Puka Nacua was the Rams' passing game again, more than ever. He caught 14 balls for 150 yards and a touchdown, a bigger day than his 11-catch outing against the Chargers. He also took a trip to the medical tent and came back. The preview said Davante Adams' absence would send everything through Nacua, and that's exactly what happened. Stafford fed him all afternoon against a Washington secondary that had Isaac Yiadom and Fabian Moreau inactive.
The other headliner was Myles Garrett. He came off injured reserve Saturday, and the preview hedged on whether a return to practice meant he'd actually play on Sunday. He played, and he had 3 sacks, one of them a strip-sack of Daniels. Facing a Washington line that lost guard Lucas Patrick to a concussion during the game, Garrett was the main reason the Commanders put up a single field goal after halftime.
The line score shows how the game turned. It was a 3-3 grind in the 1st quarter, and Washington took a 10-6 lead into the locker room. Then the Commanders went quiet. They managed 3 points in the 3rd while the Rams scored a touchdown to tie it 13-13, and Los Angeles added another 7 in the 4th while holding Washington scoreless. For a team the preview credited with scoring the last 21 points against the Chargers, that's a familiar second half: the defense shut the door and the offense did just enough.
The Rams didn't get through it clean. Trent McDuffie (back) was inactive, so the secondary the preview worried about was down a corner from the start. Guard Steve Avila left with a hamstring injury and was ruled out for the rest of the game. Washington has its own list to deal with. Patrick's concussion adds to a line and a defensive interior that were already short on bodies, with Daron Payne and Javon Kinlaw both done for the year.
The Rams reached Landover for the 1:00 PM ET kickoff, the body-clock spot the preview flagged, and won anyway. They have now won 3 straight and are 5-4. Washington drops to 2-5-1, and the 27-10 win over the Eagles looks like the exception. The Commanders are 1-4 over their last 5, and a 10-6 halftime lead against a Rams team playing without its top corner is the kind of game they need to finish.
