This LA Rams team must now step up for DL Aaron Donald

Rams suddenly face elimination

Until now, all of the incentive this season was in the favor of the 49ers. When the Rams faced the 49ers, it was the 3-5 49ers who were on the brink of playoff elimination at the mid-season mark. At that point in the season, the Rams were comfortably at 7-2 and were pursuing the best record in the NFL. Different tales, right?

When the two teams clashed again, these same 9-7 49ers were at the brink of disaster once more. Lose? They are out of the playoffs. If the 12-4 Rams lose? Well, they are still firmly entrenched in the NFL Playoffs. But as it turned out, the Rams loss was relatively harmless, as the Arizona Cardinals lost as well. That pitted the Rams against the plummeting Cardinals and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.  Meanwhile, that sent the 49ers on a playoff track to face the Dallas Cowboys and the Green Bay Packers. Different tales again, right?

No safety nets

Not in this game. There is no safety net under either team in this game. The winner advances to the Super Bowl, and the loser goes home to plan for free agency and the 2022 NFL Draft. Will that change anything? Or, as many San Francisco 49ers based NFL reporters like to suggest, has 49ers HC Kyle Shanahan taken up residence inside the head of Rams HC Sean McVay?

As we had discussed previously, the San Francisco 49ers’ winning streak has been about beating the Rams in the regular season. If you’ve followed the contests over the years, the 49ers’ players incessantly seem to get healthy to face the Rams. And the 49ers have not had nearly as much success playing against the rest of the NFL. Their wins against the Rams have been the highlights of their past two seasons.

And it’s that exertion of no-holds-barred that will betray the 49ers in this one. They are already treating this game like any other regular-season game.

Big mistake. Huge mistake.