Seahawks rivals: The best NFC West team of week six
One of the Seahawks NFC West rivals made a major statement with their win. Another left nothing but questions after their loss. The third had some of both.
The Seahawks continued to keep pace in the NFC West with their gritty win over the Browns. Yeah, that’s probably a spoiler right there. Eh, whattya gonna do? If you want more insight on the Hawks win, feel free to check out their offensive grades, then their defensive grades. If you want to know more about how Seattle’s rivals fared this Sunday, you’re in the right place.
Arizona Cardinals. Congratulations to those feisty guys in the desert. The Cardinals won their second straight game, beating the Falcons by a single point. They needed some luck to take the 34-33 win, as Atlanta kicking god Matt Bryant missed the extra point that would have tied the game. It was just his eight miss in 574 tries. That’s luck.
There was no luck involved in Kyler Murray‘s game, though. He passed for over 300 yards for the third time, and absolutely showed why the Cardinals chose him first overall. Murray connected on 27 of 37 attempts for 340, three touchdowns and zero interceptions. For the first time this season Arizona’s offensive line kept the defense off him. Close wins or not, Cardinals fans have to be happy with back-to-back wins.
Los Angeles Rams. This is the team that is facing nothing but questions. It’s bad enough for Los Angeles that they’ve now lost three straight contests. They were embarrassed by the Buccaneers in week four as they gave up 55 points. The Rams followed that up with a better effort, but still fell short against a certain wonderful and amazing team, the Seattle Seahawks. The fact that the Niners completely demolished them is far worse than the loss itself.
Jared Goff threw for 78 yards. No, I didn’t miss a “3” at the beginning of the number. That was seventy-eight yards, which he’ll often have in a quarter. The Rams were 0-13 on third and fourth down. The only good thing about their performance is that can’t possibly play worse.
San Francisco 49ers. The Niners are undoubtedly the team that made a statement. The Seahawks certainly heard it. I’m sure the entire NFL did as well. People tend to notice things like holding the defending NFC West and conference champs to 157 yards in a 20-7 beatdown. The Rams came into the contest averaging 414 yards per game. The 49ers clearly weren’t impressed.
As I wrote earlier this week, San Francisco has taken control of the NFC West with a solid roster on both sides of the ball, rather than one superstar player. Every game, another player steps into the spotlight. Their win over the Rams is a great example of this. Tight end George Kittle caught eight passes for 103 yards. It was his first 100-yard game of the season, and only his second over 60 yards. No other Niner gained over 45 yards in the game. San Francisco held the ball for nearly 39 minutes. This was domination with a capital “D”.
Next. Hawks should make this deal with the Jets. dark
It should be fairly clear which of the Seahawks rivals gets my nod as the best of the rest of the West this week. Wow, that sounds like a t-shirt you found in a bargain bin at the SODO market. For this week at least, it’s the Rams that are in the bargain bin and the Niners that are the standouts of the week.