What we learned from Los Angeles’ 30-20 win

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1. Kupp, Nacua returns fuel Rams’ season-changing win. Puka Nacua was — surprise! — active for Thursday’s game, and he was also surprisingly active in the victory, fueling the Rams’ upset of the Vikings with seven catches for 106 receiving yards as if he never left the lineup. Matthew Stafford looked for Nacua early and often, feeding him the ball on three of the first five plays. Also back was Cooper Kupp; he started a little slower, but drew two pass-interference flags in the red zone and worked to get open after Stafford brilliantly evaded a sack, finding Kupp for a welcome-back touchdown in the second quarter. Nacua and Kupp entered Thursday having played together only 24 snaps this season, and the Rams’ offense suffered because of it. But even Demarcus Robinson flourished with the band back together, both of his receptions going for second-half TDs. Stafford just looked different Thursday — not the sometimes frazzled, harried version we saw without his top two targets playing. The Rams have turned their season around in the past four days with the return of L.A.’s dynamic duo.
2. Vikings suffered second loss in four days, big injury to Darrisaw. The Vikings’ trajectory has changed in less than a week, both with their first two losses of the season after a 5-0 start and with the injury suffered by left tackle Christian Darrisaw. Late in the first half, Darrisaw was rolled up on and was eventually ruled out. Even worse, it came on a play the Vikings didn’t even technically need to run, backed up against their own end zone. Darrisaw was replaced by David Quessenberry, who allowed six pressures on 14 pass-block snaps, per Next Gen Stats, and was at least partially responsible for Jared Verse’s 13-yard sack with five minutes left and the Vikings down. Minnesota started out sharply, as Sam Darnold ripped the Rams’ defense early with precision, but things had bogged down before Darrisaw left the game. Even while showing some life in a few field-goal drives in the second half, it wasn’t enough. The Rams got away with a facemask that was missed on the game-sealing safety by Byron Young, but the protection broke down on a key play with a chance to tie the game late.
3. Why couldn’t the Vikings find Jefferson late? During the early offensive fireworks, Justin Jefferson was the Vikings’ go-to guy, shredding the Rams’ defense in the first half and continuing with catches for 27 and 14 yards on the third-quarter field-goal drive that put the Vikings up, 17-14. Darnold missed Jefferson, who stumbled in the end zone on third-and-goal prior to that kick, and then … he never saw the ball again. The Vikings attempted seven passes, and none had Jefferson’s name on it. Granted, the Rams were trying their best to make the ball go anywhere but Jefferson’s hands, but it felt like Darnold didn’t even look his way on most of those throws. A few of them worked. Not enough did. Darnold was accurate most of the night but struggled on third downs. He hit Aaron Jones on a pretty fade but couldn’t convert any first downs on his other five third-down throws. The third-and-goal pass was Jefferson’s only third-down target of the game. He finished with his first 100-yard outing in five games, which was great. But the Vikings really needed him, especially with T.J. Hockenson still a week away from returning, in the second-half drives that came up short.
4. Did this game make both teams trade-deadline buyers? There had been some Rams-related rumors floating out there (no, not the silly one about Stafford) about them possibly looking to offload some of their higher-priced veterans. At 1-4 less than a week ago, that idea made more sense. But at 3-4 suddenly — especially with this year’s jumbled-up NFC West — the Rams’ season has life again. So much so that they might be inclined to be shoppers instead of sellers. The returns of Nacua and Kupp has lit a fire under the offense again and reignited Stafford, at least through one game. With Rams general manager Les Snead, anything is possible. The Vikings now have lost two straight and risk getting caught in the wash of the highly competitive NFC North. I don’t get the sense that the Vikings view two losses as the earth caving in; this is still a team that feels ahead of the sticks in terms of projection, and they have a lot of salary-cap space next year, with 2025 looking like a big year, so it feels a little premature to blow up their future assets. Then again, if the NFC is as wide open as it feels, maybe the Vikings consider a targeted move or two — perhaps OT help if Darrisaw is out for an extended period.
5. McVay vs. KOC proved to be a good show early on. If you’re a fan of pretty offensive football — and who isn’t? — then this game was for you. The first 20 minutes or so, anyway. Things slowed down a bit in a second quarter marred by penalties, but the opening quartet of drives was just surgical. A beautiful deep comeback to Jefferson for 17 yards; an over route to J.J. for 17 more; the misdirection on Nacua’s first 13-yard catch; a throwback screen to Nacua for 21 more. And on and on. It was an offensive art display on those first four series, all of which ended in 70-yard TD drives. Great coaching and great execution early, especially for a short-week game. That’s to be expected with two of the better young coaches in the game in Sean McVay and Kevin O’Connell. Did O’Connell need to start a drive on the play Darrisaw got hurt? Not sure you can blame the coach on that fluky play up against his own end zone. McVay cranked his offense back up on the go-ahead TD drives, with a few pretty designs, including the fade to Robinson. On this night, the teacher — McVay, even though he’s younger — got the best of his former pupil in their first head-to-head meeting as head coaches.

Next Gen Stats Insight for Vikings-Rams (via NFL Pro): After generating 1 pressure on 13 pass rushes in the first half (7.7%), Jared Verse generated 3 pressures on 10 pass rushes in the second half (30.0%) against the Vikings. Verse failed to generate a single pressure on 6 matchups against Vikings starting left tackle Christian Darrisaw before he suffered an injury on the Vikings second-to-last play of the first half. In the second half, Verse generated 3 pressures and 0.5 sacks across 8 matchups against backup left tackle David Quessenberry (37.5%).

NFL Research: Justin Jefferson has passed WR Jake Reed (6,433) for the fifth-most receiving yards in team history. Jefferson now has 6,545 career yards, trailing only Adam Thielen (6,682), Anthony Carter (7,636), Randy Moss (9,316) and Cris Carter (12,383).