The Rams have a 1-in-4 shot of making the playoffs
The L.A. Rams have a 28% shot of making the playoffs and a 20% shot of winning the division, even after losing 23-15 to the Dolphins on Monday night. So the question is less about if the Rams have a clear path to the playoffs, and more about whether Sean McVay’s team is good enough to win the games they need to win.
As seen in the above chart from The New York Times, the Rams haven’t had great playoff odds all year and losing to the Dolphins didn’t help, but it also didn’t hurt that much.
The Rams now need to win their next game against the New England Patriots or there won’t be anybody left who thinks that L.A. is good enough to make the playoffs; the Patriots are 3-7, but they have won two of their last three games and the loss was in overtime.
If the Rams can get back to .500 by beating the Patriots, their next test will be at home against an Eagles team that has won five straight.
L.A. still has to play the Bills, 49ers, and Cardinals in the home stretch, so every game counts at this point and the Rams can hardly afford a sixth loss after dropping to 4-5. The Rams can maybe afford 2 more, but that is the bare maximum.
It’s looking like the NFC West is a two-horse race between Arizona and San Francisco, a contest that the Cardinals have been winning. The Cardinals winning the division? Now that is what we call “playoff odd”.