It was an exciting inaugural weekend to kick off the NFL regular season. While this year may look a little different without fans in most of the stadiums, to begin with, the product on the field was still quality.
The Seattle Seahawks started the year strong with a dominant 38-25 victory over the Falcons in Atlanta, getting on the right foot as they seek their first division title since 2016.
It’s a good thing too, as the NFC West is the toughest division in the league. With all four teams officially wrapping up Week 1, let’s take a look to see how the rest of the West fared on Sunday.
Los Angeles Rams: Won 20-17 over Dallas Cowboys
The Rams suffered the classic Super Bowl hangover in 2019, stumbling to a pedestrian 9-7 record. Going into 2020, many have written Los Angeles off for dead, seemingly destined for a rebuild.
At least for one week, the reports of the Rams’ demise could be exaggerated. The Rams christened their brand new stadium and debuted their “interesting” new uniforms with a physical 20-17 win over the Cowboys.
The Rams got back to their identity of tough running and precise, rhythmic throws from quarterback Jared Goff to hang on to a 3-point victory.
Arizona Cardinals: Won 24-20 over San Francisco 49ers
The Arizona Cardinals are this year’s trendy “dark horse” pick for the surprise team which inevitably will rise out of nowhere. With good reason, I might add. The Cardinals made a major splash acquiring receiver DeAndre Hopkins to help build coach Kliff Kingsbury’s air raid offense and give second-year quarterback Kyler Murray a new weapon.
Arizona is off to a smashing start upsetting the 49ers on the road, as Murray led a game-winning drive and the Cards defense finally held their own late.
The Cardinals’ next five games are against the Washington Football Team, Detroit, Panthers, Jets and Cowboys. If they are able to build off their Week-1 momentum against some NFL bottom feeders, it isn’t unreasonable to think they might be waltzing into their Week 7 meeting against Seattle with 5-6 wins under their belt.
San Francisco 49ers: Lost 24-20 to the Arizona Cardinals
Three of the four NFC West teams ended Sunday 1-0, except for the 49ers, since the Niners were playing a division rival Week 1, the best record the division could post would have been 3-1.
However, the Niners still carry the distinction of being the lone loser in the division through the first week. Considering how difficult this division looks to shape up, every loss is going to eventually add up.
It’s clear the Super Bowl hangover is starting early for the 49ers. Make no mistake, this is still a supremely talented team, and the Cardinals are up and coming, but San Francisco looked out of sync the whole game. Quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo finished completing only eight of 17 passes, including a brutally under thrown one which would have resulted in a potentially game-winning score.
