Now that the San Francisco 49ers have established their dominance over most of the rest of the NFL, it is time to put away their division.
The first step in what could be a very early clinching of the NFC West comes today at home against the Arizona Cardinals. The 49ers have built their 8-1 record, second only to the Green Bay Packers’ perfect 9-0, with only one win in the division, beating the Seattle Seahawks in the season opener.
Now San Francisco gets a hefty dose of NFC West foes, a good thing considering the rest of the division have a combined win-loss record of only 8-19.
Photo: Reuters
The 49ers have won their past four meetings with the Cardinals, who were held to 13 total points in the two games last season. And those Niners were not anything like these Niners under new head coach Jim Harbaugh.
“This is not a trap game for us. This is a rivalry game,” 49ers left tackle Joe Staley said. “We expect the best effort out of them. It’s always a very physical game regardless of records. We came into their place when they went to the Super Bowl that year (2008), went to their house and beat them. We had a bad record that year.”
Indeed, San Francisco went 7-9 then — they already have surpassed that victory total.
The Cardinals have shown some progress recently and won their past two games by excelling — or getting lucky — in the fourth quarter.
“I’m not going to say that we are 100 percent there or that we are very proficient at it now, but it’s nice to have been able to make the plays, move the ball and score touchdowns in a situation where we needed to do that,” Cardinals coach Ken Whisenhunt said.
The other two NFC West teams also go at it, with Seattle at the St Louis Rams. Neither team are thinking playoffs right now. Seattle come off an energizing upset of Baltimore and have seen running back Marshawn Lynch break out.
The Rams have won two of three, the loss coming in overtime at Arizona, as their top runner, Steven Jackson, has stepped up.
The Cincinnati Bengals travel to the Baltimore Ravens with identical 6-3 records, with a bonus prize of tying idle Pittsburgh atop the NFC North. However, this is much more of a statement game for Cincinnati, whose six victories are against teams with a combined 22-36 record.
“If you want to make a playoff run, if you want position and you want a chance to extend your season, then all seven of these games matter and this is the next one,” Bengals left tackle Andrew Whitworth said. “All seven of these, to me, are extremely important.”
Baltimore will be angry with themselves after following a comeback win at Pittsburgh with a dud effort in Seattle.
“They weren’t in our conference, but at the same time, you want to beat the teams that you are supposed to beat,” said running back Ray Rice, who got only 27 yards on five carries against the Seahawks. “It was one of those situations where they got after us pretty good and it was pretty emotional.”
Also on Sunday, it’s Tampa Bay at Green Bay, San Diego at Chicago, Tennessee at Atlanta, Carolina at Detroit, Philadelphia at the New York Giants, Dallas at Washington, Oakland at Minnesota, Buffalo at Miami, and Jacksonville at Cleveland.
On Monday, Kansas City are at New England.
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