Matthew Stafford near-perfect in Rams debut, Sean McVay offense

Matthew Stafford debuting at the helm of the Los Angeles Rams offense was much anticipated but it’s possible it looked even better than anyone hoped.

The energy inside SoFi Stadium for NFL Week 1 was always going to be high with the Los Angeles Rams on Sunday Night Football. But quarterback Matthew Stafford, who the franchise traded for this offseason in a blockbuster move, added a new level to that energy was palpable from the opening kickoff.

And it seemed as if Stafford fed off that energy because the quarterback delivered in every way for his Rams debut.

Despite seemingly impossible hype abut the former Lion playing in the Sean McVay offense, Stafford lived up to it in a dominant 34-14 victory for LA. He made a statement early on with a 67-yard touchdown pass to Van Jefferson on only his second attempt and it was off to the races. Stafford finished the night an impressive 20-of-26 for 321 yards with three touchdowns and no interceptions.

Almost everything looked effortless for the new arrival in Los Angeles. There was talk all last year about how dialed back the offense looked with Jared Goff at the helm. With Stafford, that was clearly not the case. The downfield shots were there, the intermediate throws were darts to open men and everything was fueled by the quarterback’s great play.

If this is the Matthew Stafford we see for 18 weeks, the Rams are legitimate Super Bowl contenders.

Whenever Sean McVay talked about adding Matthew Stafford to the offense in the wake of the trade, he seemed exuberant about what that could mean for that side of the ball. In the bright lights of primetime, we got a front row seat as to why and the head coach continued to glow after the game about the performance.

There were unsung aspects of the outing that made it more impressive too. Stafford continued to dice up the Chicago secondary in the first half despite the rushing attack being almost nonexistent. What’s more, the success of the passing game then opened up the run lanes in the second half for Darrell Henderson to have a nice overall outing.

LA’s defense showed up in a big way as well. Outisde of bottling up David Montgomery, the likes of Jalen Ramsey and Aaron Donald were dominant in every facet, shutting down any big passing plays and consistently finding their way into the backfield to make plays.

It’s just Week 1 but you have to wonder if this means the Rams are on a Super Bowl track yet again. Many suppoosed that, if Stafford lived up to the hype in Los Angeles and the offense reached its peak form, that was a possibility. And in his debut, that’s exactly what was put on display in front of the first full house at SoFi Stadium.

Surely it will be worth watching to see the Rams and Matthew Stafford against a team, unlike the Bears, who starts the best quarterback on their roster and can fie back a bit more offensively. But if the point of new quarterback debuts and Week 1 is to set the tone, it’s hard not to be excessively bullish on the Rams with their shiny new toy under center.