Rams vs 49ers Game Preview: What’s at stake for each team, Picks to Win & MORE | NFL Week 10

Rams vs 49ers Game Preview: What’s at stake for each team, Picks to Win & MORE | NFL Week 10

Back here on HQ Spotlight, the playoff picture. I say this with pause slowly starting to come together. A lot can change down the stretch, but here’s where things stand right now in the NFC. So, if the season were to end today, three, yes, three NFC West teams would make it into the playoffs. You have the Seahawks defeating leading the division, excuse me, at 6-2. And then we have the Rams and the Niners in the wildcard hunt there. Actually, wild card teams, Cardinals, they are in the hunt. Different situation. and the Rams and the Ners going head-to-head on Sunday 4:25 Eastern time. Remember last season, San Francisco beat the Rams on the road in overtime in week five. So, it brought us fireworks and we’re hoping as football fans for more of the same this goound. So, let’s welcome in Tyler Sullivan and JP Aosta. Rams, Niners, um they’re both fighting to get to the top of the division and just in the playoff race in general. So JP, kind of break down what’s at stake for both teams in this matchup that we have on deck for this week. Well, I’m going to start with the Rams. And for this team, if they win this game, it feels like they’re establishing themselves as a serious contender in the NFC. They’ve had a lot of issues when it comes to aligning their coverage with their front four. But if they’re able to beat Kyle Shanahan at his own game and have Matthew Stafford playing at a high level still, I think it’s going to send a message to the NFC that they are still one of the teams to beat in that conference because they have the quarterback playing at an MVP caliber level and they have a pass rush that can take over games. Now on the other side of the ball for the 49ers, you win this game, you already sweep the division series against the Rams. You already have a win against the Cardinals. You have a win against the Seahawks and somehow you are still in the race to win the division despite not having anybody healthy. So, I think for them, if they get a win here on Sunday, it’s going to mean a lot to just keeping a strangle hold, not only on that on those final three wild card spots, but also making sure they have a chance to actually win this division. JP hit the nail on the head right there when he talked about the fact that we’re talking about tiebreers in this wildly tight NFC West. The fact that this is a game now where San Francisco can go 4-0 in the NFC West despite all of those injuries, that is going to prove massive. And when we’re talking about teams that all have six wins and are basically a game out from one another in the loss column and especially for the Los Angeles Rams here, to me, this is as much of a must-win game as you could probably find in week 10 because of that. Because you don’t want to go down in the head-to-head tiebreaker to San Francisco because at some point they’re going to get somewhat closer to healthy. I don’t want to say fully healthy, but they’re going to get closer to healthy than they have been throughout portions of this season. And if all of a sudden you have put yourself in a hole where you’re now down 0 and2 to the San Francisco 49ers, you’re already down a game in that conference as well, that can escape from you very quickly in terms of, yeah, sure, you might have a good record, but you’re in division record, which is the second head-to-head tiebreaker when we kind of figure out these playoff division seedings. That’s where this could come into play here. So huge game for San Francisco, but even more so for Los Angeles because they’re making up ground in that head-to-head tiebreaker. I know you both kind of touched on the injuries there for the ners, but it is remarkable and I want to double down on that conversation because somehow someway without Brock Perie, without Fred Warner, Nick Bosa, Brandon Aayuk, and that’s not even the full extent of it, the ners are still in the playoff race as we just saw at the top of this segment. And Tyler, I know you kind of mentioned they’re going to get healthier as time goes on hopefully, fingers crossed, for them, but how sustainable is what they are doing when you look at the competitiveness of their division alone? Yeah, I don’t know if it’s sustainable to the sense that they can still have all of these injuries and somehow ascend to the first place in the NFC West. Maybe the schedule help dictates that a little bit. But if we’re talking about looking at San Francisco as a serious player, you need to get Brock Perie back. You need to get some of these guys healthy. Obviously, you’re going to be down Fred Warner, Nick Bosa for the rest of the season. So, that it does really limit your ceiling defensively. But I just want to stop and and and really credit Kyle Shanahan right now because this is a guy that’s never won coach of the year before in his coaching tenure, even though he has had one of the best rosters in the NFL over his tenure. What he’s able to do, and yes, the schedule has been easy, but you look at what they’ve lost this season. I referenced Fred Warner. I referenced a guy like Nick Bosa, but Brock Pury, their starting quarterback, George KD, maybe the heart and soul of their offense has been out. the wide receiver room has been in shambles and somehow we’re talking about them in first place possibly getting into the playoffs despite all of that. So, the fact that he hasn’t gotten the coach of the year love even though he has his team in this type of position to go against a Los Angeles Rams team and maybe create a huge cushion for them to secure a wild card spot if not higher. It is one of the better coaching performances we’ve seen this season. Tyler hit it on the head there. I think this has been a masterful coaching performance by Kyle Shanahan and a masterful performance this season from Christian McCaffrey. He’s first in the NFL in carries. And he’s also third in the NFL among all skill position players in targets. He is single-handedly I know I know we say like carrying a lot when it comes to NFL teams and NFL players when we discuss them. But Christian McAffrey is carrying this offense and sort of carrying this team with his efficiency. And where I think Kyle Shanahan has really helped M. Jones is M. Jones has the third quickest time to throw in the NFL. When that ball hits his back foot, the ball is out. And I think that’s a credit to Kyle Shanahan, how he’s designing this offense. It has been one of his best years as a coach and as a play designer to maximize this offense around what M. Jones can do well. And then I think you’re getting some really good coaching from Robert Salah, defensive coordinator with a really, really young defensive uh staff with a young defensive roster. you’re really putting seeing them put it together as the weeks go on because they’ve been so young and they don’t have Fred Warner, they don’t have Nick Bosa, you’re just seeing them sort of scrape by and get some impactful like single play performances. So, I think this is just a really incredible testament to their coaching and Christian McCaffrey who was having a career year. JP Christian McAffrey is also carrying quite literally one of my fantasy teams. I was thinking of whooped me with this tire. I think I only got two or three wins, but it has all been because of him. So, M. Jones, as we discussed, under center, we talked about him, his timing, and uh he’s in for Brock Pury as Party deals with that toe injury. And Kyle Shanahan was asked this week if he’s worried about any chemistry with his offense, if there is a quarterback change down the line. And here’s what he had to say. Um, no, I don’t really get concerned too much with offensive chemistry. I mean, it’s more I mean, Max Shy can play at a high level. Um, everyone knows that Brock can play at a high level. Um, when Brock is healthy and he’s himself, uh, we know he’ll play at a high level. So, as long as you have a quarterback playing at a high level, I don’t worry too much about the chemistry. JP, I want you to put your coaching hat on. So, if you’re in Shanahan’s situation, what would you do if Brock Perie is healthy? Do you just ride with M. Jones if they’re finding success or do you go back to your starter? If Brock Purie is healthy, Brock Perie is a starting quarterback. I think M. Jones has done an admirable job filling in for Brock Pury while he’s given the time to get fully healthy. But what Brock Perty brings in instead of M. Jones and what he brings to the offense is a little bit more explosiveness. He brings a scrambling ability that I think Kyle Shanahan sort of leans on, especially without having their comp full complement of receivers. So I think when Brock Party gets back, Brock Party is going to be the starter, but you have to give a lot of credit to M. Jones who has really gutted out a lot of gritty performances. There is about 265 million reasons why Brock Perie will be the starting quarterback when he is cleared and healthy for the San Francisco 49ers. You invested a King’s ransom into him this off season to be your franchise cornerstone. And so if your franchise cornerstone is healthy, he is going to be under center. To me, what I think is fascinating is the M. Jones perspective, what it means in the offseason. And remember, this is not a guy like Sam Darnold last year or Daniel Jones this year who signed a one-year deal and then is going into free agents. He signed a 2-year deal with the San Francisco 49ers. He’s played himself into the conversation for somebody to be a starting quarterback. It’s not going to be the San Francisco 49ers, but I’m curious to see what the 49ers do with M. Jones this off season because again, he has played extremely well under duress for Kyle Shanahan when Brock Party has been sidelined. Now, does another team want to come in and make M. Jones their starter? And that should only help the San Francisco 49ers get a decent return for him if they decide to move off him or they have one of the best backups in the NFL. So, to me, that is what’s interesting. Not so much what happens when Brock Party returns, but what happens to the M. Jones in the offseason. Yeah, we’ve seen a lot of quarterbacks, to your point, really have that resurgence in their career. So, excited to see what happens there for M. Jones. Matt Stafford, JP, you mentioned it, playing at an MVP level and he’s 37 years old, was dealing with that back issue in the off season. Really didn’t practice much. And we were worried about the chemistry between him and his receivers. What’s that going to look like? He’s plus 550 to win MVP. Tyler, how impressed are you with his performance and what he’s been able to do up until this point? Well, first of all, it’s a lesson in don’t believe everything you hear over the summer because I was so concerned about the Los Angeles Rams because we’re talking about Matthew Stafford getting injections into his back and is he going to be even able to play this season and now we’re fast forward to the midway point and the dude’s an MVP candidate. It’s absolutely crazy, but it’s warranted. You see what he has been able to do this season. He leads the NFL with 21 passing touchdowns. It’s already surpassing what he was able to do touchdown wise last season. And he is on a stretch right now over the last five games where he has 16 touchdowns and zero interceptions. You see right there at the bottom of the screen. The only other guy that’s done it is Aaron Rogers who won MVP back in 2021. So to me it is not only he’s put himself in an MVP conversation. We know that he’s having arguably a career year across the board, but this is now a team and JP talked about it earlier in the segment. He is playing so well that this team has a Super Bowl ceiling. It does feel like the team from a few years ago that ultimately won the Super Bowl. It has been a wild addition in terms of improvement with Devonte Adams opposite of Puka Nua. Matthew Stafford seems to have gone up a level. This defense is playing well. So you have the MVP caliber quarterback and the sky’s is the limit for the Rams because of Stafford. Whatever they did in that immortal chamber that went around and went viral with Matthew Stafford in the offseason. Whatever they did in there worked because Matthew Stafford looks like he’s playing like he’s 31 instead of 37. The highle arm strength. He’s doing no look passes over the middle of the field that are just signature vintage Matthew Stafford stuff. But I think where the Rams have really sort of aligned with Stafford is they’re getting bigger. They use 13 personnel a lot more. And that’s sort of something that came about when Pukanakua got hurt. But like Tyler said, this team has an identity. They have a quarterback that can win them games and that’s going to take them really far. It’s taken them far and it’s taken them really far in the past like you said with that Super Bowl winning team with Matthew Stafford, but this year it feels like Matthew Stafford is playing at such a high level and the biggest thing that was really concerning with the back injury stuff was the arm strength. Is his arm strength going to still be there? And that looked like it hasn’t even gone down a bit this season. So, it’s a really incredible testament to Stafford and Shawn McVey designing that offense around a quarterback with his strengths right now. Come on, Matthew Stafford. share your fountain of youth secrets with all of us. We would love to know. It is game prediction time, gentlemen. Ner’s three and a half, four and a half point dogs depending on where you’re looking. So, uh JP, give us a pick. I think the Rams win here, but I do think it’s going to be incredibly close. None of these games between the Rams and 49ers are ever really blowouts. I think Kyle Shanahan does a great job designing offense, but like we said, Matthew Stafford, they have the pass rush. I think they’re going to be too much. Yeah, I’m right there with you. I think the Rams win this game, but I do think the 49ers cover whether it’s three and a half or four and a half. I’d like to take them with the points there because again, as you said, JP, it always seems to come down to a field goal or a one possession in these type of divisional games. So, like the Rams overall, I think they’re the more complete team right now and they’re obviously the more healthy team, but somehow someway Kyle Shanahan and company will keep it close. Come on, let’s get overtime again. We all want to see it as football fans, right, Tyler JP, we certainly appreciate it. previewing Rams 9ers again. 4:05 Eastern time on CBS, excuse me, that is Cardinal Seahawks on Sunday. And then 4:25 Eastern, Rams and the NerS for all the NFC West teams that are in action for week 10.

John Breech and Tyler Sullivan join CBS Sports HQ to preview the Week 10 NFL matchup between the Los Angeles Rams and the San Francisco 49ers.

[00:00:00] NFC Playoff Picture
[00:00:46] What’s at stake for each team
[00:06:07] Is there a QB controversy in San Francisco?
[00:09:01] Matthew Stafford making the case for MVP season
[00:11:45] Picks to Win

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