The Rams opened their LA tenure with a dud, the Seahawks and Cardinals failed to impress, and Chip Kelly might be the answer. Here are my thoughts on the NFC West after one week.
The 49ers are currently the best team in the division.
After one week, the 49ers are the only team in the NFC West to win impressively and showed what halfway decent coaching can do to a team.. The 49ers dominated the Rams from start to finish in Monday night’s second matchup and played like a team rejuvenated under new leadership. Granted, the 49ers did this on Monday night a year ago and won 4 more games by a combined 15 points. However, the vibe from the 49ers felt different this time. They looked confident the entire game and played disciplined and smart football throughout the game. The 49ers showed that no team should take them lightly going forward.
The Rams need to switch to Goff immediately
I have no idea which idiot on the Rams coaching staff came up with the bright idea to start Case Keenum at quarterback. Keenum has never impressed in his three years in the league and was a flaming train wreck against a 49ers defense widely considered to be average on a good day. They drafted Goff, a Pac-12 record breaker so they could finally have an answer at quarterback and instead choose to start a guy who had plenty of time to show he was not the answer for them last year. They traded up to get Goff and there are 7 to 9 reasons why they should start him because Keenum showed he isn’t the guy.
The Seahawks offensive line is worse than we thought
3 sacks and 9 quarterback hits don’t do justice to show how truly bad the Seahawks offensive line was on Sunday. Thomas Rawls and Christine Michael could not get anything going on the ground for most of the game and Russell Wilson was hurried and harassed throughout the game. Their defense was pretty good, but the Dolphins are not exactly known as an offensive juggernaut. The Seahawks were very lucky to come out of this game with a win and it should serve as a wake up call that they have a lot of work to do in order to even think about returning to the Super Bowl.
The Cardinals letdown is worse than we think
Yes, the Patriots are a good team and sure, they have won without Brady before. However, this is a game that the Cardinals should have won even with Brady in there, so for them to allow Garoppolo to come into their house, shred their secondary and control time of possession is alarming. If Chandler Catanzaro made that kick, we may not be having this discussion. However, Palmer looked a step slower and their defense failed to stop the Patriots in key situations. The fact that they were even in this situation against the Patriots’ backup quarterback on their home turf shows that they may not be the same team they were last year.
The NFC West may no longer be the powerhouse it once was
The Seahawks escaped at home against a mediocre team. The Cardinals lost a key game at home to a team with a backup quarterback. And the team predicted by many (myself included) to be one of the worst teams in football just annihilated a team that was supposed to finally make the jump. It is scary when the only team that looked dominant was the one predicted to be the bottom feeder in the division. The NFC West has enjoyed a run of 5 straight years of having a team at least make it to the NFC Championship game. It’s early, but with 3 of the 4 teams failing to impress in week 1, there is work to be done.
What’s next:
The 49ers fly to Charlotte to play the Super Bowl runner-up Panthers, the Cardinals play the Buccaneers at home, and the Seahawks and Rams face off in the Los Angeles’ first NFL game in 22 years.
Oliver James
My first article in 2 months. Enjoy assholes!