Sunday’s game between the 49ers and Rams continues a rich, modern rivalry between teams led by offensive minds Kyle Shanahan and Sean McVay. But don’t expect the Week 18 tilt to advance football philosophy in any meaningful way.
The 49ers have secured the No. 1 seed and have already ruled out Brock Purdy (rest) and Christian McCaffrey (calf), so Sam Darnold will start. The Rams will qualify for the playoffs, start Carson Wentz at quarterback, and face either the Lions, Eagles or Cowboys in the wild-card round as either the sixth or seventh seed.
But most importantly, two weeks after this game, these two teams could meet again in the postseason. And neither manager will want to show their cards in early January.
The top-seeded 49ers won the first round with a bye and will host the lowest remaining seed in the divisional round. The Rams will be the No. 6 or No. 7 seed in the NFC, so a win in next weekend’s wild-card round would almost guarantee a rematch with the 49ers.
If the Rams beat the 49ers on Sunday, LA will lock up the No. 6 seed. If the Rams lose and the Packers beat the Bears, Los Angeles will earn the No. 7 seed.
Sunday’s game between these teams will be more competitive than, say, the NBA All-Star Game, but about as mundane as the NFL’s second preseason game.
“It’s as vanilla as you can get,” said one team official.
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In Week 2, the 49ers defeated the Rams 30-23 at SoFi Stadium. Shanahan currently has a 10-4 record against McVay, including nine straight regular season wins.
However, despite their recent success against the Rams, the 49ers suffered their only postseason loss against LA in the last five years. In the NFC Championship Game during the 2021 playoffs, the Rams came back from a double-digit deficit in the fourth quarter to win 20-17 and win the Super Bowl.
With that in mind, we should expect a basic game plan from both sides to be announced on Sunday, as there’s a good chance this will be the third matchup of the year.