{"id":471897,"date":"2026-09-22T12:00:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-22T12:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/471897\/"},"modified":"2026-09-22T12:00:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-22T12:00:11","slug":"davante-adams-195-yard-masterpiece-proves-rams-doubters-wrong","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/471897\/","title":{"rendered":"Davante Adams’ 195-yard masterpiece proves Rams’ doubters wrong"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Did the Rams<\/a>\u2019 humiliating season-opening loss to the San Francisco 49ers<\/a> in Australia make you reevaluate your preseason choices?<\/p>\n

Did it make you doubt the veracity of the Rams\u2019 championship claim?<\/p>\n

Were you among the dummies who, as Davante Adams<\/a> put it, were \u201cfreaking out\u201d?<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re a fool if you think that that\u2019s what it\u2019s going to look like every single week,\u201d a confident Adams said before putting on a cape and a show in the Rams\u2019 28-6 victory<\/a> over the New York Giants on Monday at SoFi Stadium.<\/p>\n

The 33-year-old receiver was confident because, for one, the Rams are never again going to fly 16 hours, hop off a plane and play NFL football.<\/p>\n

Also, the Rams are very good.<\/p>\n

And anybody \u2014 or \u201ceverybody,\u201d per Adams \u2014 who doubts these Rams, does so at their own peril.<\/p>\n

Because this is a team with so many weapons they seem sometimes to almost forget about one of them \u2014 Adams.<\/p>\n

Prime-time \u2019Tae, the six-time Pro Bowler, three-time All-Pro first-teamer and future Hall of Famer.<\/p>\n

A 13th-year professional scorer who, on Monday, passed Art Monk (12,721) to enter the top 25 on the NFL\u2019s all-time receiving yards list. Adams also passed Antonio Brown, Calvin Johnson, Brandon Marshall and Jimmy Smith (46) and tied Torry Holt and Michael Irvin (47) for the ninth-most games in NFL history with 100-plus receiving yards.<\/p>\n

With star receiver Puka Nacua<\/a> out nursing a hip injury, all eyes were on Adams \u2014 and hopefully you didn\u2019t blink.<\/p>\n

In Adams\u2019 best game as a Ram, he caught eight passes for two touchdowns and 195 yards \u2014 13 more than the Giants\u2019 yardage total. And just 11 yards fewer than his career high.<\/p>\n

Among his snags Monday was a leaping, two-handed grab off a sidearm sling from quarterback Matthew Stafford<\/a> on the Rams\u2019 second possession. Adams brought that down and sashayed in for a 31-yard touchdown that opened the scoring.<\/p>\n

Then Stafford hit him in stride for a 64-yard monster gain on the Rams\u2019 third drive, which set up Kyren Williams<\/a>\u2019 10-yard touchdown reception.<\/p>\n

\"Rams <\/p>\n

Rams wide receiver Davante Adams, right, celebrates with wide receiver Xavier Smith after catching a touchdown pass in the first quarter Monday against the Giants.<\/p>\n

(Allen J. Schaben \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

Stafford and Adams also had one of their patented over-the-shoulder touchdown connections in the corner of the end zone, which made it 21-3 in the third quarter.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve done that quite a few times on that route in particular,\u201d Adams said, with a grin. \u201cThey did double-team it, but just tried to hide it a little too much. And if you\u2019re going to double, you better get over there \u2014 because we\u2019re going.\u201d<\/p>\n

And if you\u2019re someone who thought the Rams play things too cool, well, Monday was too cool: \u201cOur O-line did a great job protecting, to allow Matthew and Davante to have a bunch of cool connections,\u201d coach Sean McVay<\/a> said. \u201cAnytime you go eight for 195, it\u2019s a pretty special deal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adams made high-degree-of-difficulty catches look elementary, like foregone conclusions. He was clinical, smooth with his body control.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a blessing, man,\u201d Adams said. \u201cGames like this. … I think you guys know what I\u2019m capable of. I certainly do.\u201d<\/p>\n

But maybe Monday\u2019s performance was a reminder not just of the Rams\u2019 super-upside, but for the Rams themselves: As obvious a target as Nacua is, Adams remains a special talent. They ought to feed him more.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s Wide Receiver 1 to me,\u201d McVay said. \u201cHe ain\u2019t a 2 … and I\u2019m really happy for him. I thought he made some great plays, but you could see there\u2019s a lot of trust that he and Matthew have. They were able to get a lot of work together this offseason, and it\u2019s only going to continue to build.\u201d<\/p>\n

That investment in time and trust might have all been for naught had the Rams traded Adams \u2014 who previously was released by the New York Jets in March 2025 \u2014 when the Philadelphia Eagles were shopping A.J. Brown in the offseason.<\/p>\n

The Rams didn\u2019t hide that fact from Adams, McVay said: \u201cI did want to acknowledge it. He\u2019s a grown man, and I think he understood that this is a part of this business.\u201d<\/p>\n

And Adams didn\u2019t take umbrage, he said at the start of training camp: \u201cIt\u2019s just the way that this business goes … ultimately I\u2019m still a Ram and I\u2019m here and I\u2019m happy to be here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here, in L.A., still pursuing the elusive, ultimate goal \u2014 a Super Bowl title.<\/p>\n

\"Rams <\/p>\n

Rams wide receiver Davante Adams celebrates after catching a touchdown pass against the Giants.<\/p>\n

(Allen J. Schaben \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

Last season, Adams lost in the NFC championship for the fifth time when the Rams were ousted 31-27<\/a> by the eventual Super Bowl-champion Seahawks.<\/p>\n

And now, despite the debacle Down Under<\/a>, the Rams remain the favorites to win the Super Bowl this year.<\/p>\n

Monday\u2019s victory \u2014 imperfect but convincing \u2014 reinforced those assumptions.<\/p>\n

And proved Adams\u2019 point.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve still got another level we can tap into,\u201d he said. \u201cThis team, we got to the confidence level we\u2019re at because of the work we put in. … We\u2019re trying to be great and be a Super Bowl-caliber team, you gotta hold yourself to a high standard.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is definitely on track with what we\u2019re capable of.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Did the Rams\u2019 humiliating season-opening loss to the San Francisco 49ers in Australia make you reevaluate your preseason…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":471898,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[185594,185593,10834,152896,48,52,51,47,50,49,97252,11396,1024,6450,8735,11706,10947,29443,122675,780,8934],"class_list":["post-471897","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-all-time-receiving-yard-list","tag-confident-adams","tag-davante-adams","tag-good-game","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-masterpiece","tag-matthew","tag-monday","tag-new-york-giants","tag-nfl-football","tag-ram","tag-rams","tag-stafford","tag-super-bowl-title","tag-touchdown","tag-victory"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471897","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=471897"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471897\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/471898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=471897"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=471897"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=471897"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}