Do LA Rams face sit ’em or start ’em dilemma in Week 18?

Resting periods have already been baked into the schedule

While this is a 17 game season, the Rams organization has done their darnedest to ensure that players have gotten timely rests. The team sat starters in the fourth quarter of a Week 6 blowout of the New York Giants.  The team repeated the process, sitting starters in the fourth quarter of a Week 8 blowout of the Houston Texans.

The team even sat a rather large number of starters to comply with COVID-19 protocols, over a span of time that began with the Week 14 contest against the Arizona Cardinals. In many cases, those players missed two weeks of playing time.

Perhaps best of all, the LA Rams played ten games on their schedule before the BYE week, and are now preparing to play their seventh game after the BYE. That has afforded the team a chance to let everyone on the roster heal up, recharge, and come back fully ready to compete.

Welcoming back healthy players

There have even been some players who have come back from a prolonged injury. The Rams welcomed back OLB Justin Hollins on Week 14 after he was on IR for ten weeks. The team is prepared to welcome back RB Cam Akers after he had missed the entire season due to an Achilles Tendon tear.

This is the time for the LA Rams to roar, not to whimper. This is the time for the LA Rams to bowl through the San Francisco 49ers on the way to a Super Bowl run, not try to tiptoe past them.

In the end, the LA Rams really do not have a choice at all. The team has finally learned that they can be a tough power-running type of offense as well. This team has cobbled five wins by will-power and resiliency. And it’s happened because the team entered the contest without an option to lose.

Week 18 is the mid-term exam. The team faces the 49ers, a team that has had their number for some time. Win this one, and the Rams suddenly become very dangerous. Lose? Every opponent will study what the 49ers did and the Rams will get a steady diet of it throughout the playoffs.