ClutchPoints
It was 4th-and-11 at the Philadelphia Eagles 22-yard line. Matthew Stafford dropped back, looked to his right, and chucked the ball up to the Los Angeles Rams’ top receiver, Puka Nacua.
And then… well, Stafford wasn’t sure what happened, at least until he heard the ravenous cheer of the Eagles fanbase, which let him know that his team’s playoff run was likely over.
Discussing what happened on that final drive and how he experienced the Rams’ final play of the 2024 NFL season with reporters after the game, Stafford noted that was proud of his team for marching their way down the field even if he couldn’t ultimately connect with Nacua to extend their season any further.
“I didn’t get to see the end of the play on fourth down that everybody’s talking about or whatever, threw it and got knocked down or whatever. So I didn’t get to see the end of the play. I know [Eagles CB Darius] Slay well enough to know his body language and that smile, knowing you know how he felt about that play, but battled against him a bunch of times in practice over the years. And have a ton of respect for who he is as a player. But the bottom line is, we could have done some things to keep ourselves ahead of the sticks and not have a fourth and forever,” Matthew Stafford told reporters.
“I’m not going to dwell on that too much. We walked the ball down with four minutes left, or whatever it was, walked the ball down quickly. Just got a touchdown. Defense did a heck of a job, got the stop, and kind of punted down deep into our territory, and when we hit some plays, and you know, got it to where we wanted to be, had a chance for it, and didn’t get it done. But I love competing. I love being in those moments, sure as heck not afraid of them, and competed my [tail] off and didn’t go the way I wanted it to today. Next time I’m out there, line it up. Let’s do it again.”
Alright, technically speaking, Slay didn’t really make that good of a play versus Nacua in coverage, as Stafford kind of sailed the ball out of bounds despite not really having a pass rush in his face, maybe due to Jalen Carter’s absolute dominance down the stretch, or the lingering effects of the rib injury he suffered earlier in the game. Why Sean McVay went with such a low-upside play is really hard to say, as they’d been gashing up the Eagles’ defense for much of the fourth quarter, but hey, now they have an entire offseason to think about it, with Stafford likely getting a chance to do it again in 2025 despite some rumors about a no-so-distant future retirement.
The post Rams’ Matthew Stafford breaks down what went wrong on final drive vs. Eagles appeared first on ClutchPoints.
