– by Adesina O. Koiki
A Lot of Sports Talk editor-in-chief
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INGLEWOOD, CALIFORNIA — At this time three months ago, Matthew Stafford and his bad back was severe enough for many to believe that, given his absence from almost all of training camp, getting through the 2025 season would be a serious doubt. Now, Stafford is leaving little doubt as to whom this season’s Most Valuable Player might be, and his Los Angeles Rams are leaving little doubt who the best team in the NFC might be at this point in the season.
Stafford threw for three touchdowns, all in the first half, as the Rams dominated the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 34-7 inside SoFi Stadium in a match-up of division leaders on Sunday night. Two of those scoring throws went to Davante Adams, who now leads the league with 12 receiving touchdowns.
Carrying over their dominant performance from last week’s win against fellow NFC West powerhouse Seattle, the Rams’ defense allowed just 193 total yards against Tampa Bay while recording four sacks and earning two takeaways — one being a Cobie Durant 50-yard interception return for a touchdown late in the first quarter to give Los Angeles a 14-0 lead.
We’ve really talked about starting fast and finishing strong. When we get leads like that, you are playing up against the clock but I thought we had total command and control of the football game in the first half,” Rams head coach Sean McVay said. “There were a couple things that we wanted to be able to have a little bit better momentum offensively, but I have to do a better job for us collectively. It’s awesome. I love the way these guys are starting, and we have to continue that because we all know that humility’s only a week or a day away.”
Stafford has now thrown 30 touchdown passes on the season, the fourth time he has reached that number in a campaign, compared to just two interceptions, and he tied Tom Brady’s NFL record of 27 consecutive touchdown passes without throwing a pick with his final score — and second to Adams — just before the two-minute warning in the first half.
Buccaneers quarterback Baker Mayfield was knocked out of the game after playing only the first half, as he suffered a shoulder injury soon after getting tackled on a quarterback scramble during the Tampa Bay’s only scoring drive of the game in the second quarter. He was examined on the sidelines right after his 14-yard touchdown pass to Tez Johnson with five minutes to go in the second quarter, and Mayfield grimaced in pain immediately after throwing a Hail Mary pass on the final play of the quarter that was eventually intercepted.
*Editor’s note: Above the byline is the photo gallery from Sunday night’s game, with photos taken by Los Angeles-area photographer Enrique Gurriola. After clicking on a photo to enlarge the picture, press the left and right arrow buttons on either side of the caption to scroll through the rest of the pictures that appear on the first page, Also, click on the numbers and/or arrow appearing immediately below the picture grid to load the next set of photos. There are 20 pictures in total.
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