just battling.”
