Matthew Stafford has finally won a playoff game.
The 13-year veteran quarterback is in the top 10 all-time in almost every NFL statistical category. But the fact that he had never won a postseason game has hung over his career like an impenetrable cloud.
Stafford faced the pressure of that fact all week, but exorcised his postseason demons with a dominant 34-11 victory by the Los Angeles Rams over the Arizona Cardinals in the NFC Wild Card Game at SoFi Stadium.
Early this week, Rams’ head coach Sean McVay was asked about Stafford’s postseason failures. He defended his quarterback, telling reporters that this was the reason that the franchise traded former first round overall pick Jared Goff to Detroit to acquire Stafford almost a year ago. He even pointed to some officiating decisions in 2014 that may have played a role in Stafford previously going winless in the postseason.
Stafford himself knew that the Rams playoff hopes resided in his humble hands. That the NFC West Division Champions would only go as far as their quarterback could take them.
He delivered for them on Monday night.
In front of a capacity crowd off 70,625, Stafford carried the Rams offense throwing for 202 yards, two touchdowns, and a rushing touchdown. More importantly, he had zero turnovers for just the seventh time this season.
Odell Beckham Jr. caught the first playoff touchdown of his career, capping off a 10-play, 52-yard opening drive that gave the Rams an early 7-0 lead. In his first postseason action since 2016, Beckham Jr. finished with four catches for 54 yards, and even threw for 40 yards.
After a quarterback keeper gave the Rams a two-touchdown lead, the defense provided a 21-0 halftime lead when David Long Jr. intercepted an errant throw by Kyler Murray as he was being sacked in his own end zone and walked in for the easy pick-six.
The defense, led by All-Pro’s Aaron Donald, Von Miller, and Jalen Ramsey intercepted Murray X times, sacked him twice, and held him to his lowest QB rating of the season at 40.9.
The Rams advance to the NFC Playoff semifinal against the reigning champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers, led by future Hall of Fame quarterback and seven-time Super Bowl Champion Tom Brady.
NFL receiving triple crown winner Cooper Kupp caught a touchdown pass in the second half.
James Conner capped off the Cardinals first scoring drive of the game when he bulldozed into the end zone for the two-yard score. Arizona converted the two-point conversion to cut the deficit to 20-points.
The Rams would cruise from them, dwindling down the clock on two long drives that ended in field goals.
The Cardinals and Kyler Murray will now look to next season after their first taste of the playoffs.
After winning his first career playoff game, Stafford and the Rams will look to make it two in a row against Tom Brady and the Buccaneers on Sunday.
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