Rams, Giants looking to build on disparate Week 1 showings when they meet on Monday night

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Los Angeles Rams could not have looked worse, while the New York Giants could not have looked better in their respective season openers.

Both sides recognize the response to those performances when they meet on Monday night will be just as important as their Week 1 showings.

“They understand, they understood going into the game that it was the first game of a 17-game season, no matter what the outcome is going to be, and that the Rams are going to be next up regardless of what the outcome is,” Giants coach John Harbaugh said. “So, our job is to get better, keep improving, because you have to.”

The Rams (0-1) have plenty to address following their 27-7 flop to the San Francisco 49ers in Melbourne, Australia. They were outplayed against their NFC West rivals after an offseason spent adding big names and amassing bigger expectations.

“That wasn’t a day that really any of us liked,” Rams coach Sean McVay said. “But, hey, it’s not final, and we’re looking to move forward.”

Among the priorities for McVay is getting his offense on track after quarterback Matthew Stafford looked nothing like the form that won him the Most Valuable Player award last season, completing 60% of his throws for 155 yards and one interception.

McVay cited a lack of consistency for those struggles, compounded because the Rams possessed the ball twice in the first quarter and once in the third quarter.

“How do we string together positive plays, both in the run and the pass together?,” McVay said. “And that’s what good offenses do, and that’s what we’re striving to do.”

The Giants (1-0) had no such problems, possessing the ball for 21:33 in the second half as they kept the high-powered Dallas Cowboys’ offense on the sideline in a 28-20 victory.

It is a game plan they want to repeat on a regular basis, ideally making New York punter Jordan Stout a viewer instead of an active participant.

“We want to be on the field as long as we can, eating up the clock, getting points after every drive,” fullback Patrick Ricard said.

“I told Jordan Stout, ‘You’re not punting this game.’ I was just trying to set the tone early for the season, and we punted once. So, this game and every game moving forward, we’re going to try (to have the) punter not punt.”

New York Giants (1-0) at Los Angeles Rams (0-1)

When/where to watch: Monday, 8:15 p.m. EDT, ESPN/ABC

Latest odds: Rams by 7

Against the spread: Giants 1-0; Rams 0-1.

Last week: Giants beat the Cowboys 28-20; Rams lost to the 49ers 27-7.

Last meeting: Rams beat the Giants 26-25 on Dec. 31, 2023, in East Rutherford, New Jersey.

Series record: Rams lead 30-17.

Giants QB Jaxson Dart vs. Rams edge rushers Byron Young and Josaiah Stewart. Dart kept the Cowboys off balance, throwing for 230 yards and three touchdowns and rushing for 54 yards. And while he was sacked twice, they resulted in a 1-yard loss. Los Angeles doesn’t have Myles Garrett for the next four weeks following knee surgery, putting Stewart into the starting lineup opposite Young. The Rams couldn’t generate meaningful pressure on Niners QB Brock Purdy, so they have to be disruptive while also accounting for Dart’s ability to create outside of structure.

— McVay is 4-0 versus the Giants and can join George Allen, Chuck Knox, Dan Quinn and Dick Vermeil as coaches to win his first five games against them.

— Stafford failed to lead the Rams to at least 10 points for the second time as a starter, with both games coming against San Francisco (24-9 loss on Oct. 3, 2022).

— Dart’s three touchdown passes versus Dallas tied his career high (Oct. 19, 2025, against Denver).

— The Giants lost their only previous road game against the Rams at SoFi Stadium 17-9 on Oct. 4, 2020, with no fans in attendance because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

— This has been a series of streaks lately, with the Rams winning five in a row from 1994-2001, then the Giants taking the next seven from 2002-2016, and the Rams taking the past four going back to 2017.

— Harbaugh lost his first road game as coach of the Baltimore Ravens, 23-20 in overtime at the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sept. 29, 2008. That game was played on a Monday night.

— Giants RB Cam Skattebo had 81 yards rushing and a touchdown on 18 carries against the Cowboys, the second-best outing of his brief NFL career. He ran for 98 yards and three scores against Philadelphia on Oct. 9, 2025.

— The Giants went 1-7 on the road last season, defeating the Raiders in Las Vegas on Dec. 28, 2025, to kickstart their current three-game winning streak.

AP Sports Writer Stephen Whyno in New York contributed to this report.

See AP’s full NFL coverage here

New York Giants players, from left, Tyler Nubin, Greg Newsome II, Deonte Banks, Jevon Holland and Andru Phillips celebrate an interception by Holland on a pass by Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott during the first half of an NFL football game Sunday, Sept. 13, 2026, in East Rutherford, N.J. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

San Francisco 49ers cornerback Renardo Green intercepts of pass intended for Los Angeles Rams wide receiver Puka Nacua during the first half of an NFL football game, Friday, Sept. 11, 2026, in Melbourne, Australia. (AP Photo/Asanka Brendon Ratnayake)

New York Giants head coach John Harbaugh speaks to reporters following an NFL football game against the Dallas Cowboys, Sunday, Sept. 13, 2026, in East Rutherford, N.J. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

Los Angeles Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford passes against the San Francisco 49ers during the second half of an NFL football game, Friday, Sept. 11, 2026, in Melbourne, Australia. (AP Photo/Asanka Brendon Ratnayake)

Los Angeles Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford leaves the field after their loss against the San Francisco 49ers in an NFL football game, Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2026, in Melbourne, Australia. (AP Photo/Scott Barbour)

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A former Syrian military official convicted of torturing prisoners during the rule of former President Bashar Assad was sentenced Thursday to 60 years in a U.S. prison after a federal judge recounted the “unimaginably cruel" details of his abuse.

A jury in March found Samir Ousman Alsheikh guilty on all six counts including torture and conspiracy to commit torture for his actions while in charge of Syria's infamous Adra Prison from roughly 2005 to 2008.

“The conduct was heinous, unimaginably cruel, and almost unspeakably violent and brutal,” U.S. District Judge Hernan D. Vera said before announcing the sentence.

Alsheikh, dressed in a khaki prison uniform and shackled at the ankles, was expressionless after he learned his fate. He waved to members of his family in the gallery before officers handcuffed him and led him from the courtroom.

Defense attorneys said they will appeal the sentence.

Human rights groups and United Nations officials have accused the Syrian government of widespread abuses in its detention facilities, including torture and arbitrary detention of thousands of people, in many cases without informing their families.

Prosecutors said Alsheikh, seeking to quash political dissent, sent certain prisoners to a notorious wing of Adra where they were held in small isolation cells and brutalized. During the trial, three victims recounted beatings while suspended from pipes on the ceiling and the use of a device that folded their bodies in half at the waist. One person testified that Alsheikh stomped on the device with his foot.

Alsheikh came to the U.S. in 2020 and applied for citizenship, but prosecutors say he concealed his involvement in torture. Federal authorities detained him at Los Angeles International Airport in July 2024.

In a three-hour hearing, the judge heard statements of support from Alsheikh’s son and daughter. Rami Alsheikh, his son, said the family cannot reconcile his kindness and compassion with the accusations he faced at trial.

“They did, and still do not, make sense to us, given the man we know and love,” he said.

Before the sentencing, Alsheikh himself addressed the court in a rambling statement in which he said he tried to fight corruption and clean up Adra Prison. Alsheikh said he was not an Assad loyalist and that he “only served as an employee.”

Alsheikh is the highest-ranking former member of the Assad government to be tried and convicted in person outside of Syria, the U.S. Department of Justice said.

“Criminals who inflict the type of savage brutality that this defendant did on his victims must never be granted refuge in our country,” First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said Thursday. “We hope today’s sentence gives some semblance of healing and closure to this defendant’s victims.”

In a sentencing memo filed this month, DOJ prosecutors said Alsheikh participated in the torture of his victims because he had the power to do so and because he thought he would never be held accountable.

The memo included statements from several victims, one of whom, Nidal Shikhani, said he can “still hear the screams of others begging for mercy, repeating, ‘Leave me, leave me.’ ”

Prosecutors had asked for a minimum sentence of 80 years. Alsheikh's attorneys, Nina Marino and Collin Cate, called for a five-year sentence, noting that he is 74 years old and has “significant medical and cognitive conditions.” They also said he was willing to be deported to Syria, where a new government has sought to hold Assad-era security officials accountable.

Jurors also convicted Alsheikh in March of lying to U.S. immigration authorities and fraudulently obtaining a green card and attempting to naturalize as a U.S. citizen.

Alsheikh was arrested with help from the Syrian Emergency Task Force, a U.S.-based opposition organization. One of its staff members, a former Syrian detainee, was first tipped off in 2022 by a refugee that Alsheikh was in the United States. The organization alerted several federal agencies and began working with them to build a case against him.

"We are committed to a peaceful and democratic Syria, and that cannot happen without justice and accountability for the remnants of Assad’s regime," Mouaz Moustafa, the task force's executive director, said Thursday.

Assad was ousted in a lightning rebel offensive in December 2024, bringing a 14-year civil war to an end. But the country has continued to suffer from sporadic outbreaks of violence.

In March 2025, armed groups aligned with Assad ambushed the new government’s security forces on Syria’s coast. A government counteroffensive then spiraled into sectarian revenge attacks and the massacre of hundreds of civilians from the Alawite religious minority, to which Assad belongs.

On Thursday, three people were sentenced in the Syrian city of Aleppo in connection with the violence. Two members of the pro-Assad groups were sentenced to death and life in prison, while a member of the security forces who took part in the revenge attacks was convicted of murder and sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Thanawala reported from Atlanta.

The exterior of the federal courthouse is seen March 27, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Eric Thayer, File)