Even though the San Francisco 49ers have not had a winning record since starting the season 1-0, you can’t really blame most fans for expecting them to have a solid lead over the Los Angeles Rams in the division. Or maybe you can? I don’t know, I’m not telling you what you expected a few weeks ago but I doubt that very many people expected this:
The Rams and the 49ers both have four losses after seven weeks. The L.A. Rams are hardly out of the race in the NFC West after what happened on Sunday, plus they have a head-to-head win over the 49ers already this year. The Rams improved to 2-4 by beating the Raiders, the 49ers dropped to 3-4 after losing to the Chiefs. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves like the folks at ESPN did after TWO games.
When the Rams lost to the Packers before the bye week, they fell to 1-4 and talking head at ESPN were discussing whether or not L.A. should trade Matthew Stafford to the Raiders because “The Raiders are a better team than the Rams”. Don’t shoot the messenger: That’s what ESPN’s NFL Live was talking about not very long ago. I said that was ridiculous to be talking about after a couple of games, actually.
Now the Rams are 2-4 after beating the Raiders 20-12 on Sunday.
Meanwhile, the San Francisco 49ers dropped to 1-2 after they lost to the Rams last month, then won two of their next three by beating the Patriots and Seahawks but losing to the Cardinals.
Still, the 49ers went to the Super Bowl last season and have had a lot of success under Kyle Shanahan, so it was fair to wonder if the Niners would get on track and runaway with the division after beating Seattle last Thursday. However, now the 49ers must be wondering if they’ll even finish this season with a winning record.
San Francisco quarterback Brock Purdy was intercepted three times in the 49ers’ 28-18 loss to the Chiefs in Week 7, but they also lost both Brandon Aiyuk and Deebo Samuel during the game, compounding the fact that they haven’t played with Christian McCaffrey once all season. Samuel is dealing with an illness and Aiyuk left with an ugly knee injury.
I would love to just write that the 49ers are losing with their star players, but the reality is that San Francisco is losing AND they are getting injured over and over again at key positions with star players.
For now, the 49ers still have Purdy, Trent Williams, and George Kittle, but they’ve lost McCaffrey, Aiyuk, and Samuel. It’s not clear how long any of those players will be out or continue to be out. Rookie first round receiver Ricky Pearsall did return to action after being shot in the offseason and caught three passes for 21 yards.
Defensively, the 49ers have been good but not nearly as great as they were during their Super Bowl runs.
Now the NFC West is wide, wide, wide open, including potential inclusion to the division title race to a Rams team that was 1-4 this morning!
Though the Seahawks lead the NFC West for now, Seattle stopped a three-game losing streak by beating the Falcons and still have arguably the worst run defense in the entire NFL. The Seahawks schedule has been extremely soft compared to what’s ahead, so the Rams should be thinking about how they can regroup, get back their two star receivers Cooper Kupp and Puka Nacua, and rebound similar to how they rebounded in 2023.
The Rams were 3-6 but made the playoffs at 10-7.
NFC West Standings
Seahawks, 4-3 (1-3 NFC, 0-1 NFC West)
49ers, 3-4 (1-3 NFC, 1-2 NFC West)
Cardinals, 2-4 (2-3 NFC, 2-0 NFC West)
Rams, 2-4 (1-4 NFC, 1-1 NFC West)
The Rams next four games are vs. the Vikings, at the Seahawks, vs. the Dolphins, and at the Patriots.
Sean McVay will have a lot of intel on Minnesota’s offense with Kevin O’Connell and Wes Phillips. He also has intel on Seattle’s offense as former McVay assistant Jake Peetz is the Seahawks passing game coordinator. And two of the worst offenses in the NFL thus far have been the Dolphins and Patriots.
L.A. can still pull out of their tailspin.
The 49ers guarantee it.
