By Keegan Ohta.

In this crazy NFL season, the Los Angeles Rams have emerged as the only team left in the playoffs from the NFC West. Their big win over Seattle last week makes them look like a contender for the Super Bowl.

Except now, they go to the home of Vince Lombardi himself, the frozen tundra, Lambeau Field.

Green Bay suits up after sitting by the fire to warm up and watching their opponents in the NFC duke it out in the wild card weekend. Now they go back in the cold to try and ice the Rams from the NFC Championship game.

Let’s start with the full history between these two teams. This history goes all the way back to 1937 when it wasn’t the Los Angeles Rams, but the Cleveland Rams. The series is evenly matched, going 47-46-2 in favor of the Packers. Their last playoff matchup was in the divisional round in 2002 when the Packers rode in to St. Louis, only to lose, 45-17.

Although now in the battle of quarterbacks, it isn’t Kurt Warner vs. Brett Favre. Nineteen years later, it becomes the show between Jared Goff and Aaron Rodgers.

In terms of yards, Rodgers has the upper-hand, but also had an additional game over Goff. But when you look at the number of touchdowns scored between the two, Rodgers knows that end zone much better than Goff. In the 2020 season, Rodgers has been a part of 51 touchdowns, while Goff has only been a part of 24. It also helps Rodgers to have the best touchdown-interception ratio in the league passing-wise, going almost 10-1.

Out of those 51 touchdowns, 18 of those have been received by Davante Adams, who has been Rodgers’ primary target. He has the most touchdowns of any receiver in the NFL and the best yards per game average of any receiver in the league.

There’s also someone known as Aaron Jones that’s been a threat to defenses everywhere. While seeing the end zone 11 times, Jones is known to go the distance. He is one of eight running backs to go over 1,000 yards this season and is fourth overall in yards.

There are threats all over the Packers on offense, but the Rams also have a threat: their defense.

In the regular season, the Rams have allowed an average of 281.9 yards per game, the best average of any defense in the NFL and the only defense in the NFL to allow fewer than 300 yards of offense per game.

To split those 281.9 yards up, the Rams have only allowed 190.7 yards of passing, which is the best in the league, and 91.3 yards of rushing, which is third-best in the league. They also allow the least amount of points per game at 18.5 which also leads to giving up the least amount of touchdowns at 30.

All these numbers point to one thing: this defense is equivalent to a wall.

This game leads me to one analogy: an unstoppable force vs. an immovable object. This game pits a great offense against a great defense. Which side will get the best of the other? Who capitalizes on mistakes?

And which team gets put “on ice” in the frozen tundra?

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