The Los Angeles Rams picked up a large win within the NFC playoff race on Thursday evening, 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 after they discovered themselves in a back-and-forth scoring fest with the Buffalo Payments, however the end result remains to be the identical within the standings.
Listed here are 4 takeaways from Thursday’s recreation.
1. Rams maintain tempo in NFC playoff race
The Rams should not in any place to care about type factors proper now. They only should maintain 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 probabilities for a possible wild-card spot in the event that they had been to fail to catch Seattle.
The Rams, by the way in which, 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 one 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 towards the New York Jets, Arizona Cardinals and Seahawks at residence. That’s actually an attainable aim.
2. The 49ers are cooked
Blame the accidents if you would like — and it could be truthful — however there has merely been one thing lacking from this 49ers staff all season. Now their playoff chances are high fairly gone.
They had been already dealing with an uphill battle and entered the evening with solely a 9% probability of creating the playoffs.
With Thursday’s loss, these odds dropped down to simply 0.1%.
It’s a massively disappointing season for a staff that was within the Tremendous Bowl a 12 months in the past and entered the marketing campaign with what was broadly considered probably the most gifted rosters within the league.
It’s beginning to appear like possibly they missed their probability for a hoop with this core group of gamers.
3. Deebo Samuel had a horrible evening
Large receiver Deebo Samuel was mad this week about not getting the soccer, making a now-deleted social media put up about his lack of passes that grew to become a significant speaking level all week.
The 49ers appeared to exit of their manner in an effort to get him the soccer on Thursday. It didn’t work.
Samuel caught simply three of the seven passes thrown his manner for less than 16 yards, whereas additionally being flagged for a false begin penalty early within the recreation. The worst play of the evening for him, nonetheless, was a brutal drop on a wide-open cross that will haven’t solely given the 49ers a primary down, however doubtlessly a landing if Samuel had been capable of maintain onto the soccer.
