THOUSAND OAKS — Over 19 months, Jared Goff has cycled through a few titles. Prodigy. Backup. Starter. Bust. The latest tag is “player of the week,” and the term MVP is starting to be whispered.

It’s probably wise to slow down a bit. Yes, Goff had a career day last Sunday, when he threw for 311 yards and four touchdowns against a barely-there New York Giants defense. Yes, Goff has showed significant improvement over his rookie season and is the engine behind the NFL’s highest-scoring offense.

Goff has been here before, with outsiders heaping expectations on his shoulders, only to have him fall short, through little fault of his own. Goff seems undisturbed by the recent praise, though, just as he dismissed talk – as recently as September – that he didn’t have the makeup of an NFL quarterback.

“Obviously extremely honored,” Goff said after Wednesday’s practice at Cal Lutheran. “We talk about it all the time though. Any time there’s an individual reward, it reflects on the team, and this one for sure does. I didn’t get hit all day, and that’s a testament to the line.”

These are potentially heady times for the Rams. Goff earned NFC player of the week honors on Monday for his huge game against New York, and a few hours later, Peter King, a highly respected NFL reporter, predicted the Rams would beat the New England Patriots in this season’s Super Bowl.

It’s easy to forget that in training camp, some pundits questioned whether Goff should lose his job to Sean Mannion.

That seems like a lifetime ago. Now, Goff seems to be improving by the week. Since a Week 5 loss to Seattle, when he completed fewer than half of his passes and threw two interceptions, Goff has led the Rams to three consecutive victories and a total of 111 points.

Goff has thrown one interception in his last 88 attempts, and last Sunday against the Giants, Goff had a quarterback rating of 146.8, the best of his career and not far from a perfect rating of 158.3.

“I just thought the overall command and control he displayed in that game,” Coach Sean McVay said, “in a road atmosphere, with some of the blitz aspects that (the Giants) present, he handled and managed the game extremely well.”

True to his nature, Goff shrugged off talk of his personal improvement and that of the Rams, who take a 6-2 record (and a first-place standing in the NFC West) into Sunday’s home game against Houston.

“In this league, it’s so week to week,” Goff said. “You’re good one week and you’re bad the next week. We were the worst team ever last year, and now everyone loves us. So no, it doesn’t make any difference to us. We’re 6-2 at the halfway point, and we’re happy about the things we’ve done so far, but we have a lot of work to do, and eight teams ahead of us.”

Still, the improvement over Goff’s rookie season has been extraordinary. He is averaging 8.3 yards per pass attempt, compared to 5.3 last season, and has reduced his interception rate from 3.4 percent to 1.6.

Goff is the first to note that he’s had help from his linemen. Goff has been sacked, on average, once per every 25.4 drop-back attempts this season. In 2016, when he took over for Case Keenum and started the final seven games, Goff was sacked once every 11.2 times he dropped back, a terribly poor ratio.

BROWN OUT

Reserve running back Malcolm Brown suffered an MCL injury during Sunday’s game and might require surgery, McVay said. Regardless, Brown is expected to miss significant time.

That could open the door for the return of Lance Dunbar, who has missed all of this season with knee problems. The Rams also could use rookie Justin Davis (USC) as Todd Gurley’s backup, or continue with receiver Tavon Austin, who has received increased time in the backfield this season.

“Whether it ends up being Lance or Justin will be determined later on in the week,” McVay said, “and we’ve got the luxury of using these practices and getting a feel for how those guys feel.”

The Rams likely made room for Dunbar on the active roster Wednesday when they waived cornerback Isaiah Johnson and assigned him to the practice squad.

Linebacker Robert Quinn missed Wednesday’s practice with an illness, McVay said, and tight end Derek Carrier strained his hamstring early in practice. McVay gave typical Wednesday rest days to linebackers Mark Barron and Connor Barwin and offensive linemen Andrew Whitworth and John Sullivan.