In the opening week of the NFL season, the Los Angeles Rams were without star pass catcher Cooper Kupp due to injury. However, with Matt Stafford and a pair of young wide receivers, Sean McVay’s offense didn’t miss a beat.
Stafford repeatedly connected with rookie Puka Nacua and third-year receiver Tutu Atwell in the Rams’ dominant 30-13 win over the Seattle Seahawks on the road in Week 1.
Buy 49ers TicketsBefore the San Francisco 49ers travel to Los Angeles on Sunday for their second consecutive road contest, Kyle Shanahan had high praise for the Rams’ new-look wide receiver duo.
Tutu is as fast as anyone. He’s one of those premier play-action top-level guys. Everyone in this type of offense, ours, theirs, play action offense, they really want a guy like that. You can tell that’s why they took him. He’s premier at that. When you look at Nacua, he’s a very tough physical football player. He reminds me a lot of [WR] Jauan [Jennings]. He’s going to get after it on every play. The game’s not too big for him. And when you can put those guys in the right spots and you’ve got a quarterback like they do, it can be pretty lethal.
In Week 1, Stafford couldn’t miss Nacua as the BYU product caught 10 balls for 119 yards on 15 targets. Atwell added 119 yards of his own on six receptions.
To stay undefeated and move to 2-0 on the season, the 49ers’ secondary will have to slow down the Rams’ revamped passing attack led by youngsters Nacua and Atwell.
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