The Arizona Cardinals stumbled out of the gates but they've seem to find their stride in the past three weeks while the rest of the NFC West is crumbling all around them. The Niners have lost two straight (with bye sandwiched in the middle) by a combined 38 points while the Hawks dropped a game to the Cardinals after what they hoped was a momentum building blowout against the Jaguars. Meanwhile the Rams are still looking for their first win and their current losing streak has been stretched to 17 games. 

San Francisco 49ers: The Niners had two big news items this week with Alex Smith being re-inserted into the starting lineup after a mind blowing second half against the Texans that included three touchdown passes to Vernon Davis and they also lost their new starting right tackle, Tony Pashos, for the rest of the season. The good news with Pashos is that he didn't have a very good first start anyways but of course the bad news is that former starter, Barry Sims, (who lost his job for a reason) is most likely moving back into the starting lineup. Coming off back to back losses to the Falcons and Texans, the Niners' road won't get much easier as they travel to Indianapolis to take on Peyton Manning and the undefeated Colts. Needless to say it's very likely that their losing streak won't end this week. But it's not all bad news for the Niners because they're keeping a close eye on the Carolina Panthers (they own their first round pick next year), so they might actually become Cardinals fans this week.

Seattle Seahawks: The Seabags have had a long bye week to savor the 27-3 beatdown at the hands of the Cardinals and our buddies over at Field Gulls have used that time to turn their attention to the future. You can find stories on why they want Jason Campbell, a full breakdown of Washington Huskies QB Jake Locker and other colliegate prospects that they're targeting for next April's draft. One thing is clear, these guys know that their team isn't going anywhere this season. They've got problems at running back, center, left guard and left tackle and those problems won't be fixed anytime soon. With Dallas, Arizona and Minnesota making of three of their next four opponents, I would expect that they haven't hit rock bottom just yet.

St. Louis Rams: As we all know the Rams are in the midst of a complete tear down and rebuild and injuries aren't helping them at all. They've traded away another veteran player (Will Witherspoon) and they've had to put four guys on IR during the past month, including three starters. Things can't get much worse for a team that averaged over 11 wins from 1999 to 2003 but at least they play another team mired in a tremendous losing streak this week. Both the Rams and Lions have lost 17 of 18 games and 25 of their last 27.