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The Los Angeles Rams made light of losing home advantage as they booked a spot in the NFC divisional round with a 27-9 win over the Minnesota Vikings.
Forced to move the play-off game from their SoFi Stadium due to the Los Angeles wildfires, the Rams raced to a first-half lead as they booked a trip to the Philadelphia Eagles.
The Vikings, who were only denied top seed in the NFC and a bye to the divisional round with defeat to divisional rivals the Detroit Lions in their final regular season game, struggled to make inroads as the Rams defence tied a play-off record with nine sacks.
“We are living it every day. It’s a resilient group,” Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford told ESPN. “We knew what we were playing for today.
“It was go and get this win but, man, it’s for the people of Los Angeles who are struggling right now. It’s been unbelievable to watch the whole community, the state, the country get behind them.
“It’s a tough time to be back there and we are just happy we came out here, played like this and gave them something to be happy about.”
Stafford found Kyren Williams on the opening drive to open the scoring, Joshua Karty adding a field goal to make it 10-0 at the end of the first quarter.
Will Reichard matched that distance to get the Vikings on the board, but Jared Verse returned a fumble 57 yards from one of the sacks on Sam Darnold and Stafford found Davis Allen from 13 yards just before half-time to make it 24-3.
Karty stretched the lead from 44 yards in the third quarter before the Vikings responded, TJ Hockenson’s catching a 26-yard touchdown pass from Darnold – the missed two-point conversion leaving them 27-9 adrift heading into the final quarter.
The Vikings had possession for much of the final period, but were unable to make any inroads into the deficit as their once promising season petered out.
