setting up the Giants game

Ian Rapoport shared the latest on Puka Nacua's status for tonight, saying his "status is very firmly up in the air" https://t.co/qKww5d1DFA

— Cameron DaSilva (@camdasilva) September 21, 2026

Sean McVay and Rams are being tested early, but it’s far too soon to write them off

Nate Atkins

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7608254/2026/09/21/rams-week-1-loss-myles-garrett-injury/?source=emp_shared_article&smid=ta-ios-share

LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles Rams coach Sean McVay loves to say humility is only a day away. Halfway across the world, humility hit his team in the season opener.

The Rams lost 27-7 to the San Francisco 49ers in Melbourne, Australia. They scored the lowest total of any team in Week 1, one year after leading the NFL with 30.5 points per game. It was the fewest points they’ve scored with Matthew Stafford at quarterback, and their first defeat by multiple scores since 2024.

The numbers speak to the depths of that performance, but also to the standard that made the Rams Super Bowl favorites even before their blockbuster trade for two-time Defensive Player of the Year Myles Garrett or the return of three-time Defensive Player of the Year Aaron Donald from retirement.

Unlike some infamous preseason “dream teams,” these Rams weren’t microwaved through transactions in a single offseason. This team fell just short of a trip to the Super Bowl and returned every starter except the two it replaced with Garrett and All-Pro cornerback Trent McDuffie.

But with Garrett on injured reserve, the new-look secondary struggling out of the gate and the age on this team, it’s worth weighing the risk of a group with this much potential. And also worth asking:

Was the blowout loss to the 49ers just a Week 1 international anomaly? Or was it representative of a new floor?

“Everybody’s freaking out, which I understand. We didn’t put together the greatest showing out there,” wide receiver Davante Adams said. “But you’re a fool if you think that that’s what it’s going to look like every single week.”
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Perhaps the biggest sign of encouragement is that Week 1 duds are part of the Rams’ track record. McVay famously sits almost all non-rookie contributors for the entire preseason. It can lead to slow Septembers, like when the Rams started 3-6 in 2023 or 1-4 in 2024 before finishing 10-7 in both seasons.

It especially takes a toll on the offense, as the Rams showed last season by scoring just 14 points in the season opener before averaging 31.5 the rest of the way to finish as the No. 1 offense.

That toll shows up most in the passing game, which is a timing-and-rhythm operation. “Rhythm” has been the buzzword McVay and others have used to explain what was missing against the 49ers.

At times, Stafford overthrew Adams and Puka Nacua by passing the ball before they turned out of their breaks. In others, he tried to overcorrect by waiting until his receivers locked eyes with him, which introduced traffic and collisions. On the opening series, Stafford threw a deep ball expecting a wide-open Nacua to work a quick out-and-up play along the sideline, but the pass sailed over his head.

“It’s just Week 1 stuff that you deal with sometimes,” Adams said. “It’s not an excuse, but there’s certain times you have to feel them out and get a good feel for what the defense (is) and what they’re doing based on what we were running.”

Some regression was likely for Stafford (now 38) and Adams (33) after they led the league in passing touchdowns and receiving touchdowns, respectively. With Stafford, it’s difficult to expect a career year to repeat the very next season.

But if the concern was an age cliff, that didn’t show up in their play in training camp. They performed well against their own cornerback duo of McDuffie and Jaylen Watson, as well as starting units from the Dallas Cowboys and New Orleans Saints in joint practices. Stafford’s elite arm strength didn’t appear diminished at all.

But Adams and Stafford took enough time off between sitting three preseason games that they need to find their connection again after Week 1.

The Rams also used their tight ends little against the 49ers after last season’s immense success from the group and all the training camp efforts to expand Terrance Ferguson’s role. The leading tight end, Davis Allen, finished with 13 yards against San Francisco, and Ferguson saw just one target on a forced deep ball rather than any designed plays. He missed time late in training camp, so his timing and role may have been thrown off. But the offensive showing in Melbourne shows a clear path to improvement.

Kyren Williams and Blake Corum combined for 95 yards on 4.5 yards per rush but saw just 21 combined carries. The Rams’ offensive line was perhaps their best unit in Australia, but Williams, Corum and the guards got caught trying to time up their rushing lanes, which limited the explosiveness of the run game.

On defense, the inspiration comes from how the Rams can use players the team simply didn’t tap into against the 49ers.

Defensive coordinator Chris Shula’s plan appeared to rely on Garrett wrecking the game as part of a four-man pass rush, a plan Los Angeles rode last season with Jared Verse that led the NFL in four-man pressure rate, according to the NFL’s Next Gen Stats.

But with Garrett so hobbled he didn’t factor into the box score, and with the Rams only blitzing 11.1 percent of the time, the pass rush managed just two quarterback hits and zero sacks against Brock Purdy and the play-action-heavy, quick passing of Kyle Shanahan’s scheme. The 49ers didn’t force the rushed throws into zone coverage the Rams were banking on, which largely spoiled the talents of press-man cornerbacks like McDuffie and Watson.

The plan will need to be different with Garrett out for at least the next four weeks. As he departs for now, the Rams will gain Donald, who is expected to make his season debut Monday night against the New York Giants. They hope he can provide a mix of disruption and manipulation to the blocking schemes to create one-on-one opportunities for Byron Young, Kobie Turner, Braden Fiske and Josaiah Stewart. Stewart won’t be Garrett, of course, but he could succeed in these situations after posting the second-best pressure rate on the team last season at 17.3 percent in a limited sample.

“You think they’re going to double- or triple-team a guy after not playing for two years?” Donald said. “They ain’t worried about me, man.”

If the Rams can get back to wreaking havoc on the passer, they have a back seven built to create turnovers between Nate Landman, McDuffie and safeties Kam Curl and Kam Kinchens. And it could happen more if the Rams can get back to building leads with a high-octane offense.

The track records for those who struggled in Melbourne are just so consistent: McVay has reached the playoffs in seven of nine seasons. Stafford ranks sixth all-time in passing yards and is the reigning MVP. Adams ranks seventh all-time in touchdown receptions and led the league with 14 last season. Williams has rushed for at least 1,100 yards and 10 touchdowns in three straight seasons. Young and Turner have posted at least seven sacks in each of the last three seasons.

If any franchise is built to bounce back to a high standard, it’s the Rams.

The Rams need a win Monday night, and not just to rid the stench of the loss to the 49ers. The Giants present the most winnable game of the four that Garrett must miss, with road trips to play the Denver Broncos and Philadelphia Eagles up next, followed by another Monday night game against Josh Allen and the 2-0 Buffalo Bills.

McVay teams have a history of digging out of early holes to make the playoffs, but this year’s schedule is among the toughest in the league with three NFC West battles remaining against the 49ers and Seattle Seahawks. The goal this year isn’t simply to earn a wild-card spot. It’s to reach the Super Bowl, and securing home games could be critical after traveling the second-most miles of any team this season.

Health remains a question for the Rams in the short and long term. Garrett must miss at least the next month, but it’s unclear exactly when he’ll be back. Donald is attempting a comeback at 35 after two years off. Stafford is managing a degenerative back issue, though he is in a healthier space than he was a year ago. Nacua, questionable against the Giants after missing practice Friday and Saturday with a hip injury, plays a high-volume, physical style that exposes him to vicious hits. And Adams battled lower-body injuries for much of last season and turns 34 in December.

The Rams’ depth at quarterback, offensive line and wide receiver is also in question.

It’s easy to chalk up many of the Melbourne struggles to one bad Week 1 performance following a long international trip and arriving just 28 hours before game time. But it’s fair to lower expectations of the pass rush. The Rams were set to be the first team to boast two players with 100 career sacks and a 20-sack season in Garrett and Donald. Now, the earliest those two could share the field is Week 6 against the Arizona Cardinals.

Young is also dealing with a knee issue that has lingered since last year’s postseason run, and it was curious to see him not get to Purdy in Week 1 despite all the attention Garrett demanded on the other side of the line.

The Rams also still have to prove they’ve made structural improvements on special teams. They allowed a 45-yard kick return in Week 1, and Xavier Smith has to prove he is over the ball-security issues that crept up in last season’s playoffs.

There are also the odds of history working against the Rams. Per The Athletic’s Austin Mock, since 2002, none of the 14 teams that entered a season with +500 or better odds to win the Super Bowl have come away with a ring.

Ultimately, it’s worth betting on McVay, Stafford, Adams, Nacua, McDuffie, Young and Williams. The Rams are no strangers to bad openers, and they have enough stars on both sides of the ball to compensate for deficiencies that pop up in any certain area, like they appear to have in the pass rush.

It’s fair to expect another slow start this season, given the Rams are 0-1 and will play three loaded opponents in the next month without their best defensive player.

The ingredients that launched last season’s run to the NFC Championship Game are all in place, and perhaps no leader is better equipped to handle adversity than McVay.

“These are the opportunities to really separate yourself with how you handle them,” McVay said. “And what we’re not going to do is change. It’s easy to be positive, say all these things before you have it, but now, here you go. You get tested. …

“How do we go back to work? How do we make sure that we’re playing at the level that we’re capable of? We’re committed to our process. Then ultimately, when we get our next opportunity to swing, let’s go be courageous enough to go do that.”

Whether this year’s bounce back can still reach an expectation level that’s as high as any in NFL history remains the challenge.