Hall of Fame Los Angeles Lakers legend James Worthy admits he still has nightmares from the 1987 NBA Finals when Larry Bird, who’d already hit one big shot seconds earlier, narrowly missed another to win Game 4. He believes everything might’ve been different, including his legacy, had that shot gone in. It appears Matthew Stafford has similar feelings about the end of the divisional round of the playoffs between his Los Angeles Rams and the Chicago Bears. More specifically, it centers around Caleb Williams.
Stafford has been in high-stakes situations many times in his career. He won a Super Bowl in 2021. The hostile and frigid atmosphere of Soldier Field was no different. As the game reached its final seconds in the 4th quarter, L.A. held a 17-10 lead. Chicago faced 4th down. One more stop would mean a win for the Rams. As the play unfolded, Williams sprinted straight backward to near midfield. Stafford, like everybody else in the building, thought the play was over by that point.
Then Williams launched it to the end zone into the waiting hands of Cole Kmet for a touchdown. Six months later, Stafford still isn’t over that play. He said as much on the Green Light podcast.
Matthew Stafford understood how bad that play almost was.
The momentum shift was clear as day. Los Angeles won the coin flip to start overtime, but their subsequent drive went three-and-out. Chicago got the ball and immediately started driving down the field, reaching the Rams’ 48-yard line. Thankfully, a miscommunication between Williams and D.J. Moore led to an interception. Stafford quickly got the Rams into field goal range, and L.A. escaped with a 20-17 win. Yet even now, he seems to recognize how lucky they got.
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That almost became one of the great last-second choke jobs in recent playoff history. Williams had already engineered an epic comeback the previous week, rallying the Bears from down 21-3 to beat the Green Bay Packers 31-27. Los Angeles was so close to becoming his latest victim. Alas, the young quarterback’s inexperience ended up giving Matthew Stafford just enough wiggle room to avoid disaster. Yet it’s clear the young Bears quarterback earned tons of respect that night.
The Bears are certainly aiming for a rematch.
Their roster got younger and faster this offseason, headlined by a revamped safety group of veteran Coby Bryant and 1st round pick Dillon Thieneman. Offensively, they added Kalif Raymond and Zavion Thomas at wide receiver with their blistering speed and big tight end Sam Roush to improve their run-blocking. Los AngelesLos Angeles, of course, made the biggest splashes of the offseason with blockbuster trades for cornerback Trent McDuffie and defensive end Myles Garrett.
However, Stafford might not be feeling all warm and fuzzy about that. The Rams also selected a quarterback in the 1st round. They’ve put him on the clock despite an MVP season in 2025. It will be interesting to see how that messes with team chemistry. L.A. is the heavy favorite to reach the Super Bowl this year. Williams and the Bears hope to be the ones who get the chance to stop that from happening.
