Sunday was a day full of homecomings at SoFi Stadium when the Los Angeles Rams hosted the Detroit Lions. The two teams, of course, swapped quarterbacks in the offseason in the blockbuster trade that brought Matthew Stafford to the Rams for Jared Goff and draft picks.
While the game was closer than everyone expected, Stafford ultimately got the better of his former team by completing 28-of-41 passes for 334 yards and three touchdowns, leading the Rams to a 28-19 win to improve to 6-1 on the year.
The game started off weird as in the first quarter alone, the Lions successfully ran two fake punts and recovered an onside kick. So even though Stafford and the Rams offense didn’t get on the field for a while, they were eventually able to heat up to earn the victory.
After the game, Stafford discussed if facing his former team for the first time was emotional for him.
“It was a strange game for sure. I mean, you know, all the fakes and all the surprise onside (kicks), some possessions stolen there. You know, great plays by them. But, just kind of had a weird feel to it. Didn’t touch the ball too much in the first half but when we got our opportunities, we scored with it which was good. You know, it was a team win. Special teams came back and made a big play at the end of the game with Matt (Gay) making that field goal to really ice it. Jalen (Ramsey) making a great play late in the game to get us the pick. I thought we did some decent stuff on offense scoring with the football. So a team win. Detroit’s a tough out. Always has been, probably always will be. You know, just happy to get one.”
Stafford went on to add that he is just happy this game is over with so he can focus on football only moving forward.
“I don’t know. I had so many things changing in my life going on, that I knew this one was out there but I wasn’t sitting there thinking about it. I had plenty of other stuff to think about, to be honest with you. It’s been a little bit of a whirlwind. I’m just trying to make sure that I’m as prepared as I can every single day to help us win. Am I happy it’s over with? Yeah. You know, I got a lot of great friends, a lot of people I care about that are on that team or from that city, and just glad to have this one over with. Can put the story lines away and just go out and play football the rest of the year and just enjoy it.”
While he was excited to get this game behind him, Stafford did conclude that it was good to see a lot of familiar faces on the opposing sideline.
“No it was just good to see them. I just haven’t seen those guys in a while. I talk to them, you know, on text and all that kind of stuff. But just good to see their face, see those guys. Spent a lot of time with a lot of those people over there and have some really great relationships. So it was good to see those people again.”
To this point, the trade has worked out exactly as the Rams would hope as Stafford is in the MVP conversation and L.A. looks like Super Bowl contenders through the first seven weeks of the season.
There are still a lot of things to clean up though, and it is clear that Stafford and the Rams are not satisfied with their 6-1 record.
