Rich Eisen on the Rams’ Statement Win vs Lions & How the 49ers Could Win the NFC West This Season

Rich Eisen on the Rams’ Statement Win vs Lions & How the 49ers Could Win the NFC West This Season

Listen, I still think the Rams are the best team in football. I saw them with my own two eyes yesterday. The Lions gave them a nice first half of a a haymaker and the Lions at one point led the game by 10 and the Rams came back and won it. Jared Goff statistically had a better day than Matthew Stafford, who I believe right now is the MVP of the National Football League with three games to go. But Goff had a golf, which is what the Scottish call without the L. Goff um had more touchdown passes, fewer giveaways, and a higher passer rating than Stafford in week 15. And Aman Ross St. Brown went off to the tune of 13 catches and 164 yards. He had the most catches, receiving yards, and receiving touchdowns in the first half of his game of a game in his career. And the Rams absorbed it. Came out in the second half, played better defensively, had the better run game. If you had told me coming into the game that two running backs would score for a single team, I would say it would be Sonic and Knuckles. Instead, what do we what do we call Kairen Williams and Blake Cororm? Good question. It feels like they need a nickname. Uh Balake Karum is really really coming on. Uh you don’t need to get me to talk about one of my favorite Michigan players in the history of the University of Michigan. But that’s now three straight games he’s had 70 rushing yards and a rushing touchdown after having not a single career game with 60 or more rush yards prior to this current three-game stretch. And Kairen’s still getting his. Yep. As he joined three others in Rams history to have three straight thousand yard rushing seasons. You care to guess who those three are? It won’t take it. It won’t it won’t be too tough. Oh, Mr. Kada. Yes, sir. DJ, go ahead. Oh, uh, Eric Dickerson. That’s one of them. Marshall Faulk. That’s correct. Stefon Jackson. That’s the other one. Hey, told you it wouldn’t be too tough. Not talk early, huh? Stephen Jackson had eight straight seasons of thousand yards. By the way, I think we kind of forget a tight end in a running back position. And everyone forgets how good Steven Jackson was. I don’t with a V. Steven with a V. So, yeah. I Stefan, I was just saying the the It seems like the Rams said, “We’re going to stop the run and see if you can throw it on us with our pass rush.” And Goff’s like, “Thank you for that.” Until the Rams, you know, locked it all down. Um cuz the Rams held the Lions just 70 rushing yards and one rushing touchdown as they outrushed the Lions by 85 yards. That’s the worst rush differential the Lions have absorbed all season. And then it helps to have the MVP quarterback, which is what Matthew Stafford is, with all due respect to Drake May. Yesterday’s second half was something you have to take into account. Josh Allen’s kind of thrown his hat in the ring a little bit. That I understand. But Matthew Stafford had his third game of the year of 350 and more passing yards. He had no such games in the three previous years. He’s just turning it on, man. um his his third game with 350 better passing yards and two or more passing touchdowns. That’s the most such games in the NFL this season. And the Rams took care of business rooting for Old Man Rivers at the same time who couldn’t knock off the Seattle Seahawks, but um this is what Matthew Stafford had to say after the game. There’s still plenty of plays I want back and and then we could clean up. So, uh, you know, I’m not going to put a, you know, a metric on it for us. I just want us to continue to keep working hard, keep playing, and I know that’s what we will do. Um, you know, we got the right group group of guys that, you know, all we want to do is go to work and find a way to be better and and continue to find ways to win football games as a team. Um, it’s it’s a fun group right now, but um, you know, we we understand that there’s more out there for us. There sure is. I mean, they almost threw a pick six to Aiden Hutchinson in that game, dude. Hutch probably scores if he doesn’t turn around and kind of look to where the maybe so guy catching him, right? Um Kobe Parkinson, he’s probably available in somebody’s fantasy for playoffs. Playoffs. He’s got six receiving touchdowns since week 10. That’s the tied with Devonte Adams for the most in the league. How about that? Stafford is throwing so many touchdowns like Oprah giving out cars that the top two touchdown catchers since week 10 are his. Now, Devonte, when he went down in a heap with a hamstring injury, I turned to Coupe because again, we were at the game. I turned to Cooper and I said, I don’t think you’re going to see him until the playoffs cuz the Rams punched their ticket to the playoffs to the win on Sunday. We don’t know the manner in which they’re going to go to the playoffs, but they’re in. And I know they want to win this game on Thursday night, but Devonte Adams is on the north side of 30 and he went down and I it did not look good. Well, here well here’s the thing is it it had the look of either if I may interpret the body language. it was either really bad or just him knowing I have a hamstring injury and he doesn’t know the severity of it, but he just knows he has one and he knows what that means. Yeah. Because he’s been there and done that. And I I would I will just say this. I’m I’m not a doctor. I’m not in the MRI machine with him. I wouldn’t even know how to read the image. All I know is um maybe you say we’ll win the one seed for you. take the month off, come back. We need you for these three games. Yeah. Division later, championship, Super Bowl. Yeah. Yep. And let’s try and win it with Puka and try and win it with all these tight ends that we have and our running backs and our defense. Puka 181 yards a career high. He’s so good. Fantasy playoffs, too. I got him, dude. And that’s back-to-back games of 165 or more yards cuz he had a buck 67 in the week 14 win at Arizona. The only other individual in the last 10 seasons to have back-to-back games of that magnitude was Mike Evans in 2019. So, you got him and the one thing that the Rams should focus on going to Seattle for this massive Thursday nighter to kick off week 16. And I don’t even think I stress the word massive enough. We’ll get to that in a second. Is get the Seahawks on offense to third down and unmanageable or any third down for that matter. Don’t let them pick it up on first and second downs. Let them grind it out. Make them grind it out. Because if I’m a Seahawk fan, this is the one thing that concerns me. You already saw what happens against the Rams. If you settle for field goals, you lose. That’s what happened in that previous outing in in Los Angeles where the defense did its job and the offense just couldn’t punch it in the end zone often enough. You settle for field goals, you walk out with the L. The Seahawks against the Colts went two for 13 on third down. That’s a 15.4% third down conversion rate. Seattle has the three lowest third down conversion rates of any team in a win in 2025. Now, Seahawks fans, you’re right to basically say, what was that last three words? In a win. their three wins with a third down conversion rate under 20% in 2025. They’ve got three of them, as I mentioned. The rest of the NFL has four such wins. So, you’re an outlier. The other 31 teams that have four such wins, you’ve got three. So, if I’m the Rams, that’s what I’m trying to make him do. Grind it out. Don’t find Jackson Smith and Jigba for all those big shots. And obviously, don’t let Cooper Cup go off. grind it out cuz what’s at stake and you could see it right now. What’s at stake? You look at the standings. Obviously, first place in the West is at stake. Rams win this one. They sweep the Seahawks and pretty much wrap this thing up. I don’t have the scenarios here in front of me, but they would be two up on Seattle with two to play. Adios, Seattle. and the Niners could still catch him. But the Rams, and this is why Seattle’s got to win this game, you got to hold serve at home. Obviously, you got to take over first place, even the season series with the Rams because the Rams final two games are at Atlanta and home for Arizona. Those are two winnable games. The Rams at Atlanta is a Monday nighter. Okay. So, um, I would profer to say Seattle needs to win this one, maybe more than the Rams do. That said, if Seattle wins the game, that opens the door for the Niners. This is crazy. This is nuts because the Niners beat Tennessee. Okay, they got a couple touchdowns from the NFL’s favorite garden tool. You know, Joan Jennings. He’s a God. KD looks so good still. KD and Brock Pury and McCaffrey and that defense that’s missing all of their all pros, but they’re doing enough. Don’t forget week one, two results in week one might come home to roost in both conferences about the one seed. The Patriots lost to the Raiders in week one. So dumb. That means they don’t have the common games opponent tiebreak over the Broncos. It’s the other way around. So the Broncos have the upper hand because the Raiders beat the Patriots in week one and they didn’t lose to the Raiders. Meanwhile, Way back in week one when Brock Party had a torn up toe that we learned about a couple days later, he rolls to his right in a tight game in Seattle and finds Jake Tongis in the end zone cuz KD had already gotten hurt and we weren’t going to see KD for another month after that. Correct. Plus, that result is something the Niners have in their back pocket with the Seahawks visiting them in week 18. And if the Seahawks win, then all the Ners need to do is keep pace with Seattle the rest of the way. Again, San Francisco is at Philip Rivers. Who knew that Philip Rivers could come off the couch and the car pickup line in Alabama and have a say in who wins the NFC West. Almost took care of Seattle, but he’s got the NerS next on a Monday night to wrap up week 16. And if the Niners win that game and then come home and win a Sunday nighter against Chicago and Seattle keeps winning and the Niners stay just one game behind them, they could beat Seattle and win the NFC West and yes, potentially the one seed. So the Rams can win the one seed, the Seahawks can win the one seed, and the Niners can win the one seed. and a west obviously comes in tow. Holy crap. And the one guy who can decide it, it’s Philip Rivers. I can’t You can’t make it out. Philip Rivers last week at this time, one week ago. Yeah. No clue that this was in the ether. No idea could happen. I bet you got a call Sunday night. I’m just saying us, the National Republic, right? Yes. Correct. Yeah. No idea. Yeah. We’re on a plane. Yes. To New York watching the preview show, right? And then everyone’s like, “Wait, who?” Phil Rivers who sitting at home at age 44 couldn’t have been the mo he he couldn’t have been more irrelevant to the results of 2024. Yeah. In 2025, I mean, a week ago. And guess who he’s playing on Monday night to wrap up week 16? Mr. Irrelevant, who’s the most relevant Mr. irrelevant ever because crazy if the ners keep winning and if Seattle beats the if the Rams beat Seattle it’s a tough one for the ners to win this division because they don’t have the tiebreak on the Rams. Yeah. You know yet. I mean, who knows? Arizona could nip the Rams in some way that we don’t see coming. I doubt it. I doubt it. It’s the craziest season

Rich Eisen breaks down the Los Angeles Rams’ impressive Week 15 win over the Detroit Lions and previews what’s at stake for L.A. on Thursday Night Football against the Seattle Seahawks, and the San Francisco 49ers outside chance to still win the NFC West.

Tune in to the Emmy-nominated Rich Eisen Show live weekdays from Noon to 3PM ET on Disney+, ESPN+, ESPN Radio, and streaming on SiriusXM channel 80.

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