Rams improve to 2-1: 3 things I think after a dominant win against Cardinals

Sean McVay continues to torment the Arizona Cardinals after his Los Angeles Rams left the desert with a 20-12 win. McVay moved to 11-1 in his career against the Redbirds.

The win gave LA an early advantage over the San Francisco 49ers who they will play on Monday Night Football. Until then, let’s sit back, enjoy the win and sort through my takeaways from a victorious Sunday afternoon.

McVay needs to give Akers more opportunities

Cam Akers has seemingly played second fiddle to Darrell Henderson to start 2022. However, the third-year back finally started to find his groove against Arizona.

Akers ran for 61 yards on 12 carries (5.1 yards a carry) and a touchdown, his first since the 2020 Divisional Round playoff game against the Green Bay Packers. Despite severely underachieving and drawing the ire of the angry LA faithful as of late, Cam appears to be on the right track if this game is any indication.

Yes, he had a brutal goal line fumble but overall, his performance was the best he’s had all year. This game will go a long way in determining whether he deserves more carries as the season progresses.

Allen Robinson looking like a downgrade from OBJ (so far)

Robinson caught his first touchdown with the Rams last week but that has been his only highlight so far in LA.

It hasn’t been a smooth ride for the Rams most-prized free agent addition. Through three games with the Rams, Robinson has seven receptions for 88 yards, two of those catches going for 23 yards against Arizona.

The targets came Allen’s way Sunday but he struggled to reel them in. He dropped this likely touchdown early in the first quarter:

AR1 was expected to come in and replace Beckham’s production after he starred in his brief tenure in Los Angeles. Perhaps Robison had too high of expectations put on him entering the season as the offense is still struggling to find a reliable WR2 alongside Kupp. This could put the team in a bind if teams around the league figure out a way to slow down the reigning Offensive Player of the Year.

Defense didn’t allow another near-comeback

The Rams almost took on the 28-3 curse after letting the Falcons back into last Sunday’s game. This week, the Redbirds never stood a chance as they never held the lead at any point.

Aaron Donald (who notched his 100th career sack) and company limited the usually explosive Kyler Murray to no touchdowns, a 77.8 passer rating and just eight yards on the ground. What a difference a week makes huh? Arizona has been a slow starting team through three games and LA made sure they didn’t complete a miraculous comeback as they had in Vegas.

This tweet, compliments to one of our own TST writers, should tell us how impressive their performance was in the desert:

If the Rams could continue to rely on their defense while the offense sorts through their issues, LA will be in great shape when they begin navigating the more challenging games on their schedule.