INGLEWOOD, Calif. — In a back-and-forth battle on Monday Night Football, the Bills outlasted the Rams, 37-34, in overtime to secure the Week 5 win at SoFi Stadium. Despite a career night from wide receiver Puka Nacua and a strong performance from quarterback Matthew Stafford that kept Los Angeles in the game until the very end, a 45-yard field goal from Bills kicker Tyler Bass walked it off.
Head coach Sean McVay and Stafford gave their thoughts on the game from the podium after the loss.
"What a great effort by both teams. Really proud of our group. I thought offensively and defensively we battled. Thought some of the coverage units, we did some really good stuff. And then the kicking game, especially with our PAT, field goal, not even close to good enough. It cost us the game tonight." - McVay
Both the offense and defense battled all night long, as McVay said. Defensively, the Rams held Bills quarterback Josh Allen to 60 yards passing and 21 yards rushing in the first half. Allen's 210 yards passing is second lowest on the season so far for him. "I'm proud of that team. I'm proud of the way that we battled, and I'm sick that we came up short," McVay said.
In an immediate response to the game, the goal for McVay is to move forward after a game that "stinks, and it's gonna hurt, but we can't afford to let this team beat us twice, and we're gonna have to regroup and reset ourselves."
"(You) look around the league, (it's) tough to find a perfect game. We're gonna try to go out there and score every time we touch the ball. There's no question about it. I love the fight that we had as a team." - Stafford
Stafford was especially proud of how the Rams offense "made some great plays in the second half, scored a bunch of points." He also complimented the Rams defense's ability to "(get) us the ball back in overtime" with a forced fumble by inside linebacker Nate Landman. Ultimately, "you're playing a really good football team in Buffalo, you're gonna have to fight tooth and nail to go get a win. And (we) gave ourselves some opportunities, didn't come away with it."
On Monday night, Stafford played his cleanest game of the season thus far, going 40 of 54 for 383 yards and three touchdowns with no interceptions. Nacua set a personal single-game career-high in receptions with 17 catches for 138 yards and a touchdown. Seven other Rams players caught at least one pass from Stafford, including two touchdowns to wide receiver Davante Adams. "Appreciate being a teammate of (Nacua's) and really everybody that caught passes tonight. I thought they did a heck of a job."
