The NFL playoff race always gets a little crazy down the stretch, and things got especially crazy in the NFC West over the weekend. The Los Angeles Rams clinched the division title on Sunday, even though they didn’t even play and they were able to clinch it thanks to a win by the Washington Commanders.
The Rams will be facing the Seahawks in Week 18, but that game will now be meaningless after Los Angeles clinched the rarely used STRENGTH OF VICTORY tiebreaker, which is the fifth tiebreaker used if two teams are tied at the top of their division.
Basically, this means that even if the Seahawks beat the Rams in Week 18, the Rams would still win the division due to strength of victory. After beating the Cardinals on Saturday, the Rams had to wait out a full slate of games on Sunday before clinching the tiebreaker.
To win the NFC West title before Week 18, the Rams needed at least four wins from six different teams in Week 17: Bengals, Bills, Vikings, Browns, Commanders and 49ers.
The Rams got an early gift on Saturday when the Bengals beat the Broncos in overtime. That was followed on Sunday with the Bills (over Jets) and Vikings (over Packers) both winning. The Rams then officially clinched the division after the Commanders came away with a wild overtime win over the Falcons on Sunday night.
The Rams are now headed to the postseason for the sixth time in Sean McVay’s eight seasons. This marks the fourth time they’ve won the division under McVay. On two of the previous three occasions, the Rams ended up getting to the Super Bowl.
The fact that the Rams were able to clinch the title this week means that they’ll be able to rest a few starters in Week 18 if they want to go that route.
As for the Seahawks, they probably hate the strength of victory tiebreaker.
It’s a rarely used tiebreaker that’s now only been utilized four times since 2010 with two of those coming against the Seahawks. Last season, they were tied with the Packers at 9-8 for the final wild-card spot in the NFC, but they lost out on the playoffs due to the strength of victory tiebreaker. Losing out on the the SOV tiebreaker two years in a row when it’s almost never used is definitely some bad luck.
