Well perhaps a better title for this story is, "Arizona Cardinals Sit Atop the NFC West." Ok, so it's only one game but it's never to early eye the rest of the division right? Here's how our division foes did this weekend:
San Fran Niners: I'll start with them since we got a first hand look at them about 24 hours ago. They actually played much better than I had anticipated and they could be a decent team on the rise with Mike Martz running the offense. JT O'Sullivan looked a bit like 'Kurt Warner of old' completing a lot of passes for a relatively high yards per attempt, but like 'Warner of old' he had problems taking care of the football. The Niners will have to find some receivers if Martz's offense is truly going to flourish considering that O'Sullivan only completed four passes to his wide outs. As for the running game, Frank Gore looked like his old self and should have a better season this year as long as JTOS can continue to play an average quarterback.
Seattle Seahawks: If you're wondering where that constant cussing from the north was coming from yesterday, it was Seattle fans watching the 'Hawks get smoked by the Bills. Not only did they get throttled to the tune of 34-10, it's hard to put your finger on exactly which group is to blame. The offense certainly didn't do it's job with Hasselback completing just 41% of his passes and the running game totaling just 85 yards on 21 carries (4.0 ypc), 24 of which came on one play. The defense wasn't as bad as you'd except considering that they only gave up three drives over 50 yards and they forced seven three and outs, but the special teams went home with a black eye. They allowed a punt return for a TD and another TD off of a fake field goal. All in all, it was a horrible trip to the east coast for the Hawks and hopefully (for them), that was an aberration and not a sign of the rest of the season.
St. Louis Rams: At least the Seahawks can say that they didn't look as bad as the Rams. The Rams were expecting the worse but even they weren't expecting to get the doors blown off by 35 points. The offense only managed 166 yards or 3.7 yards per play and the defense allowed 522 yards or 7.4 yards per play. To make matters worse, 52 of the Rams' yards and their only three points came in the fourth quarter once the Eagles' defense resembled the lineup in the fourth preseason game. The Eagles offense only had one three and out while the Rams had seven, including not a single first down in the third quarter.
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It's too early to make any definitive conclusions about the Cardinals or any other team in the West but for one weekend, it was obvious who was the best team. What did you guys think about the Niners, Hawks and Rams?