On Sunday afternoon, the Los Angeles Rams got off to a 1-0 start to the 2025 season with an impressive 14-9 home win over the Houston Texans. There had been doubt over the last few weeks of training camp and the preseason as to whether quarterback Matthew Stafford would be healthy by the time the regular season rolled around, but he was in uniform and played well on Sunday vs an elite Houston defense.
While the game wasn't exactly an offensive track meet, Stafford completed 21 of his 29 pass attempts, good for 245 yards and a touchdown. By making the start, he also set a new NFL record.
“Matthew Stafford set an NFL record Sunday for most career opening-day starts for a quarterback with 17,” reported ESPN NFL insider Adam Schefter on X, formerly Twitter. “Until this year, Stafford had started his team’s season opener in all 16 seasons, which tied him with John Elway for the longest streak to being a quarterback’s career. Now it’s his record.”
The majority of those starts came with the Detroit Lions, when Stafford was the lone beacon of light for a Detroit franchise that was mired in the NFL cellar for the majority of his time there.
However, things with the Rams have gone much better, as Stafford has won a Super Bowl and established himself as a future Hall of Famer in the league.
A great start for the Rams
Last year, the Los Angeles Rams had to overcome a brutal 1-4 start to ultimately win ten games and secure their spot in the postseason, where they were the only team to keep things close against the eventual Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles.
This year, the Rams started out much better, winning a tightly contested game against a Houston team that has made the playoffs two years in a row in its own right.
Stafford looked healthy for the most part in the win and will likely only get better as the season progresses.
The Rams will look to push their record to 2-0 next week when they visit the Tennessee Titans on September 14 at 1:00 PM ET.
