2024 Week 2: Rams 10, Cardinals 41
This game was very quickly 14-0 thanks to two deep balls to Marvin Harrison Jr., and 21-0 early into the second quarter.
Arizona earned this win, but there were a lot of little moments of luck that turned this game from competitive to a blowout. On the first drive of the game the Rams went for it on 4th and 2 and were short by a few inches. Multiple times the Rams had Kyler grabbed for big sacks but he would break free and magically turn it into a large positive gain.
Arizona and LA have tough dates next week facing Detroit and San Fran respectively. Both teams should get smacked around but after this crazy week, who knows.
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QB Report:
- Kyler Murray (17/21 for 266 yards, 3TDs) played an incredible game, possibly the best of his career. He escaped out of would be sacks so many times I couldn’t keep track, able to extend plays and turn them into positive games. The Rams defense had a lot of opportunities with tight coverage to get some easy pass deflections but every time they went for it they would miss and give a big play.
- Matt Stafford (19/27 for 216 yards, Fumble) lost his top two WRs here, both pro-bowl caliber. On top of this the O-line has been killed by injuries, losing another one in this game. The Rams season is being killed by injury.
RB Report:
- James Conner (21-122-1, 1 catch for 2 yards) ran for over 100 yards and he’s not a great running back compared to the rest of the NFL. Jordan Mason will go bonkers against this Rams defense next week that is allowing 197 rushing yards per game.
- Blake Corum (8-28-0) came in late for some garbage time touches, and he is QUICK. He’s a much better RB than Kyren Williams (12-25-1, 4 catches for 27-0/5), I just don’t know when Corum will start to nudge his way into getting real playing time.
WR/TE Report:
- After Cooper Kupp (4-37-0/6) went down, Tutu Atwell (3-48-0/4) started to come in and he made some plays. Potential rookie sensation Jordan Whittington (2-22-0/2) was used sparingly but as the game got out of hand Whittington started to play more consistently.
- If the Rams really want to try and replace Kupp-Puka they need to start with Whittington, but he is also the least experienced on the team and has spent the least amount of time with Stafford so it may take a few weeks for him to get up to speed. This whole receiving core is dependent on Stafford, not McVay or anyone else.
- Marvin Harrison Jr. (4-130-2/8) had a massive 1st quarter while being covered by Tre White (3 tackles, 1 PD), the Rams worst corner. Possibly the worst cover corner in the league. This was a good gauge for the rest of NFL defenses on how to cover Marvin – You don’t need to respect him with your #1, but you also can’t throw your CB 4 on him and expect him to be shut down. As I’ve been saying all along, MHJ is a great #2 option.
- White was usually stride-for-stride with MHJ here, he’s just very good at making contested catches and was able to come down with the ball more often than not. After adjusting their coverage on Marvin he had 4 targets that led to 0 catches in the final 48 minutes of the game. All 4 of Murray's incompletions were to Marv.
- Trey McBride (6-67-0/6) seems to be the only receiving threat that Kyler consistently looks for/throws the ball to. Not a lot of TEs have that kind of relationship with their QB.
D/ST Report:
- Rams rookie Jared Verse (7 tackles, 3 TFL) looked very good in this game tallying 3 TFLs and bringing him to 4 on the season. I was against Verse being a top pick in this draft but he’s starting to prove me wrong.
- Dennis Gardeck (6 tackles, 3 sacks, 4 TFL, 3 QB hits) had a massive game and took advantage of the banged up Rams O-line. He’ll likely lead the Cardinals in sacks again this season.
