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Sarah Barshop, ESPN Staff Writer
INGLEWOOD, Calif. — Rams receiver Puka Nacua caught 15 passes for 147 yards in Los Angeles’ 30-23 loss to the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday, breaking the NFL’s single-game record for receptions by a rookie and setting a new overall league mark with 25 catches in the first two games of his career.
Najee Harris (2021), Saquon Barkley (2018), Roy Helu (2011) and Don Looney (1940) each had a 14-catch game as a rookie.
One week after he recorded 10 catches for 119 yards in his NFL debut, Nacua — with his 10th catch Sunday — broke Earl Cooper’s record, set in 1980, for most receptions by a player through his first two games. On the next play, Nacua broke the 100-yard receiving mark, becoming the first player to record 10 receptions and 100 receiving yards in each of his first two NFL games.
According to Elias Sports Bureau research, Nacua is now one of four players in NFL history to record 100 or more receiving yards in each of his first two NFL games, joining Looney (1940), DeSean Jackson (2008) and Will Fuller V (2016).
Nacua’s 25 receptions is also the most by a rookie over any two-game span in NFL history; Odell Beckham Jr. had 23 catches over two games in December 2014.
Nacua became the fourth player in the past 10 seasons with 25 receptions and 250 receiving yards in any two-game span. The others are Julio Jones (2015), Antonio Brown (2015) and Michael Thomas (2018). Nacua, of course, did it in his first two career games.
Nacua was on the injury report this week with an oblique injury he sustained in the Rams’ season-opening victory over the Seattle Seahawks.
The Rams are without wide receiver Cooper Kupp, who is on injured reserve with a hamstring injury. Kupp will miss at least two more games with the injury and is eligible to return in Week 5 against the Philadelphia Eagles.
ESPN Stats & Information and The Associated Press contributed to this report.