The Los Angeles Rams put up a valiant effort but once again fell in the regular season to the San Francisco 49ers in Week 2 of the 2023 NFL season.
The Rams had control of the game at halftime as the offense was able to move the ball well against the stout 49ers defense. However, things flipped in the second half as San Francisco found their groove on both sides and were able to close it out by bottling up Matthew Stafford.
Stafford has had to manage without Cooper Kupp available and the largest reason why is the emergence of Puka Nacua.
Nacua followed up on his impressive Week 1 performance against the Seattle Seahawks with another excellent showing as he routinely found himself open against the 49ers secondary.
Nuka recorded 15 receptions for 147 yards and broke multiple records but he admitted that it didn’t matter much to him because Los Angeles ended up losing, via Stu Jackson of TheRams.com:
“My success will come when the team wins,” Nacua said. “So I’m excited us for to be able to come back and capitalize when we’re able to win. It was sweet last week, I got things to improve on, but the most important thing is getting that dub.”
When asked about his quick start, Nacua admitted he couldn’t really process it but is trying his best to stay in the moment:
“I don’t know if I could wrap my head all the way around it,” Nacua said of how quickly success has come for him. “But one day at a time, one play at a time, just trying to be where my feet are at and make sure that I’m executing in the moments where I’m asked to execute.”
The rookie became the first player in NFL history to record at least 10 catches and record 100 yards in their first two career games. Nacua also set the NFL record for most receptions in a game for a rookie, as well as recorded the most receptions for player in their first two career games with 25.
What Nacua’s managed to do this early in his career is nothing short of incredible, though he seems to have his focus on the right thing which is winning football games. Until Kupp is able to return from his hamstring injury, expect Nacua to continue seeing a heavy share of the targets in the passing game. Defenses will start to key in on him, but he has shown an ability to beat teams in a variety of different ways so far in his young career.
