EL SEGUNDO, Calif. — Ahead of Thursday night, the Rams (8-4) are tied for first place with the Seahawks in the NFC West. They hold the tiebreaker because of their victory against Seattle in November, so they are currently the 3-seed in the NFC.

Will the Rams hold onto their position? What does history tell us?

Last week, using history as our guide, we successfully predicted that the Rams would continue their winning streak against the Cardinals and do it by double digits. They did, winning 38-28 in the desert.

What about this week against the Patriots?

• The Rams are 5-9 all-time vs. the Patriots and 2-5 at home.
• New England has currently won six straight vs. L.A. dating back to their 20-17 win at Super Bowl 36.
• But L.A. has fared well in December games vs. New England going 2-2 all-time.
• The last time the Rams won a home game vs. the Patriots was three decades ago in St. Louis on December 13, 1998. To put that in perspective, Aaron Donald was 7 years old, Jared Goff was four, and Cam Akers hadn’t been born yet.
• L.A. has only averaged 6.7 pts per game in their last three meetings against New England.
• During their six-game winning streak against the Rams, the Patriots' average margin of victory has been by 15.3 pts.
• This is the first meeting between the two since the Rams’ 13-3 loss at Super bowl 53.

Let’s face it, recently this matchup hasn’t gone well for the Rams. Not just on the field but on the sidelines as well. Bill Belichick is 7-1 all-time (6-1 with NE, 1-0 with CLE) as a head coach vs. the Rams. And after their most recent meeting in Super Bowl 53, Coach Sean McVay admitted to being outcoached by the six-time Super Bowl champion coach.

“Definitely I got outcoached, and I didn’t do nearly good enough for our football team,” said McVay. “I was not pleased at all with my feel for the flow of the game and kind of making some adjustments as the game unfolded and to giving ourselves a chance to have some success and put some points on the board."

McVay and the Rams will get another crack at Belichick and the Patriots, who are fresh off of a 45-0 shutout of the Chargers at SoFi Stadium last Sunday and are playing stellar defense as of late.

Spectrum News 1 reporters Kristen Lago and Timothy Parker break down their keys to victory for the Rams.

Kristen Lago: Don’t let the Pats get downhill

The Rams defense has been the team’s most consistent unit all season. But this week, they will face a Patriot’s offense stacked with power runners — most notably running back Sony Michel and quarterback Cam Newton. The Cardinals provided a good practice run for the Rams defense last week, who will once again need to stop the offense from getting downhill and force Newton into passing situations. After all, defense wins games, and the Rams have a good shot of moving to 9-5 if they can perform on the Thursday night stage. 

Timothy Parker: McVay vs. Belichick

After the Rams' Super Bowl 53 loss to the Patriots, Sean McVay admitted that he was outcoached by Bill Belichick. He can’t let that happen this time. The Rams have the far superior team at almost every position. If McVay can put Jared Goff and the offense in the right positions to succeed and let the defense control the game, the Rams will walk away 9-4. Don’t get cute; just let your talent outshine theirs.

Kristen Lago: The Rams will flip the tables on the Patriots in this Super Bowl 53 rematch and come out on top. New England without Tom Brady won’t be strong enough to hold off a dominant L.A. defense. Rams win 28-14. 

Timothy Parker: It won’t be pretty and it will probably have some stressful moments, but the Rams will pull this out, 24-13.

This may not be the Super Bowl, but you can bet that Super Bowl 53 will be fresh on McVay’s mind when this game kicks off. All historical signs are pointing to the Patriots taking care of business, dominating on the defensive side of the ball, and continuing the winning streak.

Statistics provided by footballdb.com