By Nate Atkins, Doug Haller and Amos Morale III

Los Angeles Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford watched most of the fourth quarter of his team’s 45-17 victory against the Arizona Cardinals from the sideline, and it’s safe to say the veteran enjoyed the view.

That’s because his Rams had built a 35-point lead by the time Stafford played his last snap.

Stafford threw three touchdown passes, two to star receiver Puka Nacua, as Los Angeles rushed for nearly 250 yards in a dominant effort and picked up their 10th win.

Running back Blake Corum rushed for a career-high 128 yards and two touchdowns while Kyren Williams added 84 yards and a score of his own.

Stafford looks like the MVP version again

All men are mortal, and that held true for Stafford last Sunday in Carolina, when he turned the ball over three times, including a pick six and a game-sealing strip-sack. The mix of a shootout and rainy conditions brought out some of the overaggressive play of Stafford’s past that day, and as a result, he slipped to second-best odds in a Most Valuable Player race that seems down to him and New England Patriots quarterback Drake Maye.

Sunday in Arizona was Stafford’s chance to take it back, and he delivered with the help of a run game that enjoyed its first 200-yard performance of the season with 249.

After a first drive in which he couldn’t quite connect with Davante Adams on a would-be touchdown in the back of the end zone and then overthrew him when he was wide open on a fade, Stafford locked in. He got back to peppering intermediate routes to Nacua, who made acrobatic adjustments to reel in seven catches for 167 yards, including a 28-yard touchdown strike on a post from Stafford and a 31-yard jump-ball touchdown along the left sideline. (This was, somehow, Nacua’s first two-touchdown performance in his young NFL career.)

Stafford also tossed a red-zone touchdown on third down, when he sliced a tight window for a 6-yard score to Colby Parkinson.

Stafford finished 22-of-31 for 281 yards, three touchdowns, zero interceptions, 9.1 yards per attempt and a 131.2 rating before handing the reins to Jimmy Garoppolo for almost the entirety of the fourth quarter. The blowout win keeps the Rams in the driver’s seat in a highly contested NFC West race, and if Stafford can keep up this productive and mistake-free play and win this vaunted division, his case for his first MVP trophy is going to be hard to top. — Nate Atkins, Rams beat writer

.@AsapPuka MOSSED HIM!

📺:@NFLonFOX | #ProBowlVote pic.twitter.com/k7dASO2jyU

— Los Angeles Rams (@RamsNFL) December 7, 2025

Secondary has some struggles again

The Rams have been shuffling their secondary grouping ever since safety Quentin Lake went to injured reserve and top outside cornerback Ahkello Witherspoon came back last week. It looked discombobulated to start the game, even with the Cardinals starting Jacoby Brissett in place of an injured Kyler Murray and playing without top wide receiver Marvin Harrison Jr.

Los Angeles started Cobie Durant and Emmanuel Forbes Jr. again on the outside, and Forbes couldn’t team up with safety Kam Kinchens to prevent an easy first touchdown to Michael Wilson. They then subbed Witherspoon in for Forbes, and he struggled to stay with Wilson on a couple of chunk plays.

But the coverage mostly tightened after a bad first quarter, and that allowed the engine of the Rams’ defense to get revving in the pass rush. Kobie Turner and Byron Young both turned in sacks, and the Rams were able to hit Brissett on seven dropbacks. They finally got their first turnover in seven quarters when Nate Landman intercepted Brissett to set up another touchdown.

The secondary represented the only negative in the blowout win, as Wilson was able to rack up 11 catches for 142 yards and two touchdowns by trading off big gains against Witherspoon and Forbes. Some regression was to be expected after losing a player like Lake, who could disguise and coordinate the defense so well from a mix of three different positions. Without him, this no longer looks quite like one of the best defenses in the league, but stopping the run and rushing the passer can still go a long way with an offense this potent. – Atkins

Gannon on shaky ground?

Caridnals head coach Jonathan Gannon built up a lot of goodwill during his first two seasons as head coach. He took the Cardinals from four wins to eight. He established a disciplined culture, something that was needed coming off the Kliff Kingsbury years. As the Cardinals this season have slipped, becoming one of the league’s worst teams, all that goodwill has evaporated. A head coach who appeared to be safe finds himself on shaky turf.

Leading to Sunday’s game, Gannon had the support of the locker room. Players praised his leadership and direction and took accountability for not performing better. That’s encouraging for Gannon, but blowout losses like this can change the narrative quickly. Sunday’s loss was another reminder of just how far off Arizona sits in the NFC West. Losing is one thing, not being competitive is another. Yes, injuries are a major issue. But this team keeps getting worse. Four games remain. The Cardinals still have something to prove. No one more than their head coach. — Doug Haller, Cardinals beat writer

Wilson a bright spot

One positive for the Cardinals — receiver Michael Wilson — is meeting the moment. Wilson is a 2023 third-round draft pick, and it’s taken a while for the Stanford product to find his place. For his first two seasons, Wilson’s status as Arizona’s No. 2 receiver didn’t seem all that firm. This season, Wilson has blossomed. With Harrison missing time because of illness and injury, Wilson has shown the type of threat he can be. In a Nov. 16 loss to San Francisco, he had 15 catches for 185 yards. In a Nov. 23 loss to Jacksonville, he had 10 for 118. On Sunday against the Rams, Wilson produced 11 catches for 142 yards and two touchdowns. A strong performance on an otherwise miserable afternoon. — Haller