What if I told you one of the reasons the Los Angeles Rams have to go on the road in the first round of the NFL playoffs is because they lost to the Carolina Panthers earlier this season? Crazy isn’t it. The NFL has a strange – and borderline scripted – way of playing out and the Rams will get their revenge chance against a Carolina team that broke through this season.
Sure, the Panthers finished with a losing record for the eighth straight season, the only difference is this year, they rose to the top of the worst division in the NFL. In a weird way for things to play out, Bryce Young will make his NFL playoffs debut this weekend and he’ll have a chance to take down one of the best defenses in the NFL.
Will Carolina prevail to kickstart their miraculous playoff run with a win over the Rams again or will Matthew Stafford and his playoff experience be too much for the young Panthers squad. Here’s what I predict will happen in the second edition of the Rams vs. the Panthers.
Bryce Young makes it interesting against the LA Rams in NFL playoff debut
All eyes will be on Bryce Young and how he looks in his first playoff appearance. In his first two seasons as the starting quarterback, Young totaled seven wins; this year he’s already surpassed that with eight wins. In a way, the Panthers always saw this as the end goal, they just didn’t know it was going to be this unique of a path to the playoffs.
Young has turned things around in 2025 in a way most people didn’t think was possible after his first two seasons. He finished the regular season with just over 3,000 passing yards, 23 touchdowns and 11 interceptions – all career highs. The problem is, however, usually playoff experience wins these types of battles.
The Rams nearly reached the NFC title game, falling short to the eventual Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles. The Panthers are a young team and have shown a lot of promise, but their turnaround season won’t make it past the wild card round.
Los Angeles’s defense is one of the best in the league and with Stafford playing lights out this year, the Rams will be the buzzsaw they didn’t see coming. It will be a fun game in the beginning, but the Rams will outpace the Panthers as the game goes on. Young will show potential, but his inexperience will take over. Regardless of how this season ends, the Panthers can feel optimistic about the future with Young.
Matthew Stafford begins his Super Bowl in the wild card round
The conversation around Matthew Stafford’s MVP campaign cooled off toward the end of the season, finishing 3-3. That said, he’s still very much good enough to take the LA Rams on a Super Bowl run. That starts with getting revenge on the Panthers. When Sean McVay and the Rams brass gave away a good chunk of their future, they wanted it to pay off with Super Bowls. They already got one and now they’re eyeing what could be one final run with Stafford.
Through most of the season, Stafford did a really good job protecting the ball early in the season. In fact, he had just two interceptions before a Week 13 trip to Charlotte. In that 31-28 loss to Carolina, he threw two interceptions alone. That was one of two games with multiple interceptions by Stafford this year; the other was a 27-24 loss to Atlanta.
The key for Carolina will be to force Stafford to turn the ball over again, but that’s easier said than done the second time around. I’m banking on Stafford to be more locked in this time around, especially with the season on the line.
If this is Stafford’s last season, there’s no way he’s going out with a loss to the Panthers. I’m not saying it’s a guaranteed win, but I’d put my money on Stafford to play like he did most of the season and not like he did the first time around. He threw for 4,707 yards, 46 touchdowns and eight interceptions this season, he’s going to have the kind of performance that will make the Rams look unbeatable.