Matthew Stafford has always been a clutch quarterback. Now he can say he's playoff clutch.
After the Rams gave away a 27-3 lead to the Bucs Sunday in Tampa Bay, Stafford took it back with a game-winning drive in the final 40 seconds to send LA to the NFC Championship -- and to send Tom Brady and the defending champs home.
It took Stafford two throws to Cooper Kupp, the first a dart toward the sideline for 20 yards, the second a rainbow down the middle of the field for 44 yards. Matt Gay knocked home a chip shot as time expired to complete the 43rd game-winning fourth-quarter drive of Stafford's career, the most in the NFL since he entered the league in 2009.
"In my mind, I live for those kind of moments," Stafford said. "I would have 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 where they're sitting there going, '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."
Stafford, who finished 28-38 for 366 yards, two touchdowns and no picks, now has two playoff wins in the last two weeks, after going 0-fer over 12 years in Detroit. And it was his second near-perfect performance in a row; he posted a passer rating of 154.4 in the Rams' wild card win over the Cardinals. He's now two wins away from history.
"I thought Matthew Stafford was unbelievable throughout the whole day," said Sean McVay. "Just his poise, his command, his demeanor, his decision-making."
Wherever the Rams go from here, safe to say Stafford has put one narrative to bed -- that he's not built to win in the playoffs.