Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford has a right finger injury that he insisted wouldn’t be a problem. The injury report confirmed that.
Stafford was a full participant on Wednesday’s report as the team began preparations for Sunday’s game against the Bears with a walk-through.
Stafford was 24-of-42 for 304 yards, three touchdowns and one interception against Carolina.
The Rams practiced without cornerback Darious Williams (personal).
Offensive lineman Kevin Dotson (ankle) and nose tackle Poona Ford (elbow) were limited.
Wide receiver Xavier Smith (wrist), cornerback Josh Wallace (ankle), tight end Terrance Ferguson (hamstring) and safety Quentin Lake (foot) were full participants.
In the Bears’ regular-season finale, they had a season-low 65 rushing yards. They weren’t much better last week in the playoffs, with just 93 rushing yards. Bears coach Ben Johnson says that needs to improve.
“It feels like it’s dipped a little bit — not something that we want late in the season,” Johnson said. “We wanted that to pick up in the playoffs, weather games like this, you certainly want to be able to lean on your run game, so those are some elements we’re looking at. What can we do to help ignite that? It’s both efficient runs to stay on track and ahead of the chains and explosive runs as well — where can we find a few of those?”
Johnson said that on Sunday against the Rams, the Bears are facing a good run defense.
“We’ve got a really tough opponent in that regard,” Johnson said. “I think they do a really good job. I think the front is their strength — these guys at the line of scrimmage are really good football players. I think they shed blocks at an elite level. I think they are relentless. I think they are violent across the board, so I have a lot of respect for them and we have to be on our A-game to run it against this crew.”
It’s been a while since we’ve seen the Bears’ A-game running the ball. Johnson is focused on changing that on Sunday.
The weather forecast for Sunday night’s Rams-Bears game calls for snow and temperatures around 20 degrees. Bears coach Ben Johnson approves.
“I like the cold. I do like the cold,” Johnson said.
Does the weather give Chicago an advantage over a team from Los Angeles?
“I do know this will be the coldest game that they’ve played this year,” Johnson said “That’s something I recognized when we found out who the opponent was. But I think Matthew Stafford has played well in cold games in his past, I don’t know how much of an advantage that gives you over their passing game necessarily. There’s a lot of elements that go into a game like this.”
Johnson, who previously served as offensive coordinator of the Lions, said that even though Detroit has an indoor home field, he liked to get his players ready to play in cold weather on the road by practicing outside. He’s not sure how the Rams will simulate that.
“When I was in Detroit you’re outside to start with and it’s usually pretty cold to start with this time of year anyway, so you could practice outside and try to acclimate yourself as much as you can. I think that’s a good question for them, how they feel about that,” Johnson said.
Johnson hopes the visitors from Southern California feel uncomfortable visiting Chicago in January.
There’s still nothing like the NFL on a three-letter network.
Sure, Saturday night’s Packers-Bears game on Prime Video drew 31.61 million viewers. Sunday’s game on Fox did much, much better.
Fox has announced that the 49ers-Eagles wild-card game averaged 41 million viewers. It’s the biggest audience for a FOX wild-card game since 2015, and the biggest audience for any wild-card game since 2022.
The audience peaked at 47.758 million between 7:30 and 7:45 p.m. ET.
The game featured the two teams that have represented the NFC in the last three Super Bowls, with the Eagles getting there twice and the 49ers getting there once. San Francisco faces the Seahawks in Seattle on Saturday night, also on Fox.
In picking Packers-Bears for Prime Video, the NFL knew exactly what it was doing.
The best matchup of the wild-card round became the most exciting of the six games, too. That propelled the contest to an all-time streaming record, with 31.61 million viewers.
The number represents a 43-percent bump over last year’s Prime Video playoff game between the Steelers and the Ravens, which averaged 22.07 million viewers. It also broke the streaming record set by the Netflix Lions-Vikings game on Christmas Day, with 27.52 million.
The streaming high-water mark comes at a perfect time for the NFL. Amazon, as we understand it, will have to re-bid on the game next year. And the massive number for the latest game makes the property even more valuable going forward.
Which would explain the NFL’s decision to handpick the best game of the wild-card slate for a streaming-only broadcast.
And, yes, people still huff and puff about streaming only games. As long as the numbers blow the house down, the pivot to streaming will become more and more permanent.
