LOS ANGELES — The late start of the Rams’ Sunday night game against the Philadelphia Eagles will give the team a chance to do some scoreboard watching. Or even watch a couple of early games.
Not all of the players and coaches will take advantage. Sean McVay will before he heads to SoFi Stadium. Puka Nacua doesn’t want to exert his emotional energy on someone else’s game.
But no matter closely they are paying attention to it, every result across the NFC West is of significance to the Rams this weekend, and for the six weeks that come after this.
At 5-5, the Rams are in a three-way tie with the San Francisco 49ers and Seattle Seahawks for second in the NFC West. The Arizona Cardinals sit in first at 6-4. As things stand, this is looking like a one-playoff team division.
So some Rams will at the very least keep an eye on how the game between the Seahawks and Cardinals goes, or how the 49ers do on the road against the Packers without quarterback Brock Purdy.
But not all.
“I’m solely focused on what we have to do this week,” quarterback Matthew Stafford said. “None of that stuff matters if we don’t take care of our own business. I know that’s our mindset here. Just do everything that we can to give ourselves the best chance to win week in and week out and figure it out from there.”
And given the competition this weekend against an Eagles (8-2) team that beat the Rams a year ago and has since added a preeminent defensive mind to its fold, you can understand the emphasis on the task at hand.
After last season, the Eagles underwent a transition. Head coach Nick Sirianni remained, but he replaced both his coordinators. Kellen Moore has helped reenergize the offense, along with the addition of running back Saquon Barkley. And Vic Fangio has the Eagles’ defense performing among the best in the NFL.
Fangio is a familiar figure from McVay’s and the Rams’ past. He was the defensive coordinator for the Bears in 2018 when Chicago stunned the high-flying Rams by holding them to two field goals in a 15-6 loss. Then-QB Jared Goff threw four interceptions in that game, the Rams were limited to 52 rushing yards and went 4 for 15 on third and fourth downs.
The Rams had been held below 29 points just once prior to that point in the season, and that was still a 23-point performance in a win. And they had not failed to surpass 300 yards of offense in the 12 prior games, but found themselves with just 214 yards that day at Soldier Field. It was a performance that would not be replicated again until the New England Patriots used it as a model in their Super Bowl LIII win over the Rams later that season.
Now Fangio is back on the opposite sideline from McVay, again with a formidable challenge for the Rams.
“The biggest thing that I would say that makes Vic a great coach is he’s going to adjust, adapt, and figure out what is going to be best given the circumstances,” McVay said. “There’s still a foundational philosophy. There’s a way of making people play in an understanding of how to try to limit what people are trying to get done and the illusion of what it really looks like and that is on display.”
The Rams’ offense rediscovered its identity for parts of last week’s win over the Patriots. Stafford’s connection with Nacua and Cooper Kupp powered things, while the offensive line kept him upright and running back Kyren Williams moving forward.
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But for the Rams to take advantage of the clustered NFC West, they need to prove they can consistently put together games like that. And doing so against this Eagles team under this spotlight would go a long way toward propelling the team toward a playoff spot.
“You work all training camp and all in the beginning of the season to get to points like this. You’re still in your divisional race and you’re playing a primetime opponent on a big stage,” Stafford said. “It’ll be a big challenge for us at home. We’ll see if we can go out there and give them a good shot.”
PHILADELPHIA EAGLES (8-2) at RAMS (5-5)
When: 5:20 p.m. Sunday
Where: SoFi Stadium
TV/Radio: NBC/710 AM; 93.1 FM; 1330 AM (Spanish); Sirius 225, 226