Green Bay Packers will Face Jared Goff in Divisional Round

The Green Bay Packers now know with certainty that they will face Jared Goff on Saturday in the Frozen Tundra.

During the Los Angeles Rams’ Wildcard matchup last Saturday with Seattle, John Wolford got the start at quarterback with Jared Goff still less than two weeks removed from surgery on the thumb of his throwing hand.

While Wolford started the game, he would leave with an injury after taking a hit to his head and neck area, which Sean McVay called a “stinger” later in the week. Goff then came in off the bench and played the remainder of the game.

Led by the Ram defense and rookie running back Cam Akers, Los Angeles came away with the win in Seattle, with Goff completing 9 of 19 passes for 155 yards and a touchdown.

As this week unfolded, McVay kept close to the vest who his starting quarterback was going to be against the Green Bay Packers, but this afternoon, he officially ruled Wolford as out, making Goff the official starter.

With Goff finishing last week’s game, this news shouldn’t come as much of a surprise. The big question now is, how will he perform in the cold and with a thumb that still isn’t that far removed from surgery.

Over his relatively short career, Goff hasn’t had to play in below-freezing temperatures often — only two games — but the results haven’t been pretty. He’s completed only 34 of his 72 pass attempts, or 47.2 percent, for 381 yards with no touchdowns and five interceptions.

This coupled with the injury to his throwing hand could make attacking downfield more difficult. So against Green Bay, I’d expect a similar approach from the Los Angeles offense that we saw last week, which is a heavy dose of Akers, who totaled 176 all-purpose yards against Seattle, and easy competitions for Goff.

Now with that said, it’s certainly worth pointing out that while Goff may be hindered, at receiver the Rams do have Robert Woods and Cooper Kupp. This season the duo has combined for over 1,900 receiving yards on 182 receptions with nine touchdowns—although Kupp is listed as questionable with a knee injury.

While much of the attention this week has been focused on the Green Bay Packers’ offense against the Rams’ defense — and understandably so — this game could very well be decided on the other side of the ball and how well Goff and his thumb can handle the Frozen Tundra.