The Los Angeles Rams have gone from having twice as many losses as wins to a tiebreaker away from a playoff spot in the NFC. Ask members of the organization what's spurred this turnaround, and you'll hear a common denominator: quarterback Matthew Stafford.
“Yeah, he's played like Matthew,” Rams coach Sean McVay told Stu Jackson of the team's official website this week. “He's a great player and you can see he's feeling healthy.
“I think he's doing a great job of distributing the football. Guys are competing hard around him and for him and he has got great command of what he's seeing. …He's given us a chance to play really well on the offensive side of the football and when he's doing that good things happen.”
Rams season on the brink
The Rams hit their Week 10 bye with a 3-6 record and a rough stretch of games ahead of them that included the Seattle Seahawks, Cleveland Browns, and Baltimore Ravens. They needed to at least split those to give themselves a chance in the wild card race.
Stafford responded. He's led L.A. to wins in three of the four games, with the Rams narrowly dropping last Sunday's Baltimore game on a punt return touchdown in OT spoiling the streak.
During this stretch, Stafford has thrown 11 touchdowns to just two interceptions. McVay's teams is averaging over 30 points since the bye.
“Oh, man, (he's playing) tremendously,” Rams WR Demarcus Robinson gushed. “He's playing outstanding right now. …He comes in, he studies, works hard, never gives up on us, never takes days off. …And he's a great communicator, a great leader. He's top-tier in my book, for sure.”
For all the praise heaped on Stafford, he deflected it right back to his teammates.
“[J]ust proud of the guys. If I'm playing well, that means the guys in front of me are blocking. The guys on the outside are getting open and catching it. We're running the ball efficiently. It's an unbelievable team sport. It takes everybody to do all of it.”
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