It was often mentioned after the Rams acquired Matthew Stafford from the Lions that the veteran quarterback has never won a playoff game. And prior to Monday night’s win over the Lions, he had never even beaten a team with at least 10 wins in his entire career.
Part of that is because the Lions rarely had a top defense or a great supporting cast around Stafford, but he won’t make excuses for his own struggles in big games, either.
With the Rams, Stafford has Pro Bowlers all around him and a golden opportunity to make a deep playoff run. But Hall of Fame quarterback Kurt Warner worries about what version of Stafford the Rams will get in the playoffs because he can be inconsistent at times.
“As always, it’s gonna come down to consistency at quarterback, and I’m still kind of holding my breath with the Rams,” Warner told Mike Silver of Bally Sports. “I’m worried about who Matthew Stafford is gonna be in the playoffs. We’ve seen him play really well at times, like (Monday) night, but we’ve also seen him make some brutal mistakes that keep his team from winning. And when the playoffs come, we don’t know which Matthew Stafford we’re going to get.”
Warner noted that Stafford has always been in a situation where he feels like he has to win games for his team and carry them on his back. That’s not necessarily wrong, but now in Los Angeles, he doesn’t have to take on that burden.
He has Cooper Kupp to make plays at receiver, Sony Michel and Darrell Henderson Jr. at running back and a defense that boasts Jalen Ramsey and Aaron Donald. Stafford no longer has to be Superman for the Rams.
Warner just wonders if he’s gotten out of that mindset, and whether it will come back in the playoffs in a negative way.
“So my question is, who are we gonna get come playoff time?” he continued. “We’ve seen both in Detroit — we saw them win some games because he’s Matthew Stafford, and we saw them lose some games because he’s Matthew Stafford. When he gets into the playoffs this time, if things aren’t going great — and a lot of times in the playoffs, they aren’t — who will show up?”
If the Rams get the Stafford that completed 23 of his 30 passes for 287 yards and three touchdowns in the Rams’ 30-23 win over the Cardinals on Monday night, they’re going to go a long way in the postseason. But if he plays the way he did during the team’s three-game losing streak when he threw three pick-sixes and five total interceptions, they could be one-and-done.