{"id":661279,"date":"2026-01-07T14:10:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-07T14:10:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/661279\/"},"modified":"2026-01-07T14:10:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-07T14:10:12","slug":"how-rams-could-host-at-least-one-playoff-game-if-the-beat-the-panthers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/661279\/","title":{"rendered":"How Rams could host at least one playoff game if the beat the Panthers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">The Los Angeles Rams are a wild card road team on Saturday against the Carolina Panthers, but there\u2019s a reasonable possibility that they could be hosting the San Francisco 49ers at SoFi Stadium if they win. It would just take a couple of small but reasonable upsets this weekend.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">If the Rams beat the Panthers, who they are favored to defeat by 10 points, then they move onto the divisional round. That\u2019s the obvious step one.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Later on Saturday, the Packers play the Bears. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/betting\/packers-vs-bears-prediction-odds-spread-injuries-trends-for-nfl-wild-card-round\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Green Bay is actually favored by 1.5 points<\/a>. The teams split their season series recently \u2014 the most recent for either team is their opponent in this game \u2014 so it wouldn\u2019t be at all shocking to see Matt LaFleur and Jordan Love beat Ben Johnson and Caleb Williams in their postseason debut.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">If those two things happen on Saturday, then already the Rams know they aren\u2019t going to Seattle to face the number one-seeded Seahawks in the divisional round.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Then the only thing left to happen would be the 49ers beating the Eagles on Sunday. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ninersnation.com\/san-francisco-49ers-odds\/154819\/49ers-wild-card-odds-the-line-continues-to-move-in-the-eagles-favor\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">The Eagles are 4.5-point favorites<\/a> but Philadelphia is anything but assured to beat San Francisco in the wild card. The Eagles have had one of the worst offenses in the league over the second half of the season, whereas the 49ers have one of the best and had won six games in a row prior to losing to Seattle in Week 18.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">If the Niners, Rams, and Packers all win their games this weekend, then L.A. is heading home in round two.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">And if that happens and then the Rams beat the 49ers plus the Packers upset the Seahawks, then L.A. would be HOSTING Green Bay in the NFC Championship.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">The 49ers would be the only team that the Rams could host in round 2.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">The Packers would be the only team that the Rams could host in the NFC Championship.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">First they need to avenge their previous loss in Carolina on Saturday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Then root for the Packers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">That alone saves the Rams a trip to Seattle in round 2. Potentially even avoiding going on the road again until the Super Bowl. Never say the 5-seed wasn\u2019t an important prize.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Los Angeles Rams are a wild card road team on Saturday against the Carolina Panthers, but there\u2019s&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":661280,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2079],"tags":[7,1014,58,83993,2444,2611,6,424],"class_list":{"0":"post-661279","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles-rams","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-los-angeles","10":"tag-los-angeles-rams","11":"tag-los-angeles-rams-playoffs","12":"tag-losangeles","13":"tag-losangelesrams","14":"tag-nfl","15":"tag-rams"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115854221815903324","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/661279","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=661279"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/661279\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/661280"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=661279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=661279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=661279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}