NFC West Week One Review - Part 1

Article by Rob Newell

It has taken what has felt like forever, but week 1 of the regular season has arrived, and the hits are that little bit harder, the results matter a whole lot more, and out in the West we have already had the first overtime game of the season.

Defending NFC champion Seattle Seahawks visited the St Louis Rams in the early game on Sunday and two teams who expect to have some of the best defences in the league served us up a thriller with over 60 points put on the board.  At the end Russell Wilson’s 100% record in overtime games came to an end, when Seattle failed to convert a fourth and short, a situation they were in last time they played a proper game.  This time though the Hawks did hand the ball off to Marshawn Lynch, so all those people who have been crying about the playcall in the Super Bowl can stop now, turns out Lynch might not have got in either.

 

So what about the 2015 Seahawks, firstly they missed Kam Chancellor, the safeties holdout perhaps not the most impactful in preseason, will show up a lot more now that it counts proper!  Would the Rams have scored 34 with Kam back there, it's possible of course, but I doubt it. The Seahawks OL is still a work in practice, having lost Pro-Bowl centre Max Unger as part of the Jimmy Graham trade, putting the new look line up against the Rams front 4 was as tough a test as you can get, and as you would expect with Robert Quinn, Chris Long, Aaron Donald etc… The Rams got to Russell Wilson quite regularly, but the OL unit will benefit from a test like this.

Seahawks and Rams matchups are usually tough, but the Rams may have inadvertently shown the rest of the league the blueprint of how to disrupt the Seahawks OL.  Having said that if your going to go for that approach you better get home, as the Seahawks do have the players to punish mistakes and you know the Seahawks will never knowingly be beaten until the game is over.

As for the Rams, it does seem that those bemoaning the offensive scheme of Brian Schottenheimer for the last few years, may well of had a point, as Frank Cignetti did seem to know how to utilise Tavon Austin a bit more.  The Rams were without there top two running backs in Todd Gurley and Tre Mason but backup Benny Cunningham was effective in relief against the usually stringent Seahawks D.  The Rams also have themselves a new QB this year in Nick Foles.  Foles achieved the almost unthinkable in St Louis, a starting QB who hasn’t been lost to injury for the year in the first game.

One of the narratives about the Rams, is they don’t have receivers worth the name, but I challenge people who say that and the Rams coaches as well to watch the film of Stedman Bailey.  He is grossly underrated in the league and at times by his own team.  Bailey runs good routes and seems to have great hands, under pressure and needing a play, Foles already seems comfortable with Bailey.

 

When Gurley returns, expect the Rams receivers to have more space and the likes of Bailey will benefit as should the electric Tavon Austin.  Now, we know what the Rams are capable of at home, we now need to see what they can produce on the road before we anoint them contenders.  Having as a team they seem to have more about them.  In previous seasons a big return TD as Tyler Lockett produced would have knocked the stuffing out of the Rams, but on this evidence the Rams have more identity about them.

Topping the division with the Rams right now are the Arizona Cardinals, who opened up the season with a home victory over the New Orleans Saints.  Any questions about returning QB Carson Palmer can be laid to rest, as Palmer racked up the yards and 3 TD passes.

Give a Bruce Arians team a confident QB and you see a completely different proposition to the team that limped out of the playoffs to Carolina last year.n the returning QB got the best out of youngsters David Johnson and John Brown and paced the team with Larry Fitzgerald who seems destined to now finish his Hall of Fame career in Arizona. 

The Cardinals look to have lost Andre Ellington with injury again, so we will see now what rookie Johnson and fit again CJ2K Chris Johnson can do, but as long as Palmer is fit, Arians will live and die by the pass as he doesn’t know how to coach conservatively it seems, one of the reasons we love to watch his team's play.

I predicted Arizona to win this division and after one week, so far so good! The 49ers will round out the division later tonight when they welcome Minnesota Vikings to what will be the home of Super Bowl 50. I will report later in the week on that one, as the two comeback of the year contenders in Adrian Peterson and Navarro Bowman go head to head.