Rams QB Matthew Stafford (Post-Game Transcript)

On the difficulty of playing in the snow:
“Yeah, obviously there are plays we want back in the game. Anytime you lose, that’s the way it goes. Even when you win, you want some plays back. That’s no different there. I was really proud of this group, really all season, and the way that we battled. Whether that was in game or game to game or week to week, whatever it was through this season. It wasn’t perfect, by any means, but this group really stuck together. Played a total team. Effort every time we went out on the grass and I feel like tonight was the same. Obviously, it’s disappointing to end it this way, but proud of the way we battled.”

On the most disappointing aspect of this loss:

“We’d love to have scored at the end. Obviously it felt like as an offense, we had them on the ropes, and that they probably felt it, too. We were moving the rock really well the last two drives, and then just a couple of unforced errors here and there and got behind the sticks. And you do that against a team like that, with a defense like that, it’s going to be a difficult, difficult thing to overcome. But proud of the way we fought. And sure wish we could have done a little bit there at the end to get it done.”

On the chance to win the game on the last drive:
“Yeah, that was the plan, obviously got it down in the scoring range, and just didn’t get it done.”

On how he’s feeling about the present and future of the team:

“I’ll talk about my present. Obviously, proud to be associated with this group, coaching staff, front office, group of players, training staff, equipment guys, everybody. It was a hell of an effort all year to get to this point. You know, anytime you play like this and get into the playoffs, get a win and keep it moving, anytime you come up short it’s even tougher, and so that’s difficult, but so proud to be associated with this group and as far as my future goes, I mean, it’s 30 minutes after the last game, so I’ll take some time to think about it, but I feel like I was playing some pretty good ball.”

On if he has football left in him:

“Sure feels like it.”

On the fourth-down play to end the game:
“I didn’t get to see the end of the play on fourth down that everybody’s talking about or whatever, threw it and got knocked down or whatever. So I didn’t get to see the end of the play. I know [Eagles CB Darius] Slay well enough to know his body language and that smile, knowing you know how he felt about that play, but battled against him a bunch of times in practice over the years. And have a ton of respect for who he is as a player. But the bottom line is, we could have done some things to keep ourselves ahead of the sticks and not have a fourth and forever. I’m not going to dwell on that too much. We walked the ball down with four minutes left, or whatever it was, walked the ball down quickly. Just got a touchdown. Defense did a heck of a job, got the stop, and kind of punted down deep into our territory, and when we hit some plays, and you know, got it to where we wanted to be, had a chance for it, and didn’t get it done. But I love competing. I love being in those moments, sure as heck not afraid of them, and competed my [tail] off and didn’t go the way I wanted it to today. Next time I’m out there, line it up. Let’s do it again.”

On how difficult it was to execute in those extreme weather conditions:
“Yeah, it was difficult. There were some moments where it was a little bit tougher than others. I think it was probably tougher to catch it than maybe it was to throw it. But, yeah, I mean, certainly that ball that we had a missed exchange on in the third quarter, on the right side, handing that ball off, I mean, last second, that one shot out of my hand. So, it was difficult. You were going to have to deal with it. We knew that. But for the most part, we just battled. I was so proud of our group, our defense. I mean, shoot, we gave them a short field a few times, and they’re able to hold them to three. Then we turned it on and started playing some good ball.”

On whether his ribs injury was something he was dealing with all season:
“Yeah, it’s an NFL football season. I’ve been dealing with those kinds of things to a varying degree for some time, but just kind of got them going again, but was able to kind of calm it down. I didn’t feel like it was much of a factor. It felt like I threw the ball pretty good.”

On keeping his team motivated after starting the season 1-4:

“Yeah, I said it earlier. I’m just proud to be associated with this group. Group of players, group of coaches, training staff, I mean, equipment guys, it was everybody. And there were a lot of people at 1-4 that were talking about who was going to replace everybody on every position of our team and, ‘Should we sell the farm at the trade deadline? Should we tank?’ All of that. So just proud of our guys for not listening to all that and just going and playing and doing what we can do. And we did that. And obviously got to a point where we had a chance to make some noise, and did, and obviously didn’t come away with the win today. But just proud to be associated with this group in the way that they went about their business, day in and day out, distractions, whatever it was. Never let anything really get to us.”