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Rams’ Stafford will ‘take some time to think’ about future after playoff exit
Doomed by costly fumbles in Sunday’s divisional-round loss to the Philadelphia Eagles, Matthew Stafford and the Los Angeles Rams entered a potential off-season of change much sooner than they would have liked.
Doomed by costly fumbles in Sunday’s divisional-round loss to the Philadelphia Eagles, Matthew Stafford and the Los Angeles Rams entered a potential off-season of change much sooner than they would have liked.
The Rams’ quarterback still has two years left on his recently reworked contract, but that didn’t stop the topic of his future from coming up immediately after the game.
Stafford didn’t have an immediate response on what comes next, but said that he would “take some time to think about it,” according to ESPN’s Sarah Barshop.
“I feel like I was playing some pretty good ball,” Stafford said, coming off of a regular season in which he threw for 3762 yards and 20 touchdowns while guiding the Rams to an NFC West crown.
Later asked if he has more football in him after 16 seasons as a starting NFL quarterback, the 36-year-old responded, “sure feels like it.”
Los Angeles head coach Sean McVay declined to comment on Stafford’s status going forward, saying, “I’m not really interested in talking about anything as it relates to next year.”
While the Rams will have time to figure out where they stand heading into 2025 over the coming months, the self-inflicted wounds from the 28-22 loss in Philadelphia were clearly on the team’s minds in the hours following the final snap.
Kyren Williams made a cut in the snow, then the Rams’ 1,200-yard rusher had the football pop loose on a clear — well, clear-ish — slick path snow-blown clean of a wintry mix.
The ball rolled free, recovered and returned by the Eagles, ending one drive for Los Angeles.
Stafford dropped back on the next series, tried to get rid of the football, but was strip-sacked and the Eagles pounced on another fumble.
The Eagles kicked two field goals in the fourth quarter off two game-changing fumbles — Los Angeles turnovers that might not have happened under clear skies at SoFi Stadium.
“We had two turnovers that don’t necessarily occur in different elements,” McVay said.
From a 1-4 start to NFC West champions, the Rams navigated a short week following a playoff win over Minnesota and kept the game close until the final possession.
Even with the frosty fumbles, the Rams — who toughed out the last two weeks as wildfires have devastated large portions of Southern California — still had an upset in sight.
Stafford, who threw for 324 yards with sore ribs, kept the Rams in it with a four-yard TD pass to Colby Parkinson that made it 28-22. The Rams got the ball back with two minutes left and Stafford completed consecutive passes of 11 and 37 yards to move the ball into Eagles territory.
Stafford, who has thrown multiple touchdown passes in each of his first seven playoff games with the Rams, was sacked by Jalen Carter on third down and threw an incomplete pass on fourth down to end the threat.
“I felt like we had total control toward the latter part of that game,” McVay said. “The momentum was in our favour, and we had an opportunity to able to win that game, and we just came up short.”
Cooper Kupp had a surprisingly small role again, catching only five passes for 61 yards. Only six days after he spit up blood in the playoff win over Minnesota and was taken to the hospital with a chest injury, Tyler Higbee returned to catch a four-yard touchdown pass that tied it at seven in the first quarter.
Williams rushed for 106 yards — so many more potentially lost because of his fumble.
“It felt like as an offence, we had them on the ropes, and that they probably felt it, too,” Stafford said. “We were moving the rock really well the last two drives, and then just a couple of unforced errors here and there and got behind the sticks.”
Saquon Barkley kept a grip on the football for the Eagles and continued to torment the Rams with rushing touchdowns of 62 and 78 yards. He ran for 205 yards overall.
In two games this season against the Rams, Barkley had 52 carries for 459 yards and four touchdowns — all over 60-plus yards.
“Saquon got to the second level, similar to the first game, but there were some different layers that we did have in our defence,” McVay said. “He was able to pull away.”
Joshua Karty kicked two field goals for the Rams. The defence sacked Jalen Hurts for a safety that brought the Rams to 16-15.
Unlike the start to their season, the Rams ran out of time to come back.
“There were a lot of people at 1-4 that were talking about who was going to replace everybody on every position of our team and, ‘Should we sell the farm at the trade deadline? Should we tank?’ All of that,” Stafford said. “So just proud of our guys for not listening to all that and just going and playing and doing what we can do. And we did that.”
— With files from Sportsnet Staff
