Steve Spagnuolo is right to think the St. Louis Rams can win the NFC West
St. Louis Rams’ head coach, Steve Spagnuolo, still thinks his team can challenge for a playoff spot despite having a 4-6 record.
In any other division, Spagnuolo might not have the courage to make such a statement, but in the NFC West, the worst division in the league, anything is possible.
The Rams are two games below .500, but they trail the division leading Seattle Seahawks (5-5) by only one game, and they still have one game remaining against the Seahawks.
"We're still in the thick of it, and that's the way we're going to look at it," said Spagnuolo. "We're going to focus on the prize we set out to accomplish at the beginning of the year, the NFC West."
The Rams lost Sunday to the Atlanta Falcons 34-17, but a blown play on the Atlanta two-yard line with 3:24 left in the game ended a drive that could have pulled the team within two points. It was discouraging enough for Spagnuolo to take an unusual pass
on watching the Sunday night game.
"I'll normally throw on whatever the Sunday night game is," Spagnuolo said. "I was done."
On the play, tight end Michael Hoomanawanui was supposed to take the shovel pass, but he was bumped as Rams’ guard, Adam Goldberg, was pushed into him by a surging Atlanta defence. The ball was intercepted by Falcon’s safety, William Moore, and the game
was lost.
"I'm standing there saying, 'We've got a touchdown here'," said Spagnuolo. "It's unfortunate the way that happened. It's two points, [Edward Jones Dome] would have been going nuts, the guys would have been energized. Who knows? That's the NFL."
The Rams have winnable games left on their schedule. The combined record of the teams in their six remaining games is 27-33. Three of those games are against division rivals.
If they want to win the division, a wild card spot is almost out of the question, they’ll need to improve on the road. So far this season they’re 0-4 and four of their six remaining games are away from Edward Jones Dome, including a stop in New Orleans to
play the Super Bowl Champion Saints.
They’ll also need to figure out a way to win close games. They lost 16-14 to the Oakland Raiders (5-5) and 18-17 to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (7-3).
They also lost two division games by four points or fewer, 17-13 to the Arizona Cardinals (3-7) in their first game of the season and 23-20 to the San Francisco 49ers (3-7). All four of those games were winnable games.
"We have six games left and that's a long time," said middle linebacker James Laurinaitis. "Nobody's going to feel bad for you in this league, nobody's going to come up to us this week and say, 'Gosh, these guys, you know, have lost some tough battles and
we feel bad for them.'"
Of their four wins, only one has been won by less than 10 points, a 20-17 victory over the San Diego Chargers.
This Sunday the Rams head to Invesco Field in Denver to take on the Broncos (3-7). A win in Denver, coupled with a Seattle loss to the Kansas City Chiefs in Seattle, and the Rams will be tied for the division lead.
St. Louis beat Seattle 20-3 on 3 October, giving them an edge in the tiebreaker for now, but the two teams will clash again on 2 January, the final regular season game for both teams.
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