9-3 with five games to go. I know we all would have signed up for that back in August.

Of those five contests, two are against Arizona, a division rival that's already been eliminated from the postseason.

But like last week, the Rams must be wary of a lesser opponent. They're 3-9, but that's only because they're 0-7 in games decided by four points or fewer. That's historically unfortunate.

LA can't let this be the week that the Cardinals' luck changes.

The path to the division? The road to the one-seed? It requires a season sweep of the Cardinals.

With six NFC teams jammed between 8-4 and 9-3 entering Week 14, the range of outcomes is staggering. The Chicago Bears are currently the one-seed, but could still miss the playoffs entirely.

For what it's worth – very little – the Eagles and Rams have the "easiest" remaining schedules, with opponent winning percentages of .400 and .433, respectively. And according to Next Gen Stats' playoff probability model, the Rams have the best chance to earn the NFC's top seed (35 percent), substantially ahead of the Seahawks (23 percent).

Take all of that with millions of grains of salt. However, everything you hear in this episode of Between the Horns with D'Marco Farr and Maurice Jones-Drew you can take to the bank.

No Trap, No Cap

If there's a silver lining to last week's loss at Carolina, it's that Arizona will have this team's full attention.

"I don't believe in trap games," said outside linebacker Jared Verse about facing the three-win Cardinals. "Every game you're liable to lose, whether a team has a way better record than you or way worse record than you. It's the NFL. It's as simple as that."

"We know what happened in that first game (against Arizona in 2024), and the second game went down to the wire," said defensive coordinator Chris Shula of how challenging last year's contests were against a similar roster. "We know it's going to take our best and we know it's going to be a 60-minute game."

To his point, the Rams scored a total of 23 points in two contests against the Cardinals last year.

As for the pursuit of bigger prizes than a 10^th win on Sunday?

"I don't track it in the least bit. It's not important to me at all," said head coach Sean McVay, when asked about the race for the NFC's top seed. "What's important to me is us being totally and completely present today. We have no guarantee to play past 17 games."

Sea of Read

Here are a few quick-hitters and visual aids from this week's research.

The LA defense has posted a negative EPA four times this season and the Rams are 1-3 in those games (the only win was at Santa Clara). Sunday at Carolina was their worst showing of the season by just about any measure. Let's remind ourselves of the big picture, season-long trend, though.

Even with three turnovers, the Rams walloped the Panthers on a down-by-down basis. But as this illustration shows, the Cardinals played well enough to deserve a road win at Tampa, as well.

Five of Stafford's seven giveaways have come in the Rams' three losses, a concentration of mistakes that allowed him to orchestrate the first six-game winning streak of his career and set an NFL record with 28 touchdown passes between picks. No wonder the voters still gave him NFC Offensive Player of the Month.

Here's another bit of history that falls under the category of "How good do you have to be to make that many mistakes…?" Stafford's 31 career pick-sixes are one shy of Brett Favre for most in league history. I look forward to seeing him tie that mark somewhere in the middle of the 2027 season.

Byron Young now has 10 sacks on the season and 25.5 in his career. Among Rams (since sacks became an official statistic), only Robert Quinn (34.5) and Aaron Donald (28.0) have more in their first three pro seasons.

And finally, a couple running back notes. Kyren Williams is within 132 rushing yards of joining Eric Dickerson (4-season streak, 1983-86), Marshall Faulk (3-season streak, 1999-2001), and Steven Jackson (8-season streak, 2005-12) as the only Rams with 1,000 yards rushing in three consecutive seasons. His backup is thriving, as well. Coming off a career day in Carolina, Blake Corum has an explosive run rate (carries of 10-plus yards) on 18 percent of his carries, the highest percentage in the NFL.

Watching the West… and the Rest

It's closing time in the division and conference race.

Unless you're the 49ers. They've got their feet up with a Week 14 bye.

Seattle (9-3) at Atlanta (4-8) is kind of a no-lose from the Rams standpoint, but it's probably time to stop worrying about the 2026 Draft and prioritize the present day. Go Falcons, right?

Meantime, on paper, LA's rooting interest is probably Green Bay (8-3-1) at home versus Chicago (9-3). But I can make the case the Bears winning would be a better long-term outcome.

And finally, Philadelphia (8-4) will be in town for Monday Night Football at the Chargers (8-4). The Rams swept their AFC games this season, but the American Football Conference hasn't been much help, otherwise.