Rams QB Matthew Stafford has already moved past the 3-turnover game that slowed his standout season

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Matthew Stafford’s 192 career interceptions are the most among active quarterbacks. He has also fumbled 91 times in his 17-year NFL career.

So his three crucial turnovers in the Los Angeles Rams’ 31-28 loss at Carolina aren’t going to send Stafford into a funk or a crisis of competence.

“I know that whether we win or we lose, I move on pretty darn quickly,” Stafford said Wednesday. “I just know that I have another challenge in front of me.”

The eighth-leading passer in NFL history has the experience and the maturity to know that a quarterback can’t allow mistakes or bad luck to beat him twice — particularly not during a season in which he has played his way into strong contention for his first league MVP award.

“I’ve played in a lot of games now, so (moving on) just feels like it comes easy to me,” Stafford said. “It doesn’t mean that I don’t care about each and every single one of them, and do everything I can to try and help us win each and every one of them. But I do know that unless it’s the last game of the year, there’s another one coming, and you better be ready for it.”

Stafford knows that his two interceptions — doubling his season total — and a late fumble were the biggest reasons why the Rams lost to the Panthers and fell out of the No. 1 spot in the NFC standings. There’s still nothing he’ll do much differently when he leads Los Angeles (9-3) to Arizona on Sunday.

“I’ve got a bunch of plays I’ve got to learn,” he said. “I’ve got to make sure everybody’s in the right spots at the right places. I do move on pretty quick, so I feel good about that, and I think the guys in our locker room do as well.”

Stafford has had a reputation as an aggressive gunslinger for most of his career. He threw at least 10 interceptions in each of his first nine full seasons with Detroit, and he even led the NFL with 17 interceptions during his first season with the Rams.

That season that ended with a Super Bowl victory — albeit one in which he also threw two interceptions to the Bengals before hitting Cooper Kupp for the winning touchdown on a masterful late drive.

Stafford is still taking risks at 37 years old. He throws into tight windows with more frequency than most quarterbacks, usually trusting Davante Adams or Puka Nacua to come up with the ball in difficult spots. With increasing frequency, he’s also throwing the no-look passes for which he has become famous ever since he did it on the winning drive in the Super Bowl.

Before the trip to rain-soaked Charlotte, Stafford had done an exceptional job of taking care of the ball this season, particularly during the Rams’ six-game winning streak to the top of the conference.

He set an NFL record by throwing 28 straight touchdown passes without an interception while playing eight straight pick-free games, and he had lost only two fumbles in the Rams’ first 11 games.

Coach Sean McVay isn’t discounting his star quarterback’s mistakes at Carolina, but he also doesn’t think Stafford needs much advice on how to play quarterback.

“The first one, sometimes those are unfortunate occupational hazards of a tipped ball right there and there’s not a lot that you can do,” McVay said. “But then the next two, absolutely you talk about, ‘What are the things that we could do to prevent turning the football over, whether it’s the interception or the fumble?’”

Stafford’s first interception since Week 3 was painful, because it came on a tipped pass by Carolina’s Derrick Brown into the arms of former Rams safety Nick Scott in the end zone.

That turnover cost the Rams at least three points — and on their next drive, Mike Jackson jumped a route and returned Stafford’s second interception for a 48-yard touchdown.

Stafford’s fumble came on the Rams’ last offensive snap, forced by Brown while Stafford tried to escape a collapsing pocket. Again, the Rams lost at least three points in what turned out to be a three-point loss.

“I still thought we gave ourselves a chance at the end of the game to win it,” Stafford said. “It was a mistake by myself to let that ball come out of my hands and not give us a chance to at least extend the game or going into overtime.”

NOTES: Adams (hamstring), DT Poona Ford (calf) and CB Darious Williams (tibia) all missed practice Wednesday. McVay is currently confident all three will play Sunday. … RB Kyren Williams (ankle), S Kam Kinchens (shoulder) and LB Byron Young (knee) were all limited. … Tutu Atwell was a full practice participant, yet McVay didn’t commit to activating his speedy $10 million receiver. Atwell was healthy last week, but didn’t get in uniform. “It’s been a unique set of circumstances relative to the timing and figuring out how you get 48 guys up,” McVay said.

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