The Most Headlined First Round Matchup

Written By: Spencer Teman, of Swish Tribune

The most headlined playoff matchup going into Super Wild Card Weekend is the matchup taking place at Ford Field between the Los Angeles Rams and the Detroit Lions. The headlines in this game are endless and we truly will be "waiting all day for Sunday Night."

Lets talk about the quarterbacks first. Both of them will matchup against their former teams, trying to eliminate them from the playoffs. Jared Goff took the Rams to the Super Bowl during his tenure in LA and Matt Stafford is arguably one of the best Lions in the history of the franchise although he did not have much success. 

The two quarterbacks were traded for each other just a couple of offseason's ago and if Goff continues to be successful with Detroit, it could go down as one of the most even trades in NFL history. Stafford already won a Super Bowl for LA in his first year with the team. 

The Lions are not a familiar face when it comes to the playoffs as they make their first appearance in the dance since 2017. On top of this, the Lions have not won a singular playoff game in 32 years. The Lions won the NFC North this season for the first time in 30 years. It is definitely a new era taking shape in Detroit. 

These two teams both had great seasons in order to get here, but took very different routes. For the Lions, they basically breezed their way through the competition and the NFC North in capturing their first division title in 30 years. For the Rams, after suffering a couple of injuries earlier in the season, as the team got healthier, they became a much better team and were one of the hottest teams throughout the past few weeks to end the season. 

Looking more at the game now, these two teams are some of the most balanced teams in the National Football League. Both have superb offenses with weapons such as Cooper Kupp and Puka Nacua for the Rams or Amon-Ra St. Brown and Jahmyr Gibbs for the Lions, that can be explosive whenever they are called upon. 

On the defensive side they are also solid as both teams are headlined by their defensive line lead by Aaron Donald for the Rams and Aidan Hutchinson for the Lions. I really like watching both of these teams and it is bittersweet that one of them will have to go home come late Sunday Night. 

My pick for this game is that the Lions will win a close game down the stretch and get to the Divisional Round and have a highly anticipated rematch with the Cowboys. These teams are built very similarly and this matchup should be one for the ages taking place on Sunday Night. 

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