3. Another pair of first-team All-Pros could match up inside as well.
Rams DT Aaron Donald just got his sixth All-Pro honor while Packers C Corey Linsley earned his first in 2020. Donald isn’t a straight nose tackle, and will line up in different spots, but this will still be a battle in the trenches everyone will be watching when they do clash.
A candidate for a third straight NFL Defensive Player of the Year award, Donald recorded his fourth straight double-digit sack season, with 13½, and had two sacks in the wild-card game at Seattle before exiting with a rib injury. His health status will be a storyline to monitor all week long.
Linsley injured a knee vs. Chicago in Week 12, missed three games, but returned to the starting lineup for the Packers’ last two regular-season games.
4. The Rams are not accustomed to the Green Bay weather.
Before Christmas, the Rams had not played this year with a game-time temperature less than 60 degrees. Since then, they’ve played two games in Seattle with kickoff temps of 45 and 39, respectively.
The Packers have played seven times this year with the temperature 38 degrees or less.
Saturday’s forecast calls for highs in the 20s.
5. The two head coaches are good friends.
Packers Head Coach Matt LaFleur got his first offensive coordinator job from LA’s Sean McVay in 2017, when the Rams hired McVay as youngest head coach in league history at age 30. Prior to that, the two worked together for four years on Washington’s staff (2010-13) as assistants on the offensive side of the ball.
LaFleur only stayed in LA for a year before moving on to another offensive coordinator post at Tennessee, where he’d be a play-caller for the first time. One year after that, LaFleur landed the Green Bay job in 2019. McVay led the Rams to a Super Bowl appearance in 2018.
