Rams hope to stop Packers’ hot streak
No NFL team scored more points during the regular season than the Green Bay Packers. Nobody has played better defense than the Los Angeles Rams.
That sets up an intriguing showdown of strength versus strength today, when league MVP favorite Aaron Rodgers and the Packers (13-3) host All-Pro defensive tackle Aaron Donald and the Rams (11-6) in an NFC divisional playoff game.
“This is what you love,” Rams coach Sean McVay said. “These are the type of matchups and opportunities that as a competitor, you can’t wait for.”
Both of these units are at the top of their game. This will be the first time the NFL’s topranked scoring offense and scoring defense have faced off in the postseason since Super Bowl LI in February 2017, when the New England Patriots had the No. 1 defense and the Atlanta Falcons had the No. 1 offense.
The Packers have won six straight games and were held below 22 points just once all season on their way to earning the conference’s No. 1 seed and its lone playoff bye. The sixth-seeded Rams got to this point by sacking Russell Wilson five times last weekend in a 30-20 road win against the Seattle Seahawks — the NFC West champions and their division rivals.
“They went to Seattle, played a familiar opponent and played really, really well, and they’re coming in with the confidence that they should have,” Rodgers said. “And we’re coming in with confidence as well, the season that we’ve had and what we believe we’re capable of.”
Rodgers has set franchise single-season records for touchdown passes (48) and completion percentage (.707) while throwing just five interceptions for an offense that has averaged 31.8 points per game. Donald called Rodgers a “great quarterback that’s playing lights out this year.”
Donald leads a defense that allowed the fewest points and yards of any team during the regular season.
“At any time, at any quarter of the game, a different guy could make a big-time play for us,” Donald said. “It’s not just one or two guys. When you’ve got a group of guys — all 11 out there — who are pretty much playmakers who can make that game-changing play at any time, you’ve got a great group.”
On offense, the Rams are turning back to Jared Goff. The 26-year-old former No. 1 draft pick is less than three weeks removed from thumb surgery but will take the snaps at Green Bay instead of John Wolford, the second-year pro who started at Seattle but left early in the game with a neck stinger that will prevent him from playing today.
Confident quarterbacks
ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — Baltimore Ravens coach John Harbaugh was immediately impressed by Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen’s competitive fire during their first face-to-face encounter in an NFL setting.
It happened in the 2018 season opener, when Allen was shoved into the Ravens’ sideline. The No. 7 overall pick that spring, he hopped up and exchanged words with Baltimore players and Harbaugh before officials stepped in to separate everyone.
“He came up jawing and talking and shoving and pushing. Rookie quarterback. Man, I love this guy,” recalled Harbaugh, whose fifth-seeded Ravens (125) will visit the second-seeded Bills (14-3) tonight in an AFC divisional playoff game.
Allen was only in the game for mop-up duty after Nate Peterman was benched upon throwing his second interception, which led to the Ravens building a 40-0 lead in an eventual 47-3 victory.
What struck Harbaugh is how Allen refused to back down, a quality he also sees in Baltimore quarterback Lamar Jackson, who also made his NFL debut that day as veteran Joe Flacco’s backup. The 2016 Heisman Trophy winner as a sophomore at Louisville and a finalist for the award his junior season, Jackson was the final pick of the first round of the 2018 draft.
“They’ve come up on the quote-unquote other side of the tracks from a football perspective, where they came up the hard way, (were) doubted often and had to overcome that,” Harbaugh said. “I always like the underdog.”
Allen, whom the Bills traded up five spots to select, had problems with accuracy and was dismissed for playing at lowly regarded Wyoming. The big question about Jackson was whether the dynamic mobility he showed in college would translate to the NFL.
Three seasons later, each is coming off his first career playoff victory and has his team one win short of appearing in the AFC title game.
Jackson made his splash last season, when he earned NFL MVP honors after leading the league with 36 touchdown passes and 43 combined touchdowns as he became the first player to top 3,000 yards passing and 1,000 rushing. Allen blossomed into an MVP candidate this season by setting numerous franchise passing and scoring records while finishing fourth in the NFL by completing 69.2% of his passes.