Who’s going to beat them?

Who’s going to stop the unstoppable offense? Who’s going to score on the persistent defense? Who’s going to outwit the coaching genius?

Who can possibly halt the Rams on their thunderous march toward a Super Bowl championship?

After yet another jaw-dropping Sunday afternoon at a raucous SoFi Stadium, the answer was clear.

Nobody.

Nobody can spar with the Rams. Nobody can run with the Rams. Nobody can compete with the Rams.

Nobody is talented enough or deep enough or smart enough to keep the Rams from winning their second Super Bowl championship in five years.

Nobody. It’s over. It’s done. The Rams are going to win it all, and before you cry jinx, understand that this is just putting into words what many already are thinking.

The Rams’ second-half domination of the Detroit Lions in a 41-34 win should again make the rest of the league realize that nobody else has a chance.

The Seahawks? Please. The 49ers? No way. The Eagles? They’ve been grounded. The Bears? Is that some kind of a joke?

The Patriots? Not yet. The Broncos? Not yet. The Bills? Not ever.

The Rams trailed by 10 points at one juncture Sunday and then blew the Lions’ doors off in the second half to clinch a playoff berth for the seventh time in nine seasons under Sean McVay, setting them up for the easiest ride in sports.

With a win in Seattle on Thursday night — and, yes, they should beat a team that just barely survived Old Man Rivers — the Rams essentially will clinch the NFC’s top seed and home-field advantage throughout the playoffs.

That means they have to win only two games at SoFi to advance to a Super Bowl at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara. That means they can win a championship without leaving California, three games played in the sort of perfect climate that gets the best out of their precision attack.

And as Sunday proved once again, they’re good enough to win three essentially home playoff games against anybody.

“I love this team,” McVay said.

There’s a lot to love.

They have an MVP quarterback, the league’s most versatile two-headed running attack, an interior defense that gets stronger under pressure, and the one weapon that no team can match.

They have Puka Nacua, and nobody else does.

Rams wide receiver Puka Nacua is tackled by Detroit cornerback Amik Robertson during the second half Sunday.

(Eric Thayer / Los Angeles Times)

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Is he unbelievable or what? He is Cooper Kupp in his prime, only faster and stronger. He caught a career-high 181 yards’ worth of passes on yet another day when he could not be covered and barely could be tackled.

“He’s unbelievable,” McVay said. “He’s so tough, a couple of times he just drags guys with him … he epitomizes everything we want to be about … he’s like Pac-Man, he just eats up yards and catches.”

Pac-Man? The Rams even score on their old-school references.

In all, it was another Sunday of totally fun football.

They outscored the league’s highest-scoring team 20-0 at one point, they outrushed the league’s toughest backfield 159-70, they racked up 519 total yards against a team once thought destined for a championship.

And they did it with barely a smile. With the exception of Nacua repeatedly banging his fist to his chest — can you blame him? — the Rams are steady and steadfast and just so scary.

”All we want to do is go to work and find a way to be better,” said Matthew Stafford, who likely answered the crowd’s chants by clinching the MVP award with 368 yards and two touchdown passes. “It’s a fun group right now but we understand there’s more out there for us.”

Lots, lots, lots more.

This year a similar column appeared in this space regarding the Dodgers. By the first round of the playoffs, one just knew that they were going to run the table.

The same feeling exists here. The Rams look unrelenting, unfazed, unbeatable.

“Guys just kept competing, staying in the moment,” McVay said.

This moment belongs to them. One knew it Sunday by the end of the first half, which featured a Stafford interception and a struggling secondary and Jared Goff’s vengeful greatness and a 10-point Lions lead.

Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford passes in the first half of a 41-34 win over the Detroit Lions at SoFi Stadium on Sunday.

(Eric Thayer / Los Angeles Times)

Then the Rams drove the ball nearly half of the field in 30 seconds in a push featuring Stafford and Nacua at their best. Stafford connected with Nacua on a brilliant 37-yard pass in the final moments that led to a Harrison Mevis 37-yard field goal to close the gap to seven.

“Right before that I told the guys, ‘Let’s go steal three,’” Stafford said.

Turns out, they stole a game.

“One of the key and critical sequences,” McVay said of that late first-half hammer, which led to a dazzling third quarter that finished the flustered Lions.

“We never panic,” Blake Corum said. “Because we know … what we have to bring to the table.”

What they’ve increasingly been bringing is a running attack that perfectly complements the awesome passing attack, as evidenced Sunday by Corum and Kyren Williams combining for 149 yards and three touchdowns.

The Lions’ more vaunted backfield of Jahmyr Gibbs and David Montgomery? Seventy yards and one score.

“We push each other to the limit,” Corum said of Williams.

Rams running back Kyren Williams stiff-arms Detroit Lions safety Erick Hallett II during the first half Sunday.

(Eric Thayer / Los Angeles Times)

Potentially disturbing was how one noted Ram may have pushed past his limits, as receiver Davante Adams limped off the field early in the fourth quarter after apparently reinjuring his troublesome hamstring.

To lose him for the playoffs would be devastating, as he frees up space for Nacua and is almost an automatic touchdown from the five-yard line and closer.

Then again he’ll have a month to heal. And the Rams still have a bruising array of tight ends led Sunday by the touchdown-hot Colby Parkinson, who caught 75 yards’ worth of passes and two scores, including one inexplicable touchdown in which he clearly was down at the one-yard line.

The Rams got lucky there. But even if the right call was made, they would have scored on the next couple of plays. The way the Rams attacked, they could have been scoring all night.

“You knew that it was going to be that kind of game where there was some good back-and-forth,” McVay said. “You needed to be able to know that points were going to be really important for us, and our guys delivered in a big way.”

Just wait. By the time this season is done, McVay’s guys will have delivered a trophy representing something much bigger.

It rhymes with Strombardi.

Kansas City Chiefs star Patrick Mahomes will be out for the rest of the season as he suffered a torn ACL on Sunday in a loss to the Los Angeles Chargers, according to multiple reports.

Mahomes’ knee buckled while he was scrambling and as he was getting hit by Chargers defensive end Da’Shawn Hand. He was helped off the field and he limped to the locker room. An MRI reportedly confirmed the extent of the damage.

The quarterback wrote a message to fans as word of his injury trickled out.

“Don’t know why this had to happen,” Mahomes wrote on X. “And not going to lie (it) hurts. But all we can do now is Trust in God and attack every single day over and over again. Thank you Chiefs kingdom for always supporting me and for everyone who has reached out and sent prayers. I Will be back stronger than ever.”

Chiefs coach Andy Reid offered a gloomy outlook for Mahomes as he spoke to reporters following the loss.

PHILIP RIVERS THROWS FIRST TOUCHDOWN PASS SINCE 2020 SEASON

“… It didn’t look good,” Reid said when asked whether he knew if Mahomes’ injury was serious. “I mean you guys saw it. We’ll just see where it goes.”

The loss to the Chargers also meant the Chiefs will not be making the postseason. Kansas City made it to the AFC Championship each season since 2018. They made it to the Super Bowl in each of the last three seasons, winning two titles in that span.

Mahomes will finish the season with 3,398 passing yards and 22 touchdown passes.

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Kansas City is 6-8 on the year.

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KANSAS CITY, Mo. — On a day when the Chargers took a big step toward the postseason, the Kansas City Chiefs lost their most important player.

What started in balmy Brazil ended Sunday in the bitter cold of Arrowhead Stadium. The Chargers completed a season sweep of AFC West bully Kansas City with a 16-13 victory that ultimately knocked the Chiefs out of playoff contention for the first time in 11 years.

It was the third-coldest game in Chargers history — 15 degrees at kickoff — and showcased a red-hot defense that paved the way to Los Angeles wins over Philadelphia and Kansas City, last season’s Super Bowl teams, in consecutive weeks.

“This is a ball team,” Chargers coach Jim Harbaugh said, gleeful after his team won for the sixth time in seven games. “A real ball team.”

This Chargers season, which began with a 27-21 victory over the Chiefs in São Paulo, is just the second in the last 13 years in which they beat their division rival twice.

Harbaugh began his postgame remarks on a somber note, wishing the best for Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes, who left the game late in the fourth quarter after suffering a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee when he was hit by defensive lineman Da’Shawn Hand.

Gardner Minshew closed out at quarterback for the Chiefs, and the game ended when Derwin James Jr. intercepted his final pass. There would be no fantastic finish for the franchise that won the last nine division titles.

“We’ve been going at those guys for a while, going back to Baltimore,” said Chargers edge rusher Odafe Oweh, acquired in a trade with the Ravens this season. “It was long overdue.”

A week after Cameron Dicker kicked five field goals in the win over Philadelphia, he kicked three more against the Chiefs.

Oweh had two sacks of Mahomes, and Tuli Tuipulotu had two more. The defense had the Chiefs in a hammer lock, limiting them to 190 yards in the air and a mere 49 on the ground.

Still, the Chargers had to dig themselves out of a hole. They faced a 13-3 deficit late in the second quarter before tearing off 13 unanswered points.

Justin Herbert threw a 16-yard touchdown pass to rookie KeAndre Lambert-Smith with five seconds left in the first half to start the comeback. After that it was Dicker and defense for the visitors.

“It was really cool that we were able to close out a one-score game like that,” said Herbert, who said his surgically repaired left hand felt tight in the cold weather but was better, as was his grip on the ball. “How many times we’ve played them and it’s been those one-score games? The defense came up with the turnovers and the stops.”

Kansas City, trailing by three, got all the way down to the visitors’ 17 early in the fourth quarter but the Chargers yet again came up big on defense. Linebacker Daiyan Henley intercepted a third-down pass near the goal line, getting position on running back Kareem Hunt and essentially becoming the receiver on the play.

“I was surprised to even see the ball go up in the air, but I had to revert back to my receiver days and get an over-the-shoulder look,” said Henley, who last lined up as a pass catcher six or seven years ago at the University of Nevada Reno. “Eye-hand coordination is something you just have to have in those moments.”

Not everything the Chargers defense did was so smooth. Safety Tony Jefferson was ejected in the fourth quarter after a helmet-to-helmet hit that knocked Chiefs receiver Tyquan Thornton out of the game. The call to send Jefferson packing was not made by officials on the field, who flagged him for unnecessary roughness, but by league officials watching from New York.

Earlier in the second half, Jefferson flattened receiver Rashee Rice with another devastating hit, and Rice came after him as the Chargers safety made his way off the field and toward the locker room. Players from both sides intervened.

Chargers safety Tony Jefferson leaves the field after being ejected against the Chiefs on Sunday.

(Reed Hoffmann / Associated Press)

In response to the booing crowd, Jefferson raised both middle fingers, a gesture that likely will draw more attention from the league.

“I apologize for that,” he said afterward. “I’m classier than that. I was just caught up in the moment. Emotions get high. I won’t sit here and act like I’m a perfect man. I messed up when I did that.”

The Chargers (10-4), who finish the season at Denver, have yet to lose an AFC West game. They are 5-0 in those and remain within striking distance of the division-leading Broncos.

It won’t be an easy road. The Chargers play at Dallas next Sunday, then play host to Houston before closing out the regular season against the Broncos.

“I started thinking, this is my favorite ball team I’ve ever been on,” Harbaugh said. “Been on some good ones. None better than this one.

“They’re tight. Fates are intertwined. It’s unselfish. Nothing anyone is doing is for themselves.”

And on this frigid Sunday, that paid some unforgettable dividends.