Matthew Stafford fires four touchdown passes as Rams cruise past Giants

Matthew Stafford threw four touchdown passes, including two to Davante Adams, and the Los Angeles Rams bounced back from a disappointing season opener to notch a 28-6 victory over the New York Giants on Monday night in Inglewood, California.

On a night when the Giants lost quarterback Jaxson Dart to a left knee injury, Stafford completed 22 of 31 passes for 327 yards and one interception. He tossed four or more TDs for the 22nd time and moved into sixth place in NFL history with 427 career touchdown passes, two more than Philip Rivers.

Adams had eight receptions for 195 yards and raised his career receiving-TD total to 119, two behind sixth-place Larry Fitzgerald. Kyren Williams and Terrance Ferguson also had touchdown catches for Los Angeles (1-1), which was whipped 27-7 by the San Francisco 49ers in its opener in Australia on Sept. 10.

Jameis Winston replaced Dart and completed 11 of 27 passes for 111 yards and one interception. Jevon Holland had two takeaways, intercepting Stafford and also punching the ball out of Williams’ grasp and recovering the fumble.

The Giants (1-1) lost Dart on the first series. The extent of his injury wasn’t immediately known.

Dart grabbed for the knee after being hit high by Byron Young and lower by Josaiah Stewart with 11:20 left in the quarter. Dart eventually was able to walk off the field.

Giants star receiver Malik Nabers injured his right shoulder late in the first quarter but was back on the field early in the second quarter. He had just one catch for 1 yard in the game, which was John Harbaugh’s second as New York’s head coach.

Rams star receiver Puka Nacua (hip) missed the contest. Adams finished with his fourth-highest receiving-yard total, 11 shy of his best output.

The Rams struck first when Stafford connected on a 31-yard touchdown pass to Adams with 11 seconds left in the first quarter.

Los Angeles increased its lead to 14 when Stafford tossed a 10-yard scoring pass to Williams with 11:07 remaining in the second quarter. New York scored on Dominic Zvada’s 24-yard field goal with 25 seconds left to trail 14-3 at the break.

Stafford threw an 11-yard touchdown pass to Adams to boost the lead to 18 with 6:21 left in the third quarter.

Zvada booted a 52-yard field goal for the Giants with 3:49 remaining in the third.

Ferguson caught a 5-yard touchdown pass from Stafford to make it 28-6 with 8:57 to play.