Matthew Stafford will make his fourth career playoff appearance on Monday night when the Los Angeles Rams host the Arizona Cardinals. In his first three postseason games, Stafford went 0-3, never making it past wild-card weekend.
That was a major point of contention among fans and analysts when the Rams acquired Stafford, questioning whether he can win the big games when they matter most in January. He’ll have a chance to prove himself in his first playoff game with the Rams, but he doesn’t feel any additional pressure in Los Angeles than he did in Detroit.
No. It goes along the same road, really. Feel the same amount of pressure every time I step on the field. If you step on the football field, and you don’t feel pressure to go out there and perform, then something’s wrong with you in my opinion. It’s positive pressure that I put on myself to go out there and help our team win.”
In three career playoff games, Stafford has four touchdown passes and three interceptions, averaging 302.7 yards per game in those contests. His passer rating is a disappointing 87.8 in the postseason, significantly lower than the 102.9 mark he put up with the Rams this season.
He played well enough to beat the Cowboys in 2014, losing by a narrow margin of 24-20. But in the other two games, the Lions were blown out, losing by 17 points and 20 points. Despite the disappointing results, Stafford can look back on those games and learn from them as he prepares for the Cardinals.
“I think looking back on those, each individual game is a little bit different in what we needed to go out and do to try and win the game,” he said. “When I look back on some of them, I think the biggest thing is there’s chances to win those games and you got to go out there and make the plays – whether it’s on offense, defense, special teams, whatever it is. But when you have your chances to make those plays, if you go make them, you’ve got a good chance to win the game. I haven’t been a part of those, obviously, yet looking forward to the opportunity to go out there and get it done against Arizona.”
