LOS ANGELES — Matthew Stafford speaks about it often this time of year. The beauty of meaningful football in December. How invigorating it is. How it can’t be taken for granted.
If anyone would know, it would be Stafford. Prior to his trade to the Rams before the 2021 season, Stafford’s teams didn’t often have things at stake by the time the calendar turned to the 12th month. He made the playoffs three times in 12 years with the Detroit Lions, and in the down years his team often wasn’t even in the hunt.
But in the thick of his third December with the Rams – he missed the final month of 2022 with injuries – Stafford has continued to thrive as the weather gets colder. With four straight wins to start the month, Stafford has improved to 12-1 in December during his Rams tenure, with the chance to improve on that in Saturday night’s game against the Arizona Cardinals.
“It’s nice to be on a little bit of a run right now. The cool thing about this group is we know that we earn every single bit of it,” Stafford said. “We don’t win the next game because we’ve won however many times before it. You don’t lose the next game because you had a hiccup the week before, whatever it is. You have to go out there and earn it every single week.”
Stafford has completed 67% of his 100 passes this month for 773 yards, five touchdowns and one interception. That improves his overall December stats with the Rams (9-6) to a 66.8% completion rate for 3,272 yards, 25 touchdowns and seven interceptions.
The only December loss for Stafford with the Rams came last season in a road game against the Baltimore Ravens that went to overtime and ended with a 76-yard punt return for a touchdown.
Aside from that fluky result, a clean record.
“He’s just clutch,” head coach Sean McVay said. “The best part about Matthew Stafford is he’s got all these amazing numbers and stats that he’s put up and he’s this special quarterback; he wants to win. And I think he understands what it takes, especially in that month when that’s such a critical time to be able to peak at the right time if you’re gonna get an opportunity to get into the tournament.”
A moment that stood out to McVay this month came during the Rams’ final drive in a Week 15 win at San Francisco.
After the two-minute warning and in 49er territory, leading by three and trying to add more to the scoreboard, Stafford stood in the shotgun formation with an empty backfield. He sent receiver Cooper Kupp in motion, which pulled defensive backs Talanoa Hufanga and Deommodore Lenoir across the field and away from tight end Colby Parkinson.
The play wasn’t designed to go to Parkinson, but Stafford recognized the open man and found Parkinson on a seam route for a 14-yard gain. The play got the Rams a fresh set of downs to burn the 49ers’ timeouts and some clock, too, and put the team comfortably into Joshua Karty’s field goal range to add three extra points.
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“We’ve done a really nice job, especially as of late, just understanding that it’s really more about us than anything else,” Stafford said. “We go out there, we play the way we know how to play, do the things that we’re supposed to do and know how to play the game of football. It’s just whoever’s next up just happens to be. We’ve taken that approach as of late and it’s been a really good outcome for us.”
Havenstein sits out practice
Rams right tackle Rob Havenstein typically gets a veteran rest day on Fridays at this point in the season, or in this case with a Saturday game, on Thursday. But after injuring his shoulder in practice on Wednesday, Havenstein wouldn’t have been able to practice Thursday if he wanted to, McVay said.
Asked if Havenstein will be able to play on Saturday, McVay said, “I’m hopeful. We’ll see.” But if Havenstein isn’t able to play, the Rams will turn to Joe Noteboom to fill in over second-year tackle Warren McClendon Jr.