No one had a better Week 9 that the promotion department at the Park Avenue location of the National Football League. After a week of blowout games the prior Sunday, Monday and Thursday night, last Sunday returned nailbiters to the NFL schedule and tightend the division races while the Detroit Lions, Green Bay Packers, Kansas City Chiefs and Indianapolis Colts all lost.
Winners included the Minnesota Vikings, Baltimore Ravens, Pittsburgh Steelers, New England Patriots and Los Angeles Rams. The Steelers win took down the first place Colts and the Vikings victory coupled with the Packers upset loss at home to the Carolina Panthers, tightens those division races.
The NFL loves competition and strives to prevent runaway division races.
One thing became clearer in this week of upsets and intrigue … the Los Angeles Rams may just be the best team in football.
Sean McVay’s team lost four of their first five games in 2024 while nursing a series of injuries that had them buried in the NFC West race after a month of play. Then, they got healthy, and good. In fact, they won nine of their final 12 games to become the first team in NFL history to win a division title after losing four of their first five regular season games.
Once in the playoffs, they throttled the Minnesota Vikings on a neutral field, having to play in Arizona due to the fires in Southern California. The Vikings had the best won/loss record ever for a fifth seed, 14 victories, and were rolled by the Rams like they were a second-tier scrub. In the NFC Divisional round, the Rams gave the eventual Super Bowl Champion Philadelphia Eagles all they could handle before surrendering a six-point loss. The Eagles won their other three postseason games by double-digits, 22-10 over the Green Bay Packers, 55-23 against the Washington Commanders in the NFC Championship Game and a 40-22 Super Bowl triumph over the Kansas City Chiefs in a game not nearly as close as the final score.
This year, the Rams met one of their primary NFC West challengers five weeks ago when the San Francisco 49ers visited SoFi Stadium. The 49ers were challenged by injury problems that sidelined star players from both sides of the ball, including starting quarterback Brock Purdy. The Rams were huge favorites, by eight points on the spread, and seemed to overcome early problems with a possible winning touchdown late in the game.
That potential TD was thwarted by a goal line fumble, and the 49ers survived a late Rams challenge to eke out a 26-23 win.
Now, a month later, these two teams square off again. This time on the 49ers home field, and the Rams are favored again while the 49ers are hopeful to return Purdy to their lineup as he has been sidelined with a turf toe. The 49ers success this season, they are equal to the Rams in wins, six, and trail by one in the loss column, two to three, is a tribute to the organization and head coach Kyle Shanahan.
Most teams that would have lost their best two defensive players, in this case Nick Bosa and Fred Warner, and their quarterback along with a stable of receivers and their All Pro Tightend, George Kittle, would have dropped out of serious competition. But not San Francisco, not so far this year. They have won with brilliant designs on both sides of the ball, and the reassertion of defensive coordinator Robert Saleh has paid dividends. He was in that role with San Francisco when Shanahan led them to the Super Bowl to complete the 2019 season, then was off to New York to take over as the Jets head coach.
Now back in San Francisco, he has found ways to compensate for the loss of his two best players and kept the 49ers in the thick of the race to the postseason.
At least for now.
But, predictably, not for long.
The 49ers, before injuries decimated their roster, beat the Seattle Seahawks on the road to open the 2025 season. After their win over the Rams in October, they had beaten all three teams they compete against in the NFC West and added to that list of victories a road triumph over the New Orleans Saints while backup quarterback Mack Jones replaced Purdy in second week action.
Now, they meet the Rams again. This time, Los Angeles will not enter the fray overconfident, and the line currently has Matthew Stafford and company favored by 3½ points. Whether it is Purdy or Jones behind center, the Rams are in position to avenge that early season loss against their NFC West foes.
Qoxhi Picks: Los Angeles Rams (-3½) over San Francisco 49ers