The Rams avoided disaster on Sunday despite losing to the Eagles. Rob Havenstein and Andrew Whitworth both left the game at different points, putting Darrell Williams in a tough position as he joined the starters on the offensive line.

The two tackles were rolled up on by other players, appearing to injure their ankles. As it turns out, they actually suffered knee injuries.

“As far as for Andrew and Rob, they had their ankles kind of rolled up, but it ended up being a knee with both of those guys with the mild MCL,” coach Sean McVay said. “Andrew came back, he checked out good today. Rob was in good spirits, they’ll be day-to-day.”

McVay originally said that they had ankle injuries, which is what they appeared to be. It’s alarming that they actually injured their knees, specifically their MCLs, but it’s not exactly bad news.

In fact, McVay called it positive with the way that they checked out OK.

“It was very positive when you look at just the way that they both got rolled up on and in terms of what can kind of come out of some of those types of plays and fortunately for us it didn’t result in something that was going to be season-ending,” McVay continued.

Williams obviously didn’t play to the level of Whitworth or Havenstein on Sunday, but the Rams are hoping he won’t have to worry about that this week. McVay said he anticipates both starters playing against the Seahawks, which would be huge.

“That’s the anticipation,” McVay said of them being on track to play. “That’s what we feel good about. It’s going to be one of those things where you never really truly know until you see how they really respond a couple days out, but I think when you just look at it from the very next day the way they came in – good spirits, positive diagnosis from Reggie (Scott) and his staff. Still, there is a week to go and we’ve got a lot of work to be done in the meantime. But, the anticipation is that we’ll have those guys available.”

Disaster avoided.

Had the Rams lost both players to significant knee injuries, it could have been the end of their playoff hopes. Whitworth is one of the best left tackles in the league, and Havenstein has done a great job against some of the best pass rushers in the NFL.