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Sarah Barshop, ESPN Staff WriterDec 29, 2024, 01:36 AM ET
- Sarah Barshop covers the Los Angeles Rams for ESPN. She joined ESPN in 2016 to cover the Green Bay Packers for ESPN Milwaukee. She then moved to Houston to cover the Texans. She came to ESPN after working as a writer and editor for Sports Illustrated. You can follow her on Twitter @sarahbarshop.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. — As quarterback Matthew Stafford stood at the podium after the Los Angeles Rams‘ 13-9 victory over the Arizona Cardinals answering questions about the possibility of the team clinching a playoff spot in Week 17, he said he didn’t “want to get too much into hypotheticals.”
But what he did say is that he is “proud” of this Rams team who sat at 1-4 during their bye week, having to answer questions about whether they could turn the season around.
“I’m proud of this group and the way they’ve battled back,” Stafford said. “A lot of people doubting us, a lot of people writing us off at 1-4. And being able to sit here with our record is what it is right now, I feel proud of this group.”
After the Seattle Seahawks won on Thursday night, the Rams entered the day needing a victory against the Cardinals and 3.5 or more wins by any of the Vikings, Bills, 49ers, Bengals and Browns to clinch the strength-of-victory tiebreaker over Seattle and the NFC West title. The Bengals beat the Broncos on Saturday afternoon for one of those wins.
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Los Angeles won their fifth game in a row on Saturday night and their ninth of 11 since that 1-4 start.
But while the Rams can clinch before the end of Week 17, head coach Sean McVay said he doesn’t want to put the “cart before the horse” when asked whether his starters would play in Week 18 if the Rams weren’t playing for a playoff spot.
“Our focus and concentration will be on, alright, how do we get an opportunity to play a complete game against an excellent Seattle Seahawks football team?” McVay said. “And until we have to decide otherwise, that’s where my sole focus and concentration will be.”
And when asked what it would mean to be able to clinch a spot before they play Seattle in Week 18, McVay said, “We had to handle our business tonight for that to even be a possibility. So it would mean a lot.”
“What I don’t want to do is get ahead because you get emotionally invested in other people’s games and that never has really served me very well,” McVay said. “So we’ll watch it. I’ll tell myself to not get invested and then you will.
“But the reality is this … if you want to be able to do what we want to be able to do, you got to handle your own business. And our guys did that tonight.”
