The best rivalry in the NFL over the past two seasons involves the Seattle Seahawks and San Francisco 49ers, who have won the past two NFC West titles.
NFC West odds: Niners, Seahawks battle for betting supremacy, division title
Are the two best teams in the NFL both in the NFC West? Its possible the Niners and Seahawks can make that claim, making odds to win the division quite intriguing.
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So it’s no surprise then that this year the two favorites to win the division are the defending Super Bowl champion Seahawks (5/4) and last season’s NFC runner-up 49ers (3/2).
Seattle (O/U 11 wins) got the best of San Francisco (O/U 10.5 wins) in the NFC Championship Game after the teams split two regular-season matchups, winning the grudge match 23-17 when Seahawks star cornerback Richard Sherman knocked down the potential game-winning touchdown pass to 49ers wide receiver Michael Crabtree in the final minute.
The Sherman-Crabtree rivalry lives on and should make things very interesting again this year when they play the first meeting of the new season on Nov. 27. That storyline along with the ongoing quarterback matchup of Seattle’s Russell Wilson vs. San Francisco’s Colin Kaepernick makes their divisional games must-see TV.
Seattle opens the year Thursday at home to Green Bay, where they enjoy the fact that Super Bowl winners are 18-2 SU opening the next season. Meanwhile the Niners take their awesome record as a dog favorite to Dallas.
In fact, the top two teams in the NFC West are so similar and successful that the bottom two have both worked hard to emulate them, as the Arizona Cardinals (O/U 7.5 wins) and St. Louis Rams (O/U 7.5 wins) have each been built from the ground up with the same defense-first approach.
It’s anybody’s guess if the Cardinals (7/1 to win the division) or Rams (also 7/1) have enough offensive talent to knock off Seattle or San Francisco, but their defenses are definitely among the best units in the league.
Arizona got a solid yet unspectacular season from veteran quarterback Carson Palmer last year, which was a bit surprising considering the previous state of the team’s offensive line.
Head coach Bruce Arians found a way to squeeze some life out of Palmer in their first years with the Cardinals, and that could be an even tougher challenge this season with the defenses in the division getting even better.
St. Louis made a commitment to QB Sam Bradford in the offseason off major knee surgery and were rewarded with a second major knee surgery in the preseason. If the Rams seem hexed, its good news for the rest of the division because its potentially two easy wins in 2014 for everyone else in the NFC West.
