The Los Angeles Rams picked up a large win within the NFC playoff race on Thursday night time, beating the San Francisco 49ers by a 12-6 margin.
It was the precise reverse recreation from the Rams’ win over Buffalo every week in the past once they discovered themselves in a back-and-forth scoring fest with the Buffalo Payments, however the consequence continues to be the identical within the standings.
Listed here are 4 takeaways from Thursday’s recreation.
1. Rams hold tempo in NFC playoff race
The Rams are usually not in any place to care about fashion factors proper now. They only should hold profitable video games, and that’s precisely what they did right here. The win improves them to 8-6, pulls them to inside a half recreation of Seattle for the highest spot within the NFC West and improves their possibilities for a possible wild-card spot in the event that they had been to fail to catch Seattle.
The Rams, by the best way, host Seattle in Week 18 in a recreation that might be a win-or-go-home matchup.
After beginning the season 1-4, the Rams have gone 7-2 of their previous 9 video games with wins over Minnesota, Seattle, Buffalo and now San Francisco. They’re one of many hottest groups within the league and one which no person needs to see within the playoffs.
In the event that they merely win out, they are going to win the NFC West.
Their remaining three video games are in opposition to the New York Jets, Arizona Cardinals and Seahawks at dwelling. That’s definitely an attainable aim.
2. The 49ers are cooked
Blame the accidents if you’d like — and it could be truthful — however there has merely been one thing lacking from this 49ers crew all season. Now their playoff likelihood is fairly gone.
They had been already going through an uphill battle and entered the night time with solely a 9% probability of constructing the playoffs.
With Thursday’s loss, these odds dropped down to simply 0.1%.
It’s a massively disappointing season for a crew that was within the Tremendous Bowl a 12 months in the past and entered the marketing campaign with what was broadly thought to be some of the proficient rosters within the league.
It’s beginning to seem like possibly they missed their probability for a hoop with this core group of gamers.
3. Deebo Samuel had a horrible night time
Broad receiver Deebo Samuel was mad this week about not getting the soccer, making a now-deleted social media submit about his lack of passes that grew to become a serious speaking level all week.
The 49ers appeared to exit of their approach in an effort to get him the soccer on Thursday. It didn’t work.
Samuel caught simply three of the seven passes thrown his approach for under 16 yards, whereas additionally being flagged for a false begin penalty early within the recreation. The worst play of the night time for him, nonetheless, was a brutal drop on a wide-open move that may haven’t solely given the 49ers a primary down, however probably a landing if Samuel had been in a position to maintain onto the soccer.
