Rams still not that far behind NFC West leaders

At 1-4, the Rams are not out of the NFC West race unless they continue to lose

If the Rams were in the same division as a 5-0 team, or even a 4-1 team, it would be a lot easier to say that they’re completely out of the race. However, since the San Francisco 49ers beat the Seattle Seahawks on Thursday night (handily), the top two teams in the NFC West are 3-3.

The only way that the Rams will be out of the NFC West race is if they continue to lose. They still haven’t lost “too many games” yet.

I know that there will be those who say, “Who cares? Yes, the Rams ARE OUT OF IT!” and that’s a perfectly logical, reasonable, rational point of view. The Rams have played terrible defense through five games and the offense is way too banged up to be able to outscore what the defense allows. Especially if Matthew Stafford isn’t super-human.

However, the bright side is that the NFC West is the only division in the NFL without a team that has a winning record.

The Seahawks defense might actually be worse than the Rams defense.

The 49ers injuries could end up being worse than L.A.’s injuries, although at the moment the only glaring absence is Christian McCaffrey’s.

The Cardinals are the Cardinals. They actually have the best division and conference record in the division, but they are the Cardinals.

Given that San Francisco’s arguably the worst second-half team in the NFL and can’t hold a lead—they only protected a 20-point lead against Seattle because of how poorly the Seahawks responded after they cut the lead to 23-17—I’m not so sure that the winner of the division won’t end up at 8-9 or 9-8. None of these teams are playing consistently good football. None of these teams are proving to be formidable. The Rams could be out of the race in almost any other division…

But if they can come out of the bye week to win more games than they lose, they’ll be right back in it.