The debut of new Los Angeles Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford could not have gone much better. Not only did the Rams rout the Bears with a 34-14 win, but they also did it in spectacular fashion thanks to the efforts of him and the offense.
It took head coach Sean McVay’s offense just three plays to show off its new explosive approach after Stafford found wide receiver Van Jefferson for a 67-yard touchdown. This managed to draw quite a reaction from defensive stars like cornerback Jalen Ramsey and tackle Aaron Donald.
Stafford put on a show by completing 20 of 26 passes for 321 yards and three touchdowns while also making a bit of history after finishing with a 156.1 passer rating, the highest ever by a player in his debut with a new team.
Ramsey was loving every bit of how the team’s new signal-caller performed in his first game at SoFi Stadium, via Cameron DaSilva of USA Today:
“He did amazing,” Ramsey said after the game. “I’m sure he’s self-critical and he’s going to have some things that he’ll probably want to get better at and hopefully we can challenge him in practice to do that, but his command, his swag – like, everything was great. That’s like a debut that probably should go down in history, just the way he played, like his swag. I’m not all into the stats all the time, but his stats were probably crazy too. It’s just a debut that was nice.”
The celebrations from Ramsey and the rest of the team did not go unnoticed by Stafford:
“Yeah, I noticed it. It was awesome,” Stafford said. “You know, he’s a great teammate. He’s a guy that pushes me and pushes our entire receiving core. Everybody’s he’s guarding, that’s as good as a match up you’re going to get in this league and we get to see every single day. I tell those guys all the time, this is as good a practice I’ve ever been a part of. We’ve got extremely talented guys on both sides of the ball. “It’s a lot of fun to go out there and compete. At the end of the day, if we get the best of them one day, they’re going ‘Man, they’re on our team.’ And if they get the best of us one day, we’re going, ‘Shoot, I love having that defense on our team.’ So it was cool for him to be out there celebrating with me. I was having fun. He seemed like he was having a good time too.”
The defense provided a stark reminder of why they were the No. 1 defense in the league last season with a crucial interception in the end zone. Watching the offense quickly capitalize on it with a spectacular touchdown was a breath of fresh air for this group after watching the offense struggle to do their part through most of last season.
Ramsey’s comments are further proof of how much this locker room has gelled since Stafford’s arrival during the offseason. The prospect of this kind of star power continuing to feed off each other on both sides of the ball is certainly a scary sight for the rest of the league.
