Matthew Stafford knows he has his work cut out for him against Mike Macdonald’s defense Sunday in Seattle.
Joining Jim Gray on the Let’s Go! podcast earlier this week, Stafford was asked about facing the Seahawks for the third time this season.
“As good a defense as we faced all year,” he said. “They’ve got four guys they rotate on the outside, on edge rushers. They’ve got guys in the middle that are really, really talented players. Second-level players are great. Ernest (Jones IV) is having a hell of a year. And then in the secondary, they’re long and fast and aggressive. It’s a swarming group.”
History sides against Stafford this week.
Sunday marks the first time a No. 1 scoring offense (Rams) will meet the No. 1 scoring defense (Seahawks) in a conference championship game since 2014, when Seattle’s No. 1 D knocked off Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers No. 1 O.
Since 1990, the No. 1 scoring offense is 0-4 versus the No. 1 scoring defense when they’ve met in the conference championship or Super Bowl (three of the four offenses had the NFL MVP). Two of those four wins by the top defense came from the Legion of Boom Seahawks — 2014 versus Green Bay; Super Bowl XLVIII’s shellacking of the Denver Broncos.
Stafford doesn’t just have to contend with a defense that has no discernible weakness, comes in waves and is led by a mastermind in Macdonald; there is also the renowned crowd noise.
“Oh, man, it’s tough,” he said of heading to Seattle. “It is as good an atmosphere as there is in football. I can’t imagine the NFC Championship not just exceeding those expectations. They do a great job of creating that home-field advantage. And you gotta go play in the elements there with their crowd and all that goes along with it but really, you’re playing against the guys on the grass and that’s as talented a football team as you’ll see in the NFL. They’ve got a great roster top to bottom. I think they’re really well coached. They play fast and physical.”
