Windy City Gridiron
The Chicago Bears beat the Green Bay Packers in improbable fashion on Wild Card Weekend to advance to the Divisional Round. Their opponent this week is the LA Rams as these two teams faceoff to see who will be playing for a chance to advance to the Super Bowl against the Seattle Seahawks or San Francisco 49ers.
To help get you set for this weekend’s matchup, we sat down with Evan Craig from Turf Show Times (SB Nation’s LA Rams site) to get the perspective of what’s going on with this LA Rams team as they get set to square off on Sunday.
1. For much of the year, I felt the Rams were the best team in the league, but since the crazy loss to Seattle, I don’t feel like the Rams have been clicking. What’s been the issue?
The league’s been so crazy this season that I still have no idea who’s good. Truthfully, the Rams might be the best of the bunch left in these playoffs, considering they have the only quarterback-coach duo that has won a Super Bowl together. Even then, I wouldn’t consider them a great team, as I believe no team is great this year.
For a time, I was also on the Rams’ hype train. The reason they haven’t been clicking is slow starts and not playing a complete game. The Seattle game is a perfect example as L.A. jumped out to a 30-14 lead in the fourth quarter and gradually watched it evaporate. There was no excuse for them to lose that one. especially when Matthew Stafford was playing lights out, and the defense had Sam Darnold on his toes. In the Falcons game, the Rams fell behind 24-3 before roaring back to tie it, later losing on a late field goal. Even in the Cardinals game to end the year, L.A. needed a strong fourth quarter to put away one of the NFL’s worst teams. The offense has suffered through cold spells more in this stretch than at any other point in the year. Special teams blunders in the Seahawks and Panthers game from last week also didn’t help things, as it put the team in a super tricky spot and made both matchups closer than they should’ve been.
There’s a great team in these Rams, but I don’t see them realizing it in these playoffs. Fortunately, this season proves you don’t need greatness to hoist the Lombardi Trophy, just be less crappy than your opponent when the scoreboard hits triple zeros.
2. Matthew Stafford is incredible to watch operate, but every quarterback has his flaws. When teams can neutralize Stafford, what has been their successful strategy?
You know, this is an interesting question, because compared to past years, teams on occasion have been able to find success in neutralizing Stafford and the offense. That didn’t happen very often, though this season, as the Rams have largely been quite effective, sometimes even borderline unstoppable with him under center.
That said,...
