NFL Week 4 results make 49ers matchup vs. Rams even bigger
As if the first 49ers-Rams meeting since the NFC championship game in January needed some extra intrigue, results from the Week 4 slate make it an important early-season NFC West bout.
The day started with an upset for one of the 49ers divisional foes. Seattle went into Detroit as the underdogs and led by 15 going into the fourth quarter. The Lions kept swinging back and staying in the game, but the Seahawks always had an answer and held on for a wild 48-45 win in the Motor City. That moved the Seahawks to 2-2 on the season.
In the afternoon it was Arizona’s turn to stay near the top of the NFC West race. They visited the Panthers and got off to a rocky start, falling behind 10-3 at the half and in general looking disjointed the way they have for most of their 1-2 start to the year. The second half was a different story. The Cardinals outscored Carolina 23-6 in the final two quarters and rolled to a 26-16 victory. That moved them to 2-2 for the year to keep pace with the now 2-2 Seahawks a half game behind the 2-1 Rams.
Sitting behind in the race are the 49ers and their 1-2 record. That’s why this game becomes so crucial for San Francisco. Given their injury situation and a difficult stretch of their schedule coming up, they need to start stacking some division wins and keep from falling multiple games behind.
A win would put the entire division in a four-way tie at 2-2. A loss would push the 49ers to last place, a full game behind both Seattle and Arizona. They’d also be two games behind the 3-1 Rams (though that was the case regardless of the other outcomes). That difference is stark for a club like San Francisco where the margin for error isn’t particularly large.
Bouncing back from a disastrous Week 3 to take home a Week 4 win was always going to be important, but the chance to stay up in first place instead of sitting in last is enough to add a little extra motivation for the 49ers on Monday night (just in case they weren’t already motivated by a divisional game against a team that beat them in the NFC championship game nine months ago).
List
6 ways 49ers can avoid repeat of Week 3 disaster in Week 4
