The Los Angeles Rams looked like last season's edition of their team with their win over the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday Night Football. The rest of the NFC needs to watch out because they are back in the playoff race.
After a slow start to the season, Todd Gurley has a big role again in the offense and that has been critical to their recent success. In three of his previous four performances, he has logged at least 20 touches. It's no coincidence the Rams have won three of those either games. When the running game is working, it opens up the passing game and that showed against the Seahawks.
Jared Goff is playing with a lot of confidence and his wide receivers seemed to be wide open all night. He finished the game completing 71 percent of his passes for 293 yards and two touchdowns. He did have two interceptions, including one that was returned for a touchdown, but the team was able to overcome it.
The Rams were swarming Russell Wilson with their pass rush all night and made life tough on the Seahawks as a whole. It was intriguing to see Los Angeles defend with such impact and to stay disciplined by not letting Wilson hurt them with his legs.
That was a focal point this week — we had to make sure [Wilson] didn’t hurt us as much as he did in the first game with his legs,” linebacker Samson Ebukam said after the Rams kept their playoff hopes alive with a 28-12 victory before a crowd of 71,501 in the Coliseum via the Los Angeles Times.
“We had to be disciplined. We had to do our job and trust that the plays are going to come to us instead of always trying to go make plays, because he will make you miss. He’s a baller.”
The Rams have had nearly perfect game plans the last month and they are going to need to have that continue the last three weeks. They are undoubtedly back in the playoff race, but the main issue is they don't control their own destiny when it comes to potentially landing a spot in the NFC playoff picture.
The Rams currently sit with an 8-5 record and trail the Minnesota Vikings (9-4) by one game. It doesn't help that Los Angeles has a tough schedule to close out the season. They still have to the Dallas Cowboys and San Francisco 49ers both on the road before finishing their season at home against the Arizona Cardinals.
If the Rams are serious about making a push for the playoffs, they will need to rally and finish the remainder of their schedule 3-0 and hope the Vikings can experience shortcomings that boost their odds.
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