{"id":144139,"date":"2026-01-22T04:02:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-22T04:02:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/144139\/"},"modified":"2026-01-22T04:02:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T04:02:10","slug":"los-angeles-rams-havent-lost-an-nfc-title-game-since-1989","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/144139\/","title":{"rendered":"Los Angeles Rams haven’t lost an NFC title game since 1989"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Los Angeles Rams<\/a> simply don\u2019t stumble into NFC Championship Games<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

They arrive at them dragging history behind them\u2013sometimes like a banner, and sometimes like an anchor. Every single era in the Rams history has left fingerprints on January football, from the blunt-force heartbreak of the 1970s<\/a>, to the success of the \u2018Greatest Show on Turf,<\/a>\u2019 to the sharp-edged confidence of Sean McVay\u2019s<\/a> modern machine.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Rams will travel to Seattle for their 12th NFC Championship Game on Sunday at Lumen Field, with the winner advancing to Super Bowl LX.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sean McVay speaks at a press conference. AP<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the third chapter in this season\u2019s story between the unstoppable force meeting the immovable object. Each team has won a game against each other with the Rams sporting the number one offense in the NFL, and the Seahawks with the number one defense.\u00a0<\/p>\n

There\u2019s plenty of optimism for the 12\u2019s in Seattle. The Seahawks are a perfect 3-0 in NFC Championship Games at home, but they have never beaten the Rams in the playoffs (0-2).<\/p>\n

The Rams celebrate their Super Bowl win. Getty Images<\/p>\n

Under McVay, the Rams have won 10 playoff games \u2014 equal to the total the franchise amassed in the previous 37 years combined, all the way back to 1979. He\u2019s also a perfect 2-0 in NFC Championship Games. That isn\u2019t just improvement. That\u2019s demolition.<\/p>\n

But before we get to the present, we must first look back at the Rams past in NFC title games, a path forged in both triumph and disappointment, with scars along the way.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the Rams NFC Championship Game history:<\/p>\n

The story begins in the Chuck Knox era<\/a>, when the Rams were regular-season royalty but postseason prisoners. <\/p>\n

From 1974 to 1976, Los Angeles reached three straight NFC Championship Games and lost all three. They were tough, disciplined, and stubborn \u2014 Knox\u2019s teams always were \u2014 but they ran headfirst into better-timed moments. Minnesota, Dallas, Minnesota again. Some losses were close, others were ugly, some were just strange and mysterious. A blocked field goal returned for a touchdown<\/a> in \u201976 felt less like a play and more like a curse written in capital letters. Knox built winners, but the Super Bowl door never opened for him.<\/p>\n

That theme lingered. <\/p>\n

Ray Malavasi finally pushed the Rams through it in 1979, winning a grimy, defensive NFC Championship against Tampa Bay<\/a>, 9-0. No fireworks. Just survival. Bud Carson\u2019s defense carried them to Super Bowl XIV, where the Steelers reminded everyone how thin the margin really was.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Former USC Hall of Fame coach, John Robinson, took over the helm for the Rams and made it back to the NFC Championship Game in 1985<\/a> where they ran straight into the buzzsaw that was the \u201985 Bears. In 1989, Joe Montana and the 49ers delivered another blunt ending. By then, the Rams were 1-6 in NFC Championship Games, their January reputation set in stone.<\/p>\n

Then came a relocation to St. Louis, and with it, reinvention. The Greatest Show on Turf wasn\u2019t just a nickname \u2014 it was a cultural shift. <\/p>\n

In 1999, the Rams returned to the NFC Championship Game and once again faced Tampa Bay. Once again, it came down to defense, tension, and a single moment. Kurt Warner to Ricky Proehl<\/a>. That was enough. Two weeks later, the Rams were Super Bowl champions.<\/p>\n

Kurt Warner when he played for the Rams. Getty Images<\/p>\n

Mike Martz kept the engine running. <\/p>\n

In 2001, Marshall Faulk pounded the Eagles into submission in the NFC Championship Game,<\/a> and the Rams punched another ticket to the Super Bowl. That loss to New England would change NFL history forever, but it doesn\u2019t erase what the Rams were to the sport during that time. <\/p>\n

Warner hands it off to Marshall Faulk. Getty Images<\/p>\n

However, silence followed. From 2002 through 2016, the Rams vanished from the NFC\u2019s final weekend, drifting through cities and seasons, searching for relevance.<\/p>\n

It came in a 30-year-old coordinator named Sean McVay.<\/p>\n

An unpopular hire at the time, he was considered a huge risk by all pundits. But McVay was a risk Rams\u2019 owner Stan Kroenke was willing to take. He became the head coach in 2017 and the Rams franchise once again changed forever.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The NFC Championship Games under McVay have been different. Cleaner. Louder. Colder-blooded.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think what we\u2019ve tried to do a really good job of is controlling the things that we can control and having the wisdom and perspective,\u201d said McVay of his success in NFC Championship games. \u201cLet\u2019s lean into the things that give us the best opportunity to have successful outcomes. Let\u2019s spend our physical, emotional and mental energy on the things that we can control and not waste our time on the things that we can\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the 2018 season (played in January 2019), the Rams couldn\u2019t control the chaos inside the Superdome in New Orleans. The Saints were better that night \u2014 until they weren\u2019t. Overtime ended with Greg Zuerlein\u2019s kick splitting the uprights<\/a> and an entire stadium holding its breath. It wasn\u2019t pretty, but it was unflinching. The Rams advanced to Super Bowl LIII because they refused to blink.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy favorite memories are the shared experiences after you achieve a goal,\u201d said McVay of his preferred moments from that 2018 NFC Championship Game. \u201cThere are a lot of moments within that game I remember.\u201d<\/p>\n

Three years later, the Rams hosted their ghosts. <\/p>\n

Down 10 points in the fourth quarter against the 49ers in the 2021 NFC Championship Game<\/a> (played in 2022), McVay\u2019s team did what Rams teams before them never could \u2014 they hunted pressure instead of running from it. Matthew Stafford. Cooper Kupp. A season\u2019s worth of belief condensed into 15 minutes. The comeback sent the Rams to Super Bowl LVI, where they finished the job and made McVay the youngest head coach in NFL history to win a Super Bowl.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe go down 10 in that game and the resolve and the ability to stay present. We had to come from behind. Everybody had a hand in being able to get that done,\u201d recalled McVay of the 2021 NFC Championship Game against the 49ers. \u201cWhat I remember the most is the enjoyment of doing something special with people that you care about and the relationships that are built in the midst of the journey.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why the numbers matter now.<\/p>\n

The Rams are 5\u20136 all-time in NFC Championship Games.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to go out there and still find a way to play aggressive but also take what they\u2019re giving you just like you do every single game,\u201d said Rams\u2019 quarterback Matthew Stafford who led the team\u2019s comeback in that 2021 NFC Title Game. \u201cThat was a great memory. Hopefully we\u2019ll make another good one on Sunday.\u201d<\/p>\n

This Sunday, they step into new territory again. For the first time ever, the Rams and Seahawks will meet in an NFC Championship Game.<\/p>\n

Sunday isn\u2019t about ghosts or curses or symmetry. It\u2019s about a franchise that learned how to finish. And a coach who treats the biggest stage like his own home turf.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tThe California Post is coming soon. Sign up for updates.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGet in early. Be the first to know about launch and home delivery.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tThanks for signing up!\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Los Angeles Rams simply don\u2019t stumble into NFC Championship Games.\u00a0 They arrive at them dragging history behind…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":144140,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[7,48,52,51,47,50,49,6446,752,6427,127],"class_list":{"0":"post-144139","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-california","9":"tag-la","10":"tag-la-headlines","11":"tag-la-news","12":"tag-los-angeles","13":"tag-los-angeles-headlines","14":"tag-los-angeles-news","15":"tag-los-angeles-rams","16":"tag-nfl","17":"tag-seattle-seahawks","18":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144139","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=144139"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144139\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/144140"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=144139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=144139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=144139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}