Rams Wire@TheRamsWire
Kam Kinchens has missed the past two games with a hamstring injury, but Sean McVay sounds encouraged by is safety’s potential to return soon.

Nice to hear #Rams CB Trent McDuffie be honest about the Defense's performance VS #Broncos.

One thing that stands out to me, is his quick mention of wanting to be more aggressive with dialing up Blitz Packages instead of running Zone Coverage a lot in the 2nd Half.

It's a small… pic.twitter.com/dYzqWf7bpU

— Ian (Rams Up Podcast) (@RamsUp_Ian) September 30, 2026

Rams’ game-sealing interception wiped out by controversial penalty as they fall to 1-2

Nate Atkins

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7639138/2026/09/28/rams-interception-referees-broncos/?unlocked_article_code=1.ElE.7hie.EO4bxVTUIQGr&source=emp_shared_article&smid=ta-ios-share

DENVER — The Los Angeles Rams had a win over the Denver Broncos wrapped up, or so they thought.

The pass from Bo Nix was in Josh Wallace’s arms. The referee ruled an interception.

And then there was a flag.

A pass interference call on Wallace extended a drive, a Broncos comeback and a Rams spiral. Nix muscled over the goal line with 47 seconds remaining, and Matthew Stafford ran out of time in a 30-26 defeat.

The margin between the agony of defeat and the thrill of victory is very thin. The Rams learned that on a night filled with penalties, reviews, scoring runs and chaos.

“Football’s a crazy sport, man,” safety and captain Quentin Lake said. “It’s all about momentum. We had the momentum. They made some plays on offense and defense to snatch the momentum back. At the end of the day, we have to finish.”

Whether the call on Wallace was correct or not can and will be debated. The play showed back-and-forth contact between Wallace and Pat Bryant, but the officials concluded Wallace’s was more aggressive and warranted the flag.

“I was just running with my man. It was a 50-50 ball along the sideline, so I went to get the ball,” Wallace said. “Hopefully I can look over it and find somewhere that I can be better. … It was very frustrating.”

Right after the Wallace penalty, Lake was flagged for a defensive holding that negated an incompletion, creating another moment of two-way contact that could be debated.

“You try to be physical as a DB sometimes. At the end of the day, you can’t be too handsy,” Lake said. “It’s unfortunate. It is. But at the same time, that’s the result that it is. You have to live with it and move on.”

The Rams are now saddled with a 1-2 start and facing questions amid a still daunting schedule. They might have to answer them without two of their best players, Myles Garrett and Puka Nacua.

“Just came up short,” coach Sean McVay said.

They had plenty of chances to win the game regardless of any calls. They were up 16-0 at halftime with a suffocating defense that had held the Broncos to 67 total yards. But special teams errors and coverage mistakes let Denver’s young quarterback, Nix, get rolling in his home building.

The offense put forth a dominant first half, but it ended with three second-quarter field goals, thanks to penalties and mistakes that cut off promising drives.

They led 19-16 with the ball across midfield with five minutes remaining, but Stafford threw early in the face of a heavy blitz to Kyren Williams. Talanoa Hufanga intercepted the pass and took it 66 yards for a touchdown.

“We had nobody in the backfield,” Stafford said. “We had two hots (hot reads) there. Hufanga did a good job of fighting through the ‘Y,’ and I left it just a little bit back behind him. I think if I just dirt it, we come away with three points. Listen, I’ll take myself and try to make those plays all day. You obviously don’t want those things to happen.”

After Wallace’s interception was ruled interference, the Rams couldn’t keep the Broncos out of the end zone or pull off a game-winning drive that included a false start from the Broncos’ 14-yard line. Stafford’s final heave into blanketed coverage on Davante Adams resulted in a second Hufanga interception and ended the game.

“We had a five-verts (vertical routes) situation. It’s not a play that we were anticipating, obviously,” Adams said. “Sometimes you have those gotta-have-it moments. It’s about the details. We’ve got to communicate better and find a way to come down with it.”

The Rams did show some of their talent level in this game. They aren’t at peak form with Garrett on injured reserve and Nacua out for a second straight game with a hip injury. Without them, though, Adams still exploded for a second straight game, making seven catches for 137 yards despite getting shadow treatment from first-team All-Pro cornerback Patrick Surtain II.

Stafford looked to be pulling off one of his vintage bounce-backs from an interception when he lasered a pass between two defenders in zone coverage for a 21-yard gain to Konata Mumpfield. Two plays later, Mumpfield left a defender on the turf on an easy 48-yard touchdown that put the Rams back on top.

Williams played his best game of the season, ripping off explosive runs with smooth cutbacks to compile 88 yards on 15 carries, and catching six passes for 70 yards. He also pulled off critical pickups in pass protection to keep Stafford upright.

But for the second time in three games, it wasn’t enough. The Rams’ structural weaknesses are coming to light.

Special teams is one of them, with the Rams fighting through a second straight shaky game under new coordinator Bubba Ventrone. An Emmanuel Forbes Jr. penalty lost 39 yards of field position, and a 28-yard punt return ignited the Broncos’ second-half comeback. Special teams issues date back years for the Rams. They hoped a coordinator change and playing starters on special teams could turn things around.

Then there’s the team’s perimeter depth. Just two wide receivers saw a target in this game, and while they both delivered — Adams and Mumpfield combined for 11 catches and 230 yards — the lack of other trusted options mattered. The Rams had to go with five vertical routes from the 19-yard line to win the game, and the Broncos knew they could bracket Adams in the end zone.

And the secondary felt the toll of injuries to Jaylen Watson and Kam Kinchens, with Wallace and Forbes becoming constant targets that allowed the Broncos to ignore All-Pro cornerback Trent McDuffie. Wallace bounced back well in the fourth quarter with an interception and what could have been a second, if not for the flag. Forbes had a tough game, particularly in the red zone.

Some of this is the natural attrition of early-season injuries, though the Rams’ two previous opponents, the San Francisco 49ers and New York Giants, dealt with plenty, too. Some of it is a challenging schedule, with road trips against Broncos and 49ers teams that both won at least 12 games last season. McVay teams also use the preseason to preserve their starters’ health, which has led to slow starts in three of the past four years.

The Rams have a track record of resiliency under McVay. They started 3-6 in 2023 and finished 10-7 to make the playoffs. They started 1-4 in 2024, then finished 10-7 and won a wild-card game.

This group is more talented than those teams. The Rams hope to get Nacua back this week for another difficult road trip against the Philadelphia Eagles. And Aaron Donald is still just getting going after his first two games in two seasons.

But the pressure is ramping up along with the adversity. With goals and expectations as high as the Rams’, they have to find a way to rise — whether a call goes their way or otherwise.

“It’s nothing to freak out about,” Adams said. “There’s a lot of football left. It’s not like we’re not playing good ball, obviously excluding that first game. Based on our situation, unfortunately, this league is about wins and losses. … There are no moral victories.”

“Not time to panic yet for the Rams.”@LindseyThiry makes the case for patience with the Rams 🏈 pic.twitter.com/8wXzZgezPv

— Good Morning Football (@gmfb) September 29, 2026

Davante Adams and Konata Mumpfield step up in Puka Nacua’s absence for Rams against Denver

Zach Edwards

https://www.therams.com/news/wide-receivers-davante-adams-konata-mumpfield-step-up-in-puka-nacua-absence-for-rams-against-denver

DENVER — It was a tale of two nights for the Rams’ top wide receivers, Davante Adams and Konata Mumpfield, on Sunday Night Football against the Broncos. Adams was reliable all night long in a star-studded matchup with Broncos cornerback Pat Surtain II, and Mumpfield shined in the huge moment.

The highly anticipated 1-on-1 matchup heading into the game lived up to the hype. Adams and Surtain lined up opposite each other 57 times, per Next Gen Stats, and were in a battle all night long.

Adams hauled in the ball seven times on 13 targets for 137 yards and was brought down by Surtain on four of those receptions. He had a team-leading 71 receiving yards in the first half, the most yards Surtain has allowed in a half in coverage in his career, per Next Gen Stats. Then in the second half, Adams caught one pass on five targets for 6 yards with Surtain in coverage, but added a 60 yards in the fourth quarter against other players, including a 49-yard reception that led to a Rams touchdown at the end of the drive.

Adams ended with the most receiving yards on the team for a second-consecutive week with wide receiver Puka Nacua (hip) also missing a second-consecutive game.

Although Adams impacted the game all night long with a completion in every quarter and multiple explosive plays, six of his receptions going for 10-or-more yards and three for 20-of-more yards, he understand’s there are “no moral victories.”

“There’s a lot that we can take from a game like this and feel good about, but there’s no moral victories,” Adams said postgame. “So we’re definitely disappointed to not finish it out, but just got to get back to what we do.”

Stepping up as a true second option for Stafford when he needed it most was Mumpfield.

Mumpfield finished with four receptions, three of them at a time the Rams needed it the most. After three targets and only one reception for 15 yards in the first half, Mumpfield turned things around on a crucial fourth quarter drive late in the game.

“I thought (Adams) was great. … I thought Konata did the same,” quarterback Matthew Stafford said. “Obviously (Konata) had some plays he wanted back early in the game, but just continued to believe in him and go to him, and he made some plays for us there late.”

The Rams found themselves down 23-19 with 4:43 left in the game. Stafford was sacked for a loss of a yard on first down. But then on three-straight passes, Stafford found Mumpfield for 21, 9 and 48 yards receptions — the final a touchdown to retake the lead with 3:38 remaining.

Mumpfield ran an out route and a comeback route on the same side of the field for the first two receptions before turning it upfield for the touchdown completion to take back the lead, 26-23.

“We kind of got into a hurry-up offense where we stayed on same side, ran a couple of outs, and so we kind of played off of it, and then ran the out and up, which (Stafford) gave me a great ball, it’s a great play call and we were able to execute on it,” Mumpfield said recalling the three receptions.

wv wrote:

Could be. McVay off to a slow start again.

The schedule lightens up after Philly/Buffalo but by then they may be staring at the 7th seed if they are lucky.

When’s the last time the Rams won a ‘big’ regular season game?

They won a big game when they beat Chicago in Chicago in the playoffs. So I am not sure why it has to be “regular season games.”

I agree about McV being a slow starter. But then in the last 5 games they play SF then Seattle twice. That’s a good schedule for a late bloomer.

PFF@PFF
Trent McDuffie this season

13 targets
3 rec allowed
4 PBUs
1 interception
23.1% comp pct allowed
14.6 pass rating allowed
91.9 coverage grade

Case Keenum v. the Eagles–24 of 34 for 247, 2 TDs 0 INTs, qb rating of 110.8.

When he was a Ram, I told everyone who would listen–if any qb has a golden future, it’s Case Keenum. ‘

I said, bet the house on it.

Here we are. And it only took 10 years.

I wonder how much of the “mistake prone Rams” thing is a result of September being the real preseason for the starters.

So not only will they get injured starters back, they also might be more efficient and less mistake prone starting after week 4

Konata Mumpfield

The first break on the out-and-up isn't flat, but the small head fakes at the top of the stem and the pacing variation completely baits the DB.

TD#Rams pic.twitter.com/d0tkgRqKZP

— Matt Waldman (@MattWaldman) September 28, 2026

Richard Sherman@RSherman_25
That was not PI?!!! That was an INT!!! This stuff is so ridiculous sometimes. So hard to play defense in this league.

…

To me, this distinction is based on the fact that KW is more elite behind the LOS looking where to take the run, whereas BC is more dependent on the blocking itself. KC sees subtleties KC doesn’t. Though that’s not to write off BC, who has more elusivenss past the LOS than KW does.

THERE HE GOES! Davante Adams with the YAC!

📺 @SNFonNBC | #RamsHouse pic.twitter.com/US91l6uXsB

— Los Angeles Rams (@RamsNFL) September 28, 2026

Look at Aaron Donald man… unc still doing it 🐐 pic.twitter.com/4pbv6E9CDn

— Rams Tapes 🇵🇷 (@RamsTapes) September 28, 2026

[Highlight] Per the SNF rules analyst, Wallace makes an interception
byu/Large_banana_hammock innfl