Puka Nacua sends strong message to 2-3 Rams after overtime loss to Bills

A Los Angeles Rams team that began the season as the overwhelming betting favorites to win Super Bowl LXI fell to 2-3 on the campaign when it suffered a tough 37-34 overtime home loss to the Buffalo Bills on Monday night. 

Following that defeat, Rams wide receiver Puka Nacua sent a message to his teammates regarding the state of a club that some thought would stay unbeaten through at least January.

Puka Nacua: Rams can't let Bills "beat us twice"

"It’s Monday night. We gotta be able to physically and mentally reset by [Tuesday] and get ready to play back here at home," Nacua said, as shared by Josh Alper of Pro Football Talk. "We got the Arizona Cardinals, a familiar face coming in with (head coach) Mike LaFleur, but it’s gonna be an opportunity for us to respond and really look ourselves in the mirror and say, 'What is our identity gonna be?' And can’t let the Buffalo Bills beat us twice."

As of Tuesday morning, DraftKings Sportsbook had Los Angeles as a 13.5-point home favorite for the Oct. 18 matchup against 1-4 Arizona. Meanwhile, LaFleur served as the Rams' offensive coordinator from 2023 through the 2025 season. 

Also on Tuesday, DraftKings Sportsbook had the Rams and the 5-0 San Francisco 49ers tied as the overall betting favorites at +700 odds to win Super Bowl LXI. Such information shows that certain NFL insiders aren't ready to sell their Rams-related stock quite yet. 

Puka Nacua: Rams have to be able to execute in all aspects of the game

Following Monday's loss, Rams head coach Sean McVay directly said that Harrison Mevis missing a 50-yard field goal in the contest's first quarter and having a field goal blocked by Buffalo's Gregory Rousseau in the overtime period "cost us the game." 

"We go out there, and we give the opportunity for our special teams to kind of go out there and get a field goal," Nacua added during his postgame comments, per Sarah Barshop of ESPN. "We got to be able to execute, and if that's not what we wanted to do, we got to find a way to convert on the critical downs."

It sounds like Mevis may not get an opportunity to kick for the Rams against the Cardinals.