NFL 2024 Season - Week 14
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Week 13
Mile High Hopes
Top and Bottom
Fourth Time the Charm
Bounce Back
Engage Spark
Line Up
Out in the Cold
Thanksgiving Visitors
Good Enough
Motivation on Steroids
Week 12
Second Best
Heavyweight Bout
QB's Ins and Outs
Everybody In
Too Easy
Walk the Plank
Hot to Trot
Try, Try, Try, Try, Try Again
Week 11
Mouse Trap
Must Game
Malfunction
Easy Does It
Old Foes
Falcons Fly into Mile High
Matter of Time
Improv
To the Brink
Week 10
Odd Man Out
Lions come Calling
Rookie versus Veteran
Call to Action
Full Reverse
When 8-0 is 4-4
Game of Contradictions
NFC West Bunch
Early Boarding
Week 9
Not Enough, Too Much
Real or Imposters
Groin Shot
Best Show
Saddle Up
Dull Edges
Telling Actions
Annihilation Formula
Week 8
No and No
Old Glory
Rookie Face Off
Adding it Up
Holding On
Jets Down
Unload and Reload
No Surprise
Career Paths
It Hurts
Week 7
Harbaugh Monday
Kids Camp
Barkley Back
Bird Battle
Mouse Time
Too Many?
Gone Shopping
Not Bad
40 for 3
Week 6
Try New
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Unexpected
Fire One
Week 5
Yes & Yes
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Rookie Sensation
So Close
Lunch in Seattle
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No Respect
Too Sweet
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Week 4
Landmine
Bottoms Up
Winners and Losers
Call Me
Short Line
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Like Tonight
Uptick
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Week 3
Two Times
Reduced Value
Stars Down
The Other 21
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Lots of Questions
Move Along People
Times Up
Week 2
Confidence Game
First and Second Picked QB's
Avoiding the Donut
Do or Die
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Likewise
Adjustment Bureau
Down ... Not Out
Week 1
Time Marches On
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Start Here
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Brazil Play Date
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Super Bowl Pick
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Moving on Up
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Preseason 4
Preseason Wrap
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Preseason 3
Short Memory
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Preseason 2
Quarterback Shuffle
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Preseason 1
One Season to the Next
Public Shift
Comets in the Night
Offseason
Mahomes Chasing History
All's Well that Ends Well
Ups and Downs
     
 
Everybody In
by Dennis Ranahan

One can ask the question whether the National Football Conference West Division is a collection of average football teams or a number of very good teams beating on each other. There is no separation in the standings aside from the Arizona Cardinals perched one game ahead of the Los Angeles Rams, San Francisco 49ers and Seattle Seahawks. The Cardinals have won six of ten games this season, the other three NFC West combatants are five and five.

Ten games into the 2024 season many would be surprised to see the Cardinals ahead of three teams most ranked ahead of them before the season started. So, what happened to the favored 49ers, always tough Los Angeles Rams, and inconsistent Seattle Seahawks?

Well, the 49ers drop is based on two primary factors. First, we can show a long history of Super Bowl losers having trouble the season after their Roman Numeral loss. Second, the 49ers have been hit hard on the injury front. Key players from both sides of the ball have been missing in action and this week Brock Purdy joins that list of sidelined stars. He is nursing a shoulder injury that in all likelihood will keep him out of tomorrow’s contest against the Green Bay Packers at Lambeau Field.

The Rams also came into this season with two concerns that derailed their early season results. First, they were looking to fill a hole created by the retirement of defensive stud Aaron Donald. While that still wasn’t adequately plugged, the Rams were also victims of more injuries than a season series of M*A*S*H. Now, the Rams are relatively healthy and tomorrow night face one of the best teams in the league, the Philadelphia Eagles.

Like the 49ers in Green Bay, the Rams are point spread underdogs to Philadelphia.

Which means, if those two games, the 49ers and Rams encounters, went according to script, the winner of the game played in Seattle between the Cardinals and Seahawks will determine first place in the NFC West. That would happen by virtue of the Seahawks being one game ahead of San Francisco and Los Angeles, if those two squads were to lose, and have the tiebreaker edge with the same record over the Cardinals.

Now, if the Cardinals win in Seattle on Sunday, no matter what any other team does in the division, the lead after 12 weeks of regular season action would be theirs.

In other words, all the Cardinals need to do to maintain and perhaps extend their lead over the rest of the NFC West is win. Conversely, the Seahawks need to win and have Los Angeles and San Francisco lose to catch Arizona and earn a lead over their other division opponents.

Now, how about this for a possibility. What if the 49ers upset the Packers and the Rams beat the Eagles while the Seahawks win in Seattle.

Four-way tie.

All four NFC West teams having 6 and 5 won/loss records.

It could happen.

What is a lot less likely to happen is the Cardinals stretching their lead in this division over a Seahawks team primed for a big effort.

Qoxhi Picks: Seattle Seahawks (pk) over Arizona Cardinals