Week 2 was a tough day for the Los Angeles Rams at the office. It was too much Kyler Murray, too much Marvin Harrison Jr., and too much James Conner. The Arizona Cardinals triplets came to work and helped put the Rams into an 0-2 deficit for the season.
Murray had a nearly flawless afternoon, connecting on 17 of 21 passes for 266 yards and three touchdowns with zero turnovers. Harrison showed everyone why he was a first-round draft pick making four catches for 130 and two scores.
Conner bullied his way to 122 yards and a touchdown. All three Arizona players were catalysts in the Cardinals’ 41-10 win against the Rams. Rams head Sean McVay said after the game that his team will respond.
Matthew Stafford launches it to @Demarcus!
— Los Angeles Rams (@RamsNFL) September 15, 2024
? @NFLonFOX pic.twitter.com/owDiX3GbBj
“We got a lot of mentally tough people in that room,” McVay remarked in a postgame press conference.”And these are the moments where you get tested. I know when I look back on moments of growth for me, they never occurred in good times. They only occurred in moments like this.”
“And this is one of those moments…that you get that pit in your gut and you got a choice: Hey, do you want to attack it or do you want to fold. And I’m betting on a lot of the guys that they’re going to be the kind of guys to raise their head high. They’re going to go back to back to work. These are humbling moments,” McVay went on to say.
Nothing went quite right for McVay’s team. Murray looked like a scutterbug genius, passing and darting his way past defenders all afternoon. On the other side of the coin, the Rams could not get untracked offensively against an aggressive Arizona defense.
The 216 yards that quarterback Matthew Stafford threw for were mostly meaningless. The run game for the Rams wasn’t happening on this day. Kyren Williams (12 attempts, 25 yards) and Blake Corum (8 carries, 28) could not crack the 100-yard marker as a pair.
“Disappointing day,” Stafford said. “Not the way that we wanted we wanted to come out and play. There’s no question about that. But, it’s not going to define us as a team, it’s not going to define us, you know, as a season as well.”
The Rams have an opportunity to pick up their first victory of the season when they play the San Francisco 49ers in their first home game in Week 3.
Top photo caption: Los Angeles Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford (9) attempting a pass against the Chicago Bears. Stafford completed 20 of 26 passes for 321 yards and three touchdowns in the Rams’ 34-14 win at SoFi Stadium on Sunday, Sept. 12, 2021. Photo credit: Los Angeles Rams
Dennis has covered and written about politics, crime, race, sports, and entertainment. Dennis currently covers the NFL, MLB, NBA, NCAA, and Olympic sports. Dennis is the editor of News4usonline.com and serves as the publisher of the Compton Bulletin newspaper. He earned a journalism degree from Howard University. Email Dennis at dfreeman@news4usonline.com