{"id":206134,"date":"2024-12-24T08:56:19","date_gmt":"2024-12-24T13:56:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/?p=206134"},"modified":"2024-12-24T08:56:19","modified_gmt":"2024-12-24T13:56:19","slug":"rams-nfc-standing-after-week-16","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2024\/12\/24\/rams-nfc-standing-after-week-16\/","title":{"rendered":"Where the Los Angeles Rams Stand After Week 16"},"content":{"rendered":"

In Week 16, the Los Angeles Rams (9-6) defeated the New York Jets<\/a> (4-11) in a tight affair. Harkening back to the old NFC North days, quarterbacks Matthew Stafford and Aaron Rodgers<\/a> battled it out, with the former Detroit Lions<\/a> coming out on top.<\/p>\n

With losses for the Arizona Cardinals<\/a>,\u00a0 San Francisco 49ers<\/a>, and Seattle Seahawks<\/a>, LA retains sole possession of the NFC West. The former two teams are also eliminated from playoff contention. The Rams continue to string wins together, a far cry from the 1-4 start to the season.<\/p>\n

Los Angeles also sits third in the NFC. SoFi Stadium would host the Green Bay Packers in the Wild Card round if standings hold.<\/p>\n

Where the Los Angeles Rams Stand After Week 16<\/h2>\n

With Seattle and Los Angeles the only NFC West contenders, the gap is widening. The Rams could clinch the division with a win over Arizona on Saturday. However, this scenario also relies on the lowly Chicago Bears<\/a> defeating the Seahawks on ‘Thursday Night Football.’<\/p>\n

While anything is possible in the NFL, it looks like the Bears have given up. Chicago has yet to win after losing to the Washington Commanders on a Hail Mary in Week 8.<\/p>\n

Barring a serious upset, the Rams can also clinch the playoffs by beating the Seahawks in Week 18.<\/p>\n

The Rams have one of the more vexing tiebreaker scenarios in the NFL. Should both teams tie in head-to-head and division matches, tiebreaking<\/a> comes down to Strength of Victory. Essentially, SoV is a metric measuring a team’s quality of victory by looking at the victories of teams they beat. So if the Rams beat a team that goes on to beat other teams, the Rams’ SoV improves.<\/p>\n

Beat good teams, your team is good and will make the postseason. Something for Alabama fans to consider.<\/p>\n

Los Angeles will clinch in SoV if these clubs combine for three wins and a tie: the 49ers, Bengals, Bills, Commanders, Browns, or Vikings. A New Orleans Saints win over the Packers tonight would also help this equation.<\/p>\n

My prediction? Week 17 will see the Bengals beat the Broncos, the Bills beat the Jets, the Commanders beat the Falcons, and the Vikings beat the Packers.<\/p>\n

These tiebreakers are convoluted but necessary for the playoff process. They also heavily favor the Rams, who currently have an 85% chance to make the postseason.<\/p>\n

McVay’s Comments<\/h3>\n

Head coach Sean McVay<\/a> had much to say about the Rams’ NFC standing on Monday. He affirmed that while he is paying attention to these fringe scenarios, the team is just focused on winning football games.<\/p>\n

“I think you know what’s at stake, but I think what you also know is none of that really matters if you don’t handle what we are responsible for controlling,” McVay said. “The only thing that matters is, are (we) taking care of what we’re responsible for? Fortunately, we’re in a position where you don’t necessarily have to rely on other things to happen if you just handle your business.”<\/p>\n

As Captain McVay steers the team toward a postseason berth, one thing is getting clear: The Rams are dangerous.<\/p>\n

Main Photo: Brad Penner-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Rams remain atop the NFC West and third in the conference going into Week 17, how can they fully clinch their playoff position?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5321,"featured_media":206293,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[54,34],"tags":[7473],"class_list":["post-206134","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-editorials","category-rams","tag-los-angeles-rams-news"],"modified_by":"Will Koshover, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206134","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5321"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=206134"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206134\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":206294,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206134\/revisions\/206294"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/206293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=206134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=206134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=206134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}