INGLEWOOD, Calif. – The Rams’ playoff opponent is set.
With its 37-20 win over the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday at SoFi Stadium, Los Angeles clinched the No. 5 seed in the NFC and is headed to Charlotte to take on the No. 4 seed Panthers at Bank of America Stadium in the Wild Card round of the playoffs.
“Proud of the group, and now we move forward and (a) cool opportunity to be able to earn a chance to earn a chance to be one of the 14 teams in this tournament, know how difficult it is and how competitive this league is,” McVay said. “And (we) go back to a place that … this team humbled us a handful of weeks ago, and so what a great challenge. And as a competitor, if this doesn’t get you excited, then I don’t know what the hell you’re doing.”
The two teams last played on Nov. 30, a 31-28 Carolina win at the same location in Week 13. Overall, it will mark just the second-ever postseason meeting between the two teams – the last was in January 2004 – and 25th overall across the postseason and regular season.
The Rams captured the No. 5 seed thanks to their win over the Cardinals on Sunday, plus the Seahawks’ win over the 49ers Saturday night. Despite losing to the Buccaneers on Saturday, the Panthers still won the NFC South and captured the No. 4 seed thanks to the Falcons’ win over the Saints on Sunday.
“Really good defense,” Stafford said of the Panthers. “Timely guys making big plays on offense for them, too, in the skill position area. So it’ll be a big challenge. We didn’t play as well as we can last time we went there. So we’ll look at the tape, figure out how we can kind of be better from that game, from what they’ve been doing lately, just like they’ll do to us. … The team that plays better that day will win, and we’re going to do everything we can to try to make sure that’s us.”