NFL Playoff Picture: In some strange universe the NFC West exists legitimately

I don't know if you've familiar with Zen Buddhism or not, but if you buy into the whole thing at least on a philisophical level, then you know in some world the NFC West is not a complete joke. Maybe it's a state of consciousness thing and shitty teams are respected for their humility and honorable deaths at the hands of sort-of-supierior opponents. 

Whatever, I'm a dialectical Marxist, with slight bent toward major slacker. I know it doesn't matter. Power structures are replaced by newer, better power structures. Systems live so that they might die, the universal truth of both Buddha and Engels. The West Coast Offense eventually becomes a glorified I formation...Marty Schottenheimer's Valhalla, where heroes are honored with sacrifices of 4- 5- and 6-yards of progress.

All that late night bullshit is nothing more than an introduction a brief treatise on the charitable gift that is known as the NFC West title. Yes, that's right, mediocrity has a title. All four quota-fillers that are the NFC West lost this week.

That means the St. Louis Rams, with a 6-8 record, are still in first place, still owning a golden ticket to the playoffs, even if it means getting booted with the ease and disdain as that first kid dispatched by the weirdo and his chocolate factory. All that changes next week, when the division gets the chance to implode all over itself with an absolute must-win game, more must-win than even this week's must-win game, for the Rams over the visiting San Francisco 49ers. 

just in case you missed it, the St. Louis Rams are still leading the NFC West. Seattle and Arizona (already eliminated) travel to Tampa Bay and Dallas, respectively, guaranteeing certain loss. That means the Rams, who play the San Francisco 49ers, control the fate of the division. 

Anyway, I don't know where the hell I'm going here, other than to say that the St. Louis Rams, weirdly, could win the division (though the performance of the offense today says otherwise). 

That's cosmic justice. It also works with the whole dialectical thing in that you've got a three teams in decline with the Rams being the one team that has some reason for hope in the future. Of course, another year of doctrinaire west coast offense, hereafter known as the Midwest Coast Offense, could end all that pretty quickly.

Let's see what happens. 

This post brought to you by a delicious mix of Canadian Club (yeah, so?), lemon juice, boiling water, honey, and 3-4 cloves jammed into a fat slice of lemon.