Turf Show Times
As heartbreaking as it may feel to lose to the Eagles on a blocked field goal in Week 3, surely the Rams do take some positives away from the game. They did jump out to a 19-point lead on the road against last year’s Super Bowl winners. They did contain Saquon Barkley for the first time. They did get a hell of an effort from kicker Joshua Karty despite not always blocking for him.
However, the NFL is not a league of moral victories. It’s a league of actual victories and that’s why losing a game to a potential number one seed in the NFC, when you’re already in a tight race within the division, could come back to haunt the Rams in Week 18 and the playoffs. The NFL is, by and large, decided by conference and division tiebreakers.
The Rams were within striking distance of not only giving themselves an early advantage in the conference standings, but striking a blow to the presumed best team in the NFC. They were this close to giving the Eagles a loss at home and they didn’t have an answer for Jordan Davis at the most crucial moment of the game and that is why it stings. Use the moral victories to get better next week, but know that it is not the lesson to be learned:
0-1 in the NFC. These things matter. They hugely, hugely, massively matter.
As you will see from the last few seasons when the Rams were in the playoff hunt, they either got a huge advantage or suffered a major disadvantage because of wins or losses like Sunday’s in Philadelphia. It’s only September 22nd and a lot can and will change in the next three months, but here’s what won’t change:
A Week 3 conference loss counts exactly the same as a Week 17 conference loss. You’d be better off losing to the Titans than the Eagles.
Even though the Rams won the NFC West in 2021, they barely did (Cardinals 11-6, 49ers 10-7) and they were the 4-seed out of 4 division winners. However, being a division winner instead of a wild card team still helped L.A. immensely en route to winning the Super Bowl:
The Rams hosted the Cardinals in the wild card (rout), had to go to Tampa Bay in the second round, and then by a stroke of luck hosted the 49ers in the NFC Championship game. Had L.A. needed to go on the road in the NFCCG, Matthew Stafford maybe never gets that ring. The Rams can’t count on road upsets, they need every advantage in the playoffs that they can get.
L.A. started the season 3-6 but miraculously recovered to finish 10-7 and make the playoffs as a wild card. Remarkably, if the Rams had beaten the 49ers in Week 2 (30-23 loss) and not blown that...
