NFC Playoff field wide open IF LA Rams win Week 15

The LA Rams have four games to play. At the beginning of the 2021 NFL season, we projected that the team would need to win 12+ games this season to have a shot at winning the NFC West, and be positioned to make a post-season run at competing in Super Bowl LVI.  That remains a pretty good projection.

The team is currently 9-4, and with only four games remaining, must find the means to win three of the last four games to reach that 12 victory goal. But there are other teams in the mix, and they also seek their own NFL Playoff berth.

It’s more than those teams competing for a playoff spot. Just ask the Arizona Cardinals. They traveled along with their undefeated road record of 7-0 and lost to the Detroit Lions by a humbling score of 30-12.  The Lions are eliminated from post-season play and won handily.

Rams schedule filled with playoff hopeful teams

Or you could ask the 10-3 Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who traveled to face their NFC South nemesis the 6-7 New Orleans Saints and were shut out by a score of 9-0. The Buccaneers are competing for the top-seed of the NFC for post-season play. The Saints are clinging to a hope of simply playing in post-season.  So where does that leave the LA Rams?

Well, the Rams have neither clinched a playoff berth, nor been eliminated from the top-see of the NFC. Realistically, the Rams must fight to win at least two of their remaining four games, and the most likely chance for success occurs in Week 15 by hosting the Seattle Seahawks.

A quick review of the LA Rams priority of games to win, purely from a post-season perspective, is as follows:

I –   Week 15  vs. Seattle Seahawks
II –  Week 16 @ Minnesota Vikings
III – Week 18 vs. San Francisco 49ers
IV – Week 17 @ Baltimore Ravens

Now before I get lambasted in the comments section my scolds of “all games are important”, let me remind you that we’re viewing the priority of each game purely from the NFL playoff perspective.