The San Francisco 49ers, lauded all offseason long as the de facto NFC West favorites, fell flat to kick off the 2010 season, starting off 0-5 and were immediately discounted for any playoff consideration. However, the rest of the teams in the division refused to pull away from their grasp, and after beating the division leading Seattle Seahawks, they're right back in the discussion with three weeks left to play.
Here are the current NFC West standings.
Also important are the records for each team against the NFC West and against the NFC conference, since those are the next tiebreakers.
Here are the remaining schedules.
St. Louis Rams (6-7)
Important records: 2-2 vs. NFC West, 4-6 vs. NFC, 1-1 vs. Arizona, 0-1 vs. San Francisco, 1-0 vs. Seattle
St. Louis controls its own destiny. They win out, they win the West. They can even lose to Kansas City next week as long as they win their final two divisional games, since it would give them the head-to-head tiebreaker over Seattle and the conference tiebreaker over San Francisco.
Both the Kansas City and San Francisco games are at home (and the Rams are 4-2 in their dome), but neither of them will be gimees for rookie quarterback Sam Bradford. A New Year's date in Seattle is also not the ideal place for a quarterback to finish his season.
Seattle Seahawks (6-7)
Important records: 3-2 vs NFC West, 5-4 vs. NFC, 2-0 vs. Arizona, 0-1 vs. St. Louis, 1-1 vs. San Francisco
Like the Rams, if the Seahawks win out, they're still in the driver seat. Embarrassing loss to San Francisco aside, they're still a game ahead of the Niners and don't have to worry about them ... yet. If they keep on winning, and beat St. Louis at home the final week, they'll earn a playoff spot.
A loss to Atlanta will change everything though. The good news is the Falcons are coming to their house (as opposed to in the Georgia Dome, where they're unbeatable), so it might give them a puncher's chance. But they also have to go to Tampa Bay, which will not be easy. Safe to say of all the teams in the NFC West, Seattle has the hardest road to the finish.
San Francisco 49ers (5-8)
Important records: 3-1 vs. NFC West, 3-7 vs. NFC, 1-0 vs. Arizona, 1-0 vs St. Louis, 1-1 vs. Seattle
San Francisco doesn't have the same luxury as the two division leaders; they almost assuredly have to win out (or at the very least go 2-1, with those two wins against divisional foes) to have a good shot at making this incredible comeback from their horrid start. If they can overcome a tough Thursday night test in San Diego though, they'll be in pretty good shape. They can make up with St. Louis by beating them the day after Christmas, and they should have a gimme game the final week of the season if they win their last two road contests.
They are the only team in the division that has proven they can beaten every other squad in the West, so they definitely know how to beat all their divisional foes. If the Niners beat the Rams and Cardinals, the Seahawks will have to lose one of their games for San Francisco to win the divisional tiebreaker.
Arizona Cardinals (4-9)
Important records: 1-4 vs. NFC West, 2-7 vs. NFC, 1-1 vs St. Louis, 0-1 vs. San Francisco, 0-2 vs. Seattle
Arizona needs ALL sorts of help, as they're on the cusp of elimination. Unless some sort of bizarre tiebreaker occurs, the Seahawks need to lose all three games to fall to 6-10 (Seattle owns the head-to-head), the Cardinals need to win all three games, the 49ers need to lose an additional game to fall to 6-10 (San Francisco has the divisional and conference tiebreaker advantages), and the Rams need to lose out (St. Louis has the divisional tiebreaker).
Arizona does play Carolina in a battle of some of the worst teams in football, so they can probably stave off eliminating themselves. But to stay alive, the rest of the teams in their division are going to have to live up to the moniker of the "NFC Worst."