Los Angeles Rams vs San Francisco 49ers Week 16 Pick

The Los Angeles Rams battle the San Francisco 49ers on Saturday Night Football at Levi’s Stadium. There are some high stakes for this NFC West showdown. The 49ers are looking to win the division and lock up a premier playoff spot. But with Seattle surging and some recent setbacks, including a bemusing and demoralizing 29-22 loss at home to the Falcons on Sunday, the 49ers need to get on the winning track. Also coming up short on Sunday was the Rams, a team that could ill afford a setback. In falling to Dallas, 44-21, the Rams need a lot to go their way now if they want to have a chance. Who can get the upper hand on Saturday night?

Any Clues from Game One?

Yes and no. The Rams suffered in a 20-7 loss on their field on October 13. Some things jump out from that game, namely how Jared Goff threw for 78 yards and how the Rams’ offense died after an early-game touchdown from Robert Woods. That would seem to convey that this Rams’ offense struggles against this Frisco “D,” but that was a long time ago in a season where the Rams have seen a lot of form-shifts. Their loss to SF was their third loss in a row at a time in the season when they hit rock-bottom. They’ve been doing better, not counting last week, and expecting the same tepid performance could be a miscalculation. The Rams could be better within this divisional context.

Niners Slipping?

After an 8-0 start, going 3-3 would qualify as cooling down. And losing to Atlanta with everything they had on the line, allowing three fourth-quarter Falcons touchdowns, was an eyebrow-raising development. To be up 22-17 with a few seconds left and lose 29-22 is crazy. Still, in that 6-game mix, they still managed to beat two division-leading teams in the Packers, 37-8, while also beating the Saints on the road. And their other two losses were forgivable in an overtime defeat to Seattle and a three-point loss to rampaging Baltimore.

Still, we see some troubling things from San Fran over the last handful of weeks that offers promise to teams like the Rams. Jimmy Garoppolo sometimes lacks the firepower to help the offense take off. On Sunday, we saw George Kittle have a big game, but finding receivers to step up consistently is an issue and could surface against the LA secondary. At the same time, a San Francisco run-game that failed to make an impact against Atlanta last week could thrive in this spot. A bigger issue might be a 49ers defense that has lost a little of its bite in recent weeks. Allowing 75 points the last two games finds a unit struggling to reclaim the form that helped them get out to such a fast start, the same team that beat the Rams somewhat easily already this season.

Have the Rams Read the Writing on the Wall?

Say what you will about the Niners, but at least they’re not losing by 23 points to teams like Dallas who hadn’t been getting much right for weeks. On the one hand, you can’t be too crazy in writing off a team when they fall short to a division-leading club in a tough road spot. But goodness gracious. To work so hard to get to 8-5 so that you can lay a big fat egg in Dallas seems like a giant waste of time. And even if they got to 10-6 somehow, a path to the postseason now seems murky at best in the top-heavy NFC. If looking for silver lining, they did win their last four games before that so maybe you cut some slack to a Rams’ team looking to manufacture some success with almost none of the magic they have left from their Super Bowl run last season.

It makes you wonder if the spurt we saw from the Rams’ defense recently was a mirage and maybe the result of playing weak or compromised offenses the last handful of games. And the regression lately from both Jared Goff and Todd Gurley has been astounding. It’s unclear how a road-spot against an urgent 49ers’ team that held them to 7 points earlier in the season is going to help.