alyoshamucci wrote:

I am not used to writing up games with this whole “winning” thing.

The Great

1) Attitude on offense … score score score score score.

2) Pass blocking. Albeit against a beat up unit …

3) 4 TDs by a QB … when was the last time that happened?

4) Special teams, wow, this is the best I’ve ever seen for us.

5) Donald and Tru counting money in turnovers …

The Good

6) Finally got a connection with Sammy, and in the rain no less.

7) Gurley leading the NFL in TDs? On pace for 2000 yards and 20 TDs?

8) Goff on pace for 4000 yards?

9) Pharoh Cooper on Punt returns … whew.

10) Malcolm Brown’s strength and ability will likely mean we lose him soon, but until then he is going to give Gurley the rest he needs so he can stay fresh.

The Bad

11) Robey Coleman is getting a little grabby. Makes me nervous.

12) Kupp needs to meditate a little and calm himself down. Maybe do some visualization techniques. He needs to catch the ball.

13) Not enough Everett and Reynolds in my opinion.

I have no ugly section … again. Darn.

Rams special teams dominance:
* 1st in kickoff return average
* 1st in FG make percentage
* Fewest punt return yards allowed
* No XP missed

That’s just amazing, really.

The Rams lead the league in leading the league.

..

Well run route by Kupp but high target to stay in bounds

A post shared by Matt Waldman (@mattwaldmanrsp) on Nov 5, 2017 at 2:13pm PST

Goff 61-yard throw from pitch for 67-yd TD

A post shared by Matt Waldman (@mattwaldmanrsp) on Nov 5, 2017 at 3:28pm PST

M Brown Watch

A post shared by Matt Waldman (@mattwaldmanrsp) on Nov 5, 2017 at 4:05pm PST

Rams winning with newfound poise, maturity

VINCENT BONSIGNORE

link: http://www.ocregister.com/2017/11/06/bonsignore-rams-show-poise-maturity-is-no/

EAST RUTHERFORD NJ – The Rams’ pummeling of the Giants was nearly complete Sunday when Jared Goff started spreading a message to teammates.

On the verge of completing a 3-0 sweep of games in far-away Jacksonville, London and New Jersey, the Rams had done more than just set themselves up beautifully for a second-half playoff run.

Sitting at 6-2 – and as they would discover just a few hours later, alone atop the NFC West standings – the Rams had answered questions, quelled concerns, turned skepticism into belief and altered a long-standing national narrative.

If not one that permeated their own building.

It’s a hell of a thing, turning around a franchise-wide mentality of losing and fear and a lack of confidence and composure. It can take years, if it ever happens at all.

But as Goff walked the sidelines at MetLife Stadium with the Rams on the brink of going 6-2 for the first time since 2001 and positioned to end a 13-year run of non-winning seasons, what he saw was a team, coaching staff and franchise for which something dramatic finally clicked.

One that’s well equipped to meet challenges, be it on the personnel or coaching level. And physically and mentally strong enough to keep forging ahead to a bright, exciting future,.

“We are a mature team. I think we have a lot of maturity,” Goff recalled talking to teammates about Sunday. “Although we are young, we do have some veterans that lead us really well. We are mature for being as young as we are. We are able to handle that stuff really well. It’s a testament to the coaches and the training staff. Everyone that puts that plan together, how we’re going to eat and all that stuff that goes into it. It’s been awesome.”

It would be easy to simply point to the additions of Andrew Whitworth, John Sullivan, Robert Woods and Connor Barwin – the four free agents the Rams sought out as much for their on-field impact as their off-field – as the catalyst for that infusion of maturity. And while each has been a home run import in all the ways the Rams hoped – greatly enhancing their skill level at key positions while also providing professionalism, wisdom and leadership – none of it would have mattered had they encountered a resistant or skeptical locker room or a coaching staff too insecure to provide them the necessary voice to spread their foresight and knowledge.

In fact, they encountered the exact opposite.

New head coach Sean Mcvay wasn’t just emphatic about seeking veteran savviness during free agency, he was ardent in giving those leaders the platform to advance their gospel. Not every coaching staff has the confidence or self-awareness to do that, worried it might usurp their authority or undermine their message. And you don’t have to trace back far in the Rams’ coaching lineage to find some that were resistant to giving too much of a voice to players.

McVay lacks nothing when it comes to confidence, even at the age of 32 and in the first year of his first head coaching gig. It also helps that he’s remarkably genuine and supremely talented in scripting and communicating a decisive, believable plan that compels those around him to not only buy in, but eagerly execute and embody it.

“The buy-in level was immediate,” Rodger Saffold told me Sunday.

Or, as Goff put it: “Coach McVay and his staff has done a great job implementing that high standard and expectation. Never settling. Just trusting what we do day in and day out. Trusting our process and never wavering from that.”

Just as importantly, what McVay and the newcomers like Whitworth and Woods found upon arriving in Los Angeles was a locker room thirsty for leadership and, in the cases of Alec Ogletree and Trumaine Johnson and Aaron Donald and others, players who were on the brink of ascending to positions of authority but, be it a previous coaching staff that subtly discouraged them or few credible veterans around them to serve as examples, hadn’t yet emerged as leaders.

They were all open to learning a new, better way. And eager to lead.

From the earliest stages of OTAs, Whitworth explained how he’d sometimes sit back and observe his new teammates to get a feel for their authenticity. He was impressed by what he saw. How serious guys were about earnestly and professionally going about their business day after day.

“We preach it every single day that we work,” Ogletree said. “It pays off in the long run, just being consistent.”

After the Rams lost a winnable game to the Washington Redskins in Week 2 at the Coliseum, some 30 minutes or so after the loss Whitworth observed to me about how well he felt the Rams had responded to the bitter defeat and how confident it made him about moving forward.

The Rams are 5-1 since that loss.

That maturity and professionalism is about to be tested in a major way.

As the Rams approach the second half of their season, three games beckon against teams currently in the NFC playoff picture – the Vikings (Nov. 19), Saints (Nov. 26) and Eagles on Dec. 10. In addition, they play in Seattle on Dec. 17 – the Seahawks are a game behind the Rams in the NFC West – and play the AFC South-leading Titans on Christmas Eve.

In case you’re wondering if the Rams are aware of what’s ahead, the answer is yes. Big time.

That awareness is also coupled with a level of confidence after going 6-2 over the first half and answering one pressing question after another.

“As long as we keep it up and keep doing what we are doing, we’ll be fine,” Donald said. “But that’s on us and that’s up to us, and the way we prepare and continue to stay hungry.”

How the Rams Went From Laughingstock to Contenders

Every year, aspiring actors head to Hollywood in hopes of remaking themselves as movie stars.

The Los Angeles Rams are doing their own version of that transformation. In less than a year, they have gone from being a laughingstock to a playoff contender. In their return to Los Angeles last season, they were the lowest-scoring team in the N.F.L. Now they are the highest-scoring team, with a good shot at winning their division.

That turnaround was underscored on Sunday, when the Rams throttled the Giants, 51-17, in New Jersey. Through eight games the Rams are 6-2 and in first place in the N.F.C. West. It’s the Rams’ best start since 2001, when they went 14-2 and made it to the Super Bowl.

Before Sunday, the Rams trailed only the Houston Texans in scoring. But after dominating the Giants, the Rams are now scoring 32.9 points a game, while the Texans, who lost to the Indianapolis Colts in their first game without the injured quarterback Deshaun Watson, fell to 28.6 points a game.

“There were a lot of great individual efforts; the offensive line continues to protect well,” Coach Sean McVay said. “We’re eager to see if we can continue to play good football.”

At this time last year, the Rams were a modest 3-5 but lost all but one of their remaining seven games to finish 4-12. Naysayers began to ask whether the N.F.L. owners had made a mistake in letting the Rams leave St. Louis and return to Southern California, where they had played until 1994.

Although questions remain about how much fans in Los Angeles will embrace the Rams — they are ranked 27th in attendance this season — it’s clear the team has found a way to recreate itself on the field.

One of the keys was changing coaches. After firing Jeff Fisher, who came with the team from St. Louis, the Rams ripped up the playbook and hired McVay, who was then Washington’s offensive coordinator. At 31, he is the youngest head coach in N.F.L. history.

Another key has been quarterback Jared Goff. Last year, the Rams made a splash by trading six draft picks to acquire the first choice, which they used to select Goff. New to the league, he struggled and lost all seven games that he started.

In the off-season, the Rams added players to help Goff. They signed center John Sullivan and left tackle Andrew Whitworth to bolster the offensive line, and acquired receivers Sammy Watkins and Robert Woods. The Rams made the most of their limited draft picks by taking tight end Gerald Everett from South Alabama in the second round and wide receiver Cooper Kupp from Eastern Washington in the third round.

(On Sunday, Woods had two touchdown catches. For the season, Everett has eight receptions and one touchdown, while Kupp has 26 receptions and three scores.)

A stronger offensive line and extra receivers have helped Goff. He has been sacked 10 times this season; in seven games last season, he was sacked 26 times.

With more time to throw, Goff has more touchdown passes and fewer interceptions this season. He has thrown for 13 touchdowns (including four on Sunday) and four interceptions, compared with five scores and seven interceptions last season. His adjusted yards per attempt (which accounts for the impact of interceptions) rose to 7.7 from 4.3 last season.

Goff and the Rams have also benefited from Todd Gurley, a first-round pick in 2015 who has rebounded after a lackluster 2016. He has seven rushing touchdowns in eight starts after having six in 16 starts last season. He is averaging 4.3 yards a carry after averaging 3.2 (and the proverbial cloud of dust) in 2016. He has also caught three touchdown passes this season.

For all their success, the Rams have a lot of work to do secure a playoff spot. They face the Texans at home next week, and must face Philadelphia, New Orleans, Tennessee and Minnesota — all division leaders. They also must play their division rivals Seattle and Arizona on the road.

Still, considering where they were last season, the Rams seem comfortable with their newfound fortune.

“We have to keep doing what we’re doing and not take our foot off the gas pedal,” Goff said after Sunday’s game.

LMU93 wrote:

I’m happiest for players like Saffold, Quinn, Brockers, and Johnson. Those guys have been with this team 6+ years now and been waiting to play for a real contender. Sort of like Todd Lyght in 1999.

Rams scoring drives:
2016: 42 (2.6/game)
2017: 47 (5.9/game)

Raise your hand if you thought Goff would be tied for 8th in the league in passer rating and 1st in yards/attempt in midseason….

Most points scored by a Rams team through 8 games:
330- 2000
313- 1950
265- 1951
265- 1999
263- 2017

Best points differential by a Rams team through 8 games:
+147- 1999
+126 – 2001
+108- 2017

Rams red zone scoring has improved- now 16th in the league (52.8%).

If there are two stats the Rams defense could improve upon they would be red zone scoring defense (28th) and yards/rush allowed (27th).

QB sacks:
2016- 31 (1.9/game)
2017- 25 (3.1/game)

QB sacks allowed:
2016- 49 (3.1/game)
2017- 10 (1.3/game)

Defensive takeaways:
2016- 18 (1.1/game)
2017- 15 (1.9/game)

Zuerlein is on pace to break the NFL single season FGs record (on pace for 48).

Johnny Hekker is on pace to have the fewest punts of his career (54) but his highest percentage of punts downed inside the 20 (55.6%).

The 6-2 Stunner: How the Rams Stole the Spotlight at NFL’s Midseason Mark

By Peter King

https://www.si.com/nfl/2017/11/06/jared-goff-los-angeles-rams-sean-mcvay-first-place-week-9-mmqb

Trying to digest the 6-2 Rams. Let’s start with Jared Goff, on the bus from the Meadowlands to Newark Airport, after his Rams hung 51 on a once-proud Giants franchise Sunday afternoon. The son of a former major-league backup catcher was talking about the World Series just completed. “I loved this World Series,” Goff said of the Dodgers-Astros matchup. “It felt like I was watching the Little League World Series. Every time somebody would hit on a home run, seems like somebody on the other team hit one. It was great.”

Goff and the Rams are hitting a lot of home runs these days too. Goff completed throws of 35, 44, 44, 52 and 67 yards in the 51-17 beatdown of the Giants on Sunday. The reason why the Rams are such a great story—other than the fact that their coach graduated from Miami (Ohio) just 10 years ago, and that they haven’t had a winning season in 14 years—is they are so darn explosive, and so darn likeable.

Look at the NFL’s points per game basement last year …

Team Points Per Game 32. Rams (4-12) 14.0 31. Browns (1-15) 16.5

…and the penthouse this season.

Team Points Per Game 1. Rams (6-2) 32.9 2. Eagles (8-1) 31.4

How have they done it? By stealing, in part. That’s right. Thievery.

On Friday, on the team bus on the way to the Los Angeles International Airport for the flight to New Jersey, coach Sean McVay was telling a story about one of the turning-point plays of their season. It happened in Week 4, against Dallas. Late in the third quarter, down 29-24, Rams ball at their 47-yard line, Jared Goff took a shotgun snap. From Goff’s left, speedy Tavon Austin came in motion. Snap. Ball-fake to Austin on the jet sweep. Todd Gurley circled out of the backfield as though to run a typical running back wheel route. Except he never stopped. He bisected Dallas defenders Damien Wilson and Kavon Frazier and kept going up the right seam. Goff hit Gurley in stride, for a 53-yard touchdown. The Rams took the lead there and never trailed.

“I got that from Andy Reid,” McVay said. “Opening night, Kansas City at New England.”

So I go to trusty NFL Game Pass, to search for Alex Smith to a back, seam route, big play. There it is, eerie in its similarity, early in the fourth quarter, first game of this NFL season.

Smith took a shotgun snap. From Smith’s left, speedy Tyreek Hill came in motion. Snap. Ball-fake to Hill on the jet sweep. Kareem Hunt circled out of the backfield as though to run a wheel route. Except he never stopped. He bisected Patriot defenders Cassius Marsh and Kyle Van Noy and kept going up the right seam. Smith hit Hunt in stride, for a 78-yard touchdown. The Chiefs took the lead there and never trailed.

“K.C. ran it the first game of the season,” Goff said Sunday. “That was straight from them. But you saw how well it fit what we do. They’ve got players like we have. Our coaches do things like that pretty often. It really makes it fun. It’s just like, we come into our meeting Saturday night before the game, and we sit down and look at the plays, and it’s hard to find plays we don’t like. It’s hard to find plays we think aren’t going to work.”

I can’t tell you how many coaches over the years, smart coaches, have told me openly that they steal. Buddy Ryan was one of the first, at the height of his “46 Defense” success . In 1985 or ’86, he told me he watched tape (might have been film) of other teams he admired every week, and he’d copy some defensive wrinkle or blitz. The coaches I admire admit it the way McVay did instead of huffing and puffing and being all proud. McVay knows everything in the game comes around. Goff says when one of these old but new plays gets introduced in practice, “The defense will go, ‘Wow. Cool.’”

“What you notice about Sean,” said Rams COO Kevin Demoff, who led the charge to hire the then-30-year-old Washington offensive coordinator, “is he’s a millennial in so many ways. But he’s really an old soul in football. He knows what works. Like, he said to us he really wanted Wade Phillips to coach the defense. He knew he wasn’t going to do it, so why not get someone who’d done it so well for so long. So the defense is all Wade’s. He took the interim coach [John Fassel] and kept him as special-teams coach, and gave him more responsibilities, like clock management and timeouts. So he knows it’s smart to empower people.”

Interesting that the Rams have gone from the most feeble offense to the most explosive, in nine months. How does that happen? By getting everyone involved. Robert Woods, Buffalo free-agent import, with two TD catches Sunday. Sammy Watkins, Buffalo trade import, with a 67-yard scoring bomb from Goff. Cooper Kupp, third-round rookie, with a catch-in-the-flat and quick lateral for a nine-yard gain to another weapon, Austin. Gurley, with 102 total yards and two more touchdowns. Rookie tight end Gerald Everett with a 44-yard catch, and another young tight end, Tyler Higbee, with a touchdown. And Goff, with his best game as a pro, four touchdowns and no picks and a 146.8 rating.

“The ball’s going to be spread around,” said Goff, “which makes it easy on me. There’s always a good option for me. We’ve got so many talented players here, and for us, it’s like what Tiger Woods says: ‘Winning fixes everything.’” As does fun. And no team is having more fun than the Rams right now.

You know what else is impressive? Winning travels. Look what’s happened the past three games. The Rams flew to Jacksonville and won by 10. Then it was on to London; Rams 33, Cards 0. Then home, then the bye, then on to New Jersey. Rams by 34. Three games, 3,000 to 7,000 miles away from home, and three double-digit wins. It’s strange to say “first-place Rams” in November. But the Rams are trending up. I’ll be surprised if they flatten out in the second half of the season.[

LaFleur said over the bye they worked on redzone offense.

As for just Goff…until today Goff ranked pretty low if you just look at a readily available stat, which is percentage of TDs on attempts inside the 10. (No one does that stat for qbs inside the 20.)

At one point before this game he was 28.6%. Today he was 50%. If you combine today with the previous games he now stands at 33% overall.

The top 5 qbs in the league when it comes to this stat range from 55.6% to 81%.

As of right this moment 33% would be ranked about 17th.

50% for the season would be ranked about 8th.

..

Rams are making believers of us all

VINCENT BONSIGNORE

http://ramsrule.com/herd/read.php?19,597717,597717#msg-597717

EAST RUTHERFORD N.J. – In an utterly ironic Rams season — the worst offensive team we’ve seen in years is now one of the best, a franchise that hasn’t had a winning season in 13 years now stands among the NFL’s elite, and the boring, mundane product they’ve typically produced is suddenly and undeniably must-see TV — it’s only appropriate the early knockout punch they delivered to the New York Giants on Sunday was dripping with irony.

It’s been that kind of season for the Rams.

And they are making believers of us all. Even if they sometimes can’t themselves.
Such was the case on Sunday when Jared Goff lofted a high, arching pass downfield toward Sammy Watkins, only to instinctively grimace believing he put too much air under it.

“Right away I thought that might be too much,” he’d say later.

Watkins, running as fast as he could while tracking the ball, had little faith he’d arrive in time to make the catch.

“I didn’t know I would get there,” he admitted.

And after months and months of practice trying to finally hook up on a long pass, wouldn’t you know it, the play and route and throw unfolding in front of 76,877 fans at wet, cold MetLife Stadium represented the first time the Goff and Watkins had actually worked on it together.

“That was the first time he’s ever ran that route,” Goff explained.

Yet, much like the magical Rams season playing out before our very eyes — the one turning a previously 90-pound weakling into the NFL’s version of the Hulk while going coast to coast to convert skeptics into believers, just as the ball majestically descended from the gray skies above Watkins stretched his arms out as far as he could.

And into his hands the football softly settled.

Watkins, still in full stride, burst past the remaining Giants defenders on his way to a 67-yard touchdown to put the Rams up by 17 points. They’d eventually pummel the Giants 51-17 for their third straight win.

“It felt great,” Watkins said of the long touchdown.

It wasn’t supposed to happen, yet it did.

The Rams aren’t supposed to be 6-2, yet they are.

They aren’t supposed to be in first place, yet that’s exactly where they sit.

It was expected to take Sean McVay years to breathe life into a Rams offense that barely averaged 14 points per game last year, if he did it at all.

Yet with the calendar flipping from October to November the Rams are averaging 32.9 points per game, easily the best in the NFL

What isn’t supposed to be actually is. Decisively so.

How’s that for irony.

And here’s the thing: Just as the ball fell from the sky organically and naturally into Watkins hands – as if it was meant to be – there is nothing about the Rams right now that seems distorted or fictitious or false.

It’s real. It feels right.

And as each week passes and another powerful statement gets delivered, the Rams record, their place in the NFL and the brightness of their future is becoming as believable as it is apparent.

Even if the most ardent of skeptics continues to worry about the other shoe falling.

As many did when the Rams first embarked on their month long odyssey away from Los Angeles after the gut-punch loss to the Seahawks in early October.

Here we go again, some thought.

They’ll wilt in the heat and humidity of Jacksonville, they warned. They’ll fall victim to the time difference and ordeal of traveling to London to play the Cardinals, some cautioned a week later.

The rust of the bye week, the cross-country travel to New Jersey and the trap being set by the lowly Giants will certainly get them, others worried this week.

“We’ve struggled so much in the past so it’s hard to go all in on us week to week,” veteran guard Rodger Saffold said. The skepticism is understandable as a result.

Albeit waning by the minute after they aced their month-long test with a cumulative score of 111-34 while dominating the Jaguars, Cardinals and Giants.

Three up, three down. And they barely broke a sweat in the process.

Goff threw for a career-high four touchdowns while completing 14 of 22 passes for 311 yards. His passer rating was 146.8, the ninth highest for a single game in franchise history.

Robert Woods scored his first two touchdowns of the season and caught four passes for 70 yards.

The offense scored on eight of their first nine possessions. They scored 40 points for the second time this season.

Keep in mind they didn’t score 40 points in a game in the past two seasons combined.

The defense forced three turnovers, leading to 17 points. Special teams blocked their second punt in three games.

On and on it goes. And the Rams keep getting better and better. Something special is going on here, folks.

As for that other shoe? It high-stepped it out of town.

Maybe it’s time we all recognized.

“The more we win these games the more people are going to believe this is a true and competitive football team that’s going to put us in position to be a top team in this league.” Saffold said.

I don’t know about you guys, but I’ve seen enough.

I’m all in.

Talk about irony.

Giants defense seemingly quits on McAdoo

Mike Florio

Giants defense seemingly quits on McAdoo

The Giants tend to be very patient with coaches and General Managers. It’s easy to exercise patience when the team isn’t disastrously bad.

This year, the team is disastrously bad. And Sunday’s game seems to feature the cardinal sin of any football operation — a team (specifically a defense) that has quit on its coach, Ben McAdoo.

The reason isn’t clear, but it appears that the New York defense simply hasn’t been trying as hard as maybe it otherwise could, should, or would. When the Rams turned a third-and-33 into a 52-yard touchdown, the video shows cornerback Eli Apple freezing up when he could have stopped receiver Robert Woods short of the sticks. The Giants defense otherwise has come off at times as lethargic and a step behind the L.A. offense.

It could be that the L.A. offense is a step ahead of the Giants defense. Or it could be that the Giants defense doesn’t really care today — possibly because of the decision to suspend cornerback Janoris Jenkins, the second time this year McAdoo has suspended a member of the secondary.

Whatever the reason and regardless of whether the Giants are waging a McAdoo mutiny, the second-year head coach needs to get things figured out quickly, or there won’t be a third.

Division is now

Rams: 6-2
Seattle: 5-3
ARZ: 4-4
SF: 0-9

Jared Goff and Rams, suddenly a powerhouse, destroy Giants

Alden Gonzalez

http://kwese.espn.com/blog/los-angeles-rams/post/_/id/36204/rams-suddenly-a-powerhouse-destroy-giants

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — Days before his Los Angeles Rams would play a road game against the New York Giants, Todd Gurley told coach Sean McVay about how he wished the bye week would’ve come a little bit later. The Rams were playing so well, coming off a 33-0 triumph from London, and some of them were uneasy about whether their offense could pick up where it left off after such an extended break.

Break or no break, flight or no flight, sun or no sun, the Rams’ offense continues to hum along.

On Sunday, in the middle of their third long trip in a four-week stretch, the Rams turned the mood at MetLife Stadium grayer than the sky that hovered above it. They demoralized the reeling Giants 51-17, improving to 6-2 in their first year under McVay. It’s the eighth game of the season, and the 2017 Rams have already outscored the 2016 Rams.

Yeah, that’s right.

It happened, actually, in the second quarter. A couple of penalties had the Rams facing third-and-33 from their own 48-yard line. They set up a screen with Robert Woods, playing it safe while hoping to get in field goal range. But Woods exploded to the middle of the field, found a hole and outran the Giants’ secondary. It was his first touchdown with the Rams and the longest of his career. It gave them 229 points, five more than their NFL-low total from all of last season.

But the Rams weren’t even close to done. After a three-and-out by the Giants that prompted boos from a scant crowd, Jared Goff dropped back into the pocket and aired it out to Sammy Watkins, who easily beat Giants corner Landon Collins in one-on-one coverage. It was a 67-yard hookup, on a ball that traveled 54 yards beyond the line of scrimmage and went for the deepest completion of Goff’s career. It gave the Rams 24 touchdowns, tying their total from a 2016 season that finished with a 4-12 record under Jeff Fisher.

Goff went 14-of-22 for 311 yards and a career-high four touchdowns with zero turnovers despite spending most of the fourth quarter on the bench. Goff has thrown 13 touchdown passes this season, eight more than he did in one fewer game as a rookie. Gurley added 104 scrimmage yards and two touchdowns, giving him 10 on the year — tying the career high he set in a dynamic rookie season.

The Rams were facing a one-win Giants team without its two best receivers (Odell Beckham Jr. and Brandon Marshall), its two best offensive linemen (Justin Pugh and Weston Richburg), its defensive captain (Jonathan Casillas), one of its starting defensive ends (Olivier Vernon) and one of its top cornerbacks (Janoris Jenkins). But the Rams took care of business.

They forced three turnovers — on a strip-sack by Aaron Donald, a forced fumble by Alec Ogletree and an interception by Trumaine Johnson — and blocked their second punt of the season. Offensively, they scored on eight of their first nine possessions. It marked the third time they have topped 40 points this season — after not scoring 40 points at all over the previous two seasons — and gave them a plus-108 point margin that is the NFL’s best.

But nothing puts things in perspective better than this:

The 2016 Rams, through 16 games: 224 points.

The 2017 Rams, through eight games: 263 points.

We all we got 👏
We all we need 👏#LAvsNYG pic.twitter.com/0RJU6UwiAY

— Los Angeles Rams (@RamsNFL) November 5, 2017