Rams and Raiders headline teams that face must-win games in Week 10

1. Los Angeles Rams

The top team on this list has a unique quality that the others don’t: they didn’t play in Week 9. The Los Angeles Rams were on their bye last week, resting up after a resounding victory over the hapless Cincinnati Bengals in London.

This has been an interesting year for the Rams, who looked poised to forget any sign of a Super Bowl hangover by starting 3-0, but followed it up by dropping three straight games to fall back to .500. The Rams snapped out of their funk with big victories over Atlanta and Cincinnati, righting the ship before the bye.

Los Angeles has a tough challenge coming out of the bye as they hit the road again for a cross-country flight to take on the Pittsburgh Steelers. Playing at Heinz Field is never easy, as evidenced by the Indianapolis Colts, who walked into Pittsburgh and were upset on Sunday.

This is a tough game for the Rams, who can’t afford to drop many more if they have any hopes of getting back to the playoffs for a third straight year. Two of the Rams’ three losses in their skid came to the teams ahead of them in the NFC West, the Seahawks and 49ers, which likely relegates them to the wild card race.

That NFC wild card race includes teams like Seattle, Minnesota, and Carolina, so it is unlikely that a team with more than six losses gets into the postseason. The Rams already have three defeats, and they can’t afford to let Pittsburgh make it four.