Rams fail to capitalize on golden opportunity in NFC with back-to-back losses

The door was wide open for the Rams. All they had to do was take care of business and win two games they were expected to – two games they were favored in by more than a field goal each.

But at the worst possible time, they decided to turn into a team with no cohesion on offense and a group that caused far too many self-inflicted wounds.

The last two weeks in the NFL have been wildly unpredictable. In Week 9, the Cowboys were blown out by the Broncos, the Chiefs beat the Aaron Rodger-less Packers and the Falcons knocked off the Saints.

This week, we saw the Buccaneers get upset by Washington and the Cardinals were crushed by the Panthers.

And, of course, the Rams were stunned by the Titans and 49ers in consecutive weeks when they were presented with a golden opportunity to rise up the standings in the NFC. Obviously, hindsight is 20-20 and no win is given in the NFL, but had the Rams beaten the Titans and 49ers like they were expected to, they’d be sitting alone at 9-1.

With the Cowboys, Packers, Saints, Bucs and Cardinals all losing once in the last two weeks, the Rams should’ve at least kept pace in the conference by beating either the Titans or 49ers. But instead of gaining ground and taking advantage of this chance, they actually fell further behind the rest of the top teams in the NFC.

Even if you go back to Week 8, the records of the top teams in the NFC have been subpar.

Now, the Packers and Cardinals are the top two seeds at 8-2, followed by the 7-2 Cowboys and 7-3 Rams. But because the Cardinals lead the NFC West, the Rams are actually the fifth seed right now, despite having a better record than the 6-3 Buccaneers.

With only one team earning a first-round bye in the playoffs now, every game is critical – especially those within the NFC when it comes to tiebreakers. Sitting a game behind the Cardinals and having already lost to Arizona once puts the Rams in a tough spot. If the Rams lose to the Cardinals again in Week 14, it’ll be difficult to top them in the standings when it comes to sorting out the divison and playoff seeding.

This loss to the 49ers could wind up being the difference between hosting a playoff game against, say, the Saints, Panthers, Vikings or Falcons, or going on the road against the Packers, Cardinals, Cowboys or Bucs.

There’s still a lot of football to be played, but these back-to-back losses really hurt at this point in the season with the schedule getting even tougher in the second half after their Week 11 bye.