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Sarah Barshop, ESPN Staff Writer
LOS ANGELES — Through the first four weeks of the season, with Cooper Kupp on injured reserve, wide receiver Puka Nacua was putting up numbers on pace with Kupp’s record-breaking 2021 season when he won the receiving triple crown.
The Los Angeles Rams rookie receiver had 39 catches for 501 yards, with both tallies the most in NFL history through a player’s first four games.
But with Kupp’s return to the field in Sunday’s 23-14 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles, the Rams had to figure out whether, and how, they could effectively use both — a “champagne problem,” according to coach Sean McVay.
Both players were productive, as Kupp had eight catches for 118 yards and Nacua had seven catches for 71 yards and a touchdown.
Nacua played all 56 offensive snaps for the Rams, and Kupp was on the field for 53. Nacua ran 41 routes and was targeted 11 times; Kupp ran 40 routes and was targeted 12 times.
McVay said he thought Kupp and Nacua “both did a nice job,” adding, “They’re two really good football players that we feel good about having, and we’ve got to continue to do a good job utilizing their skills.”
McVay said he was able to draw on the experience of that 2021 season when he also had a productive No. 2 receiver in Robert Woods.
Woods, who played nine games that season before he tore his left ACL during practice, had two games where he finished with more yards than Kupp. In nine games, he had 45 catches for 556 yards and ran 311 routes compared with Kupp’s 320 and Van Jefferson‘s 282 (Jefferson was traded to the Atlanta Falcons on Tuesday).
Woods, now with the Houston Texans, said he believes one of the reasons he and Kupp both had success was because they were on the same page when they played together, able to anticipate similar things.
“We communicated well with each other,” Woods said. “Studying the film, whether it’s film room, being out there on the field talking and giving each other a look, talking with our eyes. … He’s a true veteran receiver, knows defenses very well and knows what the purpose of the offense and how to make it run. So it was really good to play with a player who appreciated the details like him.”
Having Kupp on the field Sunday, Nacua said, made the game come “really easy.”
“It just flows kind of naturally,” Nacua said. “Being able to ask questions and kind of see what the coverage is and what we were expecting before the game, what we had talked about through the week happened right before our eyes because No. 10’s out there.”
Six of Kupp’s targets — and 56 of his yards — came on the Rams’ first drive. Kupp had two catches for 23 yards in the second half, which he said was due in part to the second-half adjustments the Eagles made.
When asked after the game why he thought the difference was there between the first half and the second, Kupp said he thought McVay and Stafford did a good job of “taking what the defense was giving them.” Nacua had four catches for 37 yards in the half.
The Rams also had a touchdown catch from Tutu Atwell, who had been Los Angeles’ second receiver before Kupp’s return. Through the first four weeks of the season, Atwell led the way with 161 routes run, Nacua was second with 159 and Jefferson had 154. But on Sunday, Jefferson was the fourth receiver, running one route in the game against the Eagles. On Monday, McVay said that was partially because it was “a really unique game” in terms of the number of possessions and offensive snaps by the Rams.
After the game, McVay and several players said how close they felt to being able to make the plays that could have won them the game. And this Rams receiving corps, highlighted by Kupp, Nacua and Atwell, could be well on the way to putting up the offensive numbers the Rams had in their Super Bowl LVI-winning season.
“It’s right there for us,” Kupp said. “We got all the guys that can make these plays, all the guys that are going to do the right stuff, even this week to be prepare to go and do that. And I think we’re going to grow into a really good team and, down the line, make those plays and hopefully have a different outcome.”
ESPN’s Houston Texans reporter, DJ Bien-Aime, contributed to this story.
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