The San Francisco 49ers and Arizona Cardinals are doing everything they possibly can to end their respective seasons without a playoff berth. They’ve lost winnable games in every manner conceivably whether it be a blowout or a punch to the gut on a late game-winning field goal. However it has happened, the 49ers and Cardinals don’t seem interested in the postseason.
And yet the NFC West will not allow anybody to walk away from the divisional race. Earlier today the Seattle Seahawks dropped a home game against the Kansas City Chiefs to fall to 5-6. The Seahawks fell behind early and could never really get back into the game. After Seattle tied the game at seven in the first quarter, it was fairly downhill from there. They had several highlights throughout the game but it was not enough to get a victory as they fell in rather ugly fashion 42-24.
At Invesco Field in Denver, the St. Louis Rams defeated the Denver Broncos 36-33 to improve to 5-6. The Broncos jumped on top early 10-0, but the Rams quickly jumped all over them and took a 33-13 lead into the fourth quarter. St. Louis did everything it could to blow the lead as they gave up 20 points in the final 15 minutes. The Broncos had the ball with 1:04 left, but a Rams field goal earlier in the quarter (their only points of the fourth quarter) was enough to hold off the furious comeback effort.
All of this means we now have a two-way tie at the top of the division. More importantly for 49ers and Cardinals fans is the fact that the winner of tomorrow’s game will only be a game out of first place at 4-7. Neither team has shown an ability to consistently win games, but that won’t stop us fans from getting way too excited about the teams’ playoff possibilities.