INGLEWOOD, Calif. -- At halftime of the Los Angeles Rams' 26-9 victory over the Arizona Cardinals, the Rams had run the ball just three times. As Kyren Williams, the Rams' lead back, sat at his locker, he was just focused on one thing.
"I got to go," Williams said. "That's what my mentality was. That was what I was thinking the whole time. When my number's called, I got to go."
It was. And he did.
To start the second half, the Rams ran the ball on eight straight plays, four of which were runs by Williams for at least 10 yards. The first -- and only -- throw on that drive was the final play: a 13-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Cooper Kupp that gave the Rams' their first lead of the game.
When asked if he was surprised to keep hearing his number called, Williams said, "not after the first run in the second half."
"I knew once I got that first down that I was on and I just was hoping to get my number called because I was seeing everything I needed to see," Williams said. "I was pressing the holes and I was making sure I was setting the backers where I wanted to set them to."
The Rams ran the ball so well on their way to their first victory at home this season that Williams finished with a career-high 158 rushing yards on 20 carries. He scored a touchdown, his seventh (six rushing and one receiving) of the season.
"I was so fired up stepping back into the huddle each time with a run play," quarterback Matthew Stafford said. "Those guys were loving it. I was loving it. It was fun. It wasn't anything too tricky, just kind of line up and go play ball and I was proud of those guys for the way they played both in the pass game and the run game."
The way the Rams were able to control the ball in the run game, Kupp said, was "a huge deal" for the offense.
"You got guys really starting to jump things," Kupp said. "You got different defenses being called because 'hey, we got stop the run.' And then you are able to play off these DBs and it just seems like guys start to press, you start to feel the defense starting to feel like, man, they got to get up closer to the line of scrimmage. ... It's a great feeling."
Williams rushed for 154 of those yards in the second half, becoming the first Rams player since Marshall Faulk in 2001 to have at least 150 rushing yards in a half, according to ESPN Stats & Information.
McVay said only running the ball three times in the first half was in part because "we got talked out of some things that we didn't necessarily need to." In the second half, McVay said, "[we] wanted to be able to let them set their pads and be able to go downhill."
McVay said Williams was "running like an absolute man on a mission" against the Cardinals, but also credited the offensive line and the offense's ability to get into a rhythm in the second half. Williams had 88 rushing yards before first contact on Sunday, the most by any Rams player since Cam Akers had 99 such rushing yards back in 2020, according to ESPN Stats & Information.
Through six games this season, Williams has 456 yards on 97 carries. The second-year running back came into the season as the Rams' No. 2 back, but after the season opener, earned the No. 1 spot. Akers was inactive in Week 2 and then traded to the Minnesota Vikings, leaving Williams as the clear lead back in Los Angeles.
"That's something I've always wanted," Williams. "I ain't never had to adjust to it because I was always working for it. I've always wanted that. I always knew I'd had it in me. So now it's just displaying the work that I put in before and trusting in myself and my ability and my confidence."