Turf Show Times
With the Los Angeles Rams dismantling the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday Night Football one week after beating the Seattle Seahawks, this is a team that appears to be moving full steam ahead. They have now won six straight games and are widely considered the best team in the NFL.
Head coach Sean McVay has certainly been in this spot before in his tenure. The Rams were 8-3 in 2017 and 10-1 after Week 12 in 2018, serving as front-runners in both seasons. While McVay has been in this spot, it’s generally new for many on this current Rams team. Over the past two seasons, the Rams have largely been playing from behind the eight ball late in the year. In 2023, the Rams had to recover from 3-6 to make the playoffs. Last season, the Rams were 1-4 and then 5-6 after losing by three scores to the Philadelphia Eagles.
This Rams team with this group of players is generally in an unfamiliar position. That isn’t to say that they aren’t well-equipped to handle it. The Rams have the coaching staff and leadership to keep the team focused on the end goal. However, this is the first time that they have been front-runners this late in the season.
Over the last two years, the Rams have been playing their best football heading into the playoffs. They won five straight games heading into the postseason last year with their lone loss being a Week 18 matchup in which they rested their starters. They were arguably the hottest team in the NFL. In 2023, they won seven of their final eight games. The only loss came to the Baltimore Ravens on the road in overtime.
To call it a concern would be hyperbolic, but the hope right now is that the Rams aren’t peaking or that they haven’t peaked too early. The Rams typically have done a good job growing into the season and begin to play their best football when it matters most. This Rams team is currently playing very good football. A question now is whether or not they can sustain it over the next two months.
Every year there are teams that get hot in the middle third of the season and then fizzle out down the stretch. Here are just a few examples in just the NFC over the last five years:
