Nothing about this season has made much sense in the NFC West.
From 2010-2014, the 49ers or Seahawks were among the top four teams in the NFL, combining for three trips to the Super Bowl, one Super Bowl victory, and five straight NFC Championship games, including the 2013 NFC Championship between the 49ers and Seahawks.
This time two years ago, many teams in the NFL would have traded for young franchise QB’s in Russell Wilson, Colin Kaepernick, and Nick Foles as they combined for a whopping 74 touchdowns to 19 interceptions. Last season, that number sank to 52 touchdowns and 27 interceptions. So far this year, they have combined for 23 touchdowns and 17 interceptions which has led to Kaepernick and Foles being benched, and while Wilson still has a vice grip on the starting job, he is also facing tough questions about his ability to lead the offense.
Fast forward to this season, and the 49ers and Seahawks could very well both miss out on the playoffs this year, and there’s even a chance that neither team finishes with a winning record this season.
Yet here are the 7-2 Arizona Cardinals with their crafty veteran under center in Carson Palmer, who turns 36 in December and is a year removed from the second major knee surgery of his career. 10 years after ending the best season of his career with a knee injury, Palmer is off to a fantastic start, and is currently on pace for 4,887 yards 41 touchdowns and 12 interceptions, which would be career bests and place him in front of Neil Lomax and Kurt Warner in the franchise record books. But history is not all that Palmer is after, he appears to be playing with a thirst and hunger for that one milestone that has eluded him for his 12 seasons as a NFL QB – a championship.
With the way the NFC is shaping up, we could be headed for an Arizona-Carolina NFC championship game, and what strange turn that would be, after both franchises ended last season as a “pretender” in the playoffs. This year Carolina is unbeaten at 9-0, and Cam Newton is garnering well deserved MVP praise, as is Palmer, who has his team at 7-2 and with a firm grip on first place in the division.
Seattle and St. Louis share matching records at 4-5, and appear to be at a crossroads while Arizona begins their full ascent. San Francisco, meanwhile, is in full-on dumpster fire mode, and yet two of their three wins have been against potential playoff teams in Minnesota and Atlanta. The game between the Seahawks and 49ers this Sunday should prove to be quite telling, as Seattle is losing steam in the playoff hunt at this point, but the postseason is not mathematically impossible for any team in the division, but the odds are not in their favor.
If the playoffs began today, the NFC West would send just one team to the postseason, which would be quite a major shift, as the division sent two teams each of the least three years, and almost sent three teams in 2013. As it stands, Green Bay and Atlanta would be the NFC wild cards, with Arizona winning the division, and Seattle and St. Louis watching from home, and San Francisco likely in the running for the top draft pick next year.
For Seattle, their best shot at the division crown was fumbled last Sunday, as they repeatedly were outplayed by the Cardinals, and now have a three game deficit with seven games remaining, not to mention a losing record nine games into their season. Their road to the playoffs starts anew this Sunday at home against San Francisco, who gave them much more trouble than most expected, and Seattle escaped Levi Stadium with a 20-3 win that felt and looked a lot closer than the score indicated. Hopefully things will be different this time, as the game is in Seattle, and the 49ers are now starting a backup QB (Blaine Gabbert), a RB most of you probably have never heard of (Shaun Draughn), and their best receiver (Garrett Celek), was a third-string TE a month ago. As I said, full-on dumpster-fire.
St. Louis appeared to be on the right track and a real contender for a playoff spot in the first month of the season, and thanks to injuries on defense, on the offensive line, not to mention shoddy QB play, they have resumed their status as a middling team without an identity, despite the truly stellar play of rookie RB Todd Gurley.With a loss to Minnesota two weeks ago and getting run out of Chicago last Sunday, a matchup with the suddenly incapable 2-7 Baltimore Ravens seems to be just what the doctor ordered to help them get back to .500 and potentially break in their new starting QB Case Keenum, even if it is on the road.
Arizona has the game of the week yet again, as they host Cincinnati this Sunday night in what very well could be a Super Bowl preview. The Cardinals and the 8-1 Bengals come in to Sunday off of very different outcomes a week ago, as the Bengals come to town licking their wounds following a disastrous MNF loss at home to Houston, and Arizona will be home after a quality win over Seattle on the road and now gets to prove that that game was no fluke. The Bengals represent just the second team Arizona has faced this year with a winning record, the other being Pittsburgh, who gave the Cardinals their second loss of the season in a 25-13 victory even without Ben Roethlisberger. This game is expected to be an offensive showcase, however as both teams also field a top-10 defense, there is a chance that this one comes down to the best kicker that night.
If Arizona, St. Louis, and Seattle win this Sunday, the division could have an outside shot at sending two and perhaps even three teams to the playoffs, and depending on how the rest of the conference does, the NFC West could be the only division with three teams with records .500 or better at week’s end.
For now, Seattle and St. Louis need to prove they are winning teams, and that starts with owning winning records. For Arizona, for all of their praise this year, they still need to prove they can beat an elite team and keep their strong season going as the second half of the season gets in to full swing.
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