SEATTLE — If Matthew Stafford is truly the NFL’s Most Valuable Player – as many observers anticipate and the Professional Football Writers Association already announced this past week – this is the time he needs to demonstrate why.
Indeed, the process already has begun. The Rams are in the NFC Championship game, one step from the Super Bowl, precisely because Stafford kept his cool when others might have lost theirs. He directed a game-winning drive in the wild-card round against Carolina two weeks ago, and guided his team to the winning field goal in overtime in last week’s divisional round in snowy Chicago.
But now comes the most important test. The Rams, knocked down to the No. 5 seed in the NFC because of two losses in their final three regular season games, face the No. 1 seed Seahawks here at 3:30 p.m. Sunday. In fact, you can make the case that this game is in Lumen Field instead of SoFi Stadium because of the Seahawks’ comeback Dec. 18 – and a loose ball in the end zone that Seattle’s Zach Charbonnet had the foresight to pick up, turning what seemed to be an incompletion of a forward pass into the recovery of a lateral and a two-point conversion – en route to a 38-37 Seattle overtime victory here.
Stafford did his part that night, passing for a season-high 457 yards, 225 of them to Puka Nacua on 12 receptions. But he’ll have to do more. He knows it, coach Sean McVay knows it, and while everyone else in the Rams’ team room acknowledges they too will have to do more, the burden is on the quarterback of the league’s No. 1 offense (30.5 points scored per game) to overcome the league’s No. 1 defense (17.2 points allowed per game).
This is a potentially ominous precedent, by the way: According to the NFL’s pregame notes, twice previously have the No. 1 offense and the No. 1 defense squared off in the NFC championship game: 1980 when Dallas played Philadelphia and 2014 when Green Bay faced Seattle. Both times, the team with the No. 1 defense reached the Super Bowl.
(Then again, the Eagles and Seahawks both lost those Super Bowls. And if you’re talking to a Seattle fan, you might not want to bring up 2014 and Malcolm Butler, and why didn’t Pete Carroll give Marshawn Lynch the ball at the goal line instead? Such memories are very hard to shake.)
So look at it this way: The NFL is in the memory-making business, and Stafford and his team have a chance to create some more memories Sunday – pleasant ones for Rams fans, grisly ones for the 12s, as the Seahawks’ faithful are known up here. It all goes with Stafford’s vow, as he expressed in the huddle late in the Carolina game, to steal the opponent’s soul.
Interestingly enough, Stafford’s passing yardage totals have gone down in the past few weeks – from that 457-yard game against Seattle to 269 in a loss in Atlanta, followed by 259 in a comeback victory over the woeful Arizona Cardinals in the final regular-season game. He lit up Carolina for 304 yards and three scores in the wild-card round but passed for only 258 yards, with no touchdowns or interceptions, in the snow last week in Chicago.
McVay was asked at midweek if this had anything to do with changes in the game plan over the last two games.
“I think each game is its own separate entity,” he said. “I think you have to be totally present. You have to play your best in those three-and-a-half-hour windows. There are a lot of reasons for either/or. … Matthew did a great job, really I thought in both games. You give them credit. It was unique where we just didn’t have a lot of snaps (in) that first game.
“We so feel so fortunate to have him lead the way,” he added. “I think overall just that command, that confidence, that poise and that ability to love those pressure-filled moments, I think that gives a calm in the midst of some of those chaotic moments. I think that resonates with his teammates and it creates a belief that’s not exclusive to the offense. That’s our whole football team and coaching staff included.”
There’s this as well: All quarterbacks who reach this level can lead, and part of that leadership involves accountability when things go haywire. McVay called Stafford’s ownership and accountability “extreme.”
“I’ve heard it said before, I think excuses are tools of the incompetent,” the coach said. “Matthew is the furthest thing from that. He’s got great ownership. I think that’s why people want to follow him, because of the way that he stays humble in the great moments, which he sure has had a handful of those. Then in the moments that we can be better, he owns it. Now we can move on.
“He’s a freaking stud.”
This coach/quarterback collaboration has brought their team a level of success not seen with this franchise in either of its L.A. tenures, and one probably rivaled by the “Greatest Show On Turf” days in St. Louis with Kurt Warner and Dick Vermeil, the combination that accounted for the other championship banner in SoFi Stadium. Since Stafford was acquired before the 2021 season, in the trade that sent Jared Goff to Detroit, the Rams are 49-36 in those regular seasons, have reached the postseason every year but one and are in the NFC Championship game for the second time in five seasons.
And, said Stafford, coach and quarterback hold each other accountable.
“I think the coolest thing is just the honesty we have with each other,” Stafford told reporters at midweek. “Whether things go the way we want it to or not, it’s, ‘How can we fix them? How can we be better? How can we communicate better as an offense and then ultimately play better?’
“We’ve had that since I’ve been here. I appreciate the hell out of it. It’s not always the case in this league … It’s a fun thing, and it’s a fun partnership.”
It’s more fun, of course, when you win. And maybe that accountability from those late-season losses, on both sides, has helped shape the triumphs of the last two weeks – and put Stafford and McVay, and their team, in position for more.
Bottom line: For the Rams to get back to the Super Bowl, Stafford needs to be that MVP. It says here that he will: L.A. 37, Seattle 30.
jalexander@scng.com