Two weeks back, I brought up this Great Divisional race.  I bailed off of last week, because the two division leaders won their game and brought themselves back to .500.  Unfortunately, this erased the last hurdle to 6-10.  This week brings us back to the satisfying status quo.  The three-cornered race looks like this:

Saint Louis Rams: six wins, seven losses
Seattle Seahawks: six wins, seven losses
San Francisco 49ers: five wins, eight losses
Arizona Cardinals: four wins, nine losses

To recap the games played this week, for Saint Louis:

After the blowout loss, coach Spagnuolo wasn’t in the mood to talk about his team’s playoff chances. “I didn’t think that we played well. That’s kind of obvious. The message to the team was that if you don’t protect the football and you don’t tackle well on defense, it’s hard to beat any team, let alone one of the best teams in the league.”

When asked about the Rams still being tied for first place in the NFC West, Spagnuolo replied, “I didn’t think about that. To be honest with you maybe tomorrow I’ll wake up and look at it. I’m very proud of this football team in what they’re doing. I just don’t think that’s us. We all have a little bit of pride in playing a very good football team. You certainly want to match that.”

For Seattle:

Three things we learned       a) Matt Hasselbeck remains turnover-prone.  b) The Seahawks have found consistency the past seven games.  That’s not a good thing.  c) Charlie Whitehurst isn’t considered a viable alternative to Hasselbeck right now.

For San Francisco –   I don’t know.  Look around the comments section and you’ll see 49ers fans gloating in most surreal fashion.

A look at the coming schedule and the Dream of the 7-9 Division Championship is looking very promising.

For Saint Louis:  Kansas City, San Francisco, At Seattle.
For Seattle:  Atlanta, At Tampa Bay, St. Louis
For San Francisco:  At San Diego, At St. Louis, Arizona

That’s three divisional games and three games where the opposing team will be favored to win.  A reasonable forecast, one where San Francisco is the victor at Saint Louis, and the teams will all come into the final week, Seattle and Saint Louis and San Francisco all sit at 6 and 9,  Should Saint Louis win that game against the 49ers, the suspense will continue on to the final week of the season.

In other sports news, the Metrodome caved in.  The Viking’s remaining home games will be played in Detroit, which as always pierces the absurdity of spectator sports – there is no particular reason the team needs to play in Minnesota, the Mad Max future where the future where the teams are named after not geographical locations but corporate entities is coming down the pike quickly.

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