INGLEWOOD, Calif. – When quarterback Matthew Stafford stood at the podium after the Los Angeles Rams’ 13-9 victory over the Arizona Cardinals and answered questions about the team’s possibility of a playoff berth in Week 17, he replied that it wasn’t The case is “I want to deal too much with hypotheses.”

What he did say, however, is that he is “proud” of this Rams team, which was 1-4 in the bye week and had to answer the question of whether it could still turn the season around.

“I’m proud of this group and the way they fought back,” Stafford said. “A lot of people doubt us, a lot of people write us off as 1-4. And now I can sit here with our balance sheet, I’m proud of this group.”

After the Seattle Seahawks won on Thursday night, the Rams needed a win against the Cardinals to start the day and 3.5 or more wins from one of the Vikings, Bills, 49ers, Bengals and Browns to hold the winning tiebreaker over Seattle and the Seattle Seahawks Seahawks win NFC West title. The Bengals defeated the Broncos on Saturday afternoon to pick up one of those wins.

Los Angeles (10-6) won its fifth straight game and ninth of 11 on Saturday night.

While the Rams can still win before the end of Week 17, head coach Sean McVay said he doesn’t want to put the cart before the horse when asked if his starters would play in Week 18 if the Rams don’t play for a year would playoff spot.

“Our focus and concentration will be on ‘How do we get the opportunity to play a complete game against an outstanding Seattle Seahawks football team?'” McVay said. “And until we have to decide otherwise, that’s all I’m going to focus on.”

And when asked what it would mean to secure a spot before they play Seattle in Week 18, McVay said: “We had to take care of our business tonight for that to even be possible. So it would mean a lot.”

“What I don’t want to do is get ahead because you get emotionally invested in other people’s games and that’s never really helped me.

“But the reality is this. … If you want to be able to do what we want to do, you have to mind your own business. And that’s what our guys did tonight.”