Rams Will Win Last Wild-Card Spot

A week or two ago it seemed it would quite simply take an act of God for the Rams to turn around a dismal mid-season and somehow slide under the tag and into the playoffs.

Today, there are only three other teams in their way as we head into the final week of the season.

I have to like the Rams chances - and here is why.

All five wild-card contenders are playing road games this week, including the Rams. But, the Rams are playing a very down-trodden Minnesota Vikings team with distraction after distraction the only thing keeping them in the news. Brad Johnson has been benched, and Marcus Washington released. What normally would be an intimidating environment in Minnesota seems more Brad Childress not being able to get the season over fast enough so that he can start rolling heads, not to mention their losing would only benefit their draft status.

New York Giants - Will roll into Washington to take on a very pissy Redskin team after letting their victory get away in St. Louis. The Giants are in desperation mode as evidenced by Tom Coughlin stripping play calling duties from John Hufnagel and handing them to his Quarterbacks Coach. Eli Manning is getting nothing but harder to watch as he seems to be regressing with each snap these days. The self-destruction couldn't be much more evident with a single team unless you were the ...

Carolina Panthers - They will head into New Orleans for their final game with the dubious distinction of being the biggest disapointment of the year. Yes there are teams like the Cardinals or the Steelers, but when you take a look at this team and how they were picked to go to the Super-bowl way back at the beginning of the season, it's hard to argue that point. Last week they somehow won a game by only making seven passing attempts. How in the world did they do that? Well, simple - they were playing the ...

Atlanta Falcons - Michael Vick last week set a record for rushing yards by a quarterback. While that is impressive in its own right, it sucks that he has to run so much and says volumes about the rest of the team. Lately the Falcons can't seem to do anything right, and this week they will be riding themselves into Philadelphia to take on the league's latest head scratcher - Jeff Garcia and the resurgent Eagles. Garcia is 4-1 as a starter, until next week where he will be sending the Falcons home with lots of time to figure out what happened to their previously respectable defense.

What does it all mean?

It means the Rams are the team most likely out of the bunch to win on Sunday - and it will probably go down just like that. And once into the tournament, with Steven Jackson and Marc Bulger on fire the way they are, who knows what could happen.

I'm hoping for another playoff punk-job in Seattle myself - but why stop there?