The standings for the NFC West of the National Football League show something I had been anticipating, and rooting for, since the League realigned to four team divisions near the start of the last decade may be coming to fruition.  It struck me that divisions of 5 teams were able to stem this from happening (though the configurations always resulted in a funky situation where the 4-5 matchup had better teams than the 3-6 match-up), but slashing down a team begged this outcome as an inevitibility.  The dream of a 7 and 9 Division Champion is coming right down the pike!

Here are the current standings.

St Lousi Rams  5 wins, 6 losses
Seattle Seahawks  5 wins, 6 losses
San Francisco 49ers 4 wins, 7 losses
Arizona Cardinals 3 wins, 8 losses

Here’s your excited sports blogger take on the remainder of the season.
The playoff race in the NFC West is really heating up with only five games remaining
Oh yes!  How about the Seahawks’s chances?
I think it’s more realistic that they go 2-2 heading into the final week, and that final game of the season might just decide who goes to the playoffs.
Yes.  Let’s circle that final game of the season, sure to be a game for the Ages.  St Louis has the tie-breaker, so I guess what might be great, and as plausible as anything looking at the schedule, is if Seattle comes into that game at 7-8 and St Louis at 6-9.   Unfortunately the Seahawks have the Panthers coming up this weekend, so they’re going to probably even up their record.  After that, a road game against San Francisco — could go either way  — a frightening possibility for a victory before the teams’ two losses against Atlanta and in Tampa Bay (Tampa Bay struggling to get into the playoffs and likely will miss it, with a record right now of 7 wins and 4 losses).  Saint Louis may have three straight losses coming up.  Or they may go 2-1.
San Francisco’s chances?
Assuming they lose to the Pack and Chargers, they would have to sweep the division games and hope no one finishes higher than 7-9.

“Oh, man, there’s some ugly football in the NFC West, that’s first and foremost,” Warner told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.   “I know we’ve been bad for a while, but at least there always were a couple teams that were pretty competitive. Right now its pretty hard to watch, most of the teams have been pretty uncompetitive when it comes to playing against good teams in the league. “OR back to “ramblin fan”:  Regardless, it should be a fun ride for the next five weeks, so just hang on and enjoy the trip. I know I will.

 

Because it’ll bring rollicking sports commentary like this:
Former NFL coach and current ESPN analyst coaching candidate) Jon Gruden suggested during Monday night’s San Francisco-Arizona snoozer that the NFC West winner forfeit its automatic playoff berth.

It’ll be entertaining to watch (if you follow sports in the most curious and cynical of lights), though not so much the actual games.

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