Los Angeles Rams continue surge, top Arizona Cardinals

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  • Sarah Barshop, ESPN staff writerDecember 29, 2024, 1:36 AM ET

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      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 joined ESPN after working as a writer and editor for Sports Illustrated. You can follow her on Twitter @sarahbarshop.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. – When quarterback Matthew Stafford stood on the podium after the Los Angeles Rams’ 13-9 win over the Arizona Cardinals and answered questions about the possibility of the team clinching a playoff berth in Week 17, he said he didn’t. “want to go too much into hypotheticals.”

But what he did say is that he’s “proud” of this Rams team that sat 1-4 in their bye week and had to answer questions about whether they could turn the season around.

“I’m proud of this group and the way they’ve fought back,” Stafford said. “A lot of people doubt us, a lot of people write us off at 1-4. And to be able to sit here with our record is what it is right now, I feel proud of this group.”

After the Seattle Seahawks won Thursday night, the Rams entered the day needing a win 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.

Los Angeles (10-6) won its fifth straight game Saturday night and its ninth of 11.

While the Rams can play before the end of Week 17, head coach Sean McVay said he doesn’t want to put “the cart before the horse” when asked if his starters will play in Week 18 if the Rams don’t make a playoff run space.

“Our focus and concentration will be on, OK, how do we get an opportunity to play a complete game against a great Seattle Seahawks football team?” McVay said. “And until we 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 take care of our business tonight for that to even be a possibility. So it would mean a lot.

“What I don’t want to do is move on because you get emotionally invested in other people’s games, and that’s never really served me very well. So we’ll see. I’ll tell myself not to invest and then you will will.

“But the reality is this … If you want to be able to do what we want to be able to do, you have to handle your own business. And our guys did that tonight.”