Last year after the bye the Rams played 4 games against teams who were top 10 in sacks.

Vikes x 2 (5th), Seattle x 2 (10th).

Same OL as now except at center.

In 1 of those 4 games, they gave up 3 sacks. but it was the end of the season subs game w/Garappolo at qb.

In the other 3 games they gave up 2 total.

So that might hint that the current Rams OL can play against a team that gets sacks.

Meanwhile Darnold’s sack percentage (4.2%) is virtually the same as Stafford’s (4.32%). Except Stafford throws more (310 to 228).

Jim Youngblood 53@53_jim70721
Stewart filling the Hoecht role when he’s in … from the X-backer (or joker) to being the apex defender … he’s someone who can rush and cover pretty well.

Such a good draft pick

…

Josaiah Stewart — playing slot pic.twitter.com/PcczErfMve

— Jim Youngblood 53 (@53_jim70721) November 11, 2025

Josaiah Stewart — the flat … dropping and Rams rushing 4 pic.twitter.com/uAnoXpysCA

— Jim Youngblood 53 (@53_jim70721) November 11, 2025

Nate Atkins@NateAtkins_
If Matthew Stafford has played like an MVP all season, as Davante Adams says, what’s changed around him to build a historic stretch?

4 key areas jump out right now as an evolution of the Rams offense:

***

from With Matthew Stafford ‘on a heater,’ Rams get their revenge in blowout of 49ers

Nate Atkins

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6793264/2025/11/10/rams-matthew-stafford-blowout-win-49ers/?source=emp_shared_article

…

“It’s looked like MVP play to me all year, to be honest,” said Adams, who played with Aaron Rodgers during his MVP seasons in 2014, 2020 and 2021. “Even certain games, like the pick he threw against Tennessee and the way he bounced back after that, that’s how an MVP plays to me.”

If Stafford hasn’t changed since then, it’s a testament to everything else that has.

The offensive line has gotten healthy. In the first seven weeks, the Rams played without the same five starters beginning and finishing games, with left guard Steve Avila and right tackle Rob Havenstein missing multiple weeks. That left McVay pressing on critical short-yardage plays and running Williams into a wall. It had Williams pressing to make plays and fumbling in back-to-back games.

The past two weeks, with the line healthy, Williams and Blake Corum have combined for 301 yards and three touchdowns on 4.6 yards per carry — with zero fumbles.

“All we have to do is get the ball secure, and the holes are going to be there to be hit and be made,” Williams said.

That line of Alaric Jackson, Avila, Coleman Shelton, Kevin Dotson and Havenstein has let Stafford cook from clean pockets, with the lowest sack rate of his career now down to 4.3 percent. The 49ers did get to him for eight hits but had just one sack.

Nacua’s absence also created an opportunity that hadn’t existed before. Stafford and Adams saw almost no time together in the preseason with the quarterback nursing a back issue, and the rustiness was evident in Adams’ 47 percent catch rate through six games, at that point the lowest of his 12-year career.

But a week of trading texts through the night in Baltimore and three practices without Nacua pulled all the details into focus. In the three games since facing the Ravens, they’ve connected on 70 percent of passes with six touchdowns. And all of a sudden, Adams entered Sunday’s game with the NFL lead in touchdowns before adding his ninth on a 2-yard out pattern where Stafford placed the ball where only Adams could run under it.

“He’s like a fine wine,” McVay said of Adams, “just getting better with age.”

Adams is now often the sole receiver on the field with three tight ends. McVay has long been an 11-personnel aficionado, but he ran 13-personnel on 49 percent of snaps against the New Orleans Saints and went to that well again on Sunday, leading to touchdown catches for Parkinson and Davis Allen. And for a third straight week, the Rams found a big play from second-round rookie Terrance Ferguson, who had a 32-yard catch to ignite a critical scoring drive on Sunday.

The Rams’ offense has changed because its coach has, like he promised he would.

“The way he inspires guys and the culture that he’s built throughout the years here allows you to fall back on that when you hit adversity,” linebacker Nate Landman said.

The success of the run game and the diversification of the pass game have turned Nacua from a high-volume engine who risked injury into more of a clutch lever. That’s what he was on Sunday, when he finished with five catches for 64 yards and scored a touchdown on a screen pass, ignited a scoring drive with another screen and converted a fourth down by lunging through a defender.

As well as things are going, this isn’t a team without risk or issues.

Adams suffered an oblique injury in the fourth quarter that the Rams are hopeful won’t keep him out for Sunday’s showdown with the Seattle Seahawks (7-2). They’ve already lost Tutu Atwell to injured reserve, though they hope to have him back after two more weeks. And Nacua has missed parts of three games with injuries.

Their field goal unit is amid a rebuild after leading the league in missed kicks through the first eight games, and Sunday’s six-touchdown performance didn’t factor into whether a new kicker or long snapper fixed it. They have a pass defense missing Ahkello Witherspoon that can leak if the pass rush isn’t getting home, as Sunday showcased, when the 49ers scored four touchdowns and backup quarterback Mac Jones finished 33-of-39 for 319 yards, three scores and an interception.

But this is no longer an offense or a quarterback just spamming the ball to Pro Bowl wide receivers and left praying when it isn’t working. That was the lesson the 49ers’ loss offered them. That’s what a healthy offensive line, running backs zeroed in on ball security, improving tight ends and a play caller who challenged himself to be better have turned on its head.

“Your scars either strengthen you or make you weaker,” McVay said. “There’s never a good story without a little bit of adversity anyway. I think you only learn about people when you go through those challenging times. (The overtime loss) certainly was a very humbling and challenging night, but I’ve loved the responses.”

from https://theramswire.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/rams/2025/11/10/rams-best-team-tom-brady/87197620007/?taid=69126e83e2b31a00014a30c8&utm_campaign=trueanthem&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter

During the game, seven-time Super Bowl champion and color commentator Tom Brady had some high praise for the Rams during the FOX broadcast, putting them in their own tier.

“If you’re looking at offense, defense, there’s not a better team in the league,” Brady said. “The issue has been their kicking game and they’ve got to resolve some of those issues between long snapper and kicker. Their defense is tremendous with that front and this offense, the way they performed today, not many teams can slow this offense down.”

.@RamsNFL @49ers @_Nate_Landman is easily the RAMS defensive MVP over 9 games…Filling up the stat sheet and changing games. #BaldysBreakdowns pic.twitter.com/4hTJHCkNJj

— Brian Baldinger (@BaldyNFL) November 10, 2025

RedAlice

it’s time to beat the Seahawks at SoFi for the first clash of the season — and set the tone for the second half.

Opposing Team Fan Board:
http://www.seahawks.net

After just 9 games, Matthew Stafford has already thrown more touchdown passes against the blitz than all but two quarterbacks in a season in the last decade.

His 20 such touchdown passes are nearly double the 2nd-highest total in 2025 (Jalen Hurts, 11).@RamsNFL | #RamsHouse pic.twitter.com/99btntt16F

— Next Gen Stats (@NextGenStats) November 10, 2025

.@RamsNFL @49ers play 4 TE's in so many different packages; to run, to throw; to protect; and to finish drives. Higbee, Parkinson; Allen; and Ferguson #BaldysBreakdowns pic.twitter.com/2tDvovQtaw

— Brian Baldinger (@BaldyNFL) November 10, 2025

from https://www.therams.com/news/5-interesting-stats-from-week-10-win-over-49ers-matthew-stafford-beating-the-blitz-rams-set-record-in-the-sean-mcvay-era-td-drive-rate-stafford-nfl-record

The Rams’ 75% touchdown drive rate on true drives (no kneel downs) is the highest in a game in the McVay era, according to nflverse data

Two of the Rams’ 10 drives resulted in them bleeding out clock to end the half or the game. So, really, they found the end zone on six of their eight offensive drives. Their 60% overall touchdown drive rate is also the highest in the Sean McVay era. So any way you slice it, this game is an outlier. The Rams’ offense was in complete command, punting just twice at the end of the first half. Apart from that, they scored touchdowns or lined up in victory formation every time they took possession.

The Rams look unstoppable.

The ⁦@Seahawks⁩ defense, however, is the great neutralizer.

Already fired up for next weekend's clash of the league's hottest offense vs its most dominant defense.

Waxing poetic on the Seattle D.

⁦@ESPNNFL⁩ ⁦@FirstTake⁩ pic.twitter.com/tnY5DySZxW

— Peter Schrager (@PSchrags) November 10, 2025

Nate Atkins@NateAtkins_
The Rams had as angry of a locker room as I can recall seeing after their Week 5 OT loss to the 49ers.

The past month has been about righting wrongs on the field.

Sunday’s blowout was a healing of the soul.

James n@Jamesn266743340
What happened to the pass rush? So glad we won but a little concerned. It’s been bad past 2 weeks

J.B. Long@JB_Long
Mac Jones time to throw Week 10: 2.8 sec
Tyler Shough time to throw Week 9: 2.4 sec
They’re playing point guard against the Rams, my friend.

from Re-stacking NFC contenders: Are Rams, Seahawks more dangerous than Eagles? — Pick Six

Mike Sando

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6788300/2025/11/10/rams-seahawks-eagles-nfl-super-bowl-odds/?campaign=15632948&source=athletic_targeted_email&userId=603890

There was a point Sunday afternoon when the Seattle Seahawks and Los Angeles Rams led their opponents by a combined 56-0 margin.

Both take 7-2 records into their Week 11 matchup in Los Angeles.

With the Detroit Lions topping 500 yards for the second time this season in a 44-22 victory over Washington, and with the defending Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles visiting Green Bay on Monday night, the time is right to re-stack the NFC hierarchy.

“I’m trusting Seattle and the Rams both over Philadelphia, just because I like the way the quarterbacks are playing,” an exec from another team said.

The Seahawks and Rams might be the best teams in the NFC. Let’s run through the top.

The exec quoted above thinks the Rams and Seahawks can score and win in more ways than the Eagles can. He was highest on Green Bay entering the season but is having trouble trusting the Packers as much now, despite their 5-2-1 record.

Tampa Bay’s defeat to New England gave the exec some pause on the Buccaneers, while the injury situation in San Francisco seems too much to overcome. As for Detroit, he thought the Lions, despite their dominance of the Commanders, lacked some of the creativity that stood out when Ben Johnson was coordinating the offense.

Our top six NFC contenders appear below, ordered by their chances to reach the Super Bowl via The Athletic’s projection model as of Sunday night. Records and Super Bowl chances appear in parentheses.

• Rams (7-2, 26.2 percent): The Rams are the only team in the league to rank among the top five in EPA per play on both sides of the ball. Their chances of reaching the Super Bowl have roughly tripled since preseason now that Matthew Stafford has proven the back issues that sidelined him during training camp are not a concern.

“Stafford is playing as good as anybody at the position,” an opposing team exec said.

Stafford has hit Rams-era career highs for EPA per pass play and air yards per attempt. There would seem to be a correlation between Stafford having more time to throw and feeling better about striking down the field. Puka Nacua’s dominance was well-established in Los Angeles, but newcomer Davante Adams, who suffered an oblique injury Sunday, is on pace for career highs in air yards per target (12.8) and reception (11.5).

“Davante is the kind of guy that is in the right spot, so it’s easy for the quarterback to get used to him,” a defensive coach said. “It’s so different from DK Metcalf in Pittsburgh, who slows down and starts guessing if he’s in the read or not.”

Stafford and coach Sean McVay have 73 total games together, and it shows. The Rams own the NFL’s lowest rate of pre-snap penalties, typical for a McVay offense. The team has scored at least 34 points in each of its past three games, handing the San Francisco 49ers’ defense its worst beating of the season Sunday as measured by EPA per play.

The offense has leaned heavily into 13 personnel (three tight ends) in recent weeks, even after Nacua returned from injury. Might that keep Seattle out of its exotic sub packages in Week 11?

The Rams are not perfect.

Their kicking game has been atrocious, resulting in a league-worst minus-31.8 EPA differential on field goal tries. That could cost the Rams in a tight game against a strong opponent, including against Seattle, which ranks first in overall special teams EPA this season.

• Eagles (6-2, 20.2 percent): All they do is win 71 percent of their games under Nick Sirianni, with two Super Bowl appearances and one Lombardi Trophy over his four-plus seasons as coach. They’ve beaten the Chiefs and Rams already this season.

Philly needed reinforcements at the trade deadline and spent a third-round pick on pass rusher Jaelan Phillips. Guard Landon Dickerson and linebacker Nakobe Dean are back from injury.

When the Eagles struggled on offense early in the season, some in the league predicted a repeat of the 2023 season, when Brian Johnson was one-and-done as the offensive coordinator between Shane Steichen and Kellen Moore. Philly has made major statistical gains on offense under first-time coordinator Kevin Patullo since then, although the offense

“(Jared) Goff, when he is going and they are going downhill, is difficult to deal with, and of course, Stafford is that way too,” one exec said. “But I don’t feel that way about Jalen Hurts.”

Philly has shifted heavily toward being under center over the past two games after successive defeats to the Broncos and Giants. The rushing output has never been lower through the first eight games of a season under Sirianni. Much could be learned against Green Bay on Monday night.

• Seahawks (7-2, 16.1 percent): Seattle is the first team since 1980 and the fourth ever to exceed 30 first-half points three times in one season, per Pro Football Reference, and there are still eight games to play. The Seahawks have built first-half leads of 38-3 over the Saints, 31-7 over Washington and 35-0 over Arizona. Seattle’s overall point differential (+103) is a franchise best, by far, to this point in a season.

“They have great personnel,” an opposing coach said. “There are little things with their roster that make a difference, like all the tight ends can play on (special) teams. Situationally, they are very sound. And then they attack the ball on defense.”

Seattle has become a physical, hard-hitting team on defense in Mike Macdonald’s second season as coach and defensive play caller. Two fumble-forcing hits on Cardinals quarterback Jacoby Brissett on Sunday were particularly violent, with both resulting in touchdown returns for DeMarcus Lawrence.

On offense, Sam Darnold owns three of the NFL’s five best games this season for EPA per pass play. He is averaging 9.9 yards per attempt, best in the league by a yard (Drake Maye, 8.9). He’s tied with Stafford and Maye for most completions on passes traveling longer than 20 yards downfield (17 each), while ranking first in completion rate on these throws by far (61 percent, with Hurts next at 52 percent).

“Going into the year, you would not say this was going to be a top-five offense, but it is,” another opposing coach said.

BRUTAL: 4th & inches and Christian McCaffrey gets stuffed pic.twitter.com/wRMlGfHE1s

— Coach Yac 🗣 (@Coach_Yac) November 9, 2025