There’s no such thing as an easy playoff matchup in the NFL. Only 12 teams make the postseason and as we’ve seen in the past, you don’t have to be a top-four seed to win a Super Bowl.
Sean McVay knows how difficult it is to win in the playoffs and he’s not going to take any of the Rams’ three possible opponents lightly. Depending on how wild-card weekend plays out, the Rams can face the Bears, Seahawks or Cowboys in the divisional round. The only team they can’t face is Philadelphia, which is the sixth seed.
The Rams played the Bears and Seahawks (twice) already this season, which would seem like an advantage for L.A. Sean McVay said Monday that the Rams have “done a lot of work on Seattle and Chicago just having played those guys this year already,” but that doesn’t necessarily give them an edge.
Just as the Rams have, the Bears and Seahawks have also done plenty of studying on Los Angeles, too. But unlike those two teams, the Rams can spend this week studying potential opponents rather than planning for a wild-card game.
“It’s a good problem. The fortunate thing is, with two of the three teams that we could potentially play, we’ve done a lot of work on Seattle and Chicago just having played those guys this year already,” McVay said. “So, we’ll kind of do the prep – we’ll get ahead and kind of get a glance on all three of those teams that we could potentially play and try to get ahead.
“But yes, it will be something where any of those three teams that we could potentially play, we’ll get an advance jump on looking at those guys. For us, the unique thing is, is two of those three teams we’ve played, and then Dallas being the only one that we could play that we haven’t, obviously.”
That begs the question of whether McVay would prefer to play a team the Rams have already faced this season. The obvious answer would seem to be yes. With an extra week to prepare and having already watched film on them, you’d think the Rams would rather play the Seahawks or Bears.
On the other hand, it’s difficult to beat a team three times in one season as the Rams would have to against the Seahawks, while the Bears proved to be a difficult matchup earlier this season.
“That’s a good question. I think the biggest thing is, is whoever we play, it’s going to be a really tough game. These teams have done such an excellent job to even get themselves in a position to be in the playoffs. I don’t think you have a preference. You know it’s going to be a great challenge regardless, but whether you played a team or not – because you say, ‘Well, you’ve got some familiarity with them.’ Well, they have familiarity with you,” McVay said. “I think it goes both ways. So, the biggest thing is, is whoever we play we’ve got to do a great job getting ready for them. For us right now, there’s a little bit of preliminary work, like you asked about, with all three of the teams that we could see. But no matter which one of them it is, we’ve got to be ready to go and play a great football game to get it done.”