TLDR: The Rams have won 3 straight, but the last team to beat them was Arizona, and the man who carried them at Washington is waiting on an MRI. Arizona needs a win far more than Los Angeles does, and Sunday in Glendale is a chance to beat the Rams twice in a month.
The Rams have won 3 straight on the back of their defense, but Puka Nacua's knee MRI hangs over the week, with Davante Adams already out. Arizona beat the Rams 18-16 in Los Angeles last month. Its offense, though, managed 3 points at Seattle with Gardner Minshew at quarterback and both top running backs on IR. The game likely comes down to whether the Rams' pass rush can stall an offense that already struggles to get plays in, and to who is left catching passes from Stafford.
Start at quarterback, and with the guy who isn't one. Matthew Stafford went 26 of 43 for 228 yards, 1 touchdown and 1 interception in the 20-13 win over Washington. That's a grind of a stat line, and Puka Nacua is the reason it held up: 14 catches on 19 targets for 150 yards and a score before he hurt his knee on the Rams' final offensive snap. He's set for an MRI, and the Rams believe the ACL is intact. Davante Adams is already out for a few more weeks after hamstring surgery. Across the field, Arizona switched quarterbacks before the Dallas game, and Gardner Minshew answered with a 33-30 overtime win in Dallas. Then he went 21-for-30 for 166 yards in a 17-3 loss at Seattle that never got going.
Neither injury list is short. The Rams lost Trent McDuffie (back) for the Washington game and put Jaylen Watson (shoulder) on IR, so the cornerback room is thin. Guard Steve Avila left with a hamstring injury, tight end Terrance Ferguson is out a couple more weeks with a pulled hamstring, and long snapper Joe Cardona (ankle) sat. Arizona's backfield is worse off: James Conner (foot) and Jeremiyah Love (ankle) are both on IR. That leaves Tyler Allgeier, who managed 46 yards on 17 carries in Seattle, plus Jerome Ford, who was just called up from the practice squad. Kendrick Bourne (tibia) is on IR too, and defensive tackle Roy Lopez hurt his toe early in Seattle. With all that, the Rams are laying more than a touchdown on the road against the team that beat them last month.
That earlier game is the part LA can't wave away. Arizona went into SoFi and won 18-16, and it was the second of the Rams' back-to-back losses. Since then the Rams' defense has turned into the most reliable thing about them. Las Vegas scored 21, the Chargers 9 and Washington 13. Myles Garrett had 3 sacks and a forced fumble against the Commanders, and Quentin Lake picked off the Chargers. The offense has been inconsistent, but the pass rush has held up every week.
Arizona's problem is easy to see and hard to fix. Mike LaFleur called the Seattle game "a collective effort to score only three points" and pointed at the pre-snap operation, with plays not getting in quickly enough to adjust. The red-zone trips tell the story. The opening drive reached the Seattle 10 and came away with a field goal, and a late drive died at the 2 on an incomplete pass to Trey McBride in the end zone. McBride is still getting the ball (7 catches on 8 targets), but there's no run game to draw attention away from him. The defense played well enough to win: Budda Baker and Andrew Wingard each made double-digit tackles, and Walter Nolen III had a sack in his first game back.
Kickoff is 2:05 PM MT under the roof at State Farm Stadium, so weather won't play a part. The Rams are 5-4 and trying to climb back into the NFC West race. Arizona is 3-6 and needs a home win with its new quarterback. Most of this week depends on Nacua's MRI. If he plays, the Rams' passing game goes through him like it did in Washington. If he doesn't, Stafford is throwing to a depleted receiver room against a defense that already beat him once.
