Packers-Rams Matchups: Who Has the Advantage?

Here is a unit-by-unit look at Sunday’s game between the Green Bay Packers (2-2) and Los Angeles Rams (1-3). Where do the Packers have the advantages?

Los Angeles Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford will face the Green Bay Packes on Sunday. / Benny Sieu-Imagn Images

The Green Bay Packers and Los Angeles Rams have faced each other every year since 2020, but this Rams team will be much different than the squads that dropped four straight at Lambeau Field.

For Sunday’s game at SoFi Stadium, the Rams will play without their two premier receivers, Cooper Kupp and Puka Nacua, and defensive tackle Aaron Donald, who retired after last season.

The Packers are 2-2 after losing to the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday. The Rams are 1-3, with Matthew Stafford rallying the Rams to a last-second field goal to beat the 49ers, but they struggled in Sunday’s loss at the Bears.

The Packers beat the Rams in the 2020 playoffs and the 2021, 2022 and 2023 regular seasons. All of those games were at Lambeau Field. The Rams will be at home for this game, but how much of a homefield advantage they’ll have is in question. The last time the Rams hosted the Packers was in 2018, and it felt like Lambeau Field West.

The Rams may not be as good as they once were, but with Sean McVay and Stafford, they have a puncher’s chance in any game.

Here is a look at this week’s matchups.

Pass Offense

You’ve probably heard of the quarterback. Stafford is still chugging along in the NFL. He moved into 10th place on the NFL’s all-time passing list last week. The Packers know him well, having played 12 seasons in Detroit.

Stafford was traded to the Rams following the 2020 season as part of a package that sent quarterback Jared Goff and draft picks to the Lions. Stafford made good on his end of the deal right away, leading the Rams to a Super Bowl championship in his first year.

Inactive against Green Bay the past two years, he’s faced the Packers once since the trade. The Packers won 36-28 in 2021, powered by a pick-six from Rasul Douglas.

Stafford’s still one of the best.

He’s thrown two touchdowns and two picks in four games, but the degree of difficulty has never been higher.

His All-Pro receivers, Kupp and Nacua, will miss Sunday’s game. Nacua was placed on injured reserve after the Rams’ Week 1 loss at Detroit and Kupp, who caught 14 passes vs. the Lions, is expected to miss at least a couple more weeks.

Asking any quarterback to win without his two best targets would be tough.

To add more injury to insult, starting guards Steve Avila and Jonah Jackson are on injured reserve, as well.

Stafford, after being asked to carry some really poor Lions teams, now finds himself in the same situation in Los Angeles.

If nothing else, Stafford is tough as nails. He takes a beating but continues to get up and spin the ball.

The Packers’ pass defense will be looking for a rebound after getting diced up by Sam Darnold, Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison on Sunday.

It’s unclear if top cornerback Jaire Alexander will be able to play; coach Matt LaFleur was noncommittal after Sunday’s game. If he’s inactive again, they’ll need to play much better in the secondary and apply more pressure on the passer than they did against the Vikings.

Stafford can dice up a defense as good as anyone when he has time. Rookie Jordan Whittington (six catches, 62 yards) and former second-round pick Tutu Atwell (four catches, 82 yards) were the top targets at Chicago. If he doesn’t have time, he’s prone to mistakes. If there is something Green Bay’s defense does, it takes the ball away with a league-high 12.

If Green Bay’s pass rush cannot rebound this week, starting with Rashan Gary, who has only one sack, it’s time to start asking some major questions.

Advantage: Packers

Rush Offense

Kyren Williams is the lead man in the Rams’ backfield, but he’s off to a slow start. Williams has 258 yards through four games. While he’s averaging only 3.5 yards per carry, he averaged 4.9 and just missed a 100-yard game against Chicago. He has at least one rushing touchdown in every game this season.

Williams, who rushed for 1,144 yards in just 12 games last year for an NFL-best 95.3 per game, is a workhorse. Of carries given to the running backs, Williams has 73, while Ronnie Rivers and rookie Blake Corum have combined for 18.

Green Bay did well enough against Aaron Jones and the Vikings. It kept Jones out of the end zone and limited him to 93 yards and a 4.2-yard average.

McVay is willing to commit to the run game if he’s getting the desired results. Green Bay’s defense has been up and down this season in that phase of the game. This could be a matchup that McVay tries to exploit. The question is whether or not they can.

Advantage: Push

Pass Defense

The Rams have a Donald-sized hole in the middle of their defensive line. The future first-ballot Hall of Famer and one of the greatest defensive players ever called it a career after last season.

Asked last year about what it was like preparing for Donald, LaFleur joked, “I want to cry.”

No tears will be shed this time around with Donald on a beach somewhere.

Instead, the Packers’ offensive line will have to deal with a revamped pass rush.

The Rams have seven sacks through four games. Byron Young, who had eight during a standout rookie season, leads the way with two. Jared Verse, the Rams’ first-round pick in April, has one.

Their secondary is going through some transition, as well.

Former All-Pro cornerback Tre’Davious White returned this year after a gruesome injury that led to questions whether he’d ever be able to play football again. He’s allowed four touchdowns and been penalized five times, according to Pro Football Focus.

At safety, Kamren Kinchens was a third-round pick this year and Kamren Curl, a solid player while with the Commanders, was signed in free agency.

Safety John Johnson, who has the only interception, and cornerback Darious Williams, who had four interceptions last year for Jacksonville, are on injured reserve; Williams might return this week.

Before facing Caleb Williams and Chicago’s anemic passing offense, the Rams were allowing more than 425 passing yards per game, by far the worst in the league. They were better against Chicago, but the Packers may have found some rhythm in their passing game in the fourth quarter against the Vikings.

Green Bay piled up 465 yards against Minnesota’s stingy defense but could not stay out of its own way. Jordan Love threw three interceptions and Tucker Kraft lost a fumble.

If ever there were a game that should signal a breakout for Green Bay’s passing offense, it would be this one.

Advantage: Packers

Rush Defense

LaFleur must be licking his chops for this phase of the game.

As bad as the Rams have been in the air, they’ve been equally bad on the ground.

Chicago’s rush offense was going nowhere through three games but got rolling against the Rams with 131 yards, a 4.7-yard average and two touchdowns.

Through four games, the Rams are 32nd with 165.5 rushing yards allowed per game and 27th with 4.98 yards allowed per carry. Safety Quentin Lake has a team-high 37 tackles, with 10-plus in each of his first three games. Inside linebackers Troy Reeder and Christian Rozeboom are next with 33.

The Packers piled up more than 250 rushing yards against the Colts two weeks ago, when Love was out of the lineup. Josh Jacobs and Emanuel Wilson have not found near the same amount of success the last two games, though Sunday’s game could be blamed on trailing by two scores for most of the day.

If the Rams cannot put up more resistance in the run game, Green Bay’s offense should be able to do whatever it wants.

Advantage: Packers

Special Teams

Daniel Whelan has overtaken Keisean Nixon as the team’s biggest weapon on special teams. The new kickoff rules have not provided any opportunities for Nixon to get loose and the Rams have allowed only one kickoff return.

Whelan’s 74-yard punt that ended up being muffed on Sunday helped kickstart Green Bay’s comeback.

The kicking situation in Green Bay is a mess, though, with Brayden Narveson missing two more kicks on Sunday. Only Baltimore’s perennial All-Pro, Justin Tucker, has a lower success rate than Narveson’s 69.2 percent.

The Rams’ special teams were the worst in the NFL last year, according to Rick Gosselin’s 2023 rankings. They’re in their second season under Chase Blackburn.

They’re breaking in a rookie kicker after taking Joshua Karty in the sixth round of this year’s draft. He’s 9-of-10 on field goals and has not missed an extra point. Punter Ethan Evans is eighth in the NFL in average (50.0) and net average (43.4).

Their return game only has six attempts between kickoffs and punts. Corum had a 41-yard kickoff return against Chicago and Xavier Smith had a 38-yard punt return against the 49ers.

The Rams may have been the worst unit in football last season but have made some improvement. The Packers? Well …

Advantage: Rams

More Green Bay Packers News

As reported by @AaronWilson_NFL, the #Packers have a couple veteran running backs in town for workouts. ⬇️https://t.co/ZzVVaS1t5W

— Bill Huber (@BillHuberNFL) October 1, 2024

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