Despite winning their last two games, the Los Angeles Rams haven’t moved in the NFC standings. They remain on the outside looking in, sitting seventh in the conference behind the Seahawks and Vikings in the wild-card race.
Their wins were both impressive, too, blowing out the Cardinals 34-7 and beating the Seahawks 28-12 to snap their five-game winning streak.
As big of a statement as Sunday’s victory was, the Rams didn’t move up in Doug Farrar’s power rankings for Touchdown Wire. They remain 13th, directly behind the Steelers at No. 12 and the 11th-ranked Titans. They’re also one spot ahead of the Bears and two in front of the 6-7 Raiders.
Here’s what Farrar wrote about the Rams and how they’ve improved in the last two weeks.
Over the past couple weeks, Rams head coach Sean McVay has made a couple effective adjustments to his offense. The Rams are running more inside zone, and they’ve increased the tempo from snap to snap. That second adjustment really tore the Seahawks’ defense apart on Sunday night, as McVay’s team beat their NFC West foe, 28-12, in a game that preserved possible postseason relevance for a squad that looked out of it a few weeks back — especially after a 45-6 beatdown at the hands of the Ravens in Week 12. In this game, the Rams had 15 first downs by halftime, and Seattle head coach Pete Carroll admitted after the fact that his defense had trouble calling plays and getting set at McVay’s breakneck tempo. The Rams have the Cowboys’ sieve-like defense up next, and then a real test when they head to San Francisco in Week 16. But for now, it appears that McVay has figured out a few things about his offense that will work beyond his base formations and concepts for the first time since late last season. There’s no better time than now for that to happen.
The Rams have found a groove on offense and the defense has continued to play well since adding Jalen Ramsey. It’s a roster that’s talented enough to beat anyone in the NFL, even if the Rams do only have two wins against teams above .500.
They have two real tests up next against the Cowboys in Dallas and the 49ers on the road before closing out the season at home against the Cardinals. They likely need to win two of the three in order to make the playoffs, otherwise they’ll be watching the postseason from home.
[vertical-gallery id=626593]