History will be made on Monday, January 17th, as the Arizona Cardinals and The Los Angeles Rams will mark the 5th Postseason game played between the two teams in the Super Bowl era, and the first since 1988. Monday’s game will also mark the fourth time ever two quarterbacks who were #1 overall picks have met in the first round of the playoffs.
The Cardinals travel to Los Angeles to face the Rams in their third showdown of the season. Sean McVay takes the Rams to their fourth trip to the playoffs and their third NFC West Title since returning to Los Angeles in 2016. Kliff Kingsbury makes his first playoff appearance, hopefully silencing the critics questioning his place in the NFL.
Kyler Murray is making his playoff debut after another amazing season. James Connor has picked up 2 rushing touchdowns in each of the team’s previous meetings this season, allowing him to possibly become the first player ever to record 2 rushing touchdowns against one team three times in a single season if he is able to have a repeat of his regular-season success.
The Rams made a blockbuster trade in the offseason to acquire Matthew Stafford from the Detroit Lions in exchange for Jared Goff, two first-round picks, and a third-round pick. Stafford, who finished the season 2nd in the league with 41 touchdown passes, hooked up with Cooper Kupp a league-leading 16 times, is making his fourth-career postseason start. Cooper Kupp completed the regular season doing something that hasn’t been seen since 1970. He leads the NFL in Receptions (145), Receiving Yards (1,947), and Receiving Touchdowns (16).
On the defensive side of the ball, Aaron Donald stitched his name in history becoming the fourth player since 1982 to record at least eight sacks in each of his first eight NFL seasons.
Look for Kliff Kingsbury to pull out all the stops in this one, as fans have awaited the “bag of tricks” that he brought with him from his college days. The Rams will come out firing as they are playing at home, but the Arizona Cardinals have played well on the road this season and I believe we will see more of the same from them this week. The Cardinals are set to get both their starting D-line and O-line back together for the first time all season, and the impact of that will show up in this game. I look for Aaron Donald and JJ Watt to energize both their perspective teams, and in the end, it will come down to the play of the quarterbacks.
I see a grudge match that comes down to the final play of the game with the Cardinals pulling off a close one in Los Angeles.
