49er

SANTA CLARA — This is not a one-off.

This is no hot streak or a flash in the pan.

So don’t look away. Pay attention.

Otherwise, risk missing the master class that Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford is conducting this season.

One that has the 17th-year pro squarely in the conversation for his first NFL most valuable player award.

“I see those people say stuff like that,” Stafford said Sunday after passing for four touchdowns in the Rams’ 42-26 victory over the San Francisco 49ers at Levi’s Stadium, “and all I can think about is like I’m just lucky to have unbelievable teammates.”

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Gary Klein breaks down what went right for the Rams in their 42-26 win over the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday.

Stafford, 37, is playing as if he were in the middle, not near the end, of a possible Hall of Fame career.

On Sunday he tossed touchdown passes to receivers Puka Nacua and Davante Adams and tight ends Davis Allen and Colby Parkinson as the Rams avenged an overtime loss to the 49ers in Week 5 and improved to 7-2.

How efficient has Stafford played this season?

He has passed for a league-leading 25 touchdowns.

With only two interceptions.

“He can walk on water right now,” Nacua said.

In the last three games, Stafford has passed for 13 touchdowns. His second touchdown pass Sunday, to Allen, was the 400th of his career.

Stafford’s name already fills the NFL record book. He is among the top 10 in several passing categories. But he never has been this efficient for this long.

Stafford has not had a pass intercepted in the last six games, the longest such stretch of his career.

“It looks like the game is really in slow motion to him right now,” coach Sean McVay said.

Rams players (from left) Puka Nacua, Matthew Stafford, Jordan Whittington and Davante Adams celebrate in the third quarter of a 42-26 win over the San Francisco 49ers at Levi’s Stadium on Sunday.

(Ezra Shaw / Getty Images)

Stafford’s recent run of excellence is on par with other awe-inspiring Los Angeles sports icons.

He has been as dominant as the UCLA fast break and full court press from the 1970s. Clayton Kershaw’s 12-to-6 curveball. Freddie Freeman’s walk-off homer swing.

This is a Wayne Gretzky assist. A Nolan Ryan no-hitter.

A Reggie Bush breakaway run. A Serena Williams backhand winner. A Kareem Abdul-Jabbar sky hook, a Magic Johnson no-look pass, a Kobe Bryant game-winning three. A Lisa Leslie low-post move. A Candace Parker dunk.

A Jim Murray or Bill Plaschke column.

A fill-in-the-blank run of excellence.

Overblown? Perhaps. The NFL is a humbling league. Stafford’s recent run could end next Sunday against the Seattle Seahawks at SoFi Stadium.

So enjoy it in real time. Follow Stafford’s lead.

“I have fun out there,” he said when asked about what Nacua described as Stafford’s ‘shimmy shake’ touchdown celebration. “I lose my mind when we score touchdowns.”

Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford smiles while being interviewed after the Rams’ win over the 49ers on Sunday.

(Godofredo A. Vásquez / Associated Press)

That’s how defensive coordinators must feel when Stafford completes one of his patented no-look passes.

Adams played eight seasons in Green Bay with Aaron Rodgers. He knows what an MVP looks like.

“It’s looked like MVP play to me all year,” Adams said, pointing to a Week 2 game against the Tennessee Titans, when Stafford shook off an interception and led the Rams to victory. “Just to rally a team and continue to lead at a high level when things don’t go your way, I think that’s what really shows what an MVP is like.”

Stafford’s success harks to 2021, when he passed for 41 touchdowns and led the Rams to a Super Bowl title. He is on pace for an even more impressive statistical finish.

“The heater that he’s on, it’s elevating everybody else’s play,” Nacua said, “and we’re continuing to jump on that bandwagon with him and let him take us as far as he can.”

If Stafford continues his stellar play the Rams could find themselves right back here at Levi’s Stadium.

For Super Bowl LX.

Rams coach Sean McVay and San Francisco 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan know each other — and each other’s schematic and play-calling tendencies — better than perhaps any two coaches in the NFL.

Close games between the teams are a constant.

Since they first squared off in 2017, nearly half of their 18 matchups have been decided by three points or fewer, including the 49ers’ 26-23 overtime victory on Oct. 2 at SoFi Stadium.

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Gary Klein breaks down what you need to know for Sunday’s matchup between the Rams and San Francisco 49ers at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara.

So expect another game that could come down to the final possession when the Rams play the 49ers in an NFC West game at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara.

“Two good teams with two good staffs that are familiar with each other,” Rams tight end Tyler Higbee said in explaining the tight nature of the matchup, “and then you throw the rivalry part into it.”

McVay is 7-11 against Shanahan, his former mentor, though the Rams had won three in a row before the Week 5 loss that ended when 49ers star linebacker Fred Warner stopped Kyren Williams on a fourth-and-one play at the 49ers’ 11-yard line.

Rams kicker Joshua Karty missed a 53-yard field goal attempt and had an extra-point attempt blocked in the defeat.

The Rams this week moved to improve their season-long kicking-game issues by signing rookie kicker Harrison Mevis and veteran long snapper Jake McQuaide to the practice squad. Both will be elevated to the roster and play on Sunday.

Mevis, 23, made 89 of 106 field-goal attempts at Missouri, including one from 61 yards. In the United Football League this past season, he made 20 of 21 field-goal attempts.

The 49ers wasted no time addressing their own kicking-game issues.

After a season-opening defeat that included a missed field goal and a blocked kick, they released Jake Moody and signed Eddy Pineiro.

Pineiro has made all 19 of his field-goal attempts and 14 of 15 extra points.

A week ago, Harrison Mevis was working out on his own, kicking and preparing for the day an NFL team came calling.

On Sunday, Mevis will be the Rams’ kicker when they play the San Francisco 49ers at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, coach Sean McVay said Friday.

Mevis and long snapper Jake McQuaide were signed to the practice squad this week because of kicking-game issues that led to early-season losses against the Philadelphia Eagles and the 49ers and resurfaced in last Sunday’s victory over the New Orleans Saints.

Mevis and second-year pro Joshua Karty competed during practices on Wednesday and Thursday.

“Ultimately, in its simplest form, who do I think gives us the best chance to have successful outcomes, particularly in that operation with the given factors on Sunday,” McVay said.

Mevis, 23, made 89 of 106 field-goal attempts at Missouri, including one from 61 yards. In the United Football League this past season, he made 20 of 21 field-goal attempts.

Mevis said he had been preparing for a call every week since the New York Jets cut him from their practice squad in September. He said he performed well this week.

“I feel like I put myself out there, I showed what I can do and proved that I can play at this level,” he said after Friday’s practice. “And I’m ready to go.”

Not only for this week.

“The work’s just starting,” he said. “This is not the end goal. I didn’t come here just to be the starter for one week. So I’m just here to help the team win.”

McVay said he still has “a lot of confidence” in Karty, a 2024 sixth-round draft pick in Karty, who has made 10 of 15 field-goal attempts and 23 of 26 extra-point attempts.

“He’s not going anywhere,” McVay said, noting that the situation would be evaluated again after Sunday’s game.

McQuaide, a 15th-year pro who played for the Rams from 2011 to 2020, replaces Alex Ward. He will work with punter/holder Ethan Evans and Mevis in what the Rams hope will be an improved operation.

“It’s definitely been a little chaotic,” Evans said of the changes this week. “But I feel very confident we’ll be able to go out there and execute our jobs.”