When Matthew Stafford went down early in the Los Angeles Rams Divisional Round showdown against the Philadelphia Eagles, he popped right back up and went back to work, playing every offensive snap in his team's eventual loss.
Now sure, the broadcast still showed him on the sidelines with a heating pad on his side while in conversations with Rams staffers, but Stafford fought through whatever happened on that brutal sack from Jalen Carter and still had his team in contention with mere seconds left on the clock in the fourth quarter.
Asked what happened to Stafford on that play, Sean McVay laid it out plainly: Stafford likely broke his rib but still fought through the game in the pursuit of bringing the NFC Championship game back to Los Angeles.
“Yeah, he got his rib early. He got dinged up. But he is a warrior. He's so tough. He represents so many things that are right about what this team became, especially for a city that's hurting and going through some different stuff,” McVay told reporters. “I think he epitomizes a lot of the stuff that's right in terms of toughness, resilience, ability to overcome adversity. He's a total freaking stud. And I thought he was outstanding tonight with the opportunities that he was given. There's a couple things in some of those earlier short yardage situations where we didn't get a target, and I could have done a better job for us, but I'm sure d**n proud of [Rams QB] Matthew Stafford.”




While some players may have called it a game or taken an early shower due to the sheer pain involved with a rib injury, Stafford battled it out and had his team in contention down to the final minutes of regulation. For McVay, that's all he could ask for, even if, in the end, the drive sort of fell apart.
“Twenty-nine to 28 was all that I saw. There was nothing you could tell me that wasn't going to go down like that. [Rams QB Matthew Stafford] did that,” McVay noted. “And unfortunately, we had a miscommunication on the third and fourth [downs] that put us back where you book a special player when we probably could have converted on that play. It moves you back. I won't talk about what I thought occurred on the fourth down, but [Rams QB Matthew Stafford] led us. He put us in a position to be able to win that football game, and that's who he is, and I'm not at all surprised. We all had the expectation with him leading the way that we were going to win that game. And he did everything, and he did his part to put us in a position to be able to do that.”
Could the Rams have executed better on their final drive? Yes, but as McVay noted, Stafford put the Rams in that position in the first place, all the while grimacing in pain along the way. If that isn't a warrior, what is?