Cooper Kupp bursts out as Jared Goff’s top target against the Vikings

LOS ANGELES — It was the matchup that Los Angeles Rams coach Sean McVay had hoped for.

Receiver Cooper Kupp darted across the field, and as quickly as Anthony Barr picked him up in coverage, Kupp left the Minnesota Vikings linebacker in the dust.

The result? A wide-open Kupp caught a 70-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Jared Goff in Thursday’s 38-31 victory over the Minnesota Vikings at the L.A. Memorial Coliseum.

“We were hopeful that we would be able to get that matchup,” McVay said. “I thought Jared threw that with great touch and trajectory right there. It allowed him to run underneath it and then Cooper to be able to finish.”

Said Kupp: “Jared was just able to put it out there perfectly. If that’s one where you do have to slow down, Barr is probably making that tackle. The way that he was able to put that out there, just kept me in stride.”

Kupp caught 9 passes for 162 yards and 2 touchdowns. He became the third Rams receiver to log a 100-plus receiving yard game this season behind Brandin Cooks and Robert Woods.

Cooks tallied 159 receiving yards in a Week 2 victory over the Arizona Cardinals and Woods had 104 receiving yards in a Week 3 win over the Los Angeles Chargers.

Cooks and Woods had 116 and 101 receiving yards, respectively, against the Vikings.

“I told him don’t come back in the locker room unless he had 100 yards,” running back Todd Gurley said about Kupp. “And he’s welcome back.”

Kupp’s 70-yard reception against the Vikings was the longest of his career.

Goff again found the second-year receiver in the second quarter, when Goff rolled out to his right, felt pressure and dropped a pass into the back corner of the end zone for a waiting Kupp.

“It was one of those ones that I knew they had played it very well,” Kupp said. “Jared just kept running to the sidelines and was trying to keep it alive a little bit. I thought I’d try to get to that back corner.”

Goff slipped the pass over the top of cornerbacks Trae Waynes and Mike Hughes for a touchdown.

“Kind of taking a little bit of a chance there and got away with it,” Goff said. “But that’s what happens when you’ve got good players. I trust Cooper and he ran right through it. Wasn’t sure if he was in bounds or not, but he made a good catch on it. I think that just shows kind of my trust in him.”

Kupp, a third-round pick from Eastern Washington in 2017, has 24 catches for 348 yards and 4 touchdowns this season.