Rams 3-0 in the NFC West, but have only one other victory

Inside the confines of the NFC West, where they are 3-0 this season, the St. Louis Rams look like a definite playoff contender.

Take them outside of that division and things get downright ugly with seven losses in eight games. The result is a 4-7 season that seems as tough to explain as the Rams’ unblemished mark within their division or their inability to finish with a winning record since 2003.

“We built this team to compete in the division,” Rams coach Jeff Fisher said Wednesday. “There’s familiarity. I’m disappointed that we haven’t played good football outside the division, but we have good (division) matchups. We understand the matchups. We understand the challenges.”

That may be the case, but if so then what happens when the Rams play teams like Cincinnati (31-7 loss), Chicago (37-13 loss), Pittsburgh (12-6 loss) and other nonconference foes?

Are the Rams more familiar and fired up to face the Seattle Seahawks, San Francisco 49ers and Arizona Cardinals?

The Rams are at home for a noon game Sunday against a Cardinals team that not only is 9-2 and among the class of the NFC, but also has become as big of a marked foe as the Seahawks or 49ers.

“It’s a division rivalry,” Rams linebacker James Laurinaitis said. “Whenever we play the Seahawks, the Cardinals or the ‘Niners, there’s just ... we see each other so much and it’s so competitive in our division. You know it’s going to be one of those physical-type ballgames. These are battles. We know what our challenges are.”

The Cardinals are 6-1 since a 24-22 home defeat Oct. 4 against the Rams in Arizona. Led by quarterback Carson Palmer, the Cardinals have the NFL’s No. 1-ranked offense at 410 yards per game. They average 32 points and also boast the league’s fifth-ranked defense.

“We know that they have an unbelievable offense,” Laurinaitis said, noting the loss of injured running backs Chris Johnson and Andre Ellington. “They’re going to come in here probably thinking they can throw it all around. Nobody’s going to give us a chance to win and that’s fine.”

The Rams’ road win over the Cardinals was one of their best victories this season. Fisher’s squad was 4-3 and entertaining thoughts of being in the playoffs following wins over Cleveland and San Francisco, but those thoughts were driven from their heads fairly quickly during a losing streak that has reached four games.

“Honestly it just comes down to us not finishing games this year,” Rams defensive end William Hayes said. “You could put your finger on three games and said it could have been a coin toss, it could have gone either way. We’re just not finishing games, that’s the big thing.”

Hayes considered those games to be losses to Pittsburgh, Minnesota and Baltimore, though injuries and inconsistent play have also contributed mightily to the slump.

“You win those three games and now you’re talking about us being a wild-card team and all the stuff that’s been going on in the media, it’s not even being mentioned,” Hayes said. “We’re not doing a good job of finishing right now. For me personally, I just want to see a better product out there on the field this Sunday. The past three weeks haven’t been really like us. We’re leaving a lot of plays out there on the field that at the end of the season, we’re going to be saying we wish we could get back.”

Laurinaitis said familiarity may help explain the Rams’ success against division foes.

“I think we just know them very well,” he said. “You see them twice a year, you know exactly what they’re going to run and they know exactly what we’re going to try to do to stop it. It’s a matter of who can execute and play faster, make the big plays.”

While the Rams moved from Los Angeles to St. Louis, the Cardinals moved from St. Louis to Arizona.

Both teams have made fairly recent head coaching hires with Fisher and Bruce Arians. The Cardinals are 30-13 since Arians was hired as head coach in 2013, while the Rams are 24-34-1 (.415) since Fisher was hired in 2012.

Both teams have undergone quarterback changes, with Arizona bringing in Palmer in 2013 and the Rams trading for Nick Foles before the 2015 season.

“They’ve done a great job I think with their roster,” Laurinaitis said. “Obviously signing Carson Palmer has been big for them. They’ve just made really smart veteran moves and also drafted well, so they’ve done a good job over there.”

This story was originally published December 2, 2015 at 9:22 PM with the headline "Rams 3-0 in the NFC West, but have only one other victory."