Despite putting up big numbers each season, Matthew Stafford didn’t have much team success with the Detroit Lions during his 12 years with his former team. He won at least 10 games just twice, with his best finish coming in 2014 when the Lions went 11-5 and Stafford made the Pro Bowl.
In his first season with the Rams, Stafford has already proved that he wasn’t the problem in Detroit. He’s led Los Angeles to a 12-4 record with the help of Cooper Kupp, Sony Michel, Aaron Donald, Jalen Ramsey and several others, but the Rams still haven’t clinched the NFC West.
And amazingly, winning a division title is something Stafford has never done.
He hopes to capture the West with a win over the 49ers on Sunday, finally breaking through as a division champion before the real work of the postseason begins.
“Yeah, I’ve been close. I had chances to win it and didn’t – whether it’s all the way up to the last week of the season or not,” Stafford said Wednesday. “But it would be accomplishing one of the goals that you set out at the beginning of every season. You want to give yourself a chance to make the playoffs. We’ve accomplished that goal. You want a chance to win the division. We’ve got that chance in front of us and get to do it kind of on our terms. We win the game, we win the division and that’s one of those things that’s a rare opportunity to get. And when you get that chance, you want to go out there and accomplish it. So it would be great. And then we know there’s a bunch of football after that, hopefully, and hopefully we play at a high level.”
Stafford has had a tremendous season, throwing 38 touchdown passes and 15 interceptions. He’s led four game-winning drives and has a passer rating of 103.5, ranking among the league leaders in most passing categories.
But those numbers won’t be remembered by many if Stafford and the Rams come up short in the playoffs. The veteran quarterback has never won a postseason game, so that’s another box he’ll try to check this year in Los Angeles.
The Rams have already clinched a playoff berth, they would just like to lock up the NFC West and guarantee at least one home game in the postseason.