Los Angeles Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford has been on fire lately. He was nearly perfect again on Sunday, throwing four touchdown passes in leading the Rams to a 42-26 win over the San Francisco 49ers.

In the past three weeks, he's throwing 13 TD passes — with no interceptions. They won all three games — by an average of 22.7 points, by the way — and are now 7-2 on the season, tied for first in the NFC West with the Seattle Seahawks, and now 1.5 games ahead of the 49ers. He is the first QB in NFL history to go three straight games with at least four touchdown passes and no interceptions.

That's history. And that was just the start of his history-making day.

Stafford's second touchdown pass in the first quarter got him to 400 for his amazing 17-year career. He finished with 402, which is ninth-most in NFL history. 

“He’s just been in total command,” Rams coach Sean McVay told reporters after the games. “It’s a continuation of a guy that really works his tail off throughout the course of the week. He uses the accumulation of knowledge and experience, and he’s just playing really confident. It looks like the game is really in slow motion to him right now.”

Stafford was the No. 1 overall pick of the Detroit Lions in 2009 and played on a lot of bad teams there. During his 12 years there, he had only four winning seasons, through no fault of his own. he's had three winning seasons out of four so far in Los Angeles, and seems well on his way to another big season this year. He won the Super Bowl at the end of the 2021 season.

With Sunday's win, he's finally gotten to .500 in his career.  No one has ever needed 231 starts to get there in NFL history.

Stafford and the Rams — who lost at home to the 49ers 26-23 in overtime on Thursday, Oct. 2 — just all over San Francisco on Sunday. They scored twice in the first two possessions and were up 21-0 just a minute into the first quarter. 

San Francisco never got closer than seven points. Stafford was 24-for-36 passing on the day, for 280 yards. 

Stafford threw TD passes to four different receivers, wideouts Davonte Adams and  Puka Nacua, and tight ends Davis Allen and Colby Parkinson. Kyren Williams added two touchdown runs in the rout.  

San Francisco got another big game out of quarterback Mac Jones, who started again for the injured Brock Purdue. He was 33-for-38 passing for 319 yards and three scores. But the 49ers defense struggled again, and they fell to 6-4 on the season.

Here's the story on what went wrong for the 49ers from 49ers Roundtable writer Savanah Tujague.

Rams Strike First, Niners Stumble Early in Difficult 42-26 Divisional Loss Rams dominated early, 49ers stumbled with turnovers. Despite offensive flashes, defensive lapses proved too costly in a decisive divisional loss.

The 49ers are looking up at both the Rams and Seahawks in the NFC West right now. They are doing some good things, but they have a lot of issues to deal with too.

"I just told them, 'guys, it wasn't good enough.' " 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan said. "As bad as it was at times, I still believe if we convert that fourth-and-1 in the first half and we don't turn it over on the other drive, it's a two-score game and I believe we're right in it. I believe it could have come down to the end of we had been better on offense in the first half.

"I told them I believe that we can find a way to win any game that we're in, but if we hurt ourselves like we did with seven penalties to zero and not getting off on third down. I think they were 5-for-5 in the red zone. And then the offense having two turnovers and them having zero, you make it pretty tough on yourself.'' 

NFL all-time TD pass leaders

1. Tom Brady — 648
2. Drew Brees — 571
3. Peyton Manning — 539
4. * Aaron Rodgers — 521
5. Brett Favre — 508
6. Phillip Rivers — 421
7. Dan Marino — 420
8. Ben Roethlisberger — 418
9. * Matthew Stafford — 402
10. — Matt Ryan — 381

11. Eli Manning — 366
12. * Russell Wilson — 353
13. Fran Tarkenton — 342
14. John Elway — 300
15. Carson Palmer — 294
16. Warren Moon — 291
17. Johnny Unitas — 290
18. * Kirk Cousins — 288
19. Vinny Testaverde — 275
20. Joe Montana — 273

* Editor's note: Players with asterisks are still active. Their statistics are updated through Sunday, Nov. 9, 2025. Statistics courtesy of ProFootballReference.com.