Welcome to the weekly NFC West recap. For those of you new to the program, we’ll do a rundown of how the San Francisco 49ers are faring against their other NFC West rivals and any news from those games that might be noteworthy.
And we begin things with who is in the lead. First, all the NFC West teams won this weekend—except the Los Angeles Rams. Of those three, the 49ers are in first place after Week 1. Divisional games are considered a “game and a half” in terms of value, and since that was the only NFC West game this weekend, the 49ers start out on top.
Don’t get too excited; it is Week 1 after all. Last year the 49ers beat the Seahawks in Seattle, and then the season happened. Regardless, starting the season with not just a win, but a divisional win can only help in January tiebreakers. Everyone else? Whatever.
San Francisco 49ers (1-0)/Los Angeles Rams (0-1)
Oh, you know what time it is. It’s time to RAM IT.
I don’t know about you, but I really, really enjoyed that 27-7 thumping the 49ers handed the Rams on Thursday. Obviously, just because it’s the Rams, it’s already enjoyable, but seeing the 49ers look so crisp and efficient while the Rams look the opposite (especially after all the offseason hype) brings a lot of optimism about what the 49ers could do. Just stay healthy. Please, 49ers?
Speaking of health, the 49ers got nailed by the injury bug twice. Tight end Jake Tonges went down with what was later said to be MCL-related and “not good.” A bit less severe was wide receiver De’Zhaun Stribling, who went down with what is speculated to be a grade 2 deltoid sprain. This is the first time I learned the ankle has a “deltoid,” but leave it to the 49ers to teach me about every ligament in the human body you can sprain or tear. Stribling is expected to be out for at least a month, and surgery is on the table. Given that this is his rookie season and the 49ers are already dealing with the absence of Ricky Pearsall, we can all hope Stribling gets healthy sooner rather than later. Things could have been worse; when you see a player carted off the field (which happened to Stribling), it usually indicates something devastating.
Making any declarations from Week 1 is a terrible idea, and I’m sure the 49ers might have some challenges in Week 2, even against the Miami Dolphins, but if they can stay healthy, I don’t see why someone can’t see them as a threat to the NFC (not just the West).
As for the Rams, again, it’s Week 1. When they play the 49ers in Week 14, they will have Aaron Donald (and whether he’s still got it or not is left to be determined), and Myles Garrett will probably be a much different player than the one who laid a goose egg on the stat sheet Thursday.
That is, of course, if the Rams have Garrett back by then. It came out Sunday that the defensive lineman will undergo knee surgery and head to injured reserve. The minimum is four games, but there’s no timeline on when Garrett will be back on the roster. Not good, especially when the Rams have some tough games coming up.
Outside of the defense, some might think Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford might be on the “decline” after one game. Just because they brought in the backup to protect Stafford from getting blasted in garbage time doesn’t mean anything. We’ve also seen Stafford play bad games before, so Week 1 in Australia doesn’t indicate anything. Should Stafford be a bit less efficient this year, the Rams have plenty of talent on offense around him to prevent that side of the ball from taking a nosedive.
Seattle Seahawks (1-0)
The defending Super Bowl champs began their season against the New England Patriots. The first points weren’t scored until six minutes into the second quarter. And things imploded in the fourth quarter, when Drake Maye threw three straight interceptions that led to points and a 13-10 win for the Seahawks.
It wasn’t all roses for the Seahawks, however. Quarterback Sam Darnold left with an injury to his hip five plays into the game, leaving Drew Lock to fill in. Darnold is expected to miss some time. It’s not a fracture, so at the moment it’s not thought to be season-ending, but he will miss some time.
Lock went 16-of-22, 187 yards for one touchdown. Simply having zero interceptions means he was far more efficient than Maye. The Seahawks don’t have a favorable schedule the next few weeks, with the Arizona Cardinals, Washington Commanders, and Los Angeles Chargers coming up, so if Darnold is going to be resting up, Seahawks fans will be hoping Lock doesn’t tip things over.
Arizona Cardinals (1-0)
Sure, the 49ers win over the Rams was a surprise, but there was no bigger surprise than the Cardinals beating the Los Angeles Chargers. The Chargers were favored by 9.5 points. Or were the Cardinals favored? I really don’t know because the final score was 26-14, Cardinals. Looks like those points wouldn’t be needed. The game was relatively close until the fourth quarter. That was when stuff like this happened:
The Cardinals have Jacoby Brissett at quarterback, but the Chargers have Justin Herbert. And for a team like the Cardinals, you’d think Herbert would do better than going 17 for 27 and handing the game away with a costly interception.
Then again, Herbert’s offensive line was not helping him at all as the Cardinals’ pass rush was in the backfield on the regular. The stat sheet says Herbert was sacked three times, but it sure felt like a lot more.
The win puts the Cardinals into a tiebreaker with Seattle—one we aren’t going to break down in Week 1. Are the Cardinals better than we thought? Again, it’s Week 1. We’ll see how they do next week in their first NFC West matchup.
Onto Week 2
If the 49ers are going to deal with any jet lag in their return from Australia, it at least will be against the Miami Dolphins at Levi’s Stadium. The Dolphins didn’t have a great Sunday, losing to the Las Vegas Raiders 27-13. That’s the start of what many think will be a bad season.
The Seahawks and Cardinals will be giving us our second NFC West matchup of the season. I want to say the Seahawks won’t have trouble with this, but after Sunday’s upset—and Seattle’s issues with their quarterback—who knows. The game is in Arizona, so take what you will from that.
The Rams will host the New York Giants on Monday Night Football. While we shouldn’t hold our breath, a Giants victory here would open the floodgates for chaos next Tuesday with the Rams, an anointed “super team” in the offseason, starting 0-2. The Giants didn’t have many issues against the Dallas Cowboys, but the Rams are a massive difficulty spike over the Cowboys.
1st: San Francisco 49ers Next vs. Miami Dolphins
TIE–2nd: Seattle Seahawks; Next: at Arizona Cardinals
TIE-2nd: Arizona Cardinals; Next: vs. Seattle Seahawks
4th: Los Angeles Rams; Next: vs. New York Giants (Monday Night Football)
