Puka Nacua — Week 1: Nine Targets, Two Big Catches, and Stopped at the One
2026 NFL Season · Half-PPR Scoring · Friday, Sep 11
Nacua was thrown to nine times Thursday — a third of the Rams' pass plays — and caught five for seventy-four yards, sixty-four of them on two throws: forty-one yards deep right to the San Francisco eight in the first quarter, and twenty-three deep middle to the nineteen in the third. The catch after that, third and two from the two, was stopped at the one, and the fourth-down play that followed ended the Rams' last drive inside the ten in a 27–7 loss in Melbourne.
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The two throws that moved the Rams' offense Thursday both went to Puka Nacua. The first was second and two at the San Francisco 49 with a minute 31 left in the first quarter, no huddle, Matthew Stafford deep right, 41 yards to the eight; two plays later Kyren Williams scored the Rams' only touchdown. The second was second and five at the 42 with seven 53 left in the third, deep middle, 23 yards to the 19, on the 12-play drive that got to the one-yard line and no further. Those two catches were worth +2.7 and +1.8 expected points added — expected points added is what a play was worth given down, distance and field position — and they were the two largest gains the Rams had all night.
The catch after the 23 is the one the game turned on. Third and two at the San Francisco two, four 26 left in the third, Rams down 17 to seven: Stafford short left to Nacua, one yard, tackled at the one by Deommodore Lenoir. That catch cost the Rams 8.8 points of win probability — a third-down completion that did not convert — and on the next snap Stafford was stopped on fourth and one. San Francisco went 99 yards for the touchdown that ended it.
The line: nine targets, five catches, 74 yards, no touchdowns. Nine targets on 28 Rams pass plays is about a third of the passing game, with Davante Adams next at six. The nine throws came out at −2.6 expected points in total, and most of the minus is one play: third and 10 from the San Francisco 35 with eight 58 left in the half, Rams up seven to three, deep right for Nacua, intercepted by Renardo Green at the 14. The other three catches went four, one and five yards, and of the other three incompletions, two were short and one was deep.
Back in June the preview's read on Nacua was that a WR1 season had been built on availability and role rather than on efficiency, and that the volume was the kind of input that carries forward. Thursday the volume carried: nine targets, a third of the throws, both of the offense's long gains. The efficiency did not — five catches on nine, and the interception and the third-and-two both had his name on them. That is one game against one defense. Los Angeles is home to the Giants on Monday the 20-first. The share is the thing to watch, and it was there.
_Data via nflverse._
When Puka Nacua's week moves the numbers, you'll know — every episode, in one weekly email.
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