Rams make a statement by scoring 44 points to beat AFC powerhouse Bills

Gary Klein

https://www.latimes.com/sports/rams/story/2024-12-08/rams-score-44-points-upset-buffalo-bills

So maybe this Rams team is better than average.

Perhaps coach Sean McVay finally has them on track to win the NFC West.

And, dare we posit it: A deep playoff run?

It’s all out there for the Rams, who went from marginal-all-season to mostly magnificent for a day with a 44-42 victory over the Buffalo Bills on Sunday in front of 73,493 at SoFi Stadium.

Running back Kyren Williams and receiver Puka Nacua each scored two touchdowns, Matthew Stafford passed for 320 yards, and special teams came up big as the Rams improved to 7-6.

“Players did the damn thing,” coach Sean McVay said proudly.

It is the first time this season that the Rams have been above .500, and they did it by holding on to defeat one of the best teams in the NFL.

Consider:

The Bills went into the game with a 10-2 record and riding a seven-game winning streak.
They had scored 30 points or more in six straight games.
They were fresh off clinching a fifth consecutive AFC East title and in contention for the No. 1 seed in the AFC playoffs.
But even with the vaunted “Bills Mafia” making up the majority of fans in the stadium — and Bills quarterback Josh Allen accounting for six touchdowns — the Rams registered their most impressive victory of the season.

“Beating a team like this is a huge confidence booster for us,” said Williams, who rushed for 87 yards in a career-high 29 carries. “But we knew we were going to come in and beat them, so we’ve got to continue to keep going like that.”

The victory moved the Rams into second place in the NFC West behind the Seattle Seahawks (8-5), a 30-18 winner Sunday over the Arizona Cardinals (6-7).

The Rams do not have much time to savor the victory. On Thursday night in Santa Clara they play the San Francisco 49ers (6-7), who beat the Chicago Bears on Sunday.

“It’s going to feel like a playoff game,” linebacker Michael Hoecht said.

The Rams must once again play “fast and free,” McVay said.

“That’s going to be a key, critical factor for us to be able to have a chance to go do what we need to do on Thursday night,” he said.

On Sunday, no Ram played with more elan than Nacua, who McVay described as “an igniter.” The second-year pro caught 12 passes for 162 yards and a touchdown and also rushed for a touchdown.

“It’s fantastic being able to feel like, ‘Man this is what it feels like when the Rams are moving and connecting on all cylinders,’” Nacua said. “But also [there are] still moments where we know we can execute a little bit better to make this game a blowout.”

The Rams scored early. They scored often. They scored more points in a game than they had all season, eclipsing the 30 they posted in an Oct. 24 victory over the Minnesota Vikings.

The Rams led, 24-14, at halftime. It marked the most points the Rams had scored in the first half since a game in 2022.

That was the Rams’ lost season, the worst Super Bowl hangover in NFL history, that had begun with a 31-10 wipeout by the Bills and featured Stafford getting mauled seven times for sacks.

This time, the line kept Stafford clean. Williams and Blake Corum ran with authority. The Rams converted 11 of 15 third downs.

“Our guys did an amazing job up front,” said Stafford, who passed for two touchdowns, giving him 10 in the last four games. “It starts with those guys.”

While the offense hummed for most of the game, the defense struggled to neutralize Allen. The MVP candidate produced another otherworldly performance.

“Josh Allen is an alien,” McVay said.

The 6-foot-5, 237-pound Allen accounted for all six Bills touchdowns, becoming the first player with three rushing and three passing touchdowns in an NFL game. He passed for 342 yards and three touchdowns, and rushed for 82 yards and three touchdowns.

“He was something to deal with,” rookie safety Kam Kinchens said, shaking his head.

The Rams offense was their best defense.

The notoriously slow-starting Rams built their 10-point halftime lead on touchdown runs by Williams and Nacua and tight end Hunter Long’s touchdown return of a blocked punt.

Stafford’s touchdown pass to Cooper Kupp near the end of the third quarter extended the Rams’ lead to 38-21.

But Allen’s short touchdown run and his scoring pass to Mack Hollins pulled the Bills within 38-35 with almost 9 minutes left.

Stafford’s fourth-down pass to Tutu Atwell with just under 4 minutes left kept alive a drive that Nacua capped with a 19-yard touchdown for a 44-35 lead.

Check out the game summary from the Rams’ win Sunday.

Allen’s sneak for a touchdown with a minute left cut the deficit, but the Rams recovered the onside kick and ran out the clock.

So now it’s on to play the 49ers, a team the Rams defeated in Week 3 at SoFi Stadium.

The Rams remain in search of a totally complete performance, one that includes a high-powered offense, suffocating defense and opportunistic special teams.

“You saw how good our offense was,” edge rusher Jared Verse said. “Imagine our defense playing at full capacity. … If we put out offense and defense together, that’s a scary sight.

“That’s a Super Bowl-winning team.”

so, to be clear, this guy is human, right? i mean dna tests have been performed, live birth records double-checked, kryptonite tolerance exams conducted, area 51 alien detainee population inventoried? asking for a friend, and for the men in black. pic.twitter.com/w85mExZTKx

— roberto clemente (@rclemente2121) December 9, 2024

Blaine Grisak@bgrisakTST
Against the Bills, McVay’s late game management was the difference. McVay’s decision to “go” on 4th-and-5 vs. McDermott’s decision to call a QB sneak with a minute left and use a timeout was the difference.

Ramsoholic@ShayTweetedThat
that QB sneak fail was SO BIG

You are 1000% right- I agreed to go for it- we were hot and its obvious that Mcvay does not trust Karty right now. We have no room for error so who will he trust, a rookie kicker or a guy in his 16th year, future HOF and SB champion?

All-22@All22_PFF
What can’t Alaric Jackson do well? His PFF grades have been solid all around this season:

🟩 79.2 Run Blocking
🟩 80.6 Pass Blocking
🟩 80.6 Overall Grade

Every big catch from Puka Nacua in the Rams win vs Buffalo

Short route concepts, his body control, extending the field, jump balls, YAC. Nothing he can’t do. Top 5 WR in football pic.twitter.com/UbbzQB3Xq3

— Football Digest (@FoootballDigest) December 9, 2024

.@BuffaloBills @RamsNFL @AsapPuka the concepts are the same; different formations….but the same results. #BaldysBreakdowns pic.twitter.com/NfoRqgVZWE

— Brian Baldinger (@BaldyNFL) December 9, 2024

.@BuffaloBills @RamsNFL @Kyrenwilliams23 the Rams will utilize any Run Concept to run the ball. Nothing new under the Sun. #BaldysBreakdowns pic.twitter.com/ApJr5YaOBn

— Brian Baldinger (@BaldyNFL) December 9, 2024

"The @RamsNFL are 6-2 when Nacua and Kupp are healthy. They've got a Super Bowl winning HC, a Super Bowl winning QB, and this tough as nails WR duo."

– @pschrags pic.twitter.com/6xYV6hdip6

— Good Morning Football (@gmfb) December 9, 2024

from quora: Susanna Viljanen
·

Why aren’t more people showing empathy towards the UnitedHealth CEO who is as murdered? Why are people defending the suspect?

Because people in the US are sick and tired of the American profit-oriented health care and paying through the nose – and even more so with the insurance industry, which they see as a legalized racket.

What we know is that:

The murder is pre-meditated and definitely targeted. The murderer arrived with a bus which had left at Atlanta, GA, using a fake identity, and stayed in a hostel in NY, using another fake identity
He prowled the victim for ten minutes before shooting.

He used an unconventional weapon.
The casings found at the site were signed “deny”, “defend” and “depose”, referring to a book about abuses of the insurance industry
The murderer escaped just in a way we were taught in the military: leaving fake tracks, using multiple vehicles, using diverted routes. His tracks go cold in the Central Park.
His backpack has been found – full of Monopoly money

It’s been over three days now. It is likely his identity will never be resolved as the tracks have gone cold. He is most likely away from the NYC already – perhaps escaped abroad.
What we know also is that United HealthCare (UHC) has been the most ardent insurance company to reject insurance claims, and Brian Thompson has been suspected on fraud and insider trading. He has also implemented a deeply flawed AI to handle the insurance claims.

It is personal. My estimation is someone whose insurance claims have been rejected by UHC and who has a fatal disease – or a loved one of someone whose insurance claims have been rejected. He is not a professional, but likely to have previous gun handling experience and at least rudimentary experience on guerrilla warfare tactics. He has a sick sense of humour (the signed cartridges, the backpack full of Monopoly money) and he wanted to mock and harass both the medical insurance industry and NYPD. It is likely we will see similar antics in the next days.

I do not think the case is about a triangle drama – or a competiting insurance company. It may also be the murderer is a disgruntled employee of the UHC – someone thoroughly morally disgusted on being a part of what they see as a legalized racket. Who might want Thompson dead?

Anyone, who or whose loved one has died, become moribund, or left permanently crippled, or gone bankrupt due to rejected insurance claims. Any corporate employee, who is disgusted on working in a racket not unlike Mafia. Anyone, who is sick and tired by being screwed by the profit-oriented medical care and the legalized fraud of the insurance industry. Anyone, who has medical debt. Anyone forced to pay 10 to 100 times more of medicines than EU citizens – and does not have an access to Mexico or Canada for medicines. Anyone with a pre-existing condition. If we narrow down only to those whose claims have been turned down by UHC, we can narrow the pool of suspects down to 8.1 million people.

NYPD initially offered a 10,000 USD reward for any clues leading to apprehension. Now the reward has been raised to 50,000 USD – but the posters have been defaced and torn off. Seemingly the New Yorkers do not want the murderer to get caught.

Brian Thompson is seen as the bad guy. He implemented a deeply flawed AI to handle the insurance claims, rejecting one third of the claims, and it was found the AI got wrong in 90% of the cases.

But even worse and more unethical was found. The AI was found to be optimized to find cases where the company would gain the biggest profits by denying the claims and where the patient would be too weak to protest and raise a lawsuit against the company, and where actual immoral practices would produce an arbitrage. AI actually kills people. Brian Thompson has been seen as the guy who presses that black button which kills someone – and brings him million dollars.

Physical violence is the last resort of the poor and the downtrodden, and in a country so immersed in firearms, something like this was bound to happen sooner or later. It happened sooner. I sincerely hope we will learn something from this.

The murderer is now fifth day on the loose. Each day means diminishing chances of him ever getting caught. It is likely he has already escaped the country and is out of the reach of justice – many countries refuse to cede wanted criminals in countries which have death penalty. Some 50% of all murders in the US go unsolved anyway.

HIGHLIGHTS: Matthew Stafford’s Best Plays In 320-Yard, 2-Touchdown Win vs. Bills

They begin with the Rams at 1:34 in.

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THE RAMS BLOCK THE PUNT AND SCORE 🤯

📺 FOX pic.twitter.com/hh508zdYXr

— FOX Sports: NFL (@NFLonFOX) December 8, 2024

wv wrote:

I am not sure i know who or what this team is.

w
v

IMO? This looked liked the team that took Baltimore to overtime last year, in spite of having gone 3-6 before the bye.

Except they won this one.

It was the first game where the OL was stable and fixed and cohesive (w/ Limmer at center as a year-long replacement) and both Kupp and Nacua played. (Rodrigue on this in her big article: “an offensive line that didn’t allow a sack in only its second game together as a group.”) All those elements were finally healthy together and in sync at the same time. So to me, it looked like the post-bye offense from 2023. Last year we were all equally surprised by the Baltimore game–we quite simply didn’t expect it.

With this difference. In 2023, Donald was playing, though with a young defense. In 2024, it’s just a young defense with no Donald. And also this difference–as good as Lamar Jackson is, Josh Allen is better. 😯

Anyway. I would be surprised if they didn’t win their last 4 regular season games. I don’t see them going far in the playoffs this year, but it will be nice to see the next 4 games.
…

Jourdan Rodrigue@JourdanRodrigue
TE Hunter Long told me he heard two “thuds” – the ball off the punter’s foot, then the ball hitting Jake Hummel’s outstretched arm. Then, he said, “I blacked out.” His first NFL TD, a scoop-and-score off a blocked punt, was a catalyst for the Rams today.