SANTA DELIVERS RAMS, FANS NEEDED LAUGHER
Hapless Broncos no match as defending champs finally click
INGLEWOOD
Running back Cam Akers rushed for more than 100 yards and three touchdowns.
Quarterback Baker Mayfield played efficiently and with occasional flash. Veteran tight end Tyler Higbee stepped up with a record-setting day, and the defense intercepted four passes to make it easy on the offense.
Nothing, of course, has been easy for the defending Super Bowl champions during their lost season.
But for one game, they executed and played the complementary football coach Sean McVay coveted.
The Rams’ 51-14 victory on Sunday over the hapless Denver Broncos at SoFi Stadium was welcome for McVay and the organization.
“That’s what you want it to look like,” McVay said.
It also was a dose of what might have been. Or, at least, what the Rams believed their team could play like for the second season in a row.
After proclaiming their intent to run it back and become the first team to repeat as champion in nearly two decades, poor play, questionable coaching and a run of injuries sent the Rams into a historic nosedive.
But from start to finish Sunday, the Rams (5-10) had reason to feel good. They scored on all eight possessions and tallied their most points since a 54-51 win over the Chiefs in 2018.
“This has been anything but ideal,” McVay said of his sixth season, “and really it’s the first time when you look at it in this role, where there’s been failure in a lot of instances and we’re not getting the results we want.”
Akers, a third-year pro, rushed for 118 yards in 23 carries and scored on runs of 2, 2 and 4 yards — his best game of the season.
“Sticking with the run, not going away from it when we had a bad play or a negative play — just trusting it,” Akers said. “I think it paid dividends.”
In his second start for the Rams, Mayfield completed 24 of 28 passes for 230 yards and two touchdowns.
Mayfield credited the offensive line for protecting him and establishing the running game with Akers.
“That makes my life easy,” Mayfield said. “So, it’s fun to watch when you get guys into a rhythm like that and they continue to fight for those extra yards and he’s really feeling it, making great reads, great cuts.”
Higbee caught nine passes for 94 yards and two TDs. The seventh-year pro now holds team tight end career records with 299 catches for 3,063 yards and 20 touchdowns.
“Just trying to make my plays and help this team win games,” Higbee said. “And sometimes it calls for a tight end to get more balls thrown his way.”