This season, both the Los Angeles Rams and the Arizona Cardinals started their seasons with 7-1 records, and both teams fell a bit from there. The Rams finished 12-5, the Cardinals finished 11-6, and when these two teams faced off in Week 14, it wasn’t just for NFC West bragging rights, or for the Rams’ potential revenge after losing 37-20 to Arizona in Week 4 — it was about potential postseason relevance.
Sean McVay’s team evened the score with a 30-23 win in which Matthew Stafford had a major rebound during a nasty stretch, Aaron Donald did his usual “Destroyer of Worlds” thing, and Cooper Kupp caught 13 passes on 15 targets for 123 yards and a touchdown. Kyler Murray threw no touchdown passes and two interceptions on 49 attempts, and were it not for a running game that was productive when it needed to be, this could have been a blowout in the Rams’ direction. This, by the way, was without Jalen Ramsey, who missed that game because he was on the Reserve/COVID list.
The Cardinals recovered their onside kick with 37 seconds left in the game, but Donald ended any threat of a tie or a win with an 18-yard sack of Murray to run out the clock, which is kind of how things went for Arizona all day.
If the Rams are going to take two of three against the Cards this season and advance to the divisional round, here’s what they’ll need to do.
