Rams show flashes of their Super Bowl potential in victory over struggling Saints

Gary Klein, Los Angeles Times on Nov 2, 2025

Published in Football

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LOS ANGELES — Don’t start planning any parades just yet. Hold off on those February travel plans to Santa Clara, Calif.

The Los Angeles Rams still have a long way to go make the playoffs and advance to the Super Bowl at Levi’s Stadium.

Their 34-10 victory on Sunday over the struggling New Orleans Saints at SoFi Stadium was no revelation or landmark win.

But the Rams did something important. Something championship-caliber teams are supposed to do: They convincingly dispatched of a weaker opponent before 72,055.

Matthew Stafford passed for four touchdowns, receiver Puka Nacua returned from an ankle injury in spectacular fashion and the defense dominated again as the Rams improved their record to 6-2.

OK, so it wasn’t a win over the defending Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles or the rival San Francisco 49ers, teams the Rams lost to in part because of kicking-game disasters.

And those issues remain: Joshua Karty missed a field-goal attempt and an extra-point attempt.

So coach Sean McVay’s patience with the kicking game is wearing thin. And no team is winning a title without a competent one.

But if the Rams stay healthy — Nacua left the game in the second half because of a chest injury — solve the kicking issue, and McVay can keep his team focused against division opponents and other playoff contenders, the Dodgers might not be the only L.A. team hoisting a championship trophy.

Because Stafford, already a fixture on NFL career passing lists, is enjoying another sensational season.

As he did in 2021, when he passed for 41 touchdowns and led the Rams to a Super Bowl title, Stafford is playing at a level that should have him in the most valuable player discussion.

The 17th-year pro’s two touchdown passes to Adams and one each to Nacua and tight end Tyler Higbee increased his season total to 21, with only two interceptions.

Stafford, who passed for five touchdowns in an Oct. 19 rout of the Jacksonville Jaguars, completed 24 of 32 passes for 281 and extended to five his streak of games without an interception.

Nacua sat out against the Jaguars because of an ankle injury. But he said in the days leading up to the game that he was “feeling fantastic.”

He looked like it at the start of the game, making two catches for first downs to start a scoring drive that ended with Stafford’s touchdown pass to Higbee. The veteran tight end, in an apparent salute to the World Series champion Dodgers, celebrated by taking an imaginary swing and then doing the Dodgers post-hit celebration.

Adams then followed his breakout three-touchdown performance against the Jaguars with the first of two more red-zone touchdowns.

Early in the second quarter, Stafford and Nacua went for the home run, connecting on a 39-yard pass that Nacua hauled in for a touchdown for a 20-3 lead.

Stafford’s short strike to Adams in the fourth quarter put the game out of reach, and Kyren Williams’ short touchdown run early in the fourth quarter provided the finishing touch.

Williams rushed for 114 yards and Blake Corum ran for 58 on a day when the Rams once again utilized all four tight ends in the passing and running attacks.

Meantime, the Rams defense made it rough on rookie quarterback Tyler Shough in his first start.

Lineman Braden Fiske got his first sack of the season, linebacker Nate Landman forced another fumble and cornerback Emmanuel Forbes Jr. got his first interception as a Ram.

The game against the Saints was the start of a stretch that includes next Sunday’s game against 49ers in Santa Clara and then two more home games.

Only two of their remaining nine games — a late-November trip to play the Carolina Panthers and a late December trip to play the Atlanta Falcons — will require the Rams to travel farther east than Arizona.

A lot can happen between now and the start of the playoffs.

But the Rams look like the Super Bowl contender they were built to be.

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