The Philadelphia Eagles (8-2) spread their wings and soared across the country for a primetime Sunday Night Football battle against the Los Angeles Rams (5-5). Philly enters the game riding a six-game winning streak following a 26-18 win over the Washington Commanders last week, while LA picked up a six-point road victory in New England during Week 11 in the NFL.
In NFL history, the Eagles and Rams have matched up 41 times in the regular season, with three additional meetings during the postseason. Philly holds a slim 22-18-1 regular season advantage with a 1-2 record in the NFL playoffs against the Rams.
The Rams Started on the East Coast
One of the most fun things about this series has been learning little facts about the history of the National Football League, dating back to its earliest days in the 1920s and 1930s. Before landing in Los Angeles for most of their franchise history, the Rams started on the East Coast in Cleveland, Ohio. The new six-team American Football League didn’t last the full season and canceled the Championship game after unpaid players refused to participate. The following season, the Cleveland Rams stockholders paid $10,000 to establish the club as an NFL franchise.
Philadelphia hosted Cleveland’s first road game in the NFL at Philadelphia Municipal Stadium in September 1937. In true Brotherly Love fashion, Philly generously provided Cleveland their first NFL win in a 21-3 loss in front of 3,000 people. While the score makes it look like a runaway victory for the Rams, two fourth-quarter touchdowns put the Eagles away for good in the game.
Once the Eagles returned from the Steagles Transformers team in 1943, Philly picked up its first two victories against the Cleveland Rams in 1944 and 1945. Philadelphia was 2-4 against Cleveland before the Rams made the first coast-to-coast relocation of a professional sports team in American sports history moving from Cleveland, Ohio, to Los Angeles, California. Talk about an upgrade!
First Marquee Battle at the 1949 NFL Championship Game
Despite the sunnier new location, the Los Angeles Rams couldn’t find a win against the Philadelphia Eagles in the late 1940s. The only tie in series history occurred in 1948 when the Eagles were on an eight-game unbeaten streak. Fortunately for Philly, the 1949 NFL Championship game happened during that extended series of victories
The Philadelphia Eagles (11-1) traveled to California to battle the Los Angeles Rams (8-2-2) for a chance to repeat as NFL Champions in the 1949 NFL Championship, the first NFL title game played in the western United States. Philly defeated the Chicago Cardinals, 7-0, in an extremely snowy 1948 NFL Championship game in an NFL classic. In the only occurrence of its kind in NFL history, the Eagles defended their status as the NFL’s top team with a second straight shutout win, 14-0, in the 1949 NFL Championship game. NFL Hall-of-Famer Steve Van Buren racked up 196 yards on 31 carries on a rain-soaked, mud-filled football field, while the Eagles defense allowed only 21 rushing yards on the day.
Philly would smash the Los Angeles Rams, 56-20, near the start of the next season in October 1950. It would be the end of the winning vibes for Philadelphia, who suffered a 1-10 record against Los Angeles over the next two decades between 1955 and 1977.
NFC Wild Card Meeting in the 1980s
Philadelphia was victorious in three of five meetings against Los Angeles in the 1980s. Unfortunately, one of the two losses came in the second postseason affair between the franchises as the world closed the books in the 1980s. The 1989 NFC Wild Card game was played at Veterans Stadium on New Year’s Eve on 12/31/1989, resulting in a disappointing 1990 New Year with no more football at the Vet following a 21-7 home loss to the Rams.
Los Angeles quarterback Jim Everett completed two first-quarter touchdown passes to claim a lead for the Rams they would never give up. Philadelphia’s running back Anthony Toney pulled the Eagles within a score on a 4-yard touchdown run early in the fourth quarter. However, a late Los Angeles rushing touchdown put the final points on the board, sending the Rams to New York to battle the Giants in one of the 1989 NFC Divisional games.
A few years later, the Los Angeles Rams completed their conquest of the United States by moving to the Midwest and becoming the Saint Louis Rams in 1994. Overall, the Eagles went 9-11-1 against the Los Angeles Rams during the regular season and 1-1 in the Postseason.
Rams Ground Eagles in the 2001 NFC Championship
Andy Reid had a winning playoff record at 10-9 in Philadelphia despite never winning a Super Bowl title with the Eagles. Reid’s Eagles ran into the legendary Kurt Warner-led St. Louis Rams with the expected results. Two seasons removed from Kurt Warner-led “Greatest Show on Turf” Super Bowl XXXIV-champions, the Philadelphia vs. St. Louis matchup put Donovan McNabb against Warner to determine the NFC representative at Super Bowl XXXVI in New Orleans.
The Eagles and Rams played the 2001 NFC Championship Game at the Edwards Jones Dome in St. Louis, Missouri, in January 2002. Marshall Faulk carried 31 times for 159 yards and two touchdowns in a 29-24 Rams win. Faulk’s two second-half touchdowns sealed the deal for St. Louis as the Rams outgained the Eagles in the contest, 371-256. With the win, the Rams returned to the Super Bowl for the second time in three seasons but were disappointed by Tom Brady’s Patriots, 20-17, at the Louisiana Superdome in Super Bowl XXXVI.
Andy Reid and Donovan McNabb would return to the NFC Title game the following two seasons. Philadelphia lost to Tampa Bay in 2003, followed by a win over Atlanta in the 2004 NFC Championship. The Eagles lost Super Bowl XXXIX, 24-21, in Jacksonville, Florida, to the same Bill Belichick-coached Patriots dynasty that stopped the Rams two seasons earlier in New Orleans.
Following the 2002 NFC Championship game, the Eagles were 5-1 against the Rams in their next six meetings between 2002 and 2014. The Rams returned to their West Coast home in Los Angeles before the 2016 NFL season. Overall, the Eagles were 8-3 against the St. Louis Rams during their time in the Midwest.
Eagles Continued Success Against Rams in LA
The Eagles have won three of the four meetings between the teams since the Rams moved back to Los Angeles, California. Typically, these have been high-scoring affairs, including multiple touchdown shoutouts that have skyrocketed the average score per game between Philadelphia and Los Angeles to a mind-numbing 57.2 points over their last five NFL regular season matchups.
The most recent meeting occurred in October 2023 at the same SoFi Stadium venue in Inglewood, California, that will host Sunday night’s matchup. The Philadelphia Eagles remained undefeated at 5-0 in a 23-14 win over the Los Angeles Rams. Jalen Hurts completed 25-of-38 for 303 yards with a touchdown and an interception.
Hurts carried the ball 15 times for 72 yards and a touchdown. The Eagles defense limited Matthew Stafford to 21-of-37 passing and two touchdowns in the victory. Nick Sirianni and Jalen Hurts would reach Super Bowl LVII later that season before falling 38-35 to Andy Reid’s Kansas City Chiefs.
Sunday night’s matchup will represent the 42nd battle between the Eagles and Rams in the all-time series. Philadelphia (8-8) will battle Los Angeles (5-5) in a primetime matchup on Sunday Night Football at 8:20 pm EST at SoFi Stadium during NFL Week 12.
Mandatory Credit: Robert Deutsch-Imagn Images
