INGLEWOOD, Calif. (AP) — Jared Verse walked into a deserted room Saturday night and thought he had somehow missed the Los Angeles Rams' team meeting.
He soon figured out his teammates were elsewhere in the hotel watching the Los Angeles Dodgers' stirring rally to win Game 7 of the World Series and back-to-back titles.
A day after the Rams thrilled to their neighbors' championship poise, they put on a performance against the New Orleans Saints that had them thinking about adding to Los Angeles' trophy case.
“Watching them be able to dominate like that, get that win, bring that World Series back to LA, it gets us hyped up,” Verse said. “And now we know we’ve got to be next.”
Matthew Stafford threw for 281 yards and hit Davante Adams with two of his four touchdown passes in the Rams’ 34-10 victory Sunday.
Puka Nacua had seven catches for 95 yards and a touchdown in his return from an ankle injury for the Rams (6-2). Tyler Higbee also had a TD catch and Kyren Williams rushed for 114 yards and another score as Los Angeles racked up 438 yards.
The Rams didn’t need extra innings to finish off their third straight impressive win: They also had another strong defensive effort, allowing only 224 yards. The Rams’ past three opponents have combined for only 20 points.
Baseball fever was high at SoFi Stadium. After Higbee scored on the opening drive, the veteran tight end swung a phantom bat and did the Dragon Ball-inspired celebration used all season by the Dodgers after big hits.
"Happy for them, and we'll see if we can continue to do some good stuff like they did," coach Sean McVay said of the Dodgers. “They inspire me, and I know they inspire our group."
Tyler Shough passed for 176 yards in his first NFL start for the Saints (1-8), who are on their second four-game skid of the season. The second-round pick out of Louisville went 15 of 24 with one late interception, and he threw his first career TD pass to Juwan Johnson 7 seconds before halftime.
Stafford added another prolific performance to his standout 17th NFL season in his 230th start, going 24 of 32 while throwing at least four TD passes for the 19th time in his career. He has passed for 1,408 yards and 16 TDs with no interceptions in the Rams' past five games.
Stafford played superbly after a wild Saturday night watching the Dodgers and Clayton Kershaw, his childhood friend.
“We were in the room last night with everybody watching, and when (Miguel) Rojas hit the dinger, man, we were all going crazy,” Stafford said. “That was the shortest team meeting before a game.”
Saints coach Kellen Moore thought Shough played well, but the Rams controlled the ball for nearly 38 minutes and ran 75 plays to the Saints 51. New Orleans got only three offensive snaps in the first 17 minutes of the second half.
“We didn’t give ourselves a chance in this one,” Moore said. “It’s frustrating. ... They really controlled the game in so many ways, so we didn’t get enough shots at it.”
Nacua missed the Rams' blowout win over Jacksonville in London, but he returned with another series of big receptions — none prettier than his 39-yard TD grab in tight coverage on a spectacular throw by Stafford in the second quarter.
Adams caught a 3-yard slant for his seventh TD of the season on the Rams’ third drive, and he added another short scoring grab on the first drive after halftime. Adams' two TD catches gave him 111 in his career, pulling him even with Tony Gonzalez for eighth in league history.
Los Angeles led 20-3 when Joshua Karty badly missed a 39-yard field goal, his fifth miss or blocked kick of the season to go with three unsuccessful extra points. Shough finally got the Saints going after that, driving 71 yards in 47 seconds for Johnson's 11-yard TD catch on a drive that felt encouraging to Moore.
“We got a little bit of momentum going into halftime with that touchdown," Moore said. “Felt like, you know, we’re right back in it. We have a chance, and then they kind of control the entire (third) quarter.”
Williams had the Rams’ first 100-yard rushing performance of the season, and he dived in for a score with 12:40 to play.
Nacua went to the locker room in the third quarter after injuring his ribs while getting tackled on a jet sweep, but the Rams believe he dodged another serious injury. He came back to the Rams’ sideline in the fourth quarter and said he could play, but it wasn’t necessary.
Saints: At Panthers on Sunday.
Rams: At 49ers on Sunday.
___
AP NFL: https://apnews.com/NFL
