Rams Reacts Results: The Los Angeles Rams are NFC West champs

The Los Angeles Rams fan base confidence is flying high after the team won the NFC West and secured their spot in the postseason. It was a rough start to the season as LA fought through injuries and a 1-4 start. However, the resiliency of the roster, along with the masterful coaching of Sean McVay and his staff, allowed the team to put together a 9-2 record the rest of the way to lock up the division with one regular season week to spare.

After a rollercoaster season of confidence votes, the Rams ability to consistency win the past few weeks has coincided with the fan base’s highly positive results during the same time frame. This week 92% of fans belief in the direction the team is headed, according to our FanDuel poll.

I still remember writing an article when the team was 1-3 explaining why it was ok for fans to stay optimistic about the season. It was written based on the idea that McVay’s ability to make a locker room believe and grow together, even in the face of heavy adversity, could somehow overcome what history has told us about bad starts and get back on track. We seen the Rams do it in 2023, and now despite only a 4% chance to make the playoffs back in Week 6, the team has fought through the storm again, to find themselves in the 2024-25 Wild Card round.

A win in Week 18 vs. The Seahawks still helps the Rams on a small level, as it would secure their number three seed and allow them to avoid one of the 12-4 NFC North teams in the first round. However, the risk vs. reward is not enough for McVay in this situation, who says he plans to rest most of his key veteran players to insure their health for the playoffs and doesn’t think there’s much difference between being the third seed or fourth seed.

“No, I think there’s a difference if you’re talking about playing for a bye,” he said. “… Here, you’re talking about either the third or the fourth seed. You could sit here and try to play all these different things, [but] we have to be ready to go. Somebody’s coming in here and that’s going to be an excellent team that earned an opportunity to be in the postseason. If you want to do what you’re going to do, you can’t necessarily duck anybody. You always have to weigh that risk-reward of we want to continue to make sure that all these games are important. There’s maybe some flexibility that you have based on your injury situation.”

It’s easy to understand McVay’s decision, especially when it comes to someone like Stafford or Kupp who play crucial roles on offense and have missed multiple games due to injury the last few seasons. The NFC has three teams already with win totals over 13, so it will be a gauntlet wherever the Rams start off at. If the eventual goal is the Super Bowl, LA will need to beat the best teams either way to get there, whether that be in the Wild Card round or NFC Championship really doesn’t matter.

Washington is no pushover either, and the Green Bay Packers has had the Rams number the last few years, so playing them in the third seed position might not be the better route to go anyways. Los Angeles took the Lions to overtime and beat the Vikings this year, so even in the fourth seed, the Rams have proven they can hang with the top dogs.

This weekend is a victory lap of sorts for Los Angeles and while a win will always hoped for, even with backups playing larger roles in the game, Rams fans should take this Sunday to enjoy a relatively stress free weekend of fun NFL games and prepare to find out who LA will face in the Wild Card as the final week of the season closes.