Buffalo Bills vs Los Angeles Rams Match Player Stats: The Game That Made History Twice Over
Quick Bio Facts Table
| Detail | Buffalo Bills | Los Angeles Rams |
| Home Stadium | Highmark Stadium, Orchard Park, NY | SoFi Stadium, Inglewood, CA |
| Head Coach (2024) | Sean McDermott | Sean McVay |
| Starting QB | Josh Allen (#17) | Matthew Stafford (#9) |
| Top Receiver | Khalil Shakir / Ty Johnson | Puka Nacua (#17) / Cooper Kupp (#10) |
| Key RB | James Cook | Kyren Williams (#23) |
| Week 14 Result | Lost 42–44 | Won 44–42 |
| Record After Game | 10–3 | 7–6 |
| All-Time Series | Bills lead 9–6 | Rams trail 6–9 |
| Total Combined Yards | 902 yards combined | No QB sacks either team |
| Biggest Win in Series | Bills 40–7 (1992) | Rams 41–17 (1983) |
Two Teams, One Unforgettable Sunday
Some games you watch and think, “That was fun.”
Some games you watch and say nothing for a few seconds after the final whistle. Just sitting there. Mouth open.
The December 8, 2024 matchup between the Buffalo Bills and Los Angeles Rams was that second kind of game.
It was the highest-scoring game of the entire 2024 NFL season. Both teams scored more than 40 points. Nobody threw an interception. Nobody lost a fumble. Nobody sacked the quarterback even once.
Eighty-six points. Nine hundred and two total offensive yards. Zero turnovers. Zero sacks.
Numbers like that do not happen in football. But they happened here.
See also “Washington Commanders vs Dallas Cowboys Match Player Stats: The Full Story, Every Stat, Every Moment“
Setting the Stage at SoFi Stadium
It was a sunny California Sunday at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood.
The Buffalo Bills came in at 10–2. They had won seven straight games. They had just clinched the AFC East division title the week before by crushing San Francisco in a snowstorm back home.
They were flying high. They were one of the best teams in the league.
The Los Angeles Rams? They were sitting at 6–6. They had just beaten the New Orleans Saints in Week 13 to get back to .500. Their season was hanging by a thread. They needed this game desperately to keep their NFC West hopes alive.
On paper, this looked like a Bills victory waiting to happen.
Nobody told the Rams that.
The First Half: LA Took Over the Building
The Rams appeared as though they needed to prove something. Because they did.
Their very first drive covered 70 yards on 12 plays. Running back Kyren Williams punched it in from three yards out. Rams up 7–0.
Buffalo answered quickly. Josh Allen found his guys and the Bills tied it up.
Then the Rams scored again. And again. And again.
By halftime, the Rams led 24–14. They were running their offense exactly the way they wanted. Matthew Stafford was making sharp decisions. The ball was moving freely. Tight end Hunter Long scored a touchdown on a blocked punt — one of the most bizarre and demoralizing special teams plays you will ever see.
That blocked punt was a gut punch for Buffalo. Long snapper Reid Ferguson got rushed through and taken out, and the Rams scooped the ball up without anyone touching them. It gave Los Angeles a 17–7 lead at the time and completely flipped the energy of the game.
Buffalo’s special teams looked lost. And their offense was playing catch-up from the very first quarter.
The Third Quarter: Rams Keep Pushing
The Bills were hoping halftime would reset things. It did not.
The Rams came out in the third quarter and kept scoring. Kyren Williams scored again on a 7-yard run. Then Stafford found Cooper Kupp for an 18-yard touchdown with just 18 seconds left in the quarter.
The Rams had a 38–21 lead after three quarters.
That is a 17-point hole going into the final 15 minutes. Against any other quarterback, that is a dead game.
Josh Allen is not any other quarterback.
The Fourth Quarter: Allen Did the Impossible
What Allen did in that fourth quarter was genuinely something nobody had ever seen before.
He scored six touchdowns in the game total — three through the air, three on the ground. That made him the first player in NFL history to throw for three touchdowns AND run for three touchdowns in a single regular-season game.
Think about that. In the history of the sport, with hundreds of thousands of games played across more than a century, nobody had ever done that. Until Josh Allen did it on a Sunday afternoon in California.
He started the fourth-quarter comeback by running in a 1-yard score. Buffalo cut it to 38–28.
Then Allen found wide receiver Mack Hollins wide open for a 21-yard touchdown. The Bills were suddenly down 38–35 with eight minutes to play.
The crowd at SoFi got nervous. Dallas suddenly felt like it was slipping away from LA.
Stafford’s Answer: The Drive That Saved Everything
The Rams needed to respond. They did not blink.
Stafford calmly led Los Angeles on an 11-play, 71-yard drive. It ate up almost seven minutes of clock. That alone was critical — time was the Bills’ greatest weapon at that point.
At the two-minute warning, Stafford looked right and hit Puka Nacua on a 19-yard touchdown pass.
Rams 44, Bills 35.
The extra point attempt by Joshua Karty sailed wide left. A miss. So the lead was nine points, not ten. That matters in the final two minutes.
And it did matter.
Allen’s Final Miracle — And the Onside Kick
Allen took over with under two minutes left and 9 points down.
He drove the Bills straight down the field. Two pass interference penalties helped move the chains. At the one-yard line, Allen dove over for a 1-yard touchdown.
Rams 44, Bills 42.
One minute left. The entire season on the line.
Allen looked at the sideline. The Bills tried the onside kick.
Rams running back Ronnie Rivers fell on it at midfield.
Game over.
Allen walked off the field having scored six touchdowns. Having thrown for 342 yards. Having rushed for 82 more yards. And still lost.
“Hate losing,” Allen said quietly after the game. “It makes no difference if you lose by two or 100. You continue to lose.
He was right. But he made history anyway.
Josh Allen: The Best Performance That Ever Lost
Allen’s stat line from this game almost does not look real.
He completed 22 of 37 passes for 342 yards and three passing touchdowns. He carried the ball 10 times for 82 yards and three rushing scores.
Six total touchdowns. Zero turnovers.
He also hit the milestone of his 60th career rushing touchdown during this game, putting him alongside Cam Newton as the only quarterbacks in NFL history to reach that mark.
And he surpassed 4,000 career rushing yards, becoming just the fifth quarterback ever to reach both 25,000 passing yards and 4,000 rushing yards.
All of that in one afternoon. In a loss.
His receivers played their part too. Khalil Shakir hauled in 5 catches for 106 yards and a touchdown. Ty Johnson had a 41-yard receiving touchdown — the longest of his entire career. Mack Hollins caught the 21-yard go-ahead touchdown in the fourth quarter.
The Bills put 445 total yards on the board. And still lost by two points.
Matthew Stafford: Steady When It Had to Count
Stafford did not throw for 400 yards or make jaw-dropping plays. He did not need to.
He finished 23 of 30 for 320 yards and two touchdowns. A completion rate of nearly 77 percent. When it mattered, he was tidy, effective, and unflappable.
In the fourth quarter, when Buffalo was making it close and the whole building was tense, Stafford drove his team 71 yards in 11 plays. He used the clock. He spread the ball around. And he made the throw that ended the game.
Stafford has played in this league for 15-plus years. He has been in these moments before. He looked every bit like a player who knows how to keep his composure when the whole season is on the line.
Coach Sean McVay said after the game that Stafford was “in total command.” That is the perfect description.
Puka Nacua: The Real Star of the Day
If you had to pick one player who made the biggest difference for the Rams, it was Puka Nacua.
He caught 12 passes for 162 yards and a touchdown. He also scored his first-ever career rushing touchdown, running in from 4 yards out in the second quarter.
Twelve catches in one game. One hundred and sixty-two yards. Two touchdowns across passing and rushing.
His partnership with Cooper Kupp was what broke Buffalo’s defense. Together, those two caught 17 balls on 22 targets for 254 combined receiving yards. The Bills had no consistent answer for either of them.
When McVay called Nacua an “ignitor” after the game, it was not an exaggeration. He sparked every big Rams drive.
Kyren Williams: The Ground Game That Set the Tone
Puka Nacua was the flash. Kyren Williams was the engine.
Williams gained 87 yards and two touchdowns while carrying the ball 29 times. Twenty-nine carries. That is a massive workload, and he kept the drive chains moving all afternoon.
His grinding style early in the game forced the Bills to respect the run. That opened everything else up for Stafford and the receivers.
He scored on a 3-yarder in the first quarter and again on a 7-yard run in the third. Both touchdowns came on long, clock-draining drives. Both were exactly what the Rams needed at exactly the right time.
Cooper Kupp: Still Delivering in the Clutch
Cooper Kupp is not the young explosive receiver he once was. But he is still one of the smartest, most reliable targets in the league.
Kupp caught 5 passes for 92 yards and a touchdown in this game. His 17-yard score from Stafford with 18 seconds left in the third quarter — going up 38–21 — was the dagger at that moment.
It pushed the Rams lead to a point where most teams would just pack it in. It made the Bills’ comeback even more dramatic.
Kupp also set up Nacua’s game-winning touchdown with a huge block in the end zone. He did not just catch passes — he helped his teammate score the most important points of the afternoon.
The Defense — Or Lack of It
Both teams’ defenses took a serious beating.
The Rams did not sack Allen once. Buffalo did not sack Stafford once. Not a single time either way.
The Bills gave up 457 yards. The Rams gave up 445 yards. Both secondaries were torched repeatedly.
The Rams converted 11 of 15 third downs — a 73 percent success rate. That is absolutely extraordinary. The Bills could not get off the field.
Washington had the ball for 38 minutes and 30 seconds. Buffalo had it for just 21 minutes and 30 seconds. That time of possession gap — 17 full minutes — was the true story of how the Rams won this game.
You cannot score points when the other team has the ball for so long.
On the Buffalo side, safety Damar Hamlin led the team with 13 tackles. Linebacker Terrel Bernard added 10. They were active. But the Rams just kept moving.
A Historic Game by the Numbers
This was not just a fun shootout. The record books were getting rewritten in real time.
Some of what happened had never happened before:
- First time in NFL history both teams scored 40+ points with zero turnovers
- Bills became the first team ever to score six touchdowns without a turnover — and lose
- Buffalo’s 42 points were the most they had ever scored in a game they lost
- 902 combined yards between both offenses without a single sack
- Josh Allen became the first player in NFL regular-season history with 3 passing and 3 rushing touchdowns in one game
- The Rams won their first game at home against the Bills since 1983 — a 41-year wait
That last one matters to Rams fans. Forty-one years. Three generations of fans never saw LA beat Buffalo at home. Now they did.
Full Stat Breakdown: December 8, 2024
Final Score: Los Angeles Rams 44, Buffalo Bills 42 Location: SoFi Stadium, Inglewood, CA
Los Angeles Rams
| Player | Position | Stats |
| Matthew Stafford | QB | 23/30, 320 yards, 2 passing TD, 0 INT |
| Puka Nacua | WR | 12 rec, 162 yards, 1 receiving TD + 1 rushing TD |
| Cooper Kupp | WR | 5 rec, 92 yards, 1 TD |
| Kyren Williams | RB | 29 carries, 87 yards, 2 TD |
| Hunter Long | TE | Blocked punt TD (22 yards) |
| Ronnie Rivers | RB | Recovered onside kick to seal win |
| Joshua Karty | K | Missed extra point in final minutes |
Buffalo Bills
| Player | Position | Stats |
| Josh Allen | QB | 22/37, 342 yards, 3 passing TD, 3 rushing TD, 82 rush yards |
| Khalil Shakir | WR | 5 rec, 106 yards, 1 TD (51-yard catch) |
| Mack Hollins | WR | 1 TD (21-yard catch in 4th quarter) |
| Ty Johnson | RB | 1 TD (41-yard receiving TD, career longest) |
| Damar Hamlin | S | 13 tackles (team high) |
| Terrel Bernard | LB | 10 tackles |
| Taylor Rapp | S | 13 tackles |
Team Totals
| Category | Bills | Rams |
| Total Yards | 445 | 457 |
| Passing Yards | 342 | 320 |
| Rushing Yards | 137 | 103 |
| Turnovers | 0 | 0 |
| Time of Possession | 21:30 | 38:30 |
| Third Down % | 55.6% (5/9) | 73.3% (11/15) |
| Red Zone TDs | 3 of 3 | 5 of 6 |
| QB Sacks Allowed | 0 | 0 |
What This Win Meant for the Rams
For a team that was 6–6 and fighting for their playoff life, this was everything.
It pushed Los Angeles to 7–6 and above .500 for the first time all season. It kept their NFC West title hopes alive. It gave the locker room genuine belief that they could finish strong.
McVay was emotional after the game. He called it a “fantastic” performance and singled out Nacua and Stafford specifically.
The Rams had won six of their eight games going into this win. Something had clicked. The offense was humming. And now they had beaten one of the absolute best teams in the AFC on a huge stage.
What This Loss Meant for the Bills
Losing hurts. Always.
But this one had an extra edge because of how close it was. The Bills scored 42 points and lost. They had zero turnovers and lost. Allen scored six touchdowns and lost.
It also had playoff seeding consequences. Buffalo was chasing the Kansas City Chiefs for the AFC’s top seed. A loss to Los Angeles made that climb steeper.
Coach Sean McDermott was blunt afterward. He said neither the defense nor special teams did enough. The blocked punt haunted the Bills all game. Their inability to stop LA on third downs was equally damaging.
But it was also clear — this team was still very, very good. They finished 2024 at 13–4, won the AFC East for the fifth straight year, and made it all the way to the AFC Championship game before losing to Kansas City.
The Rams loss hurt. But it did not break them.
Head-to-Head History: Bills vs. Rams All-Time
These two teams do not play very often. They are in different conferences and different time zones.
The all-time series stands at Bills 9, Rams 6. Buffalo has generally had the better of these meetings.
The biggest Bills win was a 40–7 destruction at home in September 1992. The biggest Rams win was a 41–17 blowout at SoFi’s predecessor in November 1983.
Before December 2024, the Rams had not beaten the Bills at home since that 1983 game. And they had not beaten the Bills at all since a 15–12 win in 2012.
So the 2024 win broke two long droughts at once. It meant something beyond just the standings.
Final Words
Some games happen and are forgotten by the following weekend.
This one will not be forgotten.
The Bills and Rams put on a show on December 8, 2024, that the NFL record books will remember for a very long time. Two teams. Nine hundred yards of offense. Not a single turnover. Not a single sack. And a finish that came down to an onside kick with 60 seconds left.
Josh Allen was better than almost any quarterback has ever been in a single game. And he still lost. That says everything about how good the Rams were that day.
Puka Nacua was unstoppable. Stafford was flawless in the moments that mattered. Kyren Williams ran the ball 29 times without ever flinching.
And in the end, it came down to one missed extra point. One recovered onside kick. Two points.
That is football. Beautiful, heartbreaking, jaw-dropping football.
FAQs
1. What was the final score of the Bills vs. Rams game in 2024?
The Los Angeles Rams beat the Buffalo Bills 44–42 on December 8, 2024, at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California.
2. What records did Josh Allen break in this game?
Allen became the first player in NFL regular-season history to throw three touchdown passes AND run for three touchdowns in the same game. He also hit 60 career rushing touchdowns and surpassed 4,000 career rushing yards.
3. How many total yards did both teams combine for?
The Bills and Rams combined for 902 total yards of offense. And neither team had a sack or a turnover.
4. What were Puka Nacua’s stats against the Bills?
Nacua had 12 catches for 162 yards. He also scored his first career rushing touchdown. He was the biggest offensive factor in the Rams’ win.
5. Who scored the game-winning touchdown for the Rams?
Puka Nacua caught a 19-yard touchdown pass from Stafford with 1:54 left to give LA a 44–35 lead. That proved to be the final score after Allen’s last-second TD made it 44–42.
6. What happened on the onside kick at the end?
After Allen scored with 60 seconds left to make it 44–42, the Bills tried an onside kick. Rams running back Ronnie Rivers recovered it, and Los Angeles ran out the clock.
7. What was the score at halftime?
Los Angeles led 24–14 at halftime. They had been controlling the game from the opening drive.
8. What was the blocked punt play?
In the first half, the Rams blocked a Bills punt and tight end Hunter Long scooped it up and ran it 22 yards for a touchdown. It was a brutal special teams breakdown for Buffalo.
9. Did Matthew Stafford play well?
Yes. He was excellent in his own quiet way — completing 23 of 30 passes for 320 yards and two touchdowns. His 11-play drive in the fourth quarter that ended with Nacua’s TD was the most important sequence of the game.
10. Who leads the all-time series between the Bills and Rams?
The Bills lead 9–6 all-time. These teams do not play often since they are in different conferences.
11. Was this the NFL season’s highest-scoring game in 2024?
Yes. The combined 86 points was the most in any single game during the entire 2024 season.
12. What did the win mean for the Rams’ season?
It pushed Los Angeles to 7–6 and above .500 for the first time all year. They went on to stay in the NFC West race and won six of eight games in that stretch.
13. How did the Bills finish their 2024 season after this loss?
Despite the loss, the Bills finished 13–4, won their fifth straight AFC East title, and advanced to the AFC Championship game before falling to the Kansas City Chiefs 32–29.
Explore more, learn more, and think deeper with Theory Magazine.
