The Los Angeles Rams worked through a gritty Week 13 win over the Detroit Lions, 30-13. It wasn’t the prettiest manifestation of Rams football under Head Coach Sean McVay, but it’s a win nonetheless.

With the trap game challenge passed, the Rams will get ready to face the Chicago Bears in Week 14 at Soldier Field in a major matchup on Sunday Night Football.

So as we barrel toward the NFC North leaders, here’s the outlook perspective.

Injuries

CB Marcus Peters and CB Sam Shields both took knocks, but I’d expect both to be ok next week. Perhaps the bigger injury was to RB Malcolm Brown who injured his shoulder. Interestingly, he was the only active running back along with Todd Gurley as both RB Justin Davis and RB John Kelly were among the inactives. If Brown does miss time, it will be interesting to see if Davis still holds the RB3 designation or if Kelly has passed him up in the last month.

Performance Issues

Well, the passing offense certainly wasn’t the explosive unit we’ve seen before. I suppose there’s some introspection to be had there coming out of the bye and with WR Cooper Kupp on IR. It was one of QB Jared Goff’s worst performances of the year, but let’s not allow recency bias to dominate proceedings. A stingy Bears defense is followed by softer opposition heading into the playoffs, so I wouldn’t be surprised at a near-immediate Goff rebound.

Standings

NFC West champions, two years running. Not too shabby.

The bigger standings reference now is the NFC playoff picture:

After cutting out the Arizona Cardinals, San Francisco 49ers and New York Giants last week, I’ve lopped off the three other four-win teams with them: the Green Bay Packers, the Atlanta Falcons and the Lions.

Thursday’s win by the Dallas Cowboys over the New Orleans Saints pushed the Rams into the top seed. It’s a week-to-week watch as a Rams loss would slip them back into second while another Saints loss would give us even more support.

Let’s block ads! (Why?)

Source link