Stu Jackson, from https://www.therams.com/news/game-recap-rams-blow-out-cardinals-45-17-in-arizona

The Rams’ backfield duo of running backs Kyren Williams and Blake Corum continued their efficient ways, as Corum rushed for a career-high 128 yards and two touchdowns on 12 carries, while Williams chipped in 13 carries for 84 yards and one touchdown. That adds up to a combined 25 carries for 212 yards and three touchdowns, good for an average of 8.5 yards per carry.

from Matthew Stafford, Rams’ offense roll against Cardinals: Takeaways

Nate Atkins

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6871116/2025/12/07/rams-cardinals-score-result-takeaways-nfl/

Los Angeles Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford watched most of the fourth quarter of his team’s 45-17 victory against the Arizona Cardinals from the sideline, and it’s safe to say the veteran enjoyed the view.

That’s because his Rams had built a 35-point lead by the time Stafford played his last snap.

Stafford threw three touchdown passes, two to star receiver Puka Nacua, as Los Angeles rushed for nearly 250 yards in a dominant effort and picked up their 10th win.

Running back Blake Corum rushed for a career-high 128 yards and two touchdowns while Kyren Williams added 84 yards and a score of his own.

Stafford looks like the MVP version again

All men are mortal, and that held true for Stafford last Sunday in Carolina, when he turned the ball over three times, including a pick six and a game-sealing strip-sack. The mix of a shootout and rainy conditions brought out some of the overaggressive play of Stafford’s past that day, and as a result, he slipped to second-best odds in a Most Valuable Player race that seems down to him and New England Patriots quarterback Drake Maye.

Sunday in Arizona was Stafford’s chance to take it back, and he delivered with the help of a run game that enjoyed its first 200-yard performance of the season with 249.

After a first drive in which he couldn’t quite connect with Davante Adams on a would-be touchdown in the back of the end zone and then overthrew him when he was wide open on a fade, Stafford locked in. He got back to peppering intermediate routes to Nacua, who made acrobatic adjustments to reel in seven catches for 167 yards, including a 28-yard touchdown strike on a post from Stafford and a 31-yard jump-ball touchdown along the left sideline. (This was, somehow, Nacua’s first two-touchdown performance in his young NFL career.)

Stafford also tossed a red-zone touchdown on third down, when he sliced a tight window for a 6-yard score to Colby Parkinson.

Stafford finished 22-of-31 for 281 yards, three touchdowns, zero interceptions, 9.1 yards per attempt and a 131.2 rating before handing the reins to Jimmy Garoppolo for almost the entirety of the fourth quarter. The blowout win keeps the Rams in the driver’s seat in a highly contested NFC West race, and if Stafford can keep up this productive and mistake-free play and win this vaunted division, his case for his first MVP trophy is going to be hard to top. — Nate Atkins, Rams beat writer

Secondary has some struggles again

The Rams have been shuffling their secondary grouping ever since safety Quentin Lake went to injured reserve and top outside cornerback Ahkello Witherspoon came back last week. It looked discombobulated to start the game, even with the Cardinals starting Jacoby Brissett in place of an injured Kyler Murray and playing without top wide receiver Marvin Harrison Jr.

Los Angeles started Cobie Durant and Emmanuel Forbes Jr. again on the outside, and Forbes couldn’t team up with safety Kam Kinchens to prevent an easy first touchdown to Michael Wilson. They then subbed Witherspoon in for Forbes, and he struggled to stay with Wilson on a couple of chunk plays.

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But the coverage mostly tightened after a bad first quarter, and that allowed the engine of the Rams’ defense to get revving in the pass rush. Kobie Turner and Byron Young both turned in sacks, and the Rams were able to hit Brissett on seven dropbacks. They finally got their first turnover in seven quarters when Nate Landman intercepted Brissett to set up another touchdown.

The secondary represented the only negative in the blowout win, as Wilson was able to rack up 11 catches for 142 yards and two touchdowns by trading off big gains against Witherspoon and Forbes. Some regression was to be expected after losing a player like Lake, who could disguise and coordinate the defense so well from a mix of three different positions. Without him, this no longer looks quite like one of the best defenses in the league, but stopping the run and rushing the passer can still go a long way with an offense this potent. – Atkins

Ari Meirov@MySportsUpdate
#Rams QB Matthew Stafford today in a win over Arizona:

– 22/31
– 281 passing yards
– 3 TDs
– 0 INTs
– 131.2 passer rating

PFF@PFF
Matthew Stafford on throws past the sticks vs Arizona:

🚀 10/13
🚀 190 yards
🚀 3 TDs, 0 INTs
🚀 157.9 passer rating

Stafford9@LAR9MS
Matthew Stafford needs 6 more TD passes to be the only player in NFL history with 3 41 pass TD seasons.

2011: 41
2021: 41
2025: 35 (4 games left)

Nate Atkins@NateAtkins_
Quite a response to the loss last week. Matthew Stafford looked like an MVP candidate again, Puka Nacua went nuclear and the run game went wild as L.A. piled up more than 500 yards.

They are 10-3, tied with Seattle atop the NFC West.

Stu Jackson@StuJRams
Rams now 10-3 on the season. This marks the seventh time with at least 10 wins in a season in nine years under HC Sean McVay

Next Gen Stats@NextGenStats
The Rams used 13 personnel (1 RB, 3 TE) on 40 of 67 snaps in Week 14 against the Cardinals, the most such plays in a game by any offense since at least 2016.

The Rams’ 19 TDs in 13 personnel this season (3 today) are 7 more than any other team since 2016.

PFF reposted@PFF_Fantasy
Puka Nacua against the Cardinals

🐏 7 receptions
🐏 167 yards
🐏 2 touchdowns
🐏 6 explosive plays
🐏 7.6 yards per route run

Howard Balzer@HBalzer721
Even Ronnie Rivers averaging 5.1 yards per rush

PFF@PFF
The Rams defense vs the Cardinals:

🐏 3 sacks
🐏 1 interception
🐏 72.3% pass rush win rate
🐏 42.5% pressure rate

Los Angeles Rams PR@TheLARamsPR
OLB Byron Young now has 11.0 sacks this season. The last Ram to record at least 11.0 sacks in a season was Aaron Donald in 2021.

Blake Corum takes it 48 yards for 6⃣

He hit a top speed of 21.29 MPH, per @NextGenStats 😳

📲 Stream with NFL+pic.twitter.com/vdSr6lyoxM

— NFL+ (@NFLPlus) December 7, 2025

Nate Atkins@NateAtkins_
Rams DT Poona Ford is ACTIVE against the Cardinals today. Curious to see how much he plays after dealing with the calf injury.

Rams inactives:

RB Jarquez Hunter
CB Darious Williams
OL Beaux Limmer
DL Ty Hamilton

With Stetson Bennett as the emergency QB.

from Nate Atkins: https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6860028/2025/12/05/rams-mailbag-no-1-seed-nfc-super-bowl/?source=emp_shared_article

McClendon’s growth has been a bright spot this season. The Rams saw trouble early in the season when offensive-line injuries disrupted their short-yardage plans and passing-game rhythm. Losing a cornerstone tackle like Rob Havenstein to injured reserve was a cause for some concern. But, to McClendon’s credit, he has answered the call.

The 2023 fifth-round pick has now made five starts at right tackle, and the best thing you can say about him is he’s been hard to notice. He has yet to be charged with a single sack on 177 pass-blocking snaps, according to Sports Info Solution, and his blown block rate across 276 total plays is 1.4 percent. For context, Lions first-team All-Pro right tackle Penei Sewell has a blown block rate of 1.5 percent on a little more than double the volume.

McClendon has settled in nicely at right tackle after spending his first two years trying to learn both sides of the line as a swing tackle. It’s worked in tandem with a steady Alaric Jackson to protect the edges for Stafford, and his ability to string consecutive starts together has also paid off on the Rams’ zone blocking runs. They just had their best rushing performance of the season in Carolina with 152 yards on 7.2 yards per carry.

It could get tricky when Havenstein comes back, because this isn’t just any starter on this team. He’s one of the leaders of the offensive line and the most tenured member of the franchise. He has 13 career playoff starts, which shouldn’t be overlooked when talking about a move to a young and inexperienced player. And though his performance has not been at the level of McClendon’s this season, it’s worth noting that he dealt with the ankle injury that sent him to injured reserve in almost every game. Projecting how the two will measure up when that ankle is healed is more of a challenge.

Given the Rams’ need to answer this spot for the future with Havenstein turning 34 next spring, plus the high cost of tackles in the draft, it would be ideal in some ways to let McClendon take the reins. It just won’t be that simple if Havenstein can get healthy, given the interpersonal dynamics.

Consider the next couple of games an ongoing audition for the permanent role.

week 14 games of interest

1 pm

Seattle at Falcons

4:25

Bears at Packers

MNF:

Eagles at Chargers

***

SF has a bye

Sean McVay shares initial impressions of Cardinals and Jacoby Brissett
McVay sees a ‘really tough football team’ and a quarterback who’s doing ‘an excellent job’

Cameron DaSilva

https://theramswire.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/rams/2025/12/04/rams-sean-mcvay-cardinals-jacoby-brissett-week-14/87609578007/

Don’t let the Arizona Cardinals’ 3-9 record fool you. They’re better than their three wins indicate.

Of their nine losses, seven have been by four or fewer points. And since Jacoby Brissett took over for the injured Kyler Murray, the offense has improved and become more consistent despite lacking any semblance of a reliable running game.

Sean McVay certainly isn’t going to take the Los Angeles Rams’ Week 14 opponent lightly, praising their effort and personnel ahead of Sunday’s game.

“I see a really tough football team, a team that we’re very familiar with,” he said Wednesday. “They’re really well coached. They have good personnel all over the place. I think they’re really sound schematically. They pose a lot of issues on both sides of the football. They’ve obviously always been really good in the kicking game, had continuity at the coordinator spot. I have a lot of respect for this group. I think if you look at the record you’re kidding yourself because this is a team that really outside of the Seattle and the San Francisco game, every one of those games they’ve been in and it’s been right down to the wire and one-possession games. We have a tremendous amount of respect for this group. We have to be ready to go for sure.”

Brissett is a journeyman quarterback who hasn’t gotten much attention on a struggling Cardinals team, but he’s playing well. He’s completing 67.5% of his passes, averaging 312 yards per start and has 13 touchdown passes with four interceptions.

He obviously doesn’t have the mobility or playmaking ability of Murray, but from a pure passing standpoint, he’s been an upgrade – particularly for Trey McBride.

Here’s what McVay said about the veteran quarterback and the way he’s played.

“It’s amazing. He’ll stand tall in the pocket. He’ll move around. He can still buy time with his legs and activate all parts of the field. He’s a hard tackle. He’s obviously very experienced,” McVay said. “You can see there’s a comfort in terms of reading with his feet, getting through progressions and recognizing coverage. He has great overall command, really impressed with his body of work. You’ve seen, there’s a lot of production from the numbers, but then once you start to dive into the tape, he’s playing at a really high clip. He’s doing an excellent job of getting a lot of different people involved. They’re pushing the ball and he poses a lot of problems. I’ve been very impressed with his body of work.”

The Cardinals come in riding a four-game losing streak, but their last two losses were in overtime to the Jacksonville Jaguars and by only three points to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The Rams just lost in shocking fashion to the Carolina Panthers so they know what a motivated, hungry team looks like when playing the role of underdog.

Nate Atkins@NateAtkins_
Rams coach Sean McVay came down with the flu and is flying separately to Arizona from the rest of the team, per the team.

That sickness is going around this time of year.

Don’t count on Kyren Williams eclipsing 1,000 yards this week https://t.co/gbGahyKm3n

— TurfShowTimes (@TurfShowTimes) December 6, 2025

wv wrote:

short critique of Ken Burn’s American Revolution.