SANTA CLARA, Calif. – When you throw a no-look touchdown pass in the fourth quarter for your fourth score of the game, you get to celebrate with a "shimmy shake." At least, that's what Rams wide receiver Puka Nacua called it.
Quarterback Matthew Stafford's eyes were locked toward the middle of the field, but his throw went into the flat to tight end Colby Parkinson. Parkinson caught danced into the end zone for a 16-yard touchdown in the fourth quarter, the Rams' sixth of the game to put them up 42-20.
Stafford then hit a celebratory dance, which is the type of emotion he only shows when he's in a true groove that's leading his team to victory. And that's exactly what happened in Santa Clara on Sunday.
"Yeah, I was having a good time," Stafford said. "I got hit on that one pretty good, too, so I had to shake that one off a little bit. But, I don't know, man. Like I said, I just have fun out there. I lose my mind out there when we score touchdowns."
While a lot of players pre-plan their touchdown celebrations, Stafford said, "whatever comes to me, comes to me." And, apparently, the "shimmy shake" came to him.
Stafford threw for 280 yards and four touchdowns in the Rams' 42-26 win over San Francisco in Week 10. It was an offensive explosion led by the veteran quarterback, who put himself in historic territory both in NFL and Rams history.
With his performance on Sunday, Stafford became the first quarterback since the AFL-NFL merger to throw for 4-plus touchdown passes and no interceptions in three straight games. He's also the first quarterback in franchise history to throw for four-plus touchdowns in three-straight regular season games. Only Peyton Manning, Dan Marino, Tom Brady, Russell Wilson, Patrick Mahomes and Drew Brees had ever done that.
"When you're on a heater, you just don't touch whatever he's doing," Nacua said. "I'm like, 'You could do whatever. You could walk on water right now.'"
His first touchdown was a screen pass to Nacua, which he took 22 yards to the house while slipping through would-be tacklers. The scores only got flashier from there.
In the second quarter, Stafford held a play-action bootleg for an extra second to find an open tight end, Davis Allen, in the back of the end zone for a four-yard touchdown that put L.A. up 21-0. That was the 400th touchdown pass of Stafford's career, something only eight other players have ever done.
In typical Stafford fashion, he didn't even know that was his milestone touchdown, saying "that's the one, huh?" But he went on to say it was unlike many of his others, being on the run outside the pocket. He added that he's a "a huge fan of the NFL" and has so much respect for the players that came before him that he always tries appreciate all the people that help him reach milestones like that.
Funnily enough, Allen also didn't know the significance of that touchdown until after the game.
"I had no idea," Allen said with a smile. "That's pretty cool, though. That's pretty cool."
But after three-straight touchdown drives to start the game, the Rams punted twice before the half, and had to rebound after the break. That's exactly what they did, on the back of their veteran quarterback.
In the third quarter, Stafford hit wide receiver Davante Adams on a quick out route for a two-yard score, one where Adams went full extension for the catch, giving L.A. a 28-14 lead.
Adams played with quarterback Aaron Rodgers during three of his MVP seasons, so he knows what an MVP looks like, and Stafford has fit the bill.
"It's looked like MVP play to me all year, to be honest," Adams said.
