CHARLOTTE — Welcome to the playoffs! The Panthers are back in the postseason for the first time since 2017 and will host the Los Angeles Rams in a wild card game this Saturday, bringing the playoffs back to Bank of America Stadium for the first time since 2015.

This will be a rematch for the Panthers of a game they won earlier in the season. In Week 13, the Rams were No. 1 overall in the NFC and coming to face a Panthers team that had just lost to the 49ers. But despite being the underdog, Carolina won 31-28.

"It's an opportunity to correct some things that we wanted to correct and try to replicate things that were successful for us," coach Dave Canales said of the benefit in facing an opponent already seen this season. "It gives you a little bit of familiarity and confidence to know, 'OK, this is a team that we've seen before, we've played them tough.'"

Football is ever-changing, though, and no team is the same week to week, much less from Week 13 to the wild-card round. With that in mind, get to know this coming version of the Los Angeles Rams.

The Stafford conundrum

Quarterback Matthew Stafford is having the kind of season that has put him firmly in the MVP conversation. He leads the league in passing with 4,707 total yards. Here, in his 17th year in the league, he has a career-best 46-8 touchdown-to-interception ratio. He's also second in the entire league with a 109.2 quarterback rating.

The veteran didn't throw an interception from Week 4 to Week 13. That streak stopped against the Panthers, when Stafford threw two, resulting in a 14-point swing. One was an interception in the end zone by Nick Scott off a Derrick Brown batted pass (or Derrick Brown's helmet, at least); the other was a Mike Jackson pick-six. He threw another against the Lions, and then three in Week 17 against the Falcons.

Against the Cardinals, Stafford and Arizona QB Jacoby Brissett were in a dead heat most of the game. Then, with less than a minute left in the third quarter, Stafford kicked back up his MVP campaign, throwing three touchdowns in the final quarter (plus 0:42 seconds). He finished with 25-of-40 passing for 259 yards and four touchdowns. It was his fourth 4-touchdown game this season (two more than any other quarterback).

According to Next Gen Stats, Stafford was particularly effective on quick throws, going 13-of-16 passes for 121 yards and three scores when throwing the ball in under 2.5 seconds. He thrived against extra rushers, going 8-of-14 for 94 yards and three touchdowns versus the blitz.

The battering Rams

Stafford is playing at an elite level. It also helps that he has an arsenal of weapons that are among the best at their positions. For example, against the Cardinals, Stafford connected with tight ends Tyler Higbee and Colby Parkinson for nine catches, 127 yards, and three touchdowns.

The Rams top guy though is unquestionably Puka Nacua. In Week 13, the Panthers limited Nacua to six receptions for 72 yards and a touchdown, a fairly pedestrian day for the receiver who, in the five games since then, has averaged 139.2 yards a game with six touchdowns over that same span. He is second in the NFL overall with 1,715 total receiving yards.

Davante Adams still leads the NFL with 14 touchdowns, but he hasn't played since Week 15 when he suffered a hamstring injury. The veteran receiver pushed to go in the regular season finale against the Cardinals, but Jay Glazer of Fox Sports reported Sean McVay said no, wanting to give Adams more time to recover before the playoffs. McVay told reporters last week that the expectation was for Adams to be ready for the postseason.

Stifling pressure

The Rams' defensive front is made up of menaces. The group is Top 5 in the league in total quarterback pressure rate, flustering the quarterback 38 percent of the time. Week 18 against the Cardinals specifically, the Rams pressured Brissett 24 times, 60 percent of dropbacks, and generated 6.0 sacks. This was the sixth-highest pressure rate by any defense this season, and the Rams' highest in a game since 2021.

The secret to the LA defense is they create this pressure without blitzing much. Continuing with the Cardinals game as an example, that 60 percent pressure rate came while blitzing on only 10 percent of dropbacks. The front—led by Kobie Turner and Jared Verse—often get home with four. Verse, in particular, is in the Top 10 in QBP in the league.

Carolina's offensive line held the Rams to 29.2 percent pressure in Week 13, below their season average.

Los Angeles passing defense is 19th in the league, allowing an average of 216.7 passing yards per game.