Puka Nacua Caught 14 Passes, Scored the Winner — and Hurt His Knee on the Last Snap He Played

LANDOVER, Md.

The Rams were salting away a win when Puka Nacua came in motion and took the handoff on a jet sweep. Third-and-11, a first down ends the argument, and Washington safety Jeremy Reaves came in low and took him down after five yards. Nacua was slow to get up. He did not play another snap.

The win came with a second headline attached. Nacua will have an MRI on his knee Monday, ESPN's Adam Schefter and NFL Network's Mike Garafolo reported after the game. The team does not believe the ACL is torn. That is the whole of what anybody knows, and the Rams will not know more until the scan comes back.

The hit landed at the end of a huge afternoon. Nacua caught 14 passes for a season-high 150 yards on 19 targets. The 14 catches are the third-highest total of his career, three short of the 17 he once put on Buffalo, and the day tied the Rams franchise record for career games with at least 10 catches. "He was awesome," Sean McVay said. "We needed all 14 of those catches, all the yards after the catch, the toughness."

Nacua arrived at Sunday already working through a calf injury that has bothered him in recent weeks. He added a third-quarter stop in the medical tent, where he was checked for a concussion and cleared to come back. He finished the game. The knee is a new problem, and it is the only one anybody in Los Angeles is talking about tonight.

The drive that decided it

The game stayed tight all afternoon. Field goals in the first quarter, a 7-yard Jayden Daniels touchdown to Van Jefferson, a field goal at the halftime gun after Myles Garrett ripped the ball out of Daniels' hands, then Blake Corum's 1-yard touchdown to open the second half. Washington tied it 13–13 late in the third, after Nick Cross intercepted Matthew Stafford and Drew Stevens converted from 41 yards.

Stafford answered with the drive that settled the game: 12 plays, 65 yards. Third-and-11 from the Washington 36, season tilting on one snap, and Stafford found Nacua over the middle for 19 yards. Two plays later Nacua went up in the corner of the end zone with cornerback Trey Amos on him and came down with the 7-yard touchdown, 12:51 left in the fourth quarter. It held up as the winner.

Nacua said afterward that the offense takes pride in executing "on critical downs and in the red zone," in the moments that matter. He was not asked about the knee. The reporters in the room did not know yet.

There was nobody else to throw to

The 19 targets were not a game plan so much as a headcount. Davante Adams is on injured reserve with a hamstring injury, and the only other Rams receivers to catch a pass all day were Konata Mumpfield (two for 20 yards) and Tutu Atwell (two for 16). Stafford finished 26 of 43 for 228 yards with the one touchdown and the one interception, and McVay made a point of the response: "I love the way that Matthew responded after the turnover."

Nacua's line could have been bigger. He lost a fumble in the second quarter, part of a sloppy stretch that also included Garrett's strip going the other way for a field goal. The defense covered for all of it. Garrett, playing his first game since Week 1 after knee surgery in the summer and a setback that cost him seven games, sacked Daniels three times. Aaron Donald was next to him for all of it. Daniels still threw for 274 yards without Terry McLaurin, who is out for the season, and Washington reached the Rams' 15 on the game's last snap before a catch-and-fumble scramble died with the clock. The Commanders fell to 2–5–1. The Rams are 5–4, winners of three straight, above .500 for the first time this season.

Monday decides the story

McVay is expected to address the injury Monday, the same day as the scan. One source put the mood plainly to Pro Football Talk: "We will see. Waiting on images."

The calendar will not wait with them. The Rams play at Arizona next Sunday. The trade deadline lands Tuesday at 4 p.m. Eastern — a day after the MRI. If the scan brings bad news, Los Angeles is suddenly shopping for receiver help with its top two wideouts down and hours to do it. If it brings the news the team expects, the Rams exhale, take their 5–4 record into a Week 11 bye, and get healthier on the other side of it.

For one afternoon, Nacua was the best player on the field by a wide margin. What Monday says about his knee decides what the afternoon ends up meaning.