Stafford throws 4 more touchdown passes, and Rams beat Cardinals 37-20 to secure No. 5 NFC seed
INGLEWOOD, Calif. (AP) — Matthew Stafford passed for 259 yards and threw two of his four touchdown passes to Colby Parkinson, and the Los Angeles Rams secured the No. 5 seed in the NFC playoffs with a 37-20 victory over the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday.
Tyler Higbee returned from injury with five receptions for 91 yards and a key fourth-quarter TD for the Rams (12-5), who will visit the NFC South champion Carolina Panthers (8-9) in the wild-card round.
Puka Nacua made a one-handed TD grab among his 10 catches for 76 yards for the Rams, who snapped their first two-game skid of the season. Stafford passed Dan Marino for seventh place on the NFL’s career TD passes list while finishing his MVP-caliber season leading the NFL with 4,707 yards passing and 46 TDs — the second most in league history by a quarterback at least 37 years old.
Sean McVay’s team clinched its third straight playoff berth last month, but the Rams blew the No. 1 overall seed with road losses to Seattle and Atlanta in their past two games. Now they’ll have to win in Charlotte, where they lost 31-28 on Nov. 30.
McVay went against his usual policy and didn’t rest his starters for the relatively meaningless regular-season finale because he wanted his team to snap out of its costly two-game slump.
The Rams didn’t return to top form while making major mistakes on defense and special teams yet again — and even falling behind in the third quarter.
But Stafford snapped his offense back into form and scored 21 unanswered points to avoid another embarrassing defeat by the Rams, who won at least 12 games for the third time in McVay’s nine years in charge. They made it to the Super Bowl the previous two times.
Jacoby Brissett passed for 243 yards and hit Michael Wilson with a 43-yard TD pass in the second half for Arizona, which finished coach Jonathan Gannon’s third season with nine consecutive losses and 14 of 15. Wilson finished with 99 yards receiving to top 1,000 in a season for the first time.
Trey McBride made seven catches to extend his NFL single-season record for a tight end to 126 receptions for the Cardinals, who lost 14 games in a season for the first time in the history of a franchise that started in Chicago in 1920.
Josiah Deguara caught a go-ahead TD pass in the third quarter from Brissett, who started the Cardinals’ final 12 games after a foot injury sidelined Kyler Murray. The former No. 1 pick’s future is up in the air in Phoenix, along with the fates of Gannon and his staff.
The Rams still didn’t find urgency in their final regular-season game until deep in the second half.
Neither team could reach the end zone before the Rams made an 18-play, 74-yard drive culminating in a high-risk call by McVay on fourth down: Nacua made his one-handed TD catch off a fade from Stafford 1:22 before halftime.
The Cardinals answered after halftime with two electrifying plays: Emari Demercado caught a 28-yard pass from punter Matt Haack on fourth down from the Arizona 29, immediately followed by Wilson’s 43-yard TD catch.
Arizona mounted a steady 76-yard drive moments later, capped by Deguara’s first TD catch since 2021 to spark grumbling in SoFi Stadium.
Falling behind 20-16 finally sparked the Rams, who quickly drove for Parkinson’s catch-and-run TD from 21 yards. Los Angeles made another six-play TD drive moments later ending in the first TD catch since Nov. 2 by Higbee, the 10-year veteran who returned from a six-game injury absence.
Parkinson added a 1-yard TD catch with 4:15 to play.
Injuries
Cardinals: Rookie CB Will Johnson and LB Channing Tindall injured their knees in the first half.
Rams: WR Jordan Whittington injured his knee while making a tackle on special teams in the first quarter and didn’t return. … Special teams standout Shaun Dolac hurt his knee.
Up next
Cardinals: Determining the futures of Murray and the coaching staff before making a high pick in the draft.
Rams: A chance to atone for their rain-soaked loss at Carolina on Nov. 30.
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