Rams focused on stopping Saquon Barkley: ‘He can make magic happen’

After a 22-10 victory over the Green Bay Packers, the Eagles claimed a spot in the divisional round of the playoffs and a matchup against the Los Angeles Rams.

The Eagles’ wild-card game against Green Bay marked the return of Jalen Hurts after he suffered a concussion on Dec. 22 against the Washington Commanders. The quarterback struggled in his return — he completed 13 of 21 passes and threw for 131 yards and two touchdowns. Meanwhile, the Rams are coming off a 27-9 win over the Minnesota Vikings in which Matthew Stafford threw for 209 yards and two touchdowns.

Will Sunday’s game be a sequel of their first matchup in Week 12? Or will the Rams upset the Eagles and win on the road? As both teams prepare, here’s what the Rams are saying about the Eagles:

The teams last meeting, in November at SoFi Stadium, was a 37-20 Birds win led by Saquon Barkley’s franchise-record 255 rushing yards and two touchdowns.

“A big play can come up at any time,” Rams safety Quentin Lake told the team’s website. “I think whenever he has the ball in his hands, he can make magic happen. We saw that. He hit two 70-yarders against us. He can make something out of nothing, and that’s the hardest thing when it comes to running backs like that. You never know. You might feel like you wrapped him up, and he’ll get out and he’ll make a negative-2-yard play into a plus 10-yard gain.

“He’s a great player, a fantastic player. Obviously, it shows because of the season that he had but our job is to eliminate his playmaking ability.”

Barkley’s playmaking ability has helped him to an MVP-caliber season in which he set the franchise single-season rushing record and became the ninth player ever to log 2,000 rushing yards in a season. Rams rookie center Beaux Limmer said “it’s unbelievable” watching Barkley play in person.

“They got a really good offensive line — probably one of the best in all of football,” he said. “Watching them in the film room, it’s great to try to model some of the things that they do. And Saquon, seeing him out there — kind of just being a rookie and sharing the field with some of these people is kind of a surreal experience. Just to be out there with some of the best players in the world. I got a lot of respect for him. Got a lot of respect for that O-line.”

In their last matchup, the Rams got off to a hot start and racked up 123 yards on their first two drives. But they fizzled in their next seven drives and only managed 118 yards. A lot of this can be credited to Vic Fangio’s defense. Sean McVay gave Fangio his flowers ahead of the game on Sunday.

“This is a Rams offense vs. an Eagles defense,” McVay told reporters. “Coach Fangio, there’s a ton of respect that I have for him. The consistency at which he’s done it, the way that his guys play — there’s an identity, there’s a philosophy, but I think there’s a flexibility like I talked to you guys about earlier in the year.

“They’re obviously at the top of the charts in every single metric that really matters. They’re as good as it gets defensively, and I think that’s a tremendous credit to his leadership and his ability to be able to have a great staff around him and then ultimately getting it communicated to their great players and they bring it to life.”

Despite the outcome of their last meeting, Stafford is prepared to take on the NFL’s No. 1 defense.

“As far as Vic goes, I played against his defenses a bunch of times,” Stafford told reporters. “Like every coach and coordinator in this league, he’s evolved with the game a little bit and put his spin on his defenses every place that he’s been … this defense is the best in the league, depending on what numbers you look at. Any time you’re talking about that, you know it’s a really talented group, and those guys have a great front seven and a great back end. Anything you want in a defense, they got it.”

Stafford is 2-1 in his career when playing in Philadelphia. The quarterback played the Eagles twice at SoFi Stadium with the Rams — both losses — and then played three times in Philly when he was with the Detroit Lions.

“We’ve been in that sort of arena plenty of times this season,” Stafford said. “I mean, Week 1 was rocking and rolling in Detroit, and it’s NFL football. Everywhere you go is tough. Some of our games here have been loud. We just prepare for it and continue to do everything we can to try to create and emulate those situations and that noise out here in practice and go operate in it.”

The Eagles play host to the Los Angeles Rams on Sunday in the divisional round of the playoffs. Join Eagles beat reporters Olivia Reiner and EJ Smith as they dissect the hottest storylines surrounding the team on Gameday Central, live from Lincoln Financial Field.