Yahoo Sports NFL analyst Nate Tice and NFL writer Charles McDonald preview the wild card matchup between the Los Angeles Rams and Carolina Panthers. Check out the full conversation on “Football 301” – and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you listen.
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Video Transcript
Chuck, when you’re watching Stafford, Bryce Young, and Sean McVay, The Rams, who have the best run game of this entire millennium, What are you focusing on?
Maybe the question should be, “How can the…” Panthers pull off a big upset against the Rams.
Maybe that’s the best way I could ask you this.
Find your local criminals in the Greater Charlotte area.
Uh, stake out the Rams’ hotel, kidnap Oh.
… Sean McVay, Matthew Stafford Mm-hmm.
Davante Adams: Okay.
… Puka Nacua, and you might have a chance.
You might Okay.
There we go.
… Have a chance then.
It’s like that; that’s the game plan.
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You know?
Call Tony Soprano and the boys and make sure They don’t make it to the stadium because other than that, I went back and I watched the game again yesterday.
It’s like a case study.
Can…
If you have five huge plays, can they make up for an entire game of getting your ass kicked?
And the answer that day was yes, because we talk about it a lot.
They, the Panthers, it’s…
I know it, it gets lost sometimes because you, You?
Uh-huh.
You get away from it and it says 30-21 Panthers.
Yep.
They got shredded in that game, but Yes.
Turnovers, right?
You turned the ball over three times, He hit a couple of long-range touchdowns.
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Uh, they’re longer… Or the shortest touchdown of the day was still over 30 yards.
Even when you include the, uh, the Mike Jackson pick-six on Stafford.
Do it again.
That’s what I would say.
And you probably won’t.
And if they do, Then I’ll eat crow and, uh, you can make fun of me, and I’m…
I’m definitely going to cry in the corner and look at all the things you guys say to me.
But there’s no way that…
This team, These teams as constructed, if everyone shows up, I, I don’t see how the Panthers win.
Like the, the 10, The 10-point spread, they could’ve hit that last time ’cause it’s not like the Panthers were stopping them.
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The Rams were just stopping themselves.
And then, you had some high-leverage downs that got messed up.
Even some of the long touchdowns from Bryce were on late downs.
I mean… Yep, yep.
You’re one play away from getting off the field and you give up a touchdown.
You have high-variance downs.
…
Reeling it back.
High variance downs, right?
Yeah.
Yes.
And that, that’s what, that’s why the word Variance matters there because they hit on the variance.
Like, and then… What happens if you don’t?
I mean, you just… And I, I, I hate, uh, ‘Cause I, I love the playoffs.
Like NFL playoffs, Wild Card weekend, Divisional weekend, I love it.
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I love how competitive these games are.
You see the best of these teams.
But like, I’m just looking at the matchup in that game, ’cause I remember breaking down that game with you after it happened, and we were just laughing the whole time about all the Rams’ stats, because it was just like, “How did you lose this game?”
Like, And it was because they had turnovers.
Like you said, Turnovers after long drives.
So, when you have that, Then it’s like, okay, we bled all this clock, we give it back and then they score.
But we just kind of did a double whammy to ourselves.