The game was a tale of two halves. An injury to Matthew Stafford‘s right hip was a big reason why. The Colts defense did their part, but it was apparent that Stafford’s injury affected his performance in the second half. In his post-game press conference, Sean McVay noted, “you could see that (Stafford) was limited.”
When not playing Stafford was seen limping and wore a heating belt while on the sidelines. He also threw an interception the play after he appeared to take the hit. After that, Stafford lost his footing twice. One stumble resulted in a sack on a first down two drives later. He was also hit on second down and then was hit while throwing a pass to Tyler Higbee in the flat. That is when, according to Coach McVay, Stafford reaggravated the injury.
The Stafford injury also seemed to affect the play-calling. A good percentage of Stafford’s targets were under 10 yards and they called 14 rushing plays after the interception.
But Stafford showed tremendous grit and toughness. He scrambled for eight yards on the Rams final drive of regulation and connected with Puka Nacua on several big plays including, of course, the game-sealing 22-yard touchdown pass.
Stafford Injury Vs. Eagles
The big question that remains is how bad is the injury and whether will it impact his status heading into a very tough game against the defending NFC Champion, Philadelphia Eagles. According to Stafford himself, he told Sarah Barshop of ESPN that he’ll “be out there” next week.
