Davante Adams — Week 2: One Ninety-Five and Two Touchdowns

Seven to nothing, 12 50 left in the second quarter, third and 10 at the Los Angeles 22. Matthew Stafford threw deep right to Davante Adams, who was run down at the New York 14. 64 yards, +5.4 expected points added — expected points added is what a play was worth given down, distance and field position — and 9.3 points of win probability, the chance of winning the game after the play against before it, the largest gain on any play by either team all night. Los Angeles scored the touchdown that made it 14 to nothing a minute and a half later.

The line: 10 targets, eight catches, a hundred 95 yards, two touchdowns, seven first downs, +11.8 expected points on the targets, and a longest of 64. The catches went 19, 31, four, 64, 27, 16, 23 11 — six of the eight for 16 yards or more. The touchdowns bracketed the middle of the game: 31 yards short middle on second and 14 with 19 seconds left in the first quarter, which was the first score of the night, and 11 yards short left on first and 10 with six 25 left in the third. Seven targets before halftime, three after, and those three produced 50 yards and the second touchdown. Two third-down targets, one caught, and it was the 64. The one throw that cost the Rams anything was also his: second and five at the Los Angeles 26 with five 37 left in the half, deep left, 45 yards in the air, intercepted by Jevon Holland at the New York 29.

A hundred 95 receiving yards led every player in the league in Week Two, with all 32 teams having played, and the next-closest was a hundred 55. They were also more than the rest of the Rams put together, a hundred 95 against a hundred 32. 10 of Stafford's 31 throws went his way, 32 percent; Terrance Ferguson had nine and nobody else had more than two. The throws to Adams traveled a hundred 98 yards in the air, and 46 of his yards came after the catch. Puka Nacua, who was targeted nine times in Week One, was inactive with a hip injury, per ESPN.

Back in June the preview's read on Adams was that a top-eight season had been built on 14 touchdowns rather than on volume — 60 catches, 789 yards, scores from one, two, four, seven and 10 yards out — and that touchdown rate is the least repeatable thing a receiver does, with a price of the 20-sixth receiver already discounting most of it. Week One in Melbourne was the bear case in miniature: six targets, three catches, 26 yards, three deep balls and none caught. Week Two was the thing the preview said the season would need — a yardage game, not a touchdown game, with the deep balls landing for 64 27 23. Two games, and they point in opposite directions; the target share with Nacua back is the next real test. Los Angeles is at the Broncos on Sunday night the 20-seventh.

_Data via nflverse._