Rams continue their playoff push

It’s not how you start but how you finish. The Los Angeles Rams are starting to show that kind of resiliency. Last season, the Rams started slowly but finished with a strong enough flurry to secure a Wild Card playoff berth.

This season, the Rams have positioned themselves to not only contend for a postseason run but also have an opportunity to win the NFC West Division outright.

A 21-14 road win against the New Orleans Saints now has the Rams one game out of first place. Since their Week 6 bye week, the Rams have peeled off five wins in seven games.

The key to this run may have a lot to do with more continuity on the offensive line. Having both Steve Avila and Rob Havenstein on the offensive line together helps.

“They played tough and I thought they played gritty,” Rams head coach Sean McVay said about the duo playing together against the Saints. “I thought it was especially illustrated in the run game, the way that we came off, and the way that we hit blocks.” 

With three games remaining on their schedule against NFC West opponents, including dates against the Seattle Seahawks, Arizona Cardinals, and San Francisco 49ers, the Rams control their fate in the postseason.

The options for McVay’s ballclub are simple: win and keep things pushing. Go down in defeat and risk going on an early vacation.

Games against the Cardinals and Seahawks will take place in Week 17 and Week 18, respectively, at SoFi Stadium. The Rams can solidify a berth in the playoff in front of their home fans. In the meantime, the Rams still have a lot of work to do in order to set themselves up for a playoff seeding.

Aside from their divisional opponents, the Rams have Buffalo and the New York Jets left on their schedule. For now, the Rams took care of business against the Saints. During the first half against New Orleans, it didn’t look like that was going to happen because the Saints held Los Angeles to zero points.

McVay addressed what his team needs to do to get off to a faster start. He put the onus on one area in particular.

“I think just the consistent execution,” McVay said. “I know we talked a little bit about this in the postgame presser, but it really is, how much can we make sure that we’re putting our guys in the right spots and then they’re able to execute? It’s all of us in it together, but it’s the consistent execution.  It’s the consistent, sound things that we’re asking our guys to do based on whatever those matchups are or the given opponents and what we’re anticipating and expecting.” 

The Rams cranked it up in the second half, scoring two touchdowns in the fourth quarter to claim their sixth win (6-6) of the season. The big news of the day was that Kyren Williams pushed towards the century mark running the football.

Williams, who scored on a 4-yard touchdown run in the third quarter, rushed for 104 yards on 15 carries. That’s averages out to 6.9 yards per rush. Puka Nacua and Demarcus Robinson hauled in touchdown passes from Matthew Stafford for the other Rams scores.