The Los Angeles Rams managed to start the 2025 NFL season off on the right foot with a 14-9 win over the Houston Texans. It wasn’t the prettiest game, but the Rams came away with a hard-fought dub over a team expected to have one of the league’s best defenses. With everyone riding the victory high, here is the good, the bad and the ugly in L.A.‘s Week 1 performance.
The Good
The Rams’ defense already looks like an elite unit
Most of the talk leading into this game was about how good the Texans’ defense was. That was fair, as Houston should finish this season
with a top-five unit. However, more people need to give L.A.‘s D more credit, as they held one of the game’s top young signal callers in check all afternoon.
The offense was off to a sluggish start in the first half, and the defense did its job, preventing the game from getting away from them early. New addition Nate Landman was the man with the Texans driving to win the game late in the fourth quarter. Landman forced a big-time fumble off Texans running back Dare Ogunbowale, which Braden Fiske recovered. Ballgame.
Dating back to last season, including the playoff win over the Vikings and excluding the Week 18 finale, Los Angeles has held five of its last six opponents to single digits. That number could grow to six with the team facing the woeful Tennessee Titans next week.
Houston was breaking in a new offensive coordinator, but there is nothing to take away from the performance of the Rams’ defense. If it can keep up this high level of production, L.A. should be joining the Texans atop the NFL’s defensive standings at the end of the season.
New number, who dis? Puka Nacua is still an absolute beast
The third-year wideout just barely missed out on having back-to-back 1,000-yard campaigns to begin his career last season. Well, it certainly seems like Puka Nacua is making up for lost time, head wound be damned.
Nacua caught 10 of his 11 targets for 130 receiving yards, making his presence felt early and often throughout the afternoon.
The BYU product caught the pass that put Matthew Stafford over 60,000 for his career—more on Mr. Stafford in a moment—and is simply a menace for opposing defenses to cover. Nacua has 14 career 100-yard games in 29 career regular season games played. Craziness! He also joined some pretty stellar company after Sunday’s showing:
No matter the number Puka has on his jersey, he’s still going to produce. Pairing him and Davante Adams is already off to a great start, as the All-Pro free agent acquisition added 51 yards on four receptions. May that continue throughout the year.
Matthew Stafford joins an elite club
Sean McVay said it best when speaking to reporters after the game: “Matthew (bleeping) Stafford was in great command all day.” Okay, I added the bleep in there for dramatic effect, yet McVay hit it right on the head. Stafford, who had Rams fans concerned all offseason regarding his health, had an incredibly efficient outing once he got going.
On Sunday, Stafford became the 10th quarterback in NFL history to amass 60,000 passing yards. He tied Matt Ryan as the second-fastest player to ever reach that mark.
Stafford joins legends including Tom Brady, Peyton Manning, Drew Brees, Aaron Rodgers, Dan Marino, Brett Favre, Ben Roethlisberger and Philip Rivers. All of those guys are either in the Hall of Fame or will be on their way to Canton shortly. Enough with the debate already: Matthew Stafford is a future Hall of Famer, and should be a first-ballot one at that. What more does the guy have left to prove?
The Rams QB did everything asked of him, and this game should help ease the nerves of some fans overly concerned about his back injury. Stafford looked great in the opener and should be able to maintain that momentum moving forward, especially as the offense continues to gel.
Per Jeff Kerr of CBS Sports, the Eagles are the lone team to beat Stafford and the Rams in his last 10 starts. Revenge is a dish best served cold, which is what Stafford will get a chance to do in Week 3 against the very squad that ended L.A.’s season in 2024.
The Bad
Run defense still needs some work
Last season, L.A. gave the 11th-most rushing yards in the league, allowing an average of 130 yards per game.
Against Houston, the Rams allowed 114 yards on 27 total carries, good for a 4.2 average. Nick Chubb led the way with 60 yards on 13 attempts. Look, it’s great to see Chubb on the field again following his devastating knee injury from two seasons ago. Yet, allowing someone who has played in just 11 games since 2023 to put up a solid rushing performance like that is a little troubling.
The Rams have emphasized all offseason to improve the run defense, given what Saquon Barkley did to them twice a year ago. Again, it’s early, but things must tighten up, or it’s going to be more of the same in Hollywood.
The Ugly
First half offense was miserable to watch
The Rams are making it a habit of starting a game off slow, and it’s got to end soon.
Following that wild shootout win over the Bills last December, L.A. has been held under 20 points in four of its last six matchups with the starting offense on the field. A high-level defense has been the difference in the team pulling off all those low-scoring affairs.
However, at the same time, we know the Rams have the offensive pieces to stretch the field, and points have come at a premium. The team was held scoreless until Kyren Williams scored a touchdown with 53 seconds left to go before halftime.
Part of the disjointedness at the start was reasonable since Stafford had missed almost a month of training camp with this injury. Either way, the issues with scoring predate his nagging back problems. You can only put so much stress on a great defense before they wind up breaking.
Thankfully, the Texans were offensively challenged, but L.A. must clean this up before facing teams with much better offenses. During Stafford’s postgame interview, he brought up a moment where he told Davante Adams, “We’re only going to get better from here.” Hopefully, that is indeed the case.
