One can ask the question whether the National Football Conference West Division is a collection of average football teams or a number of very good teams beating on each other. There is no separation in the standings aside from the Arizona Cardinals perched one game ahead of the Los Angeles Rams, San Francisco 49ers and Seattle Seahawks. The Cardinals have won six of ten games this season, the other three NFC West combatants are five and five.
Ten games into the 2024 season many would be surprised to see the Cardinals ahead of three teams most ranked ahead of them before the season started. So, what happened to the favored 49ers, always tough Los Angeles Rams, and inconsistent Seattle Seahawks?
Well, the 49ers drop is based on two primary factors. First, we can show a long history of Super Bowl losers having trouble the season after their Roman Numeral loss. Second, the 49ers have been hit hard on the injury front. Key players from both sides of the ball have been missing in action and this week Brock Purdy joins that list of sidelined stars. He is nursing a shoulder injury that in all likelihood will keep him out of tomorrow’s contest against the Green Bay Packers at Lambeau Field.
The Rams also came into this season with two concerns that derailed their early season results. First, they were looking to fill a hole created by the retirement of defensive stud Aaron Donald. While that still wasn’t adequately plugged, the Rams were also victims of more injuries than a season series of M*A*S*H. Now, the Rams are relatively healthy and tomorrow night face one of the best teams in the league, the Philadelphia Eagles.
Like the 49ers in Green Bay, the Rams are point spread underdogs to Philadelphia.
Which means, if those two games, the 49ers and Rams encounters, went according to script, the winner of the game played in Seattle between the Cardinals and Seahawks will determine first place in the NFC West. That would happen by virtue of the Seahawks being one game ahead of San Francisco and Los Angeles, if those two squads were to lose, and have the tiebreaker edge with the same record over the Cardinals.
Now, if the Cardinals win in Seattle on Sunday, no matter what any other team does in the division, the lead after 12 weeks of regular season action would be theirs.
In other words, all the Cardinals need to do to maintain and perhaps extend their lead over the rest of the NFC West is win. Conversely, the Seahawks need to win and have Los Angeles and San Francisco lose to catch Arizona and earn a lead over their other division opponents.
Now, how about this for a possibility. What if the 49ers upset the Packers and the Rams beat the Eagles while the Seahawks win in Seattle.
Four-way tie.
All four NFC West teams having 6 and 5 won/loss records.
It could happen.
What is a lot less likely to happen is the Cardinals stretching their lead in this division over a Seahawks team primed for a big effort.
Qoxhi Picks: Seattle Seahawks (pk) over Arizona Cardinals