NFC West Week 2 Reality Checks

Article by Rob Newell

Week Two of the regular season saw a dose of reality sink back into the NFC West, and perhaps the biggest dose was perhaps served up at Lambeau Field to the Seattle Seahawks, where if they didn’t realise already, they were very quickly reminded of just how badly they are missing Kam Chancellor.

The fact that the holdout is now over, combined with the fact the Seahawks return home for their home opener to take on an injury ravaged Chicago Bears should see the Seahawks start to rebound this week.  A cautionary note to the Seahawks fanbase though, Chancellor instantly upgrades the secondary back to Legion of Boom status, but history tells us that players who hold out tend to pick up injuries early into their return without the benefits of preseason training camp.  I hope it's not the case this time around so fingers crossed twelves.

Arizona Cardinals, showed yet again that with Carson Palmer at QB they have to be in the conversation as a legitimate Super Bowl team.  This is an offence that when it clicks is highly productive and does not ease off for anyone, it simply is not in Bruce Arians DNA to entertain the idea, and in rookie David Johnson they have unearthed another special talent.  He is the first player in NFL history to register Return, Rushing and Receiving Touchdowns over his first two games.  His return TD was recorded as the quickest run of any sort in the league.

The San Francisco 49ers, had the misfortune to be served up as the opening home sacrifice for Ben Roethlesburger and the high powered Pittsburgh Steelers team.  Fresh off their opening win at Levi’s Stadium, the Niners showed a little more of the form that we all expected from them this year, perhaps it is unfair to judge them against the Steelers whom we all expect to be in the final shake up in the AFC, but bear in mind this Steelers team did not have Le'veon Bell and the Steelers racked up yardage in huge chunks, the Niners defence did not register a single QB hit or sack in this game.  The Niners need to find more of the Vikings game form and quickly otherwise their season will run away from them very quickly.

As for the Rams, following a win at home over the Seahawks, a trip to the lowly Redskins shouldn’t have caused to many problems should it? Yet for much of the game the Rams didn’t even seem to have turned up.  This is why so many people assume the Rams will always end up 8-8 no matter what.  If the Rams are to finally turn the corner and become the playoff team that a team of their obvious talent level should be, they are going to have to be more consistent and find a way to take their home form on the road.  Not sure the Los Angeles fanbase will want a middle of the pack .500 team for very long.