The Los Angeles Rams are just trying to right their ship in time to still compete for the NFC West with the San Francisco 49ers and Seattle Seahawks, but for the Arizona Cardinals this Sunday’s game is about more than the playoffs. It’s about finally trying to establish themselves as the fourth team in the NFC West that anybody will acknowledge.
The best division in the NFL is a “three-team division” to most people, with the Cardinals serving as two easy wins for everybody else.
Lose either of your
games to the Cardinals? Well, that could spell doom — and gloom — for that NFC West team. Not to mention ridicule.
The Cardinals beat the L.A. Chargers in Week 1, a game that many considered an upset at the time. “Are the Cardinals a sleeper in the NFC?” they said. They beat the Chargers and the Chargers are good.
Well, it turns out everybody beats the Chargers because the Chargers are 0-5.
Since then, the Cardinals are 0-4. They haven’t won a game since Week 1 and they’ve allowed an average of 37 points per game in the last four weeks. They’ve lost by an average of 17 points. It wasn’t that people expected Arizona to win the Super Bowl, or even make the playoffs, but being the worst team in the NFL over the past month has to have some people on the Cardinals worried about their jobs.
Will Mike LaFleur even survive to see year two?
That’s why this game against the Rams is, in many ways, LaFleur’s Super Bowl.
In lieu, of course, of an actual Super Bowl.
Hired off of Sean McVay’s staff with the intention to built an acceptable offense, LaFleur wasn’t handed much. He inherited Jacoby Brissett, Marvin Harrison, Trey McBride, and Michael Wilson. The team drafted Jeremiyah Love with its first pick.
Since then, Harrison has been traded to the Texans. Love is having typical rookie struggles behind a so-so offensive line. Brissett is his usual self, averaging just 5.6 yards per attempt and throwing an interception at a rate of 2.5%, which isn’t good.
The Cardinals may be vying for the number one pick, but unfortunately for them they’ve already won a game.
The Rams should win this game. If they don’t, it won’t be the Cardinals who have egg on their face. That’s why LaFleur and Brissett will do everything in their power to keep it competitive. Defensive coordinator Nick Rallis may not survive another week if he gives up 40 points. Arizona wants it bad enough.
Will that matter?
