Are the Rams playing a trap game in Week 8?

The Los Angeles Rams face an interesting Week 8 opponent in the Green Bay Packers, begging the question if this is a trap game for LA.

I mentioned last week that some might have viewed the Los Angeles Rams Week 7 matchup against NFC West rival San Francisco 49ers as a potential trap game leading up to Week 8 and the Green Bay Packers. I didn’t see the Niners in such a role as LA and San Francisco is a solid rivalry, but is this week different?

Packers at the Rams certainly has some intrigue. At 3-2-1 and sitting in second place in the NFC North behind the Minnesota Vikings, Green Bay has some work to do. Aaron Rodgers, who may be the best quarterback Los Angeles has so faced far in 2018, has the requisite credentials and repertoire to not just hang in with but engineer a win over the 7-0 Rams.

That said, Week 8 also kicks off a pretty good run of quality teams and quality quarterbacks Los Angeles will face to both close out October, the first half of the NFL season, and begin a November that features Drew Brees, Russell Wilson, and second year phenom Patrick Mahomes.

So is there a chance Week 8 against the Packers gets overlooked ahead of a showdown with Brees and the New Orleans Saints next Sunday?

That’s hard to see in the Rams DNA.

Through seven games in seven weeks, LA hasn’t shown a tendency to play down to an opponent like the Arizona Cardinals or San Francisco. If anything Los Angeles looks like a team both relaxed and focused.

Rodgers might be the one quarterback that rattles a team by simply being persistent on the field, meaning if the Rams let Green Bay hang around late in the fourth, he can make you pay.

At 7-0, Los Angeles has an opportunity to escape the first half of the season undefeated, but also relatively untested. Outside of a shootout against the Vikings, they’ve hardly faced a significant challenge, and even for all the fireworks in the Minnesota game, you never had a feeling that contest was in doubt. Rodgers and the Packers may be the first real test they get from a team capable of playing better, and a quarterback destined for the Hall of Fame.

That may not necessarily make for a trap game, but a measurement to show just how good the Los Angeles Rams are, and what the second half of the season may hold for arguably the best team in the NFL.