Usually, the first game of wild-card weekend is expected to be a clunker, relative to the rest of the slate. This year, Rams-Panthers was anything but.
The 34-31 shootout, with four leads changes in the fourth quarter alone, racked up 28 million viewers on Fox. It was a seven-percent bump over last year’s early Saturday wild-card game between the Chargers and Texans on CBS and Nickelodeon, and the biggest audience for the Saturday afternoon wild-card game since Saints-Seahawks in January 2011.
The quality of the Rams-Panthers game helped overcome the reality that the Panthers were viewed as playoffs ratings poison, with an 8-9 record and a division title earned with a Week 18 loss followed by the Falcons beating the Saints the next day.
If the game had gone like last year’s 32-12 win by Houston over L.A., the number for Rams-Panthers likely would have been a lot lower.
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.
Rams head coach Sean McVay said on Monday that cornerback Ahkello Witherspoon will miss the rest of the team’s playoff games and Witherspoon was moved to injured reserve on Tuesday.
Witherspoon re-injured his scapula during the team’s victory over the Panthers on Saturday. Witherspoon was initially injured in the second week of the regular season and returned for the team’s last five games. He had one tackle against Carolina, and eight tackles and an interception in the regular season.
The Rams signed linebacker Nick Hampton off of the practice squad to take Witherspoon’s roster spot. He had 10 tackles in 12 games for the team this season.
The Rams also announced that they have signed defensive back Alex Johnson to their practice squad.
Sean McVay has game-planned against Ben Johnson before, when Johnson was the Lions’ offensive coordinator.
But Sunday’s matchup between the Rams and Bears will be the first contest between the two as head coaches.
Asked what stands out about Johnson as a play-caller during his Monday news conference, McVay said he thinks Johnson does a great job.
“I’ve studied him really closely from when he took over and started doing it in Detroit,” McVay said. “I think the guys that do the best job are the ones that you can see there’s a true understanding of what defenses are doing and an intent to try to be able to manipulate a lot of the rules and the coaching points and to really try to attack your front mechanics, your coverage contours, understand some of the percentages of what you’re doing situationally, and then being able to maximize his player skill sets. You could see there’s a philosophy and core beliefs in terms of how he wants to build it.
“You look at the four free agents they signed, you look at the guys that they drafted high up, taking the tight end [Colston Loveland] and in a lot of the instances where he was able to take advantage of [Sam] LaPorta in Detroit.”
McVay specifically noted how Johnson has been able to create systems that are based on quarterbacks with different skillsets.
“I think what shows his flexibility is the ability to have one of the best offenses with a player like Jared [Goff] who’s really special and then being able to have some similar foundational principles with Caleb [Williams], but also be able to accentuate the things that make him really unique with the athleticism, the ability to move the spot and then take advantage of their skill around it,” McVay said. “He does a damn good job. I think he’s got a timely feel for wanting to be able to mix in some things like he did with the screen and go that allowed them to take the lead the other day.
“We’re excited about these challenges. This is what it’s about.”
Now that the Texans have beaten the Steelers in the wild-card round, the NFL has finalized the schedule for the divisional round.
On Saturday, the Broncos will host the Bills at 4:30 p.m. ET on CBS. The Seahawks and the 49ers will play in Seattle at 8:00 p.m. ET on Fox.
On Sunday, the Texans will visit the Patriots at 3:00 p.m. ET on ESPN. The Rams will face the Bears at 6:30 p.m. ET on NBC.
The decision to put the Texans-Patriots on Sunday afternoon fits with the theory that Steelers-Patriots would have been the late game on Sunday. Instead, the Rams and Chicago will meet in the postseason for the first time since the 1985 NFC Championship on Sunday night.
