The Los Angeles Rams asserted their dominance against the division-rival San Francisco 49ers, defeating them 42-26 at Levi\u2019s Stadium behind another stellar performance from quarterback Matthew Stafford.<\/p>\n
Stafford finished 24-of-36 for 280 yards with four touchdowns, zero interceptions and a 127.1 rating. He has 20 touchdowns to zero interceptions over the past six games. Rams running back Kyren Williams rushed for two touchdowns. The Rams are now 7-2 and in second place in the NFC West after the Seattle Seahawks (7-2) beat the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday. The 49ers are 6-4.<\/p>\n
Niners QB Mac Jones put up a strong performance as well, finishing 33-of-39 with 319 yards, three touchdowns and one interception. But a banged-up San Francisco defense wasn\u2019t enough against a potent Rams offense.<\/p>\n
Stafford is on another level, still<\/b><\/p>\n
Each week, the Rams are following the same script: Play lots of three-tight-end sets, dare the defense to double either Puka Nacua or Davante Adams and let Stafford make the defense pay. And for a third straight week, they rolled up at least 34 points with at least four passing touchdowns from the 17th-year quarterback.<\/p>\n
Stafford is in a true MVP surge, and those characteristics were on full display against the 49ers, from some nice-velocity passes in the intermediate game to Adams and Terrance Ferguson, to safe decisions on play-action, to even some nice scrambles to buy time, like with his touchdown pass to Davis Allen.<\/p>\n
The Rams\u2019 offense is all working in tandem right now, with 13 personnel giving Stafford the keys, Adams looking unguardable in the red zone, Nacua as the clutch option on fourth down, Williams and Blake Corum pacing drives and an offensive line giving the quarterback plenty of time to operate.<\/p>\n
The lone concern is health, as Adams is dealing with a back injury and Nacua has been removed from a couple of games due to vicious hits. Receiver Tutu Atwell is on injured reserve, but the tight ends are saving what should otherwise be a concerning situation. \u2014 Nate Atkins, Rams beat writer<\/p>\n
Rams\u2019 defense finds a way<\/b><\/p>\n
The defensive formula was a little different this week. A Rams defense that entered ranked second in the league in points allowed found some leakage in the middle quarters when the pass rush fell silent and Jones got into all kinds of rhythm. They never really found that pass rush, as they finished with just one quarterback hit, coming from safety Quentin Lake. And that led to a four-touchdown day from the 49ers.<\/p>\n
But the turnovers showed up again, from a few players who are surging in that area. Linebacker Nate Landman had a punch-out in the red zone to stall a first-half drive, and Emmanuel Forbes Jr. put the dagger into the 49ers by tipping a pass back to himself for his second straight game with an interception. Lake added an interception on a two-point conversion attempt.<\/p>\n
Forbes is really saving this unit after cornerback Ahkello Witherspoon went on injured reserve. He\u2019s playing in a way that should secure a starting spot even when Witherspoon comes back in around a month. And it\u2019ll give the Rams some good depth at the spot with CBs Cobie Durant and Darious Williams playing mostly well, too.<\/p>\n
But with the way the lowest-paid defense in the NFL is constructed, it needs the pass rush to be a driving force, or it\u2019s going to give up some plays, too. So the Rams have to hope this was an off game in a matchup where 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan often finds answers on that side of the ball. \u2014\u00a0Atkins<\/p>\n
Drop the dime<\/p>\n
The 49ers used a dime defensive package prominently for the first time this season. Maybe they should put it back under wraps. The personnel group utilized one linebacker \u2014 Tatum Bethune \u2014 and six defensive backs: safeties Malik Mustapha, Ji\u2019Ayir Brown and Jason Pinnock; and cornerbacks Renardo Green, Deommodore Lenoir and Upton Stout. It didn\u2019t seem to catch the Rams off guard. They seemed to move the ball at will when they were in the red zone. The alignment did, however, seem to fool the 49ers, especially linebacker Dee Winters, who should have come off the field in dime situations. He didn\u2019t do so twice, leading Shanahan to call a frantic timeout in the first quarter and the 49ers to be hit with a too-many-men infraction in the second quarter. \u2014 Matt Barrows, 49ers beat writer<\/p>\n
Robinson emerging<\/p>\n
Niners fans begging to see well-used running back Christian McCaffrey get more breathers have gotten their wish the last two weeks as Brian Robinson Jr.\u2019s snap count \u2014 and yardage totals \u2014 have been on the rise. A week after rushing for 53 yards and a touchdown in New York, Robinson had 41 rushing yards and another score, one in which he ran over Landman on his way to the end zone. Robinson\u2019s effectiveness likely has been augmented by better blocking from the guard positions. Dominick Puni looks more like himself after dealing with a knee injury early in the season. Meanwhile, Spencer Burford and Ben Bartch are back from their own injuries. They alternated at left guard with Burford playing two series to every one for Bartch, who was activated off injured reserve Saturday. \u2014 Barrows<\/p>\n
Jones maintaining command<\/p>\n
At one point, the 49ers outscored the Rams 20-7 as Jones completed 25 of 29 passes for 241 yards and two touchdowns. But that was only after the Rams had jumped out to a 21-0 lead and before they dropped the hammer in the fourth quarter. Still, the 49ers quarterback again showed well for himself in a game there was a clear talent disparity.<\/p>\n
While the 49ers\u2019 walking-wounded defense didn\u2019t bother Stafford much, Jones was able to buy time in the pocket and find receiver Jauan Jennings, tight end George Kittle and McCaffrey often. Jones finished with three touchdowns.<\/p>\n
If, in fact, Brock Purdy is finally able to return from a turf-toe injury next week against the Cardinals, Jones will have gone 5-3 in his eight starts and kept the 49ers afloat in an injury-marred season. And he did it without top receivers Brandon Aiyuk and Ricky Pearsall, who, like Purdy, were also supposed to return weeks ago. \u2014 Vic Tafur,\u00a049ers beat writer<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Los Angeles Rams asserted their dominance against the division-rival San Francisco 49ers, defeating them 42-26 at Levi\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":368283,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[1582,276,2961,224,9006,5337,1232,9005],"class_list":{"0":"post-368282","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-california","10":"tag-la","11":"tag-los-angeles","12":"tag-los-angeles-rams","13":"tag-losangeles","14":"tag-nfl","15":"tag-san-francisco-49ers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115523219842132116","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/368282","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=368282"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/368282\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/368283"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=368282"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=368282"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=368282"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}