Rams officially fall to No. 2 seed in NFC following Thanksgiving win by Saints

With the New Orleans Saints winning with ease over the Atlanta Falcons on Thanksgiving, the Los Angeles Rams officially dropped to the No. 2 seed in the NFC playoff picture.

The bye week came at the perfect time for the Los Angeles Rams following a tough win over the Kansas City Chiefs when looking at some of the injuries the team has been dealing with on both sides of the football.

At 10-1, all signs point to the Rams at least earning a first-round bye come playoff time since the only team that seems to be standing in their way from one of the top two seeds in the NFC is the Chicago Bears, who improved to 8-3 on Thanksgiving following a win over the Detroit Lions.

Over the first couple of months, Los Angeles was viewed as the team to beat in the NFC before the New Orleans Saints worked their way into the conversation by winning 10 games in a row, including Thursday’s game against the Atlanta Falcons.

Even though the Saints were heavy favorites heading into the game, the Rams were hoping to see the Falcons pull off some sort of magic on Thanksgiving to upset their division rivals. And when seeing how Atlanta has been fighting for their playoff lives in recent weeks, a win in New Orleans didn’t sound so crazy to consider after all.

Unfortunately for Dan Quinn’s squad, the Saints had little trouble getting by the Falcons during their 31-17 win, meaning New Orleans has officially taken over the top seed in the NFC over Los Angeles.

As Rams fans know, the Saints were the only team to take down Los Angeles during the regular season to give them the advantage with the head-to-head tiebreaker since both teams will enter Week 13 with a 10-1 record.

However, just because Los Angeles dropped to the No. 2 seed doesn’t necessarily mean it will last since the argument can be made that New Orleans faces extra pressure in the coming weeks to keep their impressive winning streak alive.

Plus, when seeing how the Rams have only one opponent above .500 in the Chicago Bears to face over the final five games at the moment, their favorable schedule could also give them an advantage over the Saints during this final stretch.

It’s not going to be easy, but after that thrilling win over Kansas City, this Los Angeles team is playing with all sorts of confidence at the moment, and not even dropping to the No. 2 seed can take away from their belief to finish on top when it’s all said and done.