The unknowns that will determine the playoffs

Now that the Rams are morphing into the type of team that CAN win a championship, I'd like to focus on the factors they can't control.

1. Officiating. Jerome Boger tried mightily to give the Bucs that game against the Rams and yet the Rams prevailed. AD has drawn ONE holding call all year. While they CAN do it, beating both the refs and the playoff teams is a tall order.

2. COVID. The Rams have been both diligent AND lucky so far. The disease is so contagious that it's proven impossible to completely mitigate. My daughter had a false positive and it caused us to quarantine for nearly a week. What happens if a Justin Turner situation happens in the playoffs?

3. Injuries. Again, while McVay has lauded the training staff, freak injuries occur.

4. Turnovers. Giovani Bernard went 840 carries without a lost fumble. Then he got stripped by the Cowboys yesterday. Sometimes it's a tipped pass. The difference in winning and losing sometimes isn't if you suffer a turnover, it's when.

I will use this platform as my soapbox for the one change that can overcome all these vagaries. If they continue to develop a more varied running attack, they will be less dependent on any single player and reduce the probability of interceptions. If McVay becomes less predictable on play action and screens, the longer drives will result in more touchdowns.

It's foolish to only consider the last two games as evidence the Rams are ready for the playoffs. While others watch scoreboards across the NFC, I'm focused on the development of our offense internally. We can officially trust this defense. We can trust it more if the officials actually do their job properly.