Week ten is in the books and the weekend of action brought a first in recent NFL history. The San Francisco 49ers, St. Louis Rams, Arizona Cardinals and Seattle Seahawks all managed to grab victories on Sunday. This was significant because it marked the first time since the NFL realigned to its current eight division structure in 2002 that all four NFC West teams won the same week. That's a pretty crazy stat to consider.
The NFC West has had a bad rep in recent years due to significant struggles. It peaked (or valleyed, if you will) last season when the Seahawks took home the division title with a 7-9 record. They did knock off the New Orleans Saints in the first round of the playoffs, but that did not stop people fro criticizing a playoff structure that allows a 7-9 team to host a playoff game against an 11-5 team.
A year later, the Seahawks, Cardinals and Rams have all been quite awful this season while the 49ers have gotten back on track. This weekend was a big weekend for the division to gain some measure of respect. The Arizona Cardinals flew east to Philadelphia and shocked the Eagles 21-17 on a late Early Doucet touchdown. The Rams went into Cleveland won an ugly one over the Cleveland Browns. And the Seahawks jumped on top of the Baltimore Ravens early and held on for a 22-17 victory.
Reports out of Las Vegas were saying that if you had bet $100 on a four-team parlay featuring the four NFC West teams, you would have won $8,400. I'd be stunned if anybody placed that wager.
It will be impossible for all four teams to win this week as the division features 49ers-Cardinals and Rams-Seahawks. Given how the NFC West has gone at times this season, a pair of ties would not be the most stunning bit of news to come out of week 11. Unlikely, but really not particularly surprising.