Happy New Year Everyone!  Celebrate safely tonight.

It is time again for Rams Gab’s favorite lesson: Strength of Schedule!  But, with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers out of the picture, it is the Detroit Lions that we will take a look at this time.

First and foremost, Jim Thomas of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch laid the groundwork for this post by calulating the current strength of schedule for the Rams and the Lions.

Here is the official numbers for current opponent records:
Rams opponents: 124-116
Lions opponents:  126-114

So, the Lions have a 2 game “lead” in strength of schedule.  So, which games would switch that advantage over the the Rams?  Because the Rams would lose the second tiebreaker which is head to head (because the Rams beat the Lions this season) the Rams need to gain 3 games in Week 17.

Here’s who Rams fans should be rooting for:

Bills over Colts – Helps Rams
Browns over Jags – Double Bonus
Pats over Texans – Helps Rams
Vikings over Giants – Hurts Lions
Steelers over Dolphins – Hurts Lions
Ravens over Raiders – Hurts Lions
Packers over Cardinals – Helps Rams
Bengals over Jets – Hurts Lions

The Rams need to go at least 5-3 on these picks to get the number 1 overall selection if they are able to beat the 49ers on Sunday. (The Browns/Jags game counting twice)