Highlights & Takeaways From Rams’ Week 12 Victory Over Cardinals

The Los Angeles Rams went on the road in Week 12 and picked up their second straight victory, crushing the Arizona Cardinals 37-14 to improve to 5-6 on the season. The Rams have not lost to the Cardinals in Arizona since 2014 when they still were in St. Louis.

The offense was clicking from the jump for L.A. in this one and a big reason for that was the return of running back Kyren Williams, who was activated from injured reserve after missing the last four games.

Williams had a career day in his return, carrying the ball 16 times for 143 yards while also hauling in six receptions for 61 yards and two touchdowns. Not only did Williams look healthy, but he picked up right where he left off and now has nine total touchdowns in seven games.

It was also the best game of the season for Rams tight end Tyler Higbee, who caught a pair of touchdowns from Matthew Stafford and finished with five catches for 29 yards.

While Stafford didn’t have to do a ton through the air, he began the game with an absolute dime to Tutu Atwell for 42 yards. The Rams quarterback only had 229 yards passing although he had four touchdowns through the air, which was his most in nearly two seasons.

While a lot of the focus was on the offense for their explosive effort, the Rams defense did a terrific job limiting Kyler Murray and the Cardinals offense. After they scored on their opening drive, the Rams shut them out until the game was out of reach.

Rookie Kobie Turner played a big role in that with two sacks, doubling his career sack total. Aaron Donald of course also made his presence felt with two quarterback hits on Murray.

The real defensive stars came in the secondary though as Jordan Fuller had four pass breakout and Ahkello Witherspoon had three. They made life awfully difficult for the Cardinals pass-catchers all day long.

With the game out of reach in the fourth quarter, the Rams were even able to get newly-signed backup quarterback Carson Wentz some snaps as he saw his first NFL action in a year.

Up next for the Rams…

The Rams return home in Week 13 looking to get back to .500 as they host the 7-4 Cleveland Browns.

Despite their record though, the Browns have been bitten by the injury bug perhaps more than any other team with Deshaun Watson already being ruled out for the year and backup Dorian Thompson-Robinson suffering a concussion in Week 12. His status will be worth monitoring throughout the week, as will Myles Garrett’s after leaving the locker room in a sling on Sunday.