Rams have reasons to be cautious over facing the Panthers in Week 13

The 9-2 Los Angeles Rams have crossed the threshold to a successful season. Even if the team loses its final six games (that won't happen), the team will end the season with a record of 9-8. Of course, at 9-8, success is relative. The team will not win the top seed in the NFL playoffs, will not win the NFC West Division, and, based on the records of other NFC teams, will not even make the playoffs.

So yeah, a successful record truly depends on the reader's definition of success. But there are many players who, even if they do not earn the recognition of NFL sports writers, analysts, and insiders, have played incredibly well this season. And therein lies the rub for Week 13.

The team has undergone another flurry of roster changes this week. The secondary, one of the recent surprises of the second half surge, is undergoing more upheavals as the team swaps healthy players in for injured one.

But new faces, even if they have plenty of experience with the team previously, need time to re-acclimate to the players and coaches once more. Los Angeles can make too many changes as well as too few.

Rams must begin to exert some caution as the season winds down

Injuries to the team are starting to stack up. So is the pressure. And the team must try to get better each day and play more cohesively each week. That's a tall order for a Los Angeles Rams team that is 9-2, playing its best football of the season, but swapping players like a NASCAR racing car swapping tires out in a pit stop.

Players are not tires. They need to learn how to coordinate, communicate, and collaborate effectively.

So now the risks of playing potentially injured players increase. If the severity of injuries increases, a player could be lost to the team at a vital period. But benching a player to ensure health and availability can result in derailing the team's streak of success.

The team can't play it both ways.

Even as former legendary NFL quarterback Tom Brady elevated Los Angeles to his top NFL team this week, he tossed in a brutal truth about the team. Are the Rams peaking too soon?

It's a fine balance that coaches must walk now. This cannot be a 'prevent defense' on an epic scale that encompasses the entire team and roster. But it cannot be so willy-nilly oblivious to injury risks that the team arrives at the NFL playoffs, but does so with so many injuries that success is nearly impossible.

Yes, the LA Rams have reasons to be cautious over facing the Panthers in Week 13. Don't expect the team to make drastic changes, though. This team has won its last six games under similar circumstances. You really can't argue over that level of success.

As always, thanks for reading.