After our San Francisco 49ers beat the New York Giants on Sunday, I began the Golden Nuggets with "How about them Niners?" or something along those lines. What I really should have said was "How about that NFC West?" That was the first time all four teams in the NFC West have won in the same week since the division was formed in 2002. There was actually some rather impressive things to note about the wins from the 49ers' divisional rivals.
For one, the Arizona Cardinals continued to hand the Philadelphia Eagles losses that just have to be demoralizing. I happen to despise the Eagles and their quarterback, so for me personally, this was a great thing, despite the fact that the Cardinals are divisional rivals. On top of that, quarterback John Skelton (who?) threw for 315 yards, 146 of which went to Larry Fitzgerald. At this time, I'd once again like to point out that Sam Lam (of Examiner.com fame) did not start Fitzgerald on his fantasy team last week. Who in the world wouldn't start Larry Fitzgerald on their fantasy team?
Anyway, that game likely has created some quarterback controversy in Arizona, which is just fine by me. Like I've said numerous times (though it greatly upset the folks at Bleeding Green Nation), Kevin Kolb blows. He's just not good ... but neither is Skelton, so a nice controversy to take them into the game against San Francisco this coming Sunday is exactly what I think it needs. Already experiencing a ton of pressure, we'll let Justin Smith and Aldon Smith give them a little more, yeah?
Perhaps the most impressive victory was the St. Louis Rams overcoming adversity and knocking off the juggernaut Cleveland Browns. Alright, there's a bit more embellishing going on in that sentence than Jim Harbaugh did talking about his "normal shifts,", but it was an ... interesting game nonetheless. What does it mean, exactly? Not a whole lot, as it happens.
The 13-12 victory over Cleveland was legitimate and nobody can take that away from the 2-7 Rams, but holding Colt McCoy to just over 200 yards is actually giving him more than he's accustomed to. Especially with Peyton Hillis and his backup Montario Hardesty out for the game, with nothing but some guy whose name I can't spell and Thomas Clayton to handle the bulk of the carries. Yeah - safe to say the bulk of St. Louis' energies were focused on stopping McCoy (hah) and covering the superhuman wide receiving core of Greg Little and Mohamed Massaquoi (did he even play?)
Now we come to the Seattle Seahawks, who are certainly threatening to ... to do something in the NFC West, sitting at 3-6. I'm not quite sure what it is they're threatening to do, but perhaps they've just launched themselves on a seven-game winning streak, to take the NFC West at 10-6 over the 49ers, who surely will fall flat on their face in the second half of the season? I gotta tell you - if there's any group of two potential quarterbacks that could handle that tall of an order, it'd be Tarvaris Jackson and Charlie Whitehurst. No really.
Getting back to being somewhat serious, no matter how you look at it, beating the Baltimore Ravens is a good sign. Marshawn Lynch rushed for over 100 yards and Jackson did make some impressive throws. The Ravens have been susceptible to these kind of losses this season, so I'm not sure how much of it I can take and say "that's why the 49ers should beat them on Thanksgiving," but barring some mystical force that makes them play bad against bad teams and good against good teams, seeing them falter is a good sign.
I don't really know where I'm going with all of this - as most of you know, I've gone into full-on cocky mode and I've accepted that I firmly believe the 49ers will win the NFC West. I actually got a good deal of laughs out of the rest of the division doing well this week - let them keep winning, that way the ignorant people who cite the division as the reason the 49ers are winning (despite having played just one NFC West team this season) can shutup and go away.