The first game of the 2026 NFL Playoffs will be a rematch from late November, with the NFC's fifth-seeded Los Angeles Rams traveling across the country to take on the fourth-seeded Carolina Panthers.

They didn't make it easy on themselves, but the Panthers managed to clinch the NFC South despite their Week 18 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. After the Atlanta Falcons defeated the New Orleans Saints last Sunday, Carolina, Tampa, and Atlanta were all tied with 8-9 records. As a result, the Panthers clinched the division because they won the three-way tiebreaker between the teams after successfully sweeping the Falcons earlier in the season.

“I'm just so excited for Panthers fans everywhere,” Carolina head coach Dave Canales said on January 4th. “The neighborhood is crazy. We were yelling from our couch as a family and walked outside, where we normally ride bikes and walk the dogs, and there was just neighbors out in the front yards. Everyone was really excited and also just proud of this team. Proud of the coaches, the players, everybody involved. It took the whole season. It took 17 games, capturing opportunities along the way, to be in position for this. And, we're ready to chase the next championship opportunity in front of us.”

For many players on Carolina's roster, this will be their first playoff game. But, for linebacker Christian Rozeboom, who actually won a Super Bowl during his time with the Rams, he had some words of wisdom for the inexperienced members of the Panthers.

“Just do what you can, kind of like what I said earlier,” Rozeboom told reporters on Tuesday. “Do what you can to keep playing football. We worked too hard to come this far and kind of blow our chance, so we just want to go out there, put a good product on the field, and let the chips fall where they are.”

Since the Panthers last played on Saturday, the players and coaches got to sit at home while most other teams in the league played on Sunday. During that downtime, Dave Canales admitted that he thought about playing the Rams again.

“We had thought about that, and there's been some background prep that has gone into if it went a couple of different directions, so we were able to just kind of pivot and focus on the Rams once we found out we were playing them,” he said during a January 5th edition of Panther Talk. “Then the schedule came out, and we got Saturday at 4:30, and we're like it was amazing that we were able to play the Bucs on a Saturday to give us kind of a normal week flow.”

When these teams first played in Week 13, the Panthers emerged victorious by a score of 31-28. Despite the win, Carolina comes into this matchup as 10-point underdogs.

“That's what it is. I don't know how they come up with those numbers, but I'm sure they have algorithms for us. We can't worry about that. We’ve just got to worry about playing our best football,” Canales said on Monday. “That's been the pursuit. We have to get back to making sure we're efficient on third down, get our run game going, offensively speaking, and, defensively, finding ways to get off the field.”

Takeaways were a major reason why the Panthers won the first time around. Carolina forced Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford to commit three turnovers.

“It really started off on first and second down, getting him into some more pass situations - higher percentage pass situations - to try to be able to affect the pocket and force Matthew to get the ball out a little bit quicker than he wanted to in some of those,” Canales said. “And then, on top of that, it was just about owning leverage, communicating, evaluating the formations, and really anticipating the different concepts that they try to attack with two-by-twos, three-by-ones, different things like that.”

While the Rams lost the first time these squads got together, LA didn't overreact to that game. In fact, they used that loss as motivation to finish the season with three wins in their last five games.

“I don't believe for a second that our preparation wasn't right, that we took them lightly. There was just a couple things that, when you look at what we've done at a really high clip, those things weren't on display yesterday,” said Rams head coach Sean McVay back on December 1st. “We've been really good about taking the football away, taking care of it. You're down three in the turnover battle. They made some critical fourth down conversions, two of which that ended up leading to touchdowns… But I love the fight. I love the resilience of this group. And sometimes, these setbacks can be great setups for comebacks. I know that we've got the right guys in that locker room, the right coaches to be able to handle a little bit of adversity the right way. And there's never a good story without a little bit of adversity.”

Though LA only has six days to prepare for this game, Sean McVay explained that there are positives to playing on a short week against an opponent you’ve already faced.

“I like it. It's not accelerated like a Thursday, but it's similar to what we did last week,” he told reporters on Monday. “You get in, we'll be smart about the recovery process, but I do like that. I'd rather that than playing where we've had some seasons - like last year and even in the ‘21 season - where we're playing that Monday night game that usually is the four-five game. It just happens to be the AFC four-five game this week. I would much rather be playing on Saturday and don't have too much time to overthink stuff.”

Another piece of good news is that wide receiver Davante Adams is expected to return to the field after missing Los Angeles' last three games due to a nagging hamstring injury.

“Over the last couple weeks, he's chomping at the bit. He looks like he's ready to go,” Sean McVay said. “We've erred on the side of caution with him. I know it's pissed him off pretty good because of the competitor that he is, but he's got that look in his eye that I know he's ready to go, and you just feel better when you see number 17 out there on our offense.”

When the Rams and Panthers first got together, Carolina finished the game with 164 rushing yards. Therefore, defending the run will be of the utmost importance for LA.

“I thought they played physical and tough. Their runners level the pads off. So, you give them credit,” McVay told reporters on Tuesday. “You could see they're a physical offensive line. There's an identity in the run game. They’ve got a couple different backs that do a nice job being able to press it. Obviously, there's a threat of the quarterback being able to run the football as well. Usually, it's in some of the off-schedule situations and scenarios… They've earned the right to be here, and we're looking forward to the challenge, and we know what a great challenge it is based on the experience that we had just about a month ago.”

Prediction for Los Angeles Rams (-10.5) @ Carolina Panthers

Outside of the Week 15 matchup against the Buccaneers, the Panthers are 0-3 since facing the Rams. In those losses, Carolina averaged 13.7 points per game, a concerning trend considering the 32nd-ranked Las Vegas Raiders' offense averaged 14.2 points per game this season. Fortunately for the Cats, the weather will be on their side with rain and wind expected on Saturday. Those conditions favor Carolina’s run-focused offense. Still, rain is unbiased, so both teams will probably turn the ball over at least once. More importantly, it feels like the Panthers are afraid to put their fate in the hands of quarterback Bryce Young. In his last four games, he is averaging 3.4 completed air yards per pass attempt, which means he is only throwing the ball 3.4 yards past the line of scrimmage on completions. By comparison, Minnesota Vikings quarterback J.J. McCarthy - who had the lowest passer rating this season amongst QBs who started more than half their team's games - averaged 3.9 completed air yards per pass attempt this year. That lack of trust and Young's inability to effectively push the ball downfield to pass catchers other than rookie standout Tetairoa McMillan will be the Panthers' downfall. Carolina covers the spread, but comes up short with a chance to win the game late.

Prediction: Rams 27 - 23 Panthers

How to watch Los Angeles Rams (-10.5) @ Carolina Panthers

Rams @ Panthers starts at 4:30 p.m. EDT on Saturday at Bank of America Stadium. You can watch it on Fox or stream it via the Fox Sports app or NFL+.

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