CHARLOTTE, N.C. — After the Los Angeles Rams beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Week 12 to become the No. 1 seed in the NFC and the Super Bowl favorite, coach Sean McVay made it clear that until the regular season was over, the team's place in the standings wasn't significant.
Just one week later, the Rams fell to 9-3 and out of the No. 1 spot after a 31-28 loss to the Carolina Panthers on Sunday.
The Chicago Bears (9-3) are now atop the NFC because they hold the tiebreaker over the Rams with a better conference record.
It was, as Rams outside linebacker Byron Young said after the game, a «humbling experience.»
«I just feel like this a wake-up call,» Young said. «Something that you just got to learn from. I definitely think it's something that we needed, but I don't look at as a bad thing. I just look at it that it is motivation. It is something I'm glad that it happened. We need this.»
With the Rams favored by 9½ points, it was the second-largest upset in the NFL this season, according to ESPN Research.
«I don't think we came in as high as we should have,» outside linebacker Jared Verse said. «I think we didn't do the things that we quite need to do. Too many people thought of this game as one of those games where you can just kind of jump out of your gaps, do what you have to do. That's not what it is.… It doesn't matter if you're going up against the Panthers, the Eagles, the top team, the worst team. It doesn't matter. You've got to be better than that.»
Quarterback Matthew Stafford, who came into the game as the MVP favorite, turned the ball over three times. Stafford, who had not thrown an interception since Week 3, threw two in three pass attempts in the first quarter. He had multiple interceptions and a lost fumble
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