Rams vs. Raiders: Matthew Stafford Sets Rams Passing TD Record in 35-21 Week 7 Win in Las Vegas

Give the Rams one half in Las Vegas, and they will remind you why they opened the season as Super Bowl favorites. Matthew Stafford threw three first-half touchdown passes, the third of which made him the franchise's career leader, and Los Angeles built a 28-6 halftime cushion on the way to a 35-21 win over the Raiders at Allegiant Stadium.

Stafford finished 23 of 29 for 195 yards, three touchdowns and an interception, and his 155 touchdown passes as a Ram nudge him one past Roman Gabriel. The reigning MVP already owns Detroit's record with 282, and the AP says he is the first player to hold the mark for two franchises. The win ended a two-game slide for the Rams (3-4), while the Raiders (3-4) have now dropped four straight.

"It just means you're old and you play a lot of ball," Stafford said of the record, per TheRams.com.

Four Touchdown Drives, Then a Long Nap

After a three-and-out to open this 4:25 p.m. ET kickoff, the Rams scored touchdowns on four consecutive possessions, which is the football equivalent of a heater at the craps table. Davis Allen caught a 3-yarder, then a 5-yarder, his first two touchdowns of the season. Puka Nacua, the Las Vegas native who had been listed as questionable, caught the record-setting 11-yard score. After Emmanuel Forbes Jr. broke up a Raiders fourth-down pass near midfield, Kyren Williams finished a quick 52-yard drive with a 17-yard touchdown run, and it was 28-3. Matt Gay's 27-yarder at the end of the half made it 28-6.

The second half was a different movie. The Rams went scoreless in the third quarter. Williams lost a fumble deep in his own territory, though Las Vegas gave it right back on downs after a completion to Jalen Nailor was overturned on review. Kirk Cousins then hit Tre Tucker for a 37-yard touchdown at the start of the fourth, a Stafford pass tipped by Colby Parkinson was intercepted by Nakobe Dean, and Cousins found Ashton Jeanty for a 15-yard score on the very next drive. The Raiders failed on both two-point tries, so it was 28-18 with 13:12 left, and Allegiant Stadium finally had a pulse.

That is when Stafford did the grown-up thing. The Rams put together a 12-play, 70-yard march that ate 6:38, kept alive by Tyler Higbee's 15-yard catch on third down, and capped by Blake Corum's 4-yard touchdown run with 6:34 to go. Gay added a 36-yarder, the onside kick failed, and the Rams ran out the clock.

The Backfield Tag Team

The record gets the headline, but the run game made the whole afternoon work. Williams (16 carries, 99 yards) and Corum (17 carries, 93 yards) combined for 192 yards and two touchdowns, and the Rams piled up 199 rushing yards as a team. Next Gen Stats, per TheRams.com, put the Rams' rushing success rate at a season-high 60 percent. That kept Stafford living in second-and-short.

"Even the dirty ones that don't look great, but we push the pile, and now it's second-and-5, that's our whole playbook at our disposal there," Stafford said.

Allen, for his part, refused to make his career day about himself. "My goal every week is just do my job," he said. Nacua finished with eight catches for 68 yards, and Los Angeles went a perfect 5 for 5 in the red zone.

For Las Vegas, Tucker (five catches, 103 yards) and Jeanty (eight catches, 61 yards) were bright spots, and Cousins threw for 295 yards; he leads the NFL with 16 touchdown passes, according to the AP. But the Raiders managed 48 rushing yards as a team, with Jeanty and Mike Washington Jr. combining for 42 on 14 carries.

The Turning Point: Twenty-One Points in One Quarter

This game was decided in the second quarter, when the Rams outscored the Raiders 21-3. The pivotal snap came with Los Angeles up 21-3: Las Vegas went for it on fourth down near midfield, Forbes broke up the pass, and the Rams needed 37 seconds to turn that stop into seven more points. Instead of hanging around, the Raiders went to the locker room down 22. The AP says that was their largest home deficit after two quarters since trailing Cincinnati 24-0 in 2015.

Fourth downs haunted Las Vegas all day. The Raiders did move the chains on a fake punt pass, then came up empty on fourth-and-2 from the Rams' 13 and again after the Williams fumble. Two failed fourth-down tries in Rams territory, plus 1 for 5 in the red zone, is how a team that threw for 302 net yards loses by 14.

Stats That Matter

• 155: Stafford's touchdown passes as a Ram, the franchise record.
• 5 for 5 vs. 1 for 5: Red-zone touchdowns, Rams versus Raiders.
• 199 to 48: The rushing gap.
• 34:14: Rams time of possession.
• 10 of 41: Teams that reached the playoffs after a 3-4 start since the field expanded to 14 in 2020, per the AP. Only 4 of 33 made it from 2-5.

The Rams Are Back in the Conversation

That last number is the whole story in Los Angeles. The Rams dug themselves a hole with losses to San Francisco, Denver, Buffalo and Arizona, including last week's 18-16 stunner against the Cardinals, but 3-4 is a survivable address. McVay is now 4-0 against the Raiders, and the Rams host the Chargers next Sunday with a real chance to get back to .500.

"This league is so humbling," McVay said, before adding that he was proud of how his group prepared and how the players celebrated one another on the road.

For Las Vegas, the slide is getting ugly. The Raiders opened 3-0 and have now lost four in a row, and the defense has been tagged for 30 or more in four consecutive games. Klint Kubiak did not sugarcoat it.

"Well, no one's coming to help us," Kubiak said. "We've got to figure it out ourselves as a coaching staff, with the players, and we have to complement each other as well because we've got to start the game a lot faster offensively."

The Raiders visit the New York Jets next Sunday.

Closing Take: Old Man Strength

Stafford's line about being old and playing a lot of ball is peak veteran deadpan, and it undersells the moment. He is now the touchdown king of two franchises, a dual citizen of the record books, and he celebrated by handing the credit to his blockers, his receivers and his coaches. The Rams do not need him to be a superhero every week. They just need afternoons like this one.

Stats from the official box score via ESPN. Postgame quotes as reported by the Associated Press and TheRams.com.