Matthew Stafford put together a near-perfect performance against the Arizona Cardinals in the wild-card round, not needing to do too much to help his team in a blowout win. Against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday, however, it was a different story. The Rams desperately needed him to be at his very best late in the game with the score tied and only 42 seconds left on the clock.
For the 43rd time in his career, he led a game-winning drive, his first in the postseason. He hit Cooper Kupp with a 44-yard bomb to set up Matt Gay’s game-winning field goal, leaving his mark on his new team in the biggest game of his life.
After the Bucs mounted a miraculous 24-point comeback, the Rams pulled out the win in the final seconds – and Stafford summed up the feeling perfectly. He says it felt like the Rams snatched the Buccaneers’ soul after they erased the big deficit.
“I’m glad they didn’t flag me for spiking it there,” he said after the game. “All the guys on the sideline were like, ‘Man, you were in a dark place.’ And I said, ‘Sometimes you gotta go to those places, you know? Make some plays happen. I was enjoying the moment. In my mind, I live for those kinds of moments. I would’ve loved to have been taking a knee up three scores but it’s a whole lot more fun when you’ve got to make a play like that to win the game and just steal somebody’s soul. That’s what it feels like sometimes when they’re sitting there saying, ‘Man, we just had this great comeback.’ And you get to reach in there and take it from them. That’s a whole lot of fun.”
9️⃣ TO 1️⃣0️⃣ TO SET UP THE WIN! pic.twitter.com/1hrjkOa4lQ
— Los Angeles Rams (@RamsNFL) January 23, 2022
Kupp said after the game that the play wasn’t even designed to go to him, but when Stafford recognized the Bucs’ zero blitz with no safety over the top, he chucked it deep to his best receiver and Kupp made a play.
Kupp was supposed to be a decoy and draw coverage his way to open things up underneath, but he beat his man deep and it worked to perfection.
Cooper Kupp said he ran what the Rams playfully call a “love of the game” route on his 44-yard catch, thinking he was running deep just to attract defenders and open up something else. Matthew Stafford went his way when the Bucs brought six rushers. pic.twitter.com/F4zkg4c0ml
— Brady Henderson (@BradyHenderson) January 24, 2022
Here’s how Stafford summed up the play, recalling what Kupp told him after the play. He seemed stunned that the Bucs went with zero coverage and allowed the big play to happen.
“He’s always digging on every route whether he’s the primary or some bait, but I don’t know. Probably a better question for him,” Stafford said. “He came up to me afterwards and was like, ‘Was that zero?’ And I was like, ‘yeah.’ I think he probably felt no top shelf to the coverage. He ran his route and was hauling and felt no top shelf to the coverage and was like, ‘I better get my eyes back’ and he said he looked up and he said that thing was floatin’ and he got to a good spot. It was fun.”
With 35 seconds left and no timeouts, it looked like the game was headed to overtime. But Stafford and Kupp had other ideas.
