The Los Angeles Rams went on the road for the first time in Week 3 and came away with a divisional victory, beating the Arizona Cardinals 20-12 to move to 2-1 on the season.
The win hardly comes as a surprise considering the Rams have dominated the Cardinals under Sean McVay, improving their record against them to 10-1 in his tenure.
Things weren’t as easy as they should have been for the Rams though as a few mistakes kept them from putting the game away early. Chief among them was a fumble by Cam Akers late at the 1-yard line. With the Rams leading 20-9, the offense was driving to add another score and put the game away early in the fourth quarter.
Instead, Akers coughed the ball up, forcing the defense to come up with a couple of more stops, which they did, to seal the victory.
Outside of that fumble though, it was a solid game for Akers, who had 12 carries for 61 yards and a touchdown. After a rough start to the season, it is good to see him to begin to round into form as the Rams’ top option at running back.
The Rams’ only other touchdown was scored on a 20-yard end-around by Cooper Kupp. Other than that though it was a quiet day for the Rams star as Kupp only finished with four catches and 44 yards, breaking a streak of 15 straight games with 90 or more yards.
Ben Skowronek actually led the Rams in receiving with four catches for 66 yards, also adding some nice blocks as his role as a fullback continues to increase in this offense.
Defensively, the Rams were great all day, forcing Kyler Murray to beat them with intermediate throws from in the pocket. They also kept Arizona out of the end zone all day, holding them to just four field goals.
While things still aren’t perfect for the Rams, it is good to see them improving each week after the Week 1 loss. There are still a ton of mistakes to clean up, but L.A. will go into their Week 4 matchup with the San Francisco 49ers on Monday Night Football in sole possession of first place in the NFC West.
