4 reasons why Jared Goff will not beat Coach McVay in the Wild Card Round

III: This is not about Goff vs. Stafford or Goff vs. McVay

The narrative for the Sunday Night Football Wild Card Round of the 2024 NFL Playoffs that places the story about this game in some version of Jared Goff vs. Matthew Stafford, Jared Goff vs. Rams HC Sean McVay, or Matthew Stafford vs. the Detroit Lions is simply good marketing. There is very little about the game itself that involves any of those things.

The Detroit Lions offense, led by Lions starting quarterback Jared Goff, will face the LA Rams defense. And the LA Rams offense, led by Rams starting quarterback Matthew Stafford, will face the Lions defense. That's nothing new. It's simply how every NFL game plays out.

The Lions may be the higher seeded team, but it's tough to argue that the Rams are not the hotter team heading into this game. Since their Week 10 BYE, the Rams have lost just one game, a brutal road game against the NFL's best team, the Baltimore Ravens, in the midst of a downpour. And even that loss required the Ravens to go into overtime.

Over that same span of time, the Lions have lost three games: A 29-22 home loss in Week 12 to the Green Bay Packers, a 28-13 road loss in Week 14 to the Chicago Bears, and a controversial 20-19 Week 17 road loss to the Dallas Cowboys. In those three losses, the Lions offense averaged just 21 points.

The Rams defense has quite a challenge facing them in this game. But despite the perception that the Rams defense is a liability, this group has held their opponents to an average of just 21.6 points over the last nine games of the season. See where we are going with this?

This game will come down to which team makes fewer mistakes, has greater ball security, controls the game clock, and forces the other team to play catch-up. It's not on the shoulders of just one player, no matter what the game previews will lead you to believe.