DETROIT — Matthew Stafford waited for his opportunity, like the many he had capitalized on in Ford Field when he was a member of the Detroit Lions. Now the Rams’ quarterback, Stafford waited and hoped for his defense to get a stop, and give him a chance for a winning fourth-quarter drive.
But the moment never came. Instead, Detroit’s ultra-aggressive coach Dan Campbell opted to pass the ball on 2nd-and-9 after the two-minute warning. And former Rams quarterback Jared Goff found Amon-Ra St. Brown for the first-down conversion.
The Rams could only call their final timeout and watch as the Lions took three knees and ran out the clock on the Rams’ season, ending with a 24-23 defeat in the wild-card round of the playoffs.
“The finality of it, it still doesn’t totally resonate,” head coach Sean McVay said.
The “what ifs” lingered, like after most losses, but never so stinging as after an early playoff exit.
What if the Rams had executed better in the red zone? Three trips, and three field goals, against a defense that entered the day allowing touchdowns on 66.04% of opponents’ trips inside the 20.
“The difference in the game was the red area,” McVay said. “I’m always going to look at myself first, but there was some execution things.”
What if the defense had found its footing earlier than the end of the first half? The Lions scored touchdowns on their first three possessions. It took 179 yards of total offense before the Lions faced a third down. Goff completed his first 10 attempts. And through 26 snaps, the Rams defense allowed 16 first downs and three touchdowns, each big gain amping up the deafening Ford Field crowd of 66,367.
But the Rams finally got a third-down stop with about a minute left in the first half, and rallied to hold the Lions to three second-half points.
“That third-down stop did a world of wonders,” defensive tackle Kobie Turner said. “It was really about settling down.”
And what if the Rams had opted to try to score points after that third-down stop, with three timeouts in hand, rather than allow the clock to run out and enter halftime down by four?
“We were backed up,” McVay said. “We knew we were getting the ball coming out of the second half right there. The way that it had gone, there was no punts really until that point that ended up pinning us deep. Them having three timeouts and how long we would have had to go and where we felt like we would have deemed appropriate field-goal range, we felt like that was the right way to be able to play it.”
So with a mauling offensive line, the Lions jumped out to a 14-3 lead. But the Rams stayed in the game thanks to two big-time conversions.
Facing 3rd-and-15, Stafford threw a rope to Demarcus Robinson for a 19-yard gain. Three plays later, Puka Nacua went in motion and ran past his man. Stafford hit him in stride, and the rookie receiver sidestepped the last line of the Lions’ defense for a 50-yard touchdown and momentary silence from the crowd that had heartily booed Stafford when he took the field for his first game back in Detroit since the 2021 trade that sent him to the Rams.
“It’s a playoff game,” Stafford said. “I’m not surprised that they were excited about cheering for their team, and I’m not too worried about anybody’s personal feelings towards me that’s sitting in the stands.”
The next drive, facing 4th-and-5 from the Lions 44, McVay opted to go for it. If the defense can’t stop the Lions, then who cares about a short field, right?
The gamble paid off. Stafford converted to Cooper Kupp, then on the next play hit Tutu Atwell for a 38-yard score. The speedy receiver was so alone after his defender dove to try to tip the pass, he was able to flip into the end zone.
As the second half wore on, the punishment of playoff football began to take its toll on both teams, but especially the Rams. Stafford, Nacua and running back Kyren Williams all were examined in the injury tent after vicious hits.
Stafford in particular seemed rattled late in the third quarter after a hit in which his helmet slammed into the turf and Lions defensive end Aidan Hutchinson inadvertently stepped on his shoulder. Stafford hobbled off the field, blood on his throwing hand and holding his throwing shoulder, and was evaluated for a concussion alongside Nacua.
But he, Nacua and Williams were all on the field for the next drive. Williams ran the ball well before exiting with a hand injury, and Stafford found Nacua for a couple of big games. But another red-zone stall, and the Rams stalled and settled for a field goal that cut the Lions’ lead to one with 8:10 to play.
The Rams defense came through with a three-and-out less than a minute later, and the offense quickly got into Lions territory.
After a Rob Havenstein hold on third down, Stafford threw to Nacua in the middle of the field. Before he could go up for the ball, cornerback Cam Sutton grabbed Nacua’s jersey and affected his jump.
The ball fell incomplete, and the Rams punted. Stafford waited on the sideline, hoping for his defense to make a stop, but had to watch as Goff and the Lions celebrated their first playoff win in 32 years.
“Jared was really efficient, you can see the command that he has,” McVay said. “I’m really happy for him.”
So the young Rams, many new to playoff failure, sat in front of their lockers, jerseys and pads still on, contemplating the end of their surprise season in which they surpassed all external expectations, but still came up short of their own goals.
“It’s hard, because the confidence that was earned from this group. They came in here with the expectation to advance,” McVay said. “I think that’s a tough pill to swallow. But I think the further that you get from the raw emotions of it, the more appreciation they’ll have for what they did.”