And while Warner was wowed by the Rams’ explosive effort, which evened the season series between the two teams and narrowed Arizona’s division lead to one game, he remains somewhat skeptical about L.A.’s chances of sustained success.
We went over a lot of variables, but in the end, Warner focused on the area he knows best — and which happens to be the most significant determinant of a team’s playoff fortunes.
“As always, it’s gonna come down to consistency at quarterback, and I’m still kind of holding my breath with the Rams,” Warner said. “I’m worried about who Matthew Stafford is gonna be in the playoffs. We’ve seen him play really well at times, like (Monday) night, but we’ve also seen him make some brutal mistakes that keep his team from winning. And when the playoffs come, we don’t know which Matthew Stafford we’re going to get.
“I think you always have to look at who a guy is. What I mean is, how he’s had to play his whole career. In Matthew’s case, it’s always been, ‘I have to win games for my team.’ And the thing is, we say, ‘OK, now he doesn’t have to think that way. He can just be more conservative and play within the framework.’ But when you’ve been doing that for 12 years, it’s not as easy as, ‘Oh, don’t play that way.’ It’s hard to change that mindset.”
Stafford, who failed to win a playoff game in three attempts during his 12 seasons with the Detroit Lions, certainly was impressive against the Cardinals.
“He made some unbelievable throws, which he’s capable of doing,” Warner said. “He fit balls into very tight places. But you’ll also see him kind of take those shots when throws aren’t as open.
“So my question is, who are we gonna get come playoff time? We’ve seen both in Detroit — we saw them win some games because he’s Matthew Stafford, and we saw them lose some games because he’s Matthew Stafford. When he gets into the playoffs this time, if things aren’t going great — and a lot of times in the playoffs, they aren’t — who will show up?”
As for the Cardinals and third-year quarterback Kyler Murray, well, Warner is less concerned.
“Here’s the thing,” he said. “I’ve watched the Cardinals lose two games in person now, to the Packers and the Rams. The thing to me is that they’ve lost both games and didn’t play well in either one, and yet they’re never out of it. They’re so explosive. Things can change on a dime. Even (Monday) night, when they were down 14 in the fourth quarter, you’re still holding your breath and thinking, ‘They could win this.’
“When you have a team like that, you say to yourself, ‘This is a team that can compete with anybody in the league.’ If they can play like that and barely lose to the Rams and Packers, they’ve got a shot — like the Rams, and some other NFC teams — to string three or four games together and be around at the end. Kyler made a couple of mistakes (Monday) night, but they’re playing at such a high level in so many different areas, and they can beat you so many different ways.”
