Jan. 4, 2026, 8:33 a.m. MT<\/p>\n
The Los Angeles Rams<\/a> now have something to play for against the Arizona Cardinals<\/a>. Already having clinched a playoff berth, the Rams now control their fate with playoff seeding.<\/p>\n Because the Seattle Seahawks<\/a> clinched the NFC West title by beating the San Francisco 49ers 13-3 on Saturday night, the Rams can move up to the No. 5 seed in the NFC.<\/p>\n The Rams will move up to No. 5 with a win over the Arizona Cardinals. In that case, they would play their first-round playoff game on the road against the NFC South champions, either the Tampa Bay Buccaneers<\/a> or Carolina Panthers<\/a>, both of whom are 8-9. If the New Orleans Saints<\/a> beat the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday, the Bucs will win the division.<\/p>\n If the Rams lose to the Cardinals, they will be the No. 6 seed and must face either the Chicago Bears<\/a> or Philadelphia Eagles<\/a> on the road in the first round.<\/p>\n Rams head coach Sean McVay has already said that the Rams’ starters will play against the Cardinals. With the No. 5 seed in play, they now might actually play the full game.<\/p>\n Need a news break? Check out the all new PLAY hub with puzzles, games and more!<\/a><\/p>\n The betting odds have changed, too. On Saturday, the Rams were 9.5-point favorites. They are now 14-point favorites since the 49ers lost.<\/p>\n The Cardinals and Rams kick off Sunday afternoon from SoFi Stadium at 4:25 p.m. ET (2:25 p.m. Arizona time). The game will air on FOX.<\/p>\n \u00a0Get more Cardinals<\/a> and NFL coverage from Cards<\/a> Wire’s Jess Root and others by listening to the latest on the Rise Up, See Red podcast. Subscribe on Spotify<\/a>,\u00a0YouTube<\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0Apple podcasts<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jan. 4, 2026, 8:33 a.m. MT The Los Angeles Rams now have something to play for against the…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":492274,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[216235,1582,276,2961,224,5337,221802,221803,216450,216519,216520,217178,216516,216323,221804,216454,216456,216275,217202,217193,216517,216515,216318,217198,216238],"class_list":{"0":"post-492273","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-accessfree","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-la","12":"tag-los-angeles","13":"tag-losangeles","14":"tag-sstssportsnflcardinals","15":"tag-sstsncardinals","16":"tag-tagamerican-football","17":"tag-tagarizona-cardinals","18":"tag-tagcarolina-panthers","19":"tag-tagchicago-bears","20":"tag-taglos-angeles-rams","21":"tag-tagnational-sports","22":"tag-tagnew-orleans-saints","23":"tag-tagnfl","24":"tag-tagnfl-hub","25":"tag-tagoverall-positive","26":"tag-tagphiladelphia-eagles","27":"tag-tagsean-mcvay","28":"tag-tagseattle-seahawks","29":"tag-tagsmg-timely","30":"tag-tagsports-news","31":"tag-tagtampa-bay-buccaneers","32":"tag-typestory"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115838127516014230","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/492273","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=492273"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/492273\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/492274"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=492273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=492273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=492273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}