Rams QB Matthew Stafford Downplays Potential Playoff Game vs. Lions
With a 30-22 win over the New Orleans Saints on Thursday night, Matthew Stafford and the Los Angeles Rams have won five of their last six games as their playoff odds get better and better.
As the Rams get closer and closer to the promised land, a very intriguing potential matchup is coming into focus. If the season ended today, the Rams would be the NFC's sixth seed and play the third-seeded Detroit Lions, the team Stafford spent more than a decade with, in the Wild Card Round.
According to PlayoffStatus.com, the Lions are the most likely opening round opponent for the Rams at 24 percent, tied with the Philadelphia Eagles.
Matthew Stafford and Jared Goff
As fun as that matchup would be, Stafford and the Rams haven't even given a thought to who they may face in the playoffs yet.
“No, no. Like I said, there’s a lot of ball to be played between now and then,” Stafford said on the "Thursday Night Football" postgame show. “We’re just trying to get in the dance, that’s the main goal. Get in, be the best seed you can be, figure out where we gotta go play after that. But there’s a lot of football to be played between now and then, and we have two tough opponents."
The main reason why the Rams aren't thinking about their playoff opponent is very obvious: they haven't clinched their spot in the postseason yet. Their chances are very strong after Thursday's win, but they still need to finish the job.
The Lions also haven't officially clinched a playoff spot yet, but things would need to go very wrong for them to miss it.
What makes this potential matchup so exciting is that it's a "revenge game" on both sides. Not just for Stafford, but for former Rams and current Lions quarterback Jared Goff as well. In fact, the two were traded for each other in 2021, so they'll always have a connection in that sense.
The two clubs have faced off once since the trade, with the Rams winning 28-19 in 2021.
Additionally, Detroit is on track to win its first division title, and thus host a playoff game, for the first time in 30 years. For such a big occasion, it's only fitting that Stafford, the best quarterback in franchise history, would be in the building.
As Stafford emphasized, though, there's a lot of football to be played before even thinking about this matchup.
