Football can be pretty simple at times.
As Matthew Stafford prepares to open Wild Card Weekend with a rematch against the host Carolina Panthers, the Los Angeles Rams quarterback doesn’t believe there’s any secret to getting more success than he did in the teams’ first game.
“I don’t want to throw it to their team,” Stafford said, via Panthers.com’s Kassidy HIll . “I think that was the story of the game when you think about it.”
On a rainy day at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, North Carolina, Stafford set an NFL record for the opening drive with 28.i.e direct touchdown pass without interception. Then he threw a free-throw pass to Nick Scott for the final score on the next possession with an INT that resulted in a Mike Jackson score. He also lost his swagger, for good measure.
The 2025 season has been a struggle for Stafford, but the 31-28 loss to the Panthers in an ill-fated Week 13 was a glaring exception.
Among the MVP front-runners, Stafford led the NFL with 4,707 yards and 46 touchdown passes with just eight interceptions. However, he has two multiple picks in a game (Week 13 vs. Panthers and Week 17 vs. Falcons). Both cases resulted in losses. So avoiding a repeat performance in the return to Charlotte is of the utmost importance to Stafford on Saturday.
Without those three turnovers, Rams-Panthers Round 1 is likely to have been a much different game. Stafford is going to elude the Panthers defensive players this time.
“We moved the ball well in some areas,” said Stafford, who had two TDs and 243 yards in the first game. “We scored a couple of times in the red zone. We did some nice things, ran it well and just lost. When you look at their defense, they’ve been able to do a lot of things to a lot of teams, whether it’s getting a tip on the line and somebody making a play on it or somebody on the back end making a play or taking the ball away from a team with an offensive opportunity.”
Stafford has not thrown an interception in his last three playoff games. He plans to continue that trend and avoid another Tar Heel State mishap in the process.
Rams-Panthers Round 2 kicks off Wild Card weekend at 4:30pm ET Saturday.