NFC West Standings: 49ers tie first with Seahawks, Cardinals, Rams in the back

Welcome back to football and welcome to the 2024 season! Obviously, here at Niners Nation we already are going to have content galore on the San Francisco 49ers, but there’s one thing we need to keep an eye on: The NFC West.

Each week we are going to give you a quick recap of the 49ers divisional rivals, what we liked, what we didn’t like, make fun of whoever we can, and then give you a rundown of how that NFC West race is shaping up. Should the 49ers find themselves in a race for that precious No. 1 seed as the season goes on, we’ll also give some seeding info here as well.

As you might expect for Week 1, it was a lot, a LOT of sloppy football. The good news is two rivals lost. The 49ers won.

We’ll have a lot to talk about this week but the key takeaways from the New York Jets game was:

A: That’s one of the better defenses in the league (The Jets)

and

B: The defense held Aaron Rodgers to 13 points.

That latter point should make you happy, because how much better did that defense look under Nick Sorensen? Yes, Rodger got his, but that’s expected.

The win will put the 49ers in a tie for first (we aren’t going to go into tie breakers right now in week 1). Here’s how the rest of the league did:

Arizona Cardinals (0-1)

For those of you who watched the Arizona Cardinals hang in there with the Buffalo Bills to the very end and say, “Wow, they are going to be good this year,” relax. That game was more on Buffalo’s defense taking a nosedive than it was anything Arizona was doing.

There was Kyler Murray doing Kyler Murray things with scampers and the like, but then there was missed tackles galore and wayyyyy too soft coverages. It was very un-Bills like. The Cardinals defense has improved, we can give them that, but this was more on Buffalo shaking some rust off than it was on the Cardinals seeming like a new and improved team.

Kyler Murray had a cool 21 completions for 162 yards and a touchdown. Pretty pedestrian. There wasn’t a single 100-yard rusher or receiver. Just some decent defense from the Cardinals in Week 1.

That said, the Cardinals could make trouble for the NFC West with the speedy quarterback behind center, but this said more on Buffalo than it would on the Cardinals.

Seattle Seahawks (1-0)

The Seattle Seahawks won what was probably the most Seattle Seahawk game you’d ever see. Things were pretty apparent when it comes down to something that already happens rarely, happening twice. A safety.

Two safeties.

One, Seattle could get the run out of the endzone and the other they had a penalty in the redzone. Two safeties.

As the game went on, the Broncos remembered they were the Broncos and the Seahawks did that surge that we know them for where they regained control of the game and never looked back. Geno Smith was not horrible. His passing wasn’t anything to write home about, but he had a sick touchdown run running out of the pocket near the Broncos’ 40-yard line. He punched it in, but the Seahawks failed the two-point conversion.

The Seahawks handled their business, but it took some time to wake up and get there. So yeah, a very Seattle game.

Los Angeles Rams (0-1)

The Rams returned to Detroit, where their season ended to take on the Lions once more. Matthew Stafford had some heroics in the second half, but the Lions had no problem running around. The Rams managed to take the lead in the fourth quarter, but the LIons managed a field goal towards the end that put the game into OT.

From there, the NFL’s wonderul overtime rule gave the Lions the ball first and they proceeded to run right down the Rams’ throat for the touchdown and sealing the game.

Through the game, I had the sense the Lions were giving the Rams ample opportunity to take this one. Very similar to how the Lions let their foot off the gas against the 49ers in the NFC Championship when they decided to stop catching passes.

Regardless, the Lions are a threat in the NFC. The Rams have a good coach so they’ll always be in it, but Detroit is going to be a problem.

The injury bug had no limits; The Rams were without some of their offensive line Sunday and Stafford came off the ground limping from one play. But the worst hit was on wide receiver Puka Nacua who has gone onto IR with a knee injury. Left guard Steve Avilla also left the game.

Into Week 2:

The Rams have a lot of injury questions and are just slim favorites in their road game with the Cardinals next week. That should be an interesting game to watch based on what we saw from both teams this week. Maybe we’ll get some answers.

The Seahawks will be going across the country to face the New England Patriots. The Patriots shocked the world Sunday beating the Cincinncati Bengals. One would wonder if Joe Burrow was held to the same standard Brock Purdy was with quarterback play, but I doubt it.

The 49ers will be going to Minnesota to face the Minnesota Vikings. The game last year was what I like to call the “Steve Wilks exposed” game. If you remember right, it was the last game where the former 49ers defensive coordinator sat in the booth calling plays. It also was the first time you could tell something was very, very wrong with the defense.

1st [tie]: San Francisco 49ers; Next: at Minnesota Vikings

1st [tie]: Seattle Seahawks; Next: At New England Patriots

3rd[tie]: Los Angeles Rams; Next: at Arizona Cardinals

3rd [tie]: Arizona Cardinals; Next: vs. Los Angeles Rams