Matthew Stafford threw for 249 yards, and the Los Angeles Rams’ defense held the Arizona Cardinals to four field goals, leading to a 20-12 Rams win on Sunday in Glendale, Ariz.
Los Angeles running back Cam Akers rushed for 61 yards on 12 carries, including a key 14-yard touchdown run late in the third quarter.
Aaron Donald led the Los Angeles defense with two tackles for loss and a sack, the 100th of his NFL career.
Arizona quarterback Kyler Murray completed 37 of 58 passes for 314 yards. Marquise Brown was Murray’s No. 1 target, catching 14 passes for 140 yards for Arizona (1-2).
Akers gave the Rams some breathing room when he scored with one minute left in the third quarter for a 20-9 lead.
Arizona tried for a first down on fourth-and-4 from the Los Angeles 26-yard line with 11:35 left in the game — rather than let Matt Prater try to make it a one-possession game — but Murray threw incomplete.
Akers fumbled inside the Arizona 5-yard line with 6:28 left, and Budda Baker recovered for Arizona. The Cardinals then drove inside the Los Angeles 20-yard line, but this time Prater took the field on fourth-and-4 at the 13 and booted a 31-yard field goal to cut the lead to 20-12.
The Rams (2-1) then recovered an onside kick to seal the win.
The Rams had first-and-goal inside the Arizona 5-yard line on their first drive of the game but were unable to get the ball in the end zone and had to settle for a 22-yard field goal by Matt Gay for a 3-0 lead.
Cooper Kupp scored his first career rushing touchdown on a 20-yard end-around to extend the lead to 10-0 with four minutes left in the opening quarter.
Kupp later dropped a touchdown pass in second quarter, however, and Los Angeles had to settle for another field goal by Gay, this one from 40 yards to extend the lead to 13-0 with 13:23 remaining in the first half.
The Rams went quiet from there, but the defense didn’t slow down, holding the Cardinals to field goals of 23 and 43 yards in the second quarter. The Rams took a 13-6 lead into the break.
Prater kicked his third field goal of the game from 49 yards out to pull Arizona to 13-9 with 5:10 remaining in the third quarter.
–Field Level Media
