We’re coming into the last stretch of the season and we feel good that we have a shot to win the division and get into the playoffs. We’ve put ourselves in a good position, now we have to take advantage of it. We have to play solid football, no little mistakes.

Going into the season I wasn’t thinking about winning a division title. I thought this team had the talent to make the playoffs, but it was a young team. Now I see these guys getting better each week, going out and performing. I think we’ve proved a lot to a lot of people and we’ve proved to ourselves that we can do it.

The Rams have kind of been on the backburner the last couple years. This last part of this season is a chance to show how much we have improved.

Our division is wide open, there’s so much up in the air. No one has really put a stranglehold on it. There are some good teams but all the teams have been a bit sporadic.

We’ve got a great chance to see how far we can take this thing. Once you get into the playoffs, all the records are 0-0, everyone has a shot.

The guys are up for it and we’re so close. One thing I can tell the younger guys is that you have to grasp every opportunity in this league, because you never know when the next opportunity will come. There are guys who have been in this league a long time who have never been to the Super Bowl and they would kill just to get into the playoffs for one more shot. When it comes down to it, it’s a hard road to get there. You have to keep pushing and make sure you don’t let any chances pass you by.

We’ve got the Saints at their place on Sunday. They’re a great team and we’re going to have to play tremendous solid football. We can’t have any penalties that kill ourselves, we have to stay on the field on offense and tackle well on defense. They’re an explosive team so we want to eliminate their big plays and neutralize Drew Brees, one of the league’s best quarterbacks. Our guys are committed to going out and giving their all, and we have to do that because the Saints will exploit any weakness or mistake, on offense, defense or special teams.

It’s going to be a hard-fought game, but we definitely have a shot.

Fred Robbins is a defensive tackle with the St. Louis Rams. His blog for www.playerpress.com runs at www.fredrobbins98.com.