Rams To Open Playoffs At Carolina Saturday

INGLEWOOD, CA — The Rams will play at Carolina to begin the NFL playoffs Saturday after assuring themselves of the No. 5 seed in the NFC with a 37-20 victory over the Arizona Cardinals at SoFi Stadium.

The 1:30 p.m. Pacific Standard Time game will be a rematch of the Panthers' 31-28 victory Nov. 30 at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, North Carolina in a game in which the Rams drove to Carolina's 17-yard line with 2:34 to play but their hopes of a comeback ended when quarterback Matthew Stafford was sacked by Derrick Brown, who forced a fumble which was recovered by Panthers' outside linebacker D.J. Wonnum.

"They did a great job of being able to earn that win," Rams coach Sean McVay said after Sunday's game. "We'll look at what's occurred in the meantime since we played them, try to put together the best game plan we can to put our players in positions to go be successful and we're coming out swinging."

The Rams have been 3-2 since then, Carolina 1-3.

The Panthers (8-9) were assured of their first NFC South title since 2015 when the Atlanta Falcons defeated the New Orleans Saints, 19-17, Sunday to force a three-way tie with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Carolina won the division because it had the best record in games involving the three tied teams.

The Panthers are the fourth seed in the NFC because they had the fourth-best record among the conference's four division winners. Carolina will be the home team for the wild-card round game because it is the higher seed.

The Rams and San Francisco 49ers had identical 12-5 records, but the Rams received the fifth seed because they had the better record among common opponents, 6-2 to 5-3.

Oddsmakers have made the Rams a 10- to 10 1/2-point favorite.

The game will be televised by Fox.

City News Service