INGLEWOOD, Calif. (AP) — The Los Angeles Rams clinched another playoff berth weeks ago, and their regular-season finale can have only a small impact on their seeding.
When faced with such a situation in past seasons, coach Sean McVay has rested every starter possible, preserving his players' health for the playoff tests ahead.
So the fact nobody healthy is sitting out when the Rams (11-5) host the Arizona Cardinals (3-13) on Sunday is a clear indicator of McVay's frustration and disappointment with his team's two-game swoon.
The Rams were leading the NFC standings when they held a 14-point lead in the fourth quarter at Seattle on Dec. 18. They blew that game in an overtime thriller before traveling to Atlanta last Monday and falling behind 21-0 at halftime to the Falcons, who eventually kicked a late field goal to send the Rams to another embarrassing loss.
The Rams were a fashionable pick to win it all just two weeks ago, when they looked like the most complete team in the NFL. They've still got the same roster, but they could be in a different place mentally — and McVay wants them to play their way out of it against the Cardinals, who have lost eight straight and 13 of 14 since starting 2-0.
“We need to play better football,” McVay said.
Matthew Stafford said the Rams are not thinking about this relatively meaningless meeting with a downtrodden opponent as a practice game for their lengthy road trip in the wild-card round next week. While the MVP candidate's offense still leads the NFL in scoring and ranks second in total yards, that scoreless first half against Atlanta was grim: two interceptions, two punts and a turnover on downs.
“I think our team, our coaching staff, our players, we’re treating this as another opportunity to get better,” Stafford said. “We didn’t get the result that we wanted the last two times that we went out and played, so we’re excited to go get another opportunity.”
The Cards are wrapping up another rough season on the field where they played their only postseason game of the past decade, losing to the Rams in the wild-card round in January 2022.
Coach Jonathan Gannon said he told his team to play for “the Arizona Cardinal name on your chest and name on your back.”
“They have fun playing football,” Gannon added. "I told them today (that) two weeks from now you’re going to be watching these (playoff) games, and all these emotions are going to come up and they’re not going to be good emotions. I know that. That’s how I feel. I know that’s how they’ll feel, so maximize the opportunity to go play a game.”
The Rams will know before the game whether a win means anything at all.
If the San Francisco 49ers lose to Seattle on Saturday, the Rams will be playing to clinch the No. 5 seed and a trip to face the winner of the dismal NFC South in the wild-card round. Otherwise, the Rams will be the No. 6 seed heading to Chicago or Philadelphia.
Gannon enters his third-season finale with an uncertain future as a dismal year winds down.
The 42-year-old coach is 15-35 since being hired in 2023, going 4-13 in his first season before improving to 8-9 in 2024. The franchise appeared on the upswing, but the past few months have been brutally bad.
Owner Michael Bidwill hasn’t provided many clues about Gannon’s job status, but the coach said, “I feel good,” on Monday when asked if he’s been told that he will be back for a fourth season.
While receiver Davante Adams (hamstring) and safety Quentin Lake (elbow) are expected to sit out one more week, McVay is optimistic they'll both be ready for the playoffs. Veteran tight end Tyler Higbee (ankle) has a much better chance to return from a six-game absence Sunday after rejoining practice this week, and he could be key to an offense that has leaned heavily on three-tight-end formations since midseason.
“If he is able to go, it’d be great to be able to get him some snaps before the playoffs,” McVay said. "If he’s not, then we’re hopeful that the playoffs will represent for sure him being ready to go.”
The brightest spot of the Cardinals' season has been the emergence of tight end Trey McBride and receiver Michael Wilson.
McBride was already a known commodity, but he took another step forward this season with 119 receptions, an NFL record for a tight end. Wilson – a third-year receiver out of Stanford – has thrived in a bigger role this season and could eclipse 1,000 yards receiving this year with a big game against the Rams.
After his Monday night flop, Stafford gets one more game to make a case for his first NFL MVP award in a 17-year career — although he's not wasting an instant thinking about what has become a tight two-man derby with New England's Drake Maye.
As far as basic stats, Stafford leads Maye in yards passing and TD passes while playing a tougher schedule, and Maye leads in completion percentage and yards rushing while winning more games.
“I’m just trying to put as good of a season together as I possibly can,” Stafford said. “I would love to play perfect in every game, but I’m not a robot and it happens.”
AP Sports Writer David Brandt in Phoenix contributed.
AP NFL: https://apnews.com/NFL
Arizona Cardinals quarterback Jacoby Brissett, second from left, leaves the field after an NFL football game against the Cincinnati Bengals, Sunday, Dec. 28, 2025, in Cincinnati. (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel)
Los Angeles Rams head coach Sean McVay talks to reporters after an NFL football game against the Atlanta Falcons, Monday, Dec. 29, 2025, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)
Los Angeles Rams wide receiver Puka Nacua (12) celebrates his touchdown with quarterback Matthew Stafford (9) in the second half of an NFL football game against the Atlanta Falcons, Monday, Dec. 29, 2025, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — U.S. President Donald Trump and top Iranian officials exchanged dueling threats Friday as widening protests swept across parts of the Islamic Republic, further escalating tensions between the countries after America bombed Iranian nuclear sites in June.
At least seven people have been killed so far in violence surrounding the demonstrations, which were sparked in part by the collapse of Iran’s rial currency but have increasingly seen crowds chanting anti-government slogans.
The protests, now in their sixth day, have become the biggest in Iran since 2022, when the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in police custody triggered nationwide demonstrations. However, the demonstrations have yet to be countrywide and have not been as intense as those surrounding the death of Amini, who was detained over not wearing her hijab, or headscarf, to the liking of authorities.
Trump initially wrote on his Truth Social platform, warning Iran that if it “violently kills peaceful protesters,” the United States “will come to their rescue.”
“We are locked and loaded and ready to go,” Trump wrote, without elaborating.
Shortly after, Ali Larijani, a former parliament speaker who serves as the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, alleged on the social platform X that Israel and the U.S. were stoking the demonstrations. He offered no evidence to support the allegation, which Iranian officials have repeatedly made during years of protests sweeping the country.
“Trump should know that intervention by the U.S. in the domestic problem corresponds to chaos in the entire region and the destruction of the U.S. interests,” Larijani wrote on X, which the Iranian government blocks. “The people of the U.S. should know that Trump began the adventurism. They should take care of their own soldiers.”
Larijani’s remarks likely referenced America’s wide military footprint in the region. Iran in June attacked Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar after the U.S. strikes on three nuclear sites during Israel's 12-day war on the Islamic Republic. No one was injured, though a missile did hit a radome there.
No major changes have been made to U.S. troop levels in the Middle East or their preparations following Trump’s Iran post, said a U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military plans.
Ali Shamkhani, an adviser to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei who previously was the council's secretary for years, separately warned that “any interventionist hand that gets too close to the security of Iran will be cut.”
“The people of Iran properly know the experience of ‘being rescued’ by Americans: from Iraq and Afghanistan to Gaza,” he added on X.
Iran's hard-liner parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf also threatened that all American bases and forces would be “legitimate targets.”
Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei also responded, citing a list of Tehran's longtime grievances against the U.S., including a CIA-backed coup in 1953, the downing of a passenger jet in 1988 and taking part in the June war.
The Iranian response came as the protests shake what has been a common refrain from officials in the theocracy — that the country broadly backed its government after the war.
Trump's online message marked a direct sign of support for the demonstrators, something that other American presidents have avoided out of concern that activists would be accused of working with the West. During Iran's 2009 Green Movement demonstrations, President Barack Obama held back from publicly backing the protests — something he said in 2022 "was a mistake."
But such White House support still carries a risk.
“Though the grievances that fuel these and past protests are due to the Iranian government’s own policies, they are likely to use President Trump’s statement as proof that the unrest is driven by external actors,” said Naysan Rafati, an analyst at the International Crisis Group.
“But using that as a justification to crack down more violently risks inviting the very U.S. involvement Trump has hinted at," he added.
Demonstrators took to the streets Friday in Zahedan in Iran's restive Sistan and Baluchestan province on the border with Pakistan. The burials of several demonstrators killed in the protests also took place, sparking marches.
Online video purported to show mourners chasing off security force members who attended the funeral of 21-year-old Amirhessam Khodayari. He was killed Wednesday in Kouhdasht, over 400 kilometers (250 miles) southwest of Tehran in Iran's Lorestan province.
Video also showed Khodayari's father denying his son served in the all-volunteer Basij force of Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, as authorities claimed. The semiofficial Fars news agency later reported that there were now questions about the government's claims that he served.
Iran’s civilian government under reformist President Masoud Pezeshkian has been trying to signal it wants to negotiate with protesters. However, Pezeshkian has acknowledged there is not much he can do as Iran’s rial has rapidly depreciated, with $1 now costing some 1.4 million rials. That sparked the initial protests.
The protests, taking root in economic issues, have heard demonstrators chant against Iran’s theocracy as well. Tehran has had little luck in propping up its economy in the months since the June war.
Iran recently said it was no longer enriching uranium at any site in the country, trying to signal to the West that it remains open to potential negotiations over its atomic program to ease sanctions. However, those talks have yet to happen as Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have warned Tehran against reconstituting its atomic program.
Associated Press writer Konstantin Toropin in Washington contributed to this report.
A woman shows a portrait of the late commander of Iran's Revolutionary Guard expeditionary Quds Force, Gen. Qassem Soleimani, who was killed in a U.S. drone attack in 2020 in Iraq, on her smartphone during a ceremony commemorating his death anniversary at the Imam Khomeini grand mosque in Tehran, Iran, Thursday, Jan. 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
People wave Iranian flags as one of them holds up a poster of the late commander of the Iran's Revolutionary Guard expeditionary Quds Force, Gen. Qassem Soleimani, who was killed in a U.S. drone attack in 2020 in Iraq, during a ceremony commemorating his death anniversary at the Imam Khomeini grand mosque in Tehran, Iran, Thursday, Jan. 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
This combo shows President Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago, Monday, Dec. 29, 2025, in Palm Beach, Fla. and Iranian Secretary of Supreme National Security Council Ali Larijani in Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, Aug. 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, Bilal Hussein)
