INGLEWOOD — To hear the Rams tell it, the Arizona Cardinals did them a solid.
A lesser-than opponent marching into SoFi Stadium and threatening to ply the wheels all the way off the Rams’ ride in the regular-season finale?
Just what the doctor ordered, apparently.
Falling behind by four points on a touchdown catch by a backup tight end who hadn’t scored since 2022?
Ideal.
Trailing in the third quarter against a team that had lost eight consecutive and 13 of 14 – and was nonetheless giving your starters all they could handle?
Excellent!
Because, to hear what the Rams were telling us and themselves after Sunday’s 37-20 victory, there might be nothing quite like a little drama to snap a team to attention. Nothing like coming face-to-face with disaster, that flirt.
Nothing like the prospect of moonwalking clumsily into the playoffs on a three-game losing streak to get a team’s blood pumping.
Nothing like it so long as the team works together to pull up and avoid the regular-season-ending crash – and the matchup against the third-seeded Philadelphia Eagles it would’ve delivered – at the last moment.
Or the last quarter, in the Rams’ case.
Sunday’s exercise against the downtrodden Cardinals (3-14) was supposed to represent a get-right game for the Rams (12-5). It was a golden opportunity to right some recent wrongs by writing a full-length story – first-through-fourth quarter domination befitting a Super Bowl contender, which, for much of this season, the Rams seemed to be.
Instead, the Rams got a get-right quarter. Fortunately for them, it was the fourth.
And instead of the Eagles, the fifth-seeded Rams will get the fourth-seeded Carolina Panthers in a rematch of a 31-28 late-November debacle that thudded the Rams back to earth after eight consecutive victories.
So, woo-hoo? Hooray?
Fun for the Rams’ relatively diminutive defensive backs, who’ll have to get their lick back against Carolina’s big-bodied receivers. For 37-year-old quarterback Matthew Stafford – who revived his MVP argument with a forceful final few minutes against Arizona – to redeem himself for the three interceptions he tossed on his team’s last visit to Carolina.
For head coach Sean McVay. The master motivator considered that tug-of-war defeat on Nov. 30 one of those “blessings in disguise.” He was similarly upbeat Sunday evening after the Rams escaped with the victory, some much-needed momentum and a minty clean taste in their mouths instead of what they could’ve been chewing on otherwise.
“Credit [the Cardinals] for being able to make some different plays,” McVay said. “They made it difficult on us to get any of our chunks … [but] it was an awesome job of just being able to settle in and do the things that we needed. I like where we’re at right now.”
Closing with 20 unanswered points will do that for a coach. Holding the Cardinals to just 50 yards, four completions and three first downs in the final 15 minutes will lift a squad’s spirits.
“You just bottle it up,” linebacker Nate Landman said. “You move on the positives – you still gotta learn from the negatives – but it’s just a different vibe going around the building. And a confident player is a dangerous player.”
The Rams probably would have felt more dangerous had they gotten to work dismantling the Cardinals from kickoff.
And their path to a championship would appear a heck of a lot clearer if they hadn’t had to look at one other during Sunday’s game and wonder: “What the hell is going on?” as McVay said his Rams did.
If they could just rewind a few weeks, we’d all like the Rams’ postseason prospects more. If we could go back to when they followed a 45-17 victory against these same Cardinals on Dec. 7 with a 41-34 win over the Detroit Lions on Dec. 14, for their seventh and eighth wins in nine games.
Go back to when we didn’t think of the Rams as the type of team to let go of a rope like they did by blowing a 16-point fourth-quarter advantage, as they did on Dec. 18 against the Seattle Seahawks.
Back to when we wouldn’t have believed the Rams would twice fall behind by 21 points against an Atlanta Falcons team that finished 7-9 and just Sunday fired its coach, Raheem Morris, a former Rams assistant.
When we would have assumed the Rams wouldn’t have had any trouble at all with the Arizona Cardinals of the world.
But, yes, it’s better to enter the NFL’s 14-team tournament – as McVay talks about it – on the right foot than on the back foot.
Being able to recalibrate on the fly, to dig in and show resolve, to grab back ahold of that proverbial rope? All good.
Hat tip, Cardinals?
It’s how you finish, of course, and not how you start — game, season, story. And the Rams are telling us and themselves that Sunday’s impressive kick will translate to the postseason.
“What a great opportunity we’ve got to go to Carolina,” McVay said, “and see what the hell we can do.”
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