When the Seattle Seahawks and Chicago Bears play each other on Thursday night, there’s one team that will definitely be watching that game very closely and that’s the Los Angeles Rams.
If the Seahawks lose, then the Rams would just need to beat the Cardinals on Saturday to clinch the NFC West. However, if the Seahawks win, things won’t be so easy. The Rams would still be able to clinch the NFC West this week, but in what is easily the craziest playoff-clinching scenario of Week 17, they would potentially need some help from multiple AFC teams, including the Bills and Bengals.
For this crazy scenario to come into play, here’s what would have to happen first:
- Seahawks beat Bears on Thursday night
- Rams beat Cardinals on Saturday night
If both those things happen, the Rams could still clinch the NFC West this week, but they’d have to clinch the strength of victory tiebreaker. For that to happen, the Rams would need to get at least 3.5 wins from the following six teams:
To get 3.5 wins, they’d need three wins and one tie, but the most realistic scenario would be to get four wins from the six teams above. The crazy thing here is that not only are all six teams playing at home, but three of them — Bills, Bengals and Commanders — are favored to win. The Browns and 49ers are both underdogs while the Packers-Vikings game has flipped a couple of times this week when it comes to who’s favored.
This bizarre scenario has created a situation where the Rams could be paying close attention to multiple AFC games. The bottom line though is that if the Rams win on Saturday night, they could have to wait until Monday night to find out if they’ve clinched the NFC West.
If they don’t clinch this week, it will set up a showdown in Los Angeles between the Seahawks and Rams in Week 18.
If you want to check out all 14 clinching scenarios that are in play around the NFL during Week 17, you can do that here.
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