3 predictions for Rams and Niners in Week 17

Week 17 looks to be an anticlimactic affair, when the second unit of the Los Angeles Rams face the San Francisco 49ers for a season finale lacking much anticipation.

The Los Angeles Rams will host the San Francisco 49ers  in Week 17 of the 2017 NFL season, and for LA fans, what a season its been.

But for the last Rams home game this year, a season like last and another next year, it’s one less home game than most NFL teams, as Los Angeles hosted a “home” game in London.

That’s the price for the National Football League back in Los Angeles.

You lovin’ it LA fans?

Well, the bill comes due this week as Rams head coach Sean McVay, a logical selection for NFL Coach of the Year, sits the big names against a division rival and an up-and-comer 49ers team with the newest flavor of the month, Jimmy Garoppolo.

Hey, he’s really good.

He’ll also have the Coliseum pretty much to himself as the Rams dig into the depth chart for a roster who resembles the Cleveland Browns and not an NFC West champion.

What could have been a preview of the best to come in the NFC West, is now a mid-week holiday bowl game, with McVay making a reasonable decision to play it safe, versus to play to win.

Ok.

So, Sean Mannion fans, rejoice!
It’s your weekend!

He’ll deliver.

The NFC West is on deck for some serious quarterback play in 2018.

Beginning next season, the Los Angeles Rams, San Francisco 49ers, and the Seattle Seahawks have the kind of QB play that will both dominate and dictate what happens in the division and the NFC as a whole.

Yeah, it should be really good.

Unfortunately for fans on Sunday, and not just Rams fans in the Coliseum, we won’t see how good both teams can be head to head until the NFL releases the 2018 schedule.

It also will be a one sided affair, and that’s unfortunate as an opportunity to see the top two quarterbacks not just in the division, but in the league won’t happen.

And that’s a net positive for the NFC West and the NFL. It’s been a bleak landscape for two of the four teams in the division for too long now, but the addition of Garoppolo has completely changed that equation.

Hopefully next year at this time, the division will yet to be decided, and McVay will have to play all his players.

Anyway you slice it, the Los Angeles Rams aren’t looking to win in Week 17. Say what you want, call it what you want, but when you sit key players from your starting lineup against a regular season opponent, know that winning isn’t your top priority.

But that’s ok, right?

Not really, but super fan isn’t concerned with that, and neither is Sean McVay.

Again, that’s ok, just don’t say winning is.

With the playoffs pretty much slotted, McVay made the command decision to give players a day off. It’s his prerogative, and he knows the upside and downside of such a decision. Which means if he loses, he’ll be questioned, and if he wins, he’ll be commended.

So, it’s a toss-up. Which means he’s playing the statistics that in the playoffs the better team wins, and in the first playoff game the Rams will play, they’ll be the better team.

In Week 17, the Rams will deploy a team NOT better than the competition. McVay knows this, and no press-room spin will convince watchers otherwise.

Which means the 49ers will have an obvious advantage, and likely a five game winning streak to end their 2017 campaign.

It’ll also mean the last impression of the NFC West will be one where Jimmy Garoppolo gets a win, and Jared Goff will not.

Let’s be candid about Week 17; the Los Angeles Rams ARE NOT PLAYING TO WIN!

They are playing a game with their best options on the bench, and any interpretation otherwise is a fan lying to him/herself.

But that’s also ok.

Sean McVay isn’t bucking a trend, nor is he the first to sit his key starters.

That also is unfortunate.

In the San Francisco 49ers, the Rams are avoiding the one team who after Week 17, will probably be their closest competition in 2018. San Francisco quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo may be playing at the highest level in the NFC West at the moment, and any team riding a four game winning streak, especially in the NFL, is nobody to take lightly.

Next: Will Rams and 49ers be a two-horse race in 2018?

The 49ers aren’t playing for anything other than pride in Week 17, whereas the Los Angeles Rams are looking to stay healthy beyond the final week of the season. So no one really wins or loses, except maybe the home fans who show up at the Coliseum, which makes them and their paid admission expendable.

But that’s another conversation for another time.

In this final week of the NFL season, I can write that the best team on the field WON’T be the Rams.

Next: 3 storylines for Rams and 49ers in Week 17

It’ll be Jimmy Garoppolo and his Niners.

Go figure.

Rams 17
49ers 27