The Los Angeles Rams are on a bye week and while most casual fans will take the week off from football, if you are reading this you are not a casual fan. You, like me, are a sicko. You know that each and every game has an effect on the others. Even the ones that have little direct influence will play a role in how the Rams’ season ends or continues into the playoffs.
Must Watch Games For Los Angeles Rams Fans On Bye Week
Arizona Cardinals At Green Bay Packers, 10 AM PST on Fox
No team embarrassed the Rams more this season than the Arizona Cardinals. The Red Birds never looked better this season than when they beat up on LA’s defense and ground their offense to a halt.
On the other side, the Packers, particularly with Jordan Love under center, have not looked like Super Bowl contenders this season. It is hard to imagine with their NFC North rivals Minnesota Vikings 5-0 that the Packers will be competing for the division crown. Meaning, they will be competing with the Rams for a wild card spot.
The Cardinals’ chances of making the playoffs are slim, but the team has proved it can win against talented teams, their other win this season came against the San Francisco 49ers.
The race for the final spot in the NFC playoffs may come down to the Cardinals and the Rams, and as of right now, they own a post-season berth tiebreaker over LA for the head-to-head matchup. The next criterion is in division wins, the Rams are currently 1-1 and Arizona is 2-0
Tampa Bay Buccaneers At New Orleans Saints, 10 AM PST on Fox
This one has playoff implications as well. Both teams are ahead of LA in playoff projection models and the NFC South is the hardest division to predict who will actually rise to the top. The Falcons are projected to go 10-7 and are given a 36 percent chance to win the South. After going 2-0 to start the season the Saints have dropped three straight. They are expected to go 9-7, but that may change rapidly now that quarterback Derek Carr is expected to miss multiple games. The Saints plan to start rookie 5th-rounder Spencer Rattler in his place.
With how the Rams season has started, they will need a strong finish to give themselves a shot at the playoffs and that will include a game against the New Orleans Saints in Week 13. It will undoubtedly be a must-win for the Rams.
Buffalo Bills At New York Jets, MNF, 5:15 PM PST on ESPN
These are two more teams that the Rams face in the home stretch of the season. They play the Bills at SoFi in Week 14 and then two weeks later play the Jets with a game against the San Francisco 49ers in between.
This will be the first look at the Jets without freshly fired former head coach Robert Saleh. They promoted defensive coordinator, Jeff Ulbrich to interim head coach and demoted their offensive coordinator and Aaron Rodgers sycophant Nathaniel Hackett, replacing him with quarterbacks coach & passing game coordinator, Todd Downing.
Getting a good look at both teams will give us a better idea of what the Jets will look like under the new regime.