3 reasons why the LA Rams are 1 of the hottest teams heading to the NFL Playoffs

(3) - The Rams are beating all of the odds

To say that they had it all along would be an outright lie. After falling to 1-4 at the end of Week 5 on the Rams schedule, the chances of making the NFL Playoffs were remote indeed. Unbeknownst to many fans and analysts, the team had fun into the buzz saw that was the NFC North Division, and had lost all three games on the Rams schedule to them before their Week 6 BYE.

At 1-4, the team had dug itself a pretty deep hole that appeared to be its inevitable downfall. Yet, the team did have an early Week 6 BYE, and 2023 proved that the Rams could regroup and recompose itself after a BYE. So the team, and faithful fans, clung to the hope that the team would right itself.

Even after evening up the record after the BYE, the LA Rams stumbled in mid-season. The team lost to the Miami Dolphins by a score of 23-15 to fall back to a record of 4-5. Then after winning once more to even the record, the team was trounced by the Philadelphia Eagles and RB Saquon Barkley to fall back to a record of 5-6. That would be the team's last loss of the season as the team now prepares to face the Seattle Seahawks in Week 18.

Nobody expected the Rams (2-4) to beat the Minnesota Vikings (5-1) in Week 8. But after the smoke cleared and the scoreboard confirmed that the team had won, nobody lost sight over that fact that the win was just one victory. The team was only 3-4, and still had many more wins to achieve if postseason competition was truly the goal.

When the Rams (6-6) hosted the red-hot Buffalo Bills in Week 14, nobody expected the team to shake off a humiliating loss to the Eagles in time to mount any type of resistance to an offense that routinely scored 30+ points in a game, and arrived at SoFi Stadium at the crest of a seven-game winning streak. Once again, when the dust settled, the Rams had outscored the Bills in a shootout by the final score of 44-42.

And once more, the dramatic victory was only one more win, improving the team to a record of 7-6. Losing four of the first five games is a tough hole to climb out of. The Rams have gone on to win nine of the last 11 games on the Rams schedule. And the thing is, the team has yet to appear to play its best overall game. This is a perfectly imperfect team that enters games with perceived flaws and vulnerabilities that are self-correcting.

That makes a vulnerable Rams roster difficult to game-plan against because the Rams coaches keep moving the goal posts. Strategies that worked beautifully in the past are benign and ineffective just one week later. This team is playing with house money, and with nothing to lose, has everything to gain.

Just like 2023.