It’s going to be a yardstick Sunday for Los Angeles NFL teams.
The Rams play host to the Buffalo Bills on Sunday afternoon, followed by the Chargers at Kansas City that night.
Those are litmus tests, a chance for the Rams and Chargers to see how they measure up against two of the best teams in the league.
The Bills already have clinched the AFC East — an astounding feat, considering there are five games to play — and the Chiefs have the NFL’s best record at 11-1, their only loss coming to Buffalo.
Whereas Detroit and Philadelphia are the dominant teams in the NFC, it’s extremely likely that either Kansas City or Buffalo will wind up with the AFC’s top seed. Pittsburgh has an outside chance in that race, but the Steelers’ remaining schedule isn’t as favorable.
These are yardstick games because the Rams and Chargers can size up their chances against top-shelf competition — and because losing would feel to them like a ruler rapping across the knuckles.
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Still, both L.A. teams have reason for optimism heading into these games.
This could be a trap game for Buffalo, having locked up the division so early, and with a possible Super Bowl matchup against Detroit coming the following week. The Bills also have to perform that delicate balancing act of keeping players healthy while not losing momentum.
The Bills are strong everywhere, except when it comes to stopping the run and on special teams. The Rams have looked great or flat on offense, depending on the week, but they should be able to gain yards on the ground with Kyren Williams, although his protecting the football has been a bit of an issue lately.
The last time the Rams faced quarterback Josh Allen and the Bills was the Kickoff Opener in 2022, when the defending Super Bowl champions were throttled at home by Buffalo, 31-10.
This season, Allen is in the Most Valuable Player conversation. Last week, he became the club’s all-time touchdown leader with 245 — that’s passing, rushing and receiving — surpassing Hall of Famer Jim Kelly.
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“It’s a little surprising that we’re 10-2,” said Kelly, who still keeps close tabs on his old team. “If you’d have asked me about two months ago at the beginning of the season you saw the injuries to the receivers, we got rid of [receiver Stefon] Diggs, just a lot of things were happening. All of a sudden it was that old cliché, the next man up. That’s something we’ve hit on every cylinder. Whoever has stepped in there has done very well.”
The Rams have alternated wins and losses the last five weeks and are coming off a victory at New Orleans in which they came alive with three touchdowns in the second half after being shut out in the first. They are still defining themselves as a team, and are fortunate to be in a division in which all four teams have struggled.
There is no division more closely knotted than the NFC West, with two games separating first-place Seattle (7-5) and last-place San Francisco (5-7), and book-ending Arizona and the Rams at 6-6.
Buffalo’s seven-game winning streak is best in the AFC, and the Bills have won five AFC East titles in a row.
“It’s a good feeling, and this one feels a little bit different, this early in the season, we’ve still got five games left,” Allen told reporters of clinching the division yet again. “But at the same time, we’re chasing the one seed, we understand that, we know that, and we’ve got to keep getting better each and every week.”
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Meanwhile, Kansas City has had plenty of nervous moments during the last month, with the last three wins by the Chiefs coming by a combined seven points. Those weren’t victories over particularly formidable opponents — 16-14 over Denver, 30-27 over Carolina, and 19-17 over Las Vegas.
The Chiefs have 11 wins, but nine of those have been by seven points or fewer. That includes a 17-10 victory at the Chargers in Week 4. In that game, quarterback Justin Herbert was playing on a tender ankle and the Chargers were missing both starting offensive tackles and star safety Derwin James Jr.
Since, the Chargers have won six of eight and are currently the fifth seed in the AFC, putting them squarely in the playoff picture. They are coming off a strong defensive performance in a win at Atlanta.
The Chargers have gone 3-4 at Arrowhead Stadium since relocating to L.A. in 2017.
“Playing Kansas City is awesome, especially late in the year,” said quarterback Philip Rivers, who had lots of memorable games there during his 17-year career, including his last game as a Charger. “Certainly there are a lot of great venues, but it’s one of the few old-school-type places left. … It has an old but special feel to it.
“There’s just something about the tradition about some of these places. Some teams are always trying to try new things to build traditions and it’s kind of trendy. There’s nothing trendy about going to Arrowhead and playing the Kansas City Chiefs. It’s as traditional as it comes, from the logo, to the ‘home of the Chiefs’ that they do at the end of the anthem.
“It takes me back to ‘Tecmo Bowl’ when I was a little kid. It is the NFL. We’re playing at Arrowhead. This is big time.”
And, whether it’s the Chargers or the Rams, we’ll know a lot more about their trajectory after this weekend.
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
