Seahawks cruise past the Cardinals to send a playoff warning shot; Tomsula has a last hurrah in Frisco

Article by Rob Newell

As has become the norm, Week 17 was once again divisional matchups, which in the NFC West meant nothing was at stake except pride and confidence as first place Arizona entertained 2^nd place Seattle and 4^th place San Francisco entertained 3^rd place Rams.  I would say St Louis but later this month that may be inaccurate as they are expected to file their relocation claim today (4^th January) ahead of the owners meeting on the 12^th January.  Los Angeles does seem to beckon the Rams, will the Chargers or Raiders join them, my feeling is that it will be the Chargers with Oakland retaining the Raiders for now.

 

Back to the NFC West though and I will start with the two lower placed teams and what ended after overtime with a victory I predicted last week for the 49ers.  There was no reason on paper to believe the Niners should have won this game, apart from it is an NFC West type thing and the Rams defeat means yet another 7-9 season for the Rams, yet it seems Coach Fisher is going to be safe yet again.  Another losing season for Fisher next year once the team is in LA and I fear his luck may run out before the attendance figures drop. 

 

In San Francisco Coach Tomsula has not enjoyed the same luck as Fisher, despite winning this game to take San Francisco to a 5-11 record and the fifth pick in the 2016 draft when the whole NFL viewing world felt they were nailed on number one pick after the off-season retirements.  Tomsula was let go on the Sunday evening following the game in a move reminiscent of last year when Jim Harbaugh was finally released following week 17.  Something not lost on Harbaugh who took to social media to comment when the news had broken.  Chip Kelly and Mike Shanahan are early names in the mix for the 49ers job, I expect Kelly is really looking towards Tennessee and Marcus Mariota so maybe Shanahan will return.

 

Both Rams and 49ers have questions about the QB position with the original higher paid designated starters being benched in favour of the backups.  Blaine Gabbert at least has shown something in relief of Colin Kaepernick without any running game help or without starting receivers for most of his games, and I expect Gabbert will remaining in San Francisco with Kaepernick traded but the new Head Coach will be looking to draft his own QB of the future.  The Rams have probably finished to far down the order to look at drafting a QB in April so a free agency move could be on the agenda again.  Whoever comes to the Rams will be delighted with the running game in the shape of Todd Gurley but the Rams receivers are in dire need of an upgrade and a proper number one receiver.

 

Now for the headline act, Seattle at Arizona.  The Cardinals had a shot at the overall number one seed if other results went their way, but that soon became a dream as Seattle put in their best showing of the season and limited Arizona to their worst.  The Seahawks defence playing without Kam Chancellor completely shut down the Cardinals.  Maybe being back at the sight of their Super Bowl defeat last season inspired them to put things right and the Seahawks cruised to a 36-6 victory on the back of their defence and special teams.

 

At one point just before half-time Tyler Lockett the rookie of the year candidate had more return yardage than the entire Cardinals offence had racked up.  The Cardinals were getting beaten up so bad that Carson Palmer came out in the second half just to keep him for the playoffs, meanwhile his Seahawks counterpart Russell Wilson has been the best QB in the league in the second half of the season and with the defence and special teams giving him short fields it is almost unfair.  Perhaps making it even more unfair is that this Seahawks offence already ranked in the top 5 to complement their once again number one defence is about to get Marshawn Lynch back for the playoffs.

 

The 12’s will not have home field advantage this time but off the back of this game in Arizona there is nobody in the NFC happy to be playing Seattle.  The late night Sunday game between the Vikings and Packers saw the Vikings win to claim the division and 3 seed and a game against the Seahawks, whilst the Packers by losing have a game at Washington.  I am sure Mike McCarthy was aware of this going into the game.  Who would you rather play this weekend, Washington or Seattle?

 

The Cardinals will now have a bye week after their first division title since 2009 and you can be sure Bruce Arians will get his team to rebound from this performance when they host a playoff game in two weeks.  Don’t be surprised though if the week after that the Cardinals once again are hosting these Seahawks with a lot more on the line.