Last week strengthened my statement that I made saying that the NFC West is still the best division in the NFL. The Rams posted a shutout for the 2nd consecutive week, while the Cardinals pulled out a much needed win to hold the division lead from the charging Seahawks, who also won last week. On the flip side of that, the 49ers continued to struggle, losing to the 1-11 Raiders. Heads will be sure looking to roll in San Francisco pretty soon. With week 13 now in the books, let’s get right to the NFC West Week 15 Game Previews:
Arizona Cardinals (10-3) vs St Louis Rams (6-7) -4
The Arizona Cardinals won a tough, playoff-type game last week, at home against the Kansas City Chiefs. They got a big game from RB Kerwynn Williams, who had 19 rushes for 100 yards, arguably the best individual rushing game a RB has played on their team this year. Even though Coach Bruce Arians said that Stepfan Taylor will start for them again tonight, I expect Williams to be given the chance to carry the load again as the Cardinals probably use the “hot hand” approach.
The St Louis Rams shutout the Washington Redskins 24-0 to secure their 2nd straight shutout. Ironically, since the controversial move to bench Austin Davis after the last Cardinal game, they have won 3 out of their last 4 with the only loss being a 3 point road loss in a game they had the ball late driving for the win. Coach Jeff Fisher has them playing hard and the biggest difference between them now and the 1st 5-6 games is their defense. Their pass rushers have woken up and are raising hell in the opponent’s backfield.
The Cardinals know that their next 2 games are against Seattle and San Francisco, so this could be their best chance to get to the magical 11 win total that “should” get a team into the NFC playoffs. The Rams just want to get back to .500, which would be a great unexpected surprise after how they started the year at 1-4. This will be a very close game that will probably come down to the last possession and I can see a defensive stop by the Cardinals squeaking them through.
Prediction: Cardinals 20, Rams 17
Seattle Seahawks (9-4) at San Francisco 49ers (7-6) +10
The Seattle Seahawks won their 3rd in a row and their 6th in the last 7 games by defeating the NFC East leading Philadelphia Eagles 24-14 in a game that probably wasn’t as close as the score indicated. If it wasn’t for an early turnover within their own territory, the Eagles would have been blanked for the entire 1st half. They are playing like the defending Superbowl champions and no one wants to play them. They just have to hope they aren’t peaking too soon.
The San Francisco 49ers are playing horrible football right now. Their offense can’t move the football and Colin Kaepernick seems to be lost out there. Add that to the fact that everyone has already projected that Coach Jim Harbaugh will not be back next year and the biggest question to ask is have they stopped listening to him. Under Harbaugh’s regime, this is the worse the 49ers have looked and it appears that they maybe quitting on him and looking towards next year.
In the NFL, you can never tell what’s going to happen. In this division alone, no one would have thought the Rams would dominate the Broncos and not much people would have picked the 49ers to lose to the Raiders 24-13. With that being said, the Seahawks should be able to repeat what they did 2 weeks ago, which was dominate the 49ers. There is a chance that the 49ers could keep it close, but I think they will be dominated as much as they were on Thanksgiving Day.
Prediction: Seahawks 23, 49ers 10
