RedState Sports Report: Panthers, Rams, and Bears

Greetings from the sports activities desk positioned someplace below the main deck of the Good Pirate Ship RedState. Sammy the Shark and Karl the Kraken have informed me that they’re, in fact, retaining tabs on world developments …

At least they’re not sitting on the sofa eating fish crackers for once.

Anyway, the NFL postseason begins today (Saturday, January 10, 2026) with a couple of NFC bouts. One of the video games comes steeped in league historical past and custom. The other one, not so a lot. We’ll look at the latter first, primarily because it’s the first sport on the schedule.

The Los Angeles Rams journey to Carolina to take on the Panthers. On paper, this is a gimme for the Rams as they’re simply the better staff on both sides of the ball. However, the sport just isn’t going down on paper, but moderately on the presumably rain-drenched turf of Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, where the Rams misplaced to the Panthers in the common season. Thus endeth the gimme portion of the dialog.

That said, Los Angeles is clearly superior to Carolina. Matthew Stafford is taking part in at an MVP degree and has the posh of throwing the ball to either Puka Nacua or Davante Adams. They also run the ball very properly. The Rams’ protection is of the bend-but-not-break mindset, average in yards allowed on the ground and in the air, but stingy when it comes to the other staff scoring. Special groups have been problematic, but that appears to have change into a non-factor at season’s end. Los Angeles has a number of strengths and no simply exploitable weaknesses.

Carolina … properly, they’re a lot better than they had been last yr. That said, they still aren’t excellent. Bryce Young has upped his taking part in degree from dreadful to competent, but he doesn’t scare anybody. The Panthers offense is barely below average on the ground and noticeably below average in the air; thus, they rely closely on their protection to keep them in video games. The downside is that their protection is average across the board. Still, they’re in the playoffs at home, and on any given Sunday (in this case Saturday), and so forth. Still, the Panthers’ best, if not only, likelihood at profitable is the Rams beating themselves. Which I wouldn’t guess on.

The day’s second sport transpires tonight on the windswept tundra of Soldier Field, where the Green Bay Packers will take on the Bears. There shall be both a chill to the wind and a nip to the air, although it stays unknown whether or not the Bears’ cheerleaders shall be sporting scarlet begonias in their hair.

The Packers have managed the neat trick of being both in the playoffs and having a disappointing season. This just isn’t fully of their own doing. After being gifted Micah Parsons before the season began, Green Bay watched him go down for the season, severely impacting their protection, which had been stout against both the run and the go. The Packers stumble into the playoffs on a four-game dropping streak, and are giving no indications that they are going to all of the sudden flip it on now that the heat is figuratively, albeit not actually, on.

The Bears are the feel-good story of the 2025-2026 common season. Caleb Williams has mastered the artwork of giving Da Fans Da Heart Attack, authoring six comeback wins after trailing in the fourth quarter. Chicago is sweet in the air and wonderful on the ground. On the other facet of the ball, the Bears aren’t practically as achieved, so it’s not like Jordan Love and company wouldn’t have a likelihood. This figures to be a close sport.

Enjoy the weekend, everybody.

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