The sixth and final game of Wild Card Weekend kicks off Monday when the Los Angeles Rams take on the Minnesota Vikings. The Rams are the home team as the No. 3 seed, but this game will not be played at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles due to the wildfires in the area.
This contest has been moved to the home of the Arizona Cardinals at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona.
The Rams and Vikings played back in Week 8 in Los Angeles, with the Rams winning 30-20. The Vikings are 14-3, and the Rams are just one of two teams — the other being the Detroit Lions, who did it twice — that have defeated Minnesota this year.
The voices you can expect to hear during the Rams vs. Vikings game will be ESPN’s Monday Night Football crew.
Announcers for Los Angeles Rams vs. Minnesota Vikings
- Lead Play-by-Play Announcer: Joe Buck
- Color Commentators: Troy Aikman
- Sideline Reporters: Lisa Salters and Laura Rutledge
The broadcasting team is the traditional Monday Night Football crew on ESPN, with Joe Buck as the lead announcer and Troy Aikman, a former Dallas Cowboys and Hall of Fame quarterback, as the lead analyst.
This duo has been broadcasting games together since 2002. They began at FOX and moved to the prestigious Monday Night Football booth at the start of the 2022 NFL season.
Aikman and Buck have called over 300 NFL regular seasons together, 18 NFC Championship games, plus Super Bowls 39, 42, 45, 48, 51, and 54.
Buck began calling NFL games in 1994 and was the main play-by-play voice for Major League Baseball on FOX, calling 24 World Series.
Aikman joined FOX’s NFL booth the year after he retired from the Cowboys in 2001 and has been a color analyst calling NFL games ever since.
ESPN spent a lot of time and money trying to figure out its Monday Night Football booth. The Aikman and Buck duo has received high praise and finally made one of the high-profile games of the week a match with its broadcast team.
Rams vs. Vikings Game Preview
- Location: Glendale, Arizona; State Farm Field
- Time: 8 p.m. ET
- Channel: ABC, ESPN, ESPN+
The winner of this game will travel to face the No. 2 seeded Philadelphia Eagles, who easily defeated the Green Bay Packers 22-10 in their Wild Card game.
With this being a neutral site game due to the Los Angeles wildfires, the Rams cannot rely on home-field advantage. Away from SoFi Stadium this year, the Rams are 5-3, and they did play once at State Farm Stadium back in Week 2 when they lost to the Arizona Cardinals, 41-10.
The Rams have been playing really great football lately, winning five straight before falling in a meaningless game against the Seattle Seahawks in the season finale, where key players earned much-needed rest.
The Vikings fell from potentially being the No. 1 overall seed to the No. 5 seed when they lost the season finale to the Lions. That game saw Minnesota’s offense stall in the red zone, settling for multiple field goals, as QB Sam Darnold had one of his worst outings of the year.
Pro Football Network’s OFF+ metric sees this as a top-15 matchup, and there could be potential for many points on Monday night. The Rams are ranked No. 11, and the Vikings are No. 13.
The Rams have a pair of elite receivers — Cooper Kupp and Puka Nacua — so counting this team out is irresponsible.
This season, Kyren Williams helped Los Angeles’ offense rank seventh in rushing success rate. The respect Williams demands from opposing defenses has allowed the Rams to rank seventh in third-down avoidance. They constantly operate from ahead of the chains, a common trait of successful offenses.
The passing game hasn’t been the most consistent weekly, leading to a reasonably wide fluctuation in grades. The Rams have four top-five weekly finishes but also four weeks ranking 20th or worse. Still, with Nacua and Kupp healthy, Los Angeles’ upside gives it a fighting chance to win a playoff game for the first time since their Super Bowl 56 victory.
The Vikings have sometimes looked like an elite offensive unit, but several down weeks kept their final ranking outside the top 10. Darnold has affirmatively answered any questions about his ability to lead this team to Super Bowl contention, but Week 18 was a reminder that his floor remains very low.
One of Minnesota’s worst traits this season was the red-zone offense, where they finished 19th in touchdown rate. That reared its ugly head in the division-deciding loss to the Lions, where the Vikings had one success on 14 red-zone plays.
That was the worst red-zone success rate in a game over the last five seasons (min. 10 plays). The passing game finished 10th in success rate, which helped this unit overcome a fairly average rushing game (17th in success rate).
Head coach Kevin O’Connell’s willingness to seek out explosive plays on early downs has helped Darnold avoid difficult situations, as Minnesota avoided third downs at the fifth-highest rate of any offense.
Per Pro Football Network’s Playoff Predictor, with 10,000 simulations, the Rams are an underdog and given just a 43.8% chance of winning against the Vikings.