CARSON, Calif. – Thursday's joint practice with the Saints saw the Rams offense look not as crisp initially as it did last week against the Cowboys but still find a way to finish strong, while their defense's front seven dominated throughout the practice.

Here are 10 observations from the session:

1) Matthew Stafford does not practice. As noted in our separate injury update, even with Los Angeles operating under a day-to-day approach with its starting quarterback, it makes sense that Stafford would not participate, given head coach Sean McVay had ruled him out for the joint practice with the Chargers that wound up getting canceled. Thus, it was Jimmy Garoppolo once again leading the first-team offense in one of these settings.

2) Cornerback Emmanuel Forbes participates in practice. According to McVay, Forbes got "about 50 percent" of the snaps in today's joint practice, which aligned with the plan they had for him.

"It's good to be able to get him out on (the) practice (field) a couple days ago, and looks like he's feeling good, and so for that, we're grateful," McVay said.

3) Offense lacks rhythm early..*.* First, some relevant context that the Rams were running a lot of base looks on both sides of the ball, according to McVay, which makes sense given these two teams will see each other again in Week 9 in the regular season. And while these joint practices are valuable opportunities for L.A.'s starters, the team does not gameplan for these.

It's also worth pointing out that the Saints' defensive coordinator is Brandon Staley, who held the same role for the Rams in 2020 and therefore has some familiarity with their offensive system and its rules.

Still, whether it was interceptions or unusual drops, the early team periods for the Rams did not resemble the explosive, efficient performance by their offense in last Tuesday's joint practice with the Cowboys.

Garoppolo's play had a hand in that, with McVay describing the quarterback's day as "up and down."

McVay pointed the impact of Saints' pass rush in early in practice, but Garoppolo performed better as the Rams progressed into segments involving second- and third-down work, praising Garoppolo for how well he saw coverage and distributed the ball in those situations.

"One of my favorite things about Jimmy is, if something doesn't go down the way we want, or if we have a little bit of a miscommunication, he's great about being able to reset and be able to respond and not react to whatever that next snap is," McVay said. "And I thought he did that today."

4) ... but finds it late. As McVay mentioned, Garoppolo deserves credit for his response after those early challenges. He threw a touchdown pass each to tight end Tyler Higbee, tight end Colby Parkinson and wide receiver Davante Adams in redzone drills – Adams' was arguably most impressive because of his "late hands" technique to bring it in.

In the 2-minute drill period at the end of practice, Garoppolo fired off three straight completions – one to Adams, one to wide receiver Puka Nacua, then another to Adams – to get the offense moving.

"I love the way that he finished in the two-minute drill where he hits a big completion to Davante right off the jump and then we're really one more completion away from being in the position that we want," McVay said. "He managed that really well, but I thought he did a great job."

5) Play(s) of the day. Early in team drills, inside linebacker Nate Landman used a "peanut punch" to a force a fumble by Saints running back Alvin Kamara, and Kinchens recovered the loose ball.

In redzone drills, cornerback Cam Lampkin had a fourth-down pass breakup in the endzone on a Spencer Rattler pass that drew lots of cheers from his defensive teammates.

6) Under pressure. Outside linebackers Jared Verse and Byron Young were fast and disruptive off the edge throughout Thursday's practice. The interior defensive line was also consistently generating pressure and stops behind the efforts of Kobie Turner, Braden Fiske, Poona Ford and especially Tyler Davis.

7) Davis and inside linebacker Omar Speights make their presence felt. Speights delivered one of the most physical "thud" tackles – both teams appeared to emphasize tackling without taking players off their feet – of practice when he hit Saints running back Kendre Miller as Miller was bringing in a pass during redzone team drills. L.A.'s defense was fired up after that.

Davis likewise had a run stop that was a big play for the defense in terms of the reaction it drew from teammates.

8) One-two step (times two). Besides Garoppolo, another standout in the two-minute drill period was wide receiver Konata Mumpfield, who had back-to-back catches near the right sideline where he got one foot down, then landed the other on top in bounds in toe-tap fashion, much to the delight of the Rams sideline.

9) Jarquez Hunter's speed shines. The rookie running back had a few breakaway runs, the most impressive of which was arguably when he ran up the middle, cut back to the right, then found daylight through the second level of the Saints defense.

10) Lots of work for the ones: The bulk of the snaps went to each team's first-team offenses and defenses, as expected based on what Saints head coach Kellen Moore told New Orleans reporters this week.