Rams hang on to defeat Saints 30-22 on Thursday Night Football: Recap and reaction, NFL playoff picture, stats

There weren’t many people out there left for rookie receiver Puka Nacua to surprise, but he blew the doors off his prime-time moment anyway.

Nacua, who finished the Los Angeles Rams’ 30-22 win Thursday night against the New Orleans Saints with a career-high 164 receiving yards (180 total scrimmage yards), is now just 146 yards away from matching Bill Groman’s all-time rookie receiving record (1,473 yards). Nacua is squarely in the Offensive Rookie of the Year conversation, or he should and likely will be because any pundit with a pulse was watching him jet-sweep around defensive linemen and shake off defensive backs and stretch for catches and block down on safeties in the run game all night.

“He’s outstanding,” coach Sean McVay said after the game. “I could not be more grateful for the contributions … you guys have seen it week in and week out. You talk about that (run/pass) balance, you can’t have that balance if you don’t have receivers who are willing to dig out support and do some of the things that he does. You see around the league, (Houston Texans quarterback C.J.) Stroud has had a great year, but this guy … he would get my vote. He’s really special.

“But the best part about him is, he doesn’t worry about those things. He worries about being a great teammate.”

That the 164 receiving yards and a touchdown — the latter of which was on the Rams’ game-opening fourth-and-goal from the 2 — is just a yard better than Nacua’s Week 4 game against the Colts, or just 10 yards better than his Week 7 game against the Steelers is a reminder that Nacua has been doing this all … dang … year … whether people were watching the games the entire time, or still cracking jokes about the general anonymity of the Rams’ 2023 roster.

The fact is, the Rams went from a team nobody knew to a team nobody wants to play.

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