Things have gone from bad to worse for the Los Angeles Rams and quarterback Matthew Stafford. After a gutting loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the final minute of Week 9, Rams head coach Sean McVay revealed that Stafford is currently in concussion protocol.
He entered the protocol Wednesday, which puts doubt into whether Stafford will be available when the Rams welcome the Arizona Cardinals to SoFi Stadium in an NFC West clash in Week 10.
Cardinals-Rams Betting Line Moves Following Matthew Stafford Injury
The Rams opened as a 3-point favorite against the Cardinals. But after the news regarding Stafford, the Rams are now just a 1-point favorite (per DraftKings) over a Cardinals team that has plenty of problems of their own.
Coming into Week 10, the Cardinals (3-6) sit in last place in the NFC West after extending coach Kliff Kingsbury and Kyler Murray to big extensions in the offseason. The offense has not reached expectations, ranking 17th in the NFL with 337.7 yards per game.
Luckily for Arizona, things haven’t gone smoothly for the Rams, either, after their Super Bowl championship. After finishing the regular season with 372.1 yards per game in 2021, the Rams rank 31st out of 32 NFL teams in yards with a mere 286.0 per game.
“I don’t necessarily think that it’s the panic button, but changes have to be made, adjustments have to be made, we can’t continue to go on like this and what that looks like, I don’t necessarily have the exact answers right now,” McVay said after the latest loss, via team transcripts. “What I don’t want to have anything to be misunderstood that I’m not in this with those guys, I’m a big part of this, I have to do better. We’re going to stay connected throughout this, but we do have to be able to look inward and figure out what are some of the solutions, changes, adjustments, different things that we have to do to be able to get different results and different production from our offense.”
Losing Stafford would undoubtedly cause more headaches for McVay when trying to repair his seemingly broken offense. But if Stafford is not able to clear protocols by Sunday, the Rams will be forced to turn to backup John Wolford against the Cardinals.
