Looking Ahead at the NFC West

[Harry]

The easiest thing to predict is which team will finish last. That’s San Francisco. Injuries to Kittle and Garoppolo have left the offense toothless. Combine that with an extremely tough finishing schedule and they may be lucky to win 2 more games. Seattle has injury issues as well, but their schedule is far more favorable. At least 5 of their last 6 games could be walkovers. That would give them at least 11 wins. They’re certain to pick up 1 or 2 other wins making them my favorite to win the division. The Cards should have the inside track on second place. That is not to say they couldn’t overtake the Seahawks, but rather already trailing by a game and with a tougher schedule their chance of winning the division would seem to be if the Cards could again beat the Seahawks in Seattle. If they had a more veteran QB I’d like their odds better. Murray figures to have a down game or two and that figures to be the difference. LA’s only hope would seem to be sweeping the Cards but they still face a tougher schedule and have spotted the Cards a one game lead. So they could easily sweep the Cards and still end up behind them.

There’s a great deal of football to be played. Injury and illness figure to be continuing to plague the league and could make my predictions fall apart. This 2020 year has made it hard to make accurate predictions. Still it at least is a fun topic upon which to speculate.

 

[SeattleCard]

Glad we are in the hunt. Perhaps Kyler doesn't take a step back but just continues improvement - in that situation we should have a legit shot at the NFCW title. Go Cards!

 

[Russ Smith]

Mullens is hot and cold but when hot he's been better than Jimmy G this year. But without Kittle and with Deebo and all the RB's hurt my guess is they will tank now and play the young guys .

Shanahan is such a good coach, give him a better QB in the future and look out. I'm glad they have 4 wins already they weren't going to get Lawrence but give SHanahan a QB like Fields and it would be a nightmare to deal with

 

[82CardsGrad]

Winning this weekend would be huge as getting to 6 & 2 would really help us secure a top 2 finish in the west... But losing Chase is gonna hurt... Not too concerned about the loss of Kenard.

 

[football karma]

i think SF wins three more games: WFT, at Dallas, and one game where they surprise somebody. They are well coached and rely on a scheme that doesnt require heroics from the QB. 7-9

Rams are tough to figure out. They likely wont be favored in 5 of their next 7, with matchups with NE and NYJ being games they ought to win. Tough for them -- 2nd match up with the Cards is in week 17 -- and their fate might be sealed by then. 8-8, 9-7

for the Cards, the next two weeks will tell us something: two games they will be favored to win, but both are the kind of non-conference / easy to lose focus kinds of contests.

 

[Cheesebeef]

Winning this weekend would be huge as getting to 6 & 2 would really help us secure a top 2 finish in the west... But losing Chase is gonna hurt... Not too concerned about the loss of Kenard.

have we definitely lost Chase? Seems to conflicting Covid cases on the team.

 

[Finito]

i think SF wins three more games: WFT, at Dallas, and one game where they surprise somebody. They are well coached and rely on a scheme that doesnt require heroics from the QB. 7-9

Rams are tough to figure out. They likely wont be favored in 5 of their next 7, with matchups with NE and NYJ being games they ought to win. Tough for them -- 2nd match up with the Cards is in week 17 -- and their fate might be sealed by then. 8-8, 9-7

for the Cards, the next two weeks will tell us something: two games they will be favored to win, but both are the kind of non-conference / easy to lose focus kinds of contests.

the Bills aren’t a walk over at all

 

[82CardsGrad]

have we definitely lost Chase? Seems to conflicting Covid cases on the team.

Only saw that he and Kenard were confirmed... Has there been something released that is contrary?

 

[82CardsGrad]

have we definitely lost Chase? Seems to conflicting Covid cases on the team.

Actually just saw that it's Murphy and Kenard, not Chase... Not sure how I feel about that.

 

[football karma]

the Bills aren’t a walk over at all

no question, but a team travelling across country that they should beat

 

[BritCard]

We need 4 more wins.

I feel 4 more wins gets us into the playoffs and 2nd place. But even if we're 3rd it should still get us in with 14 teams.

The Miami game is huge both for playoffs and internal / external perception of this team. If we lose we go back to also rans. If we win people start talking about us as real contenders.

And its one of our winnable games. But it won't be easy. Look at Bucs vs Giants.

 

[AZCrazy]

The Dolphins game will go a long way to defining whether we are in the hunt or not. The Fins beat bad to average teams including the 9ers and Rams. They lose to top tier teams like the Seahawks. We'll have to see where we end up placing ourselves. This is a good bellweather game.

 

[jmt]

6-2 and a game behind Seattle would be a great way to hit mid season.

 

[Garthshort]

I'd be very happy if we fnish 2nd in the West. But, I remember that the Rams own us in recent years.

 

[phillycard]

The Rams are a real enigma. They have beaten the entire NFC East and the Bears. Not very impressive. I would love to expose them as absolute frauds. Would warm my heart actually.

 

[SeattleCard]

I'm still worried about the Rams. We're 0-6 in the last six games and McVay seems to have our number. We have to beat them to get over the hump.

 

[BritCard]

I'm still worried about the Rams. We're 0-6 in the last six games and McVay seems to have our number. We have to beat them to get over the hump.

More concerning for me is that our defense always looks lost vs their offense. Can Vance come up with a different plan?

 

[football karma]

I'm still worried about the Rams. We're 0-6 in the last six games and McVay seems to have our number. We have to beat them to get over the hump.

and have been uncompetitive in those games as well

 

[BigRedRage]

Last time I looked ahead we lost two games straight