Week 1 handed the NFC West a clean little snapshot: three teams got wins, one didn’t, and that one loss was enough to put the San Francisco 49ers alone at the top of the division.
That’s the weird math of a “game and a half” division win. San Francisco’s 27-7 rout of the Los Angeles Rams on Thursday was the only NFC West matchup of the opening weekend, which means the 49ers get to sit in first place for now. It’s a tiny sample, obviously, but divisional wins matter, especially when January tiebreakers come into play.
The bigger takeaway from San Francisco wasn’t just the result. It was how clean the 49ers looked doing it.
The offense was crisp, the operation was efficient, and the Rams - after all the offseason hype - looked like the opposite. For a fan base that has spent plenty of time worrying about health, the warning lights came early, too.
Tight end Jake Tonges went down with what was later said to be MCL-related and “not good.” Wide receiver De’Zhaun Stribling also exited after a cart ride, and the injury was later speculated to be a grade 2 deltoid sprain.
Stribling is expected to miss at least a month, with surgery on the table. That stings even more because it’s his rookie season and the 49ers are already without Ricky Pearsall.
Still, the win gave San Francisco something tangible to build on, even if Week 1 is a dangerous place to start drawing conclusions. The 49ers could run into problems in Week 2 against the Miami Dolphins, especially if the travel from Australia leaves any lingering effects. But if they stay healthy, there’s no reason not to view them as a threat beyond the NFC West.
The Rams, meanwhile, have their own early issues to sort through. Defensive lineman Myles Garrett is headed to injured reserve and will undergo knee surgery.
The minimum absence is four games, but there’s no timetable for when he’ll return to the roster. That’s a tough break with difficult games ahead.
There was also the familiar overreaction machine spinning around Matthew Stafford after one game. The Rams pulled the backup in to protect Stafford from taking more punishment in garbage time, but that alone doesn’t tell you much.
Stafford has had bad games before, and one Week 1 outing in Australia doesn’t suddenly define his season. Even if he’s a little less efficient this year, Los Angeles still has enough offensive talent around him to avoid a collapse on that side of the ball.
Seattle also opened with a win, but it came with plenty of mess attached. The Seahawks beat the New England Patriots 13-10, and the game didn’t even produce points until six minutes into the second quarter. Then it broke open late when Drake Maye threw three straight interceptions that directly led to points.
The Seahawks didn’t escape cleanly, though. Sam Darnold left with a hip injury five plays into the game, and Drew Lock took over.
Darnold is expected to miss some time. It’s not a fracture, so the feeling right now is that this won’t end his season, but he is going to be out.
Lock finished 16-of-22 for 187 yards and a touchdown, and the most important number might have been the zero in the interception column. Seattle will need that kind of steadiness with the Arizona Cardinals, Washington Commanders, and Los Angeles Chargers coming up.
Arizona turned in the other surprise of the weekend, beating the Los Angeles Chargers 26-14. The Chargers were favored by 9.5 points, but the game ended with the Cardinals in control. It stayed relatively close until the fourth quarter, when the Cardinals pulled away and Justin Herbert helped hand things over with a costly interception.
Herbert finished 17 for 27, and the Cardinals’ pass rush kept living in the backfield. The stat sheet says he was sacked three times, but it felt like more.
Arizona now sits tied with Seattle in the early division picture, though nobody is rushing to sort out tiebreakers in Week 1. The bigger question is whether the Cardinals are better than expected.
The next step comes quickly, with their first NFC West game on deck.
Week 2 gives the division another round of clues. The 49ers return home to Levi’s Stadium to face the Dolphins, who lost to the Las Vegas Raiders 27-13 and came out of Sunday looking like a team plenty of people expect to struggle.
Seattle and Arizona meet in the NFC West’s second divisional game of the season, and the location is Arizona. Given what happened Sunday and the uncertainty around Darnold, that one feels far less straightforward than it might have a week ago.
And then there’s the Rams, who host the New York Giants on Monday Night Football. A Giants win would turn up the heat fast and create a very uncomfortable 0-2 start for a team that spent the offseason being talked about like a super team. The Giants handled the Dallas Cowboys without much trouble, but the Rams are a much tougher assignment.
In Other News...
49ers Win Looked Easy But Early Offensive Concerns Already Stand Out
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Fred Warner Just Gave The 49ers A Reason To Believe Again
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Cases involving Stribling, Brock Purdy and Ricky Pearsall have all fed that concern, with some injuries reportedly worsening after early returns and surgeries getting pushed back. For a roster that has spent so much time managing injuries in recent years, the bigger issue now is whether the current medical and training setup needs a real reset before the same cycle keeps repeating. [Read more 🡒]