{"id":44455,"date":"2025-11-08T18:51:20","date_gmt":"2025-11-08T18:51:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/44455\/"},"modified":"2025-11-08T18:51:20","modified_gmt":"2025-11-08T18:51:20","slug":"matthew-stafford-and-rams-eager-to-avenge-their-heartbreaking-loss-to-49ers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/44455\/","title":{"rendered":"Matthew Stafford and Rams eager to avenge their heartbreaking loss to 49ers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It\u2019s been just more than five weeks.<\/p>\n

But for the Rams that seems like ages ago.<\/p>\n

On Oct. 2, the San Francisco 49ers came to SoFi Stadium and handed the Rams<\/a> their second loss in four weeks, a 26-23 overtime defeat<\/a> on \u201cThursday Night Football\u201d that ended when the 49ers stopped running back Kyren Williams<\/a> on fourth and one at the 49ers\u2019 11-yard line.<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

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Gary Klein breaks down what you need to know for Sunday\u2019s matchup between the Rams and San Francisco 49ers at Levi\u2019s Stadium in Santa Clara.<\/p>\n

Much has changed for the Rams that defeat.<\/p>\n

In victories over the Baltimore Ravens<\/a>, Jacksonville Jaguars<\/a> and the New Orleans Saints<\/a>, the Rams offense broadened its scope by utilizing four tight ends, receiver Davante Adams<\/a> emerged as the hoped-for red-zone threat and quarterback Matthew Stafford<\/a> is enjoying one of the most productive and efficient stretches of his 17-year career.<\/p>\n

The Rams have largely shut down three consecutive opponents with a dominant defensive front, a steady linebacker corps and an improving secondary.<\/p>\n

One phase, however, remained the same: The kicking game has been a liability.<\/p>\n

But the Rams addressed the situation by signing veteran long snapper Jake McQuaide and bringing in Harrison Mevis<\/a> to compete with kicker Joshua Karty.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere has been a lot of growth,\u201d Rams coach Sean McVay<\/a> said of the team in general. \u201cThe biggest thing that I would say is that I\u2019ve been pleased with the way that we\u2019ve started fast, played good complementary ball, been able to jump out to some leads.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Rams started slow in their first matchup against the 49ers, who took the first possession and drove for a touchdown. Early in the second quarter, the Rams trailed, 14-0.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe didn\u2019t come out hot, and we let them get the first strike in and we were battling for the rest of that game,\u201d Rams defensive tackle Kobie Turner said. \u201cSo, we\u2019ve got to come out hot.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the three games that followed, the Rams led or were tied at halftime and limited opponents to 10 points or fewer in victories that helped put them in a tie with the Seattle Seahawks for first place in the NFC West.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s exciting to be able to see that come back and be able to put on display our growth,\u201d Turner said, \u201cand to be able to hopefully make a statement to the rest of the NFC West, to the rest of the NFC, to the rest of the league that we\u2019re the team to watch.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stafford and the Rams offense have put on a show the last two games.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe doesn\u2019t miss,\u201d Rams receiver Puka Nacua<\/a> said, \u201cand I feel like the level of confidence that he plays with right now is just oozing out into everybody else.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stafford, 37, followed a five-touchdown performance against the Jaguars in London with four touchdown passes in last Sunday\u2019s 34-10 victory over the Saints.<\/p>\n

\u201cMan, he still slings it,\u201d 49ers defensive coordinator Robert Saleh told Bay Area reporters. \u201cHis arm talent is still ridiculous.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stafford leads the league with 21 touchdown passes, and only two interceptions. He has not had a pass intercepted in five games, tied for the longest interception-free stretch of his career.<\/p>\n

Stafford\u2019s \u201ctotal command\u201d of late is no different from what McVay has seen from Stafford during the quarterback\u2019s four-plus seasons in L.A.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody makes a big deal about these numbers, but what I do think he\u2019s doing a great job of is he\u2019s not leaving the ball in harm\u2019s way, either,\u201d McVay said. \u201cSometimes you might have low picks, you might have had some turnover-worthy plays, he\u2019s been really great with that.\u201d<\/p>\n

After struggling at times to establish a consistent connection with Stafford in the first five games, Adams has five red-zone touchdown catches in the last two games.<\/p>\n

He leads the NFL with eight touchdown catches, and his 111 career touchdown catches ranks eighth all-time.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s been doing it for a long time in the league, especially down in the red zone,\u201d Stafford said. \u201cHe\u2019s got a hundred and something touchdowns and it\u2019s really impressive to see what he can do in a small area, both at the line of scrimmage and at the catch point.\u201d<\/p>\n

Said Adams: \u201cBasically, if they want to go one-on-one, we like that matchup.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s been just more than five weeks. But for the Rams that seems like ages ago. On Oct.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":44456,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[11856,1285,4611,29444,48,52,51,10572,47,50,49,771,29445,1417,11706,10947,29446,431,29443,780,8934],"class_list":["post-44455","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-49er","tag-growth","tag-jacksonville-jaguars","tag-kicking-game","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-league","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-matthew-stafford","tag-nfc-west","tag-point","tag-ram","tag-rams","tag-red-zone-touchdown-catch","tag-rest","tag-stafford","tag-touchdown","tag-victory"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44455","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44455"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44455\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44456"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44455"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44455"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44455"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}