Outraged football fans, take heart; The winner of the NFC West division will lose their playoff game and be eliminated. Whether it's the Seattle Seahawks or St. Louis Rams, they will have their one opportunity to represent the division and be gone. The West is weak this year, and hasn't offered much in the way of competition to anyone. That won't change on Sunday.
You have to take a longer view of the situation. There is one team in the NFC West that is trending upwards, the Rams. The rest of the division is in total disarray, and the Seahawks have an aging quarterback and no one on the horizon to replace him.
The Rams however, only managed one win last year and are on the verge of an impressive +7 game turnaround. They have a young quarterback who already has passed Peyton Manning's record for completions in a rookie season with 335, and still has one more game to go. Between Sam Bradford and Pro-Bowl running back Steven Jackson, this young Rams team is going places.
So, if St. Louis does become the NFC West representatives in the playoffs, think of it as their coming-out party. Even if it's a short one.