Momentum seemed to be on the side of the Carolina Panthers on Saturday afternoon after Bryce Young found Jalen Coker for a 7-yard touchdown, giving the NFC South champs a four-point lead over the visiting Los Angeles Rams with 2:31 to play.
Matthew Stafford wasn’t deterred. The veteran quarterback — who at the age of 37 earned his first-ever First Team All-Pro nod this week — turned to Rams’ wideout Davante Adams and said, “let’s go snatch these guys’ hearts.”
And Stafford and his Rams did just that.
The three-time Pro Bowler and University of Georgia product orchestrated a seven-play, 71-yard drive that ate up about two minutes of clock and ended with Stafford finding tight end Colby Parkinson on a wheel route for a 19-yard touchdown. The Panthers couldn’t muster a response against LA’s defense, and the Rams went on to win 34-31 in a game that had Stafford’s fingerprints all over it.
For Stafford, that game-winning drive was the 51st of his career and his fourth in the postseason.
After starting the game completing 7-of-7 passes, Stafford suffered an injury to his throwing hand on a second down play in the second quarter when his finger bent backward as it collided with the arm of a Carolina pass rusher.
“It wasn’t pleasant. It wasn’t great. We’ll see what it is,” Stafford said of the injury.
But the gunslinger persevered, completing 24-of-42 throws for 304 yards and three touchdowns. It wasn’t an otherworldly performance, but it was a gritty one that paved the way for the Rams to capture a victory.
“He got a bunch of different guys involved,” Rams coach Sean McVay said. “I thought he saw the field really well, and that’s why we’re advancing, because of his leadership.”
Indeed. The Rams seem to be a team that will go as far as Stafford takes them. With the way he’s playing, that could be to the Super Bowl where Stafford and McVay would have the opportunity to capture their second championship together.
In his 17th season as a professional, Stafford seems to be playing at the peak of his powers. He ended the regular season leading the NFL in passing yards and touchdowns, throwing for 4,707 yards and 46 scores this year. He’s also tossed just eight interceptions this season and has a career-best passer rating of 109.2.
Stafford seemed to thrive in the moments where the game mattered most on Saturday. The fourth quarter between the Rams and Panthers featured four lead changes, which is tied for the most in a final frame of any NFL playoff game. And Stafford became the fifth player in NFL history with multiple go-ahead passing touchdowns in the fourth quarter of a playoff game. Before finding Parkinson for the game-winning score, he found running back Kyren Williams over the middle for a 13-yard touchdown to put the Rams ahead with under nine minutes to play.
“I love those situations,” Stafford said. “I live to do it. It’s great to do it on the road too. Quieted a nice crowd today, so we’ll take it.”
Puka Nacua hauled in Stafford’s other scoring strike and seemed to be his favorite target on the day, catching 10 balls for 111 yards.
“That’s what coach talks about,” Nacua said. “You never want to let No. 9 down.”
Stafford also surpassed Kurt Warner for the most postseason passing touchdowns in Rams’ history.
The Rams haven’t been great in close games this season. Each of their five losses was by a touchdown or less and the Rams failed to respond late in those games. But with Stafford leading the way against the Panthers, LA finally rallied around its leader and did that, winning a game that was hanging in the balance.
Perhaps this road playoff victory was a turning point for the Rams. Perhaps they do have the best quarterback remaining in the playoffs.
Whether those things are true or not, what Stafford and the Rams showed on Saturday was resolve and determination. They’ll make mistakes — and had plenty of them on special teams against the Panthers — but they won’t back down and they won’t go away quietly.
“He was steady,” McVay said of Stafford. “It was MVP type of stuff what he did.”
