The San Francisco 49ers didn’t play in Week 8 and still sit at 6-1 atop the NFC West. While they are on bye, the best thing could have happened: The Seahawks got embarrassed at home, dropping a game to the Chicago Bears and putting them 2.5 games back in the division race.
The 49ers may have been on bye, but they weren’t quiet. They brought back defensive tackle DeForest Buckner from the Indianapolis Colts for a 2027 fourth-round pick, six years after trading him away. He joins a beat-up defensive line
that pressured Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Penix Jr. on just three of 34 dropbacks in the Week 7 loss. Help is on the way!
Seattle Seahawks (4-4)
So much for the Kansas City Chiefs momentum. The defending Super Bowl champions got pushed around on their own field on Monday Night Football, losing 34-17 to the Chicago Bears at Lumen Field.
Many may have seen a Bears victory. I don’t think anyone expected the Bears to blow this thing wide open in the fourth quarter, up by three points, and have the Seahawks do Seahawks things to bring them back. After a backbreaking Colston Loveland fumble, the Seahawks not only managed to score a touchdown, but also got a two-point conversion to be down by three points.
You know how these games go. Chicago was a bit shaky covering Jaxon Smith-Njigba—something I see lots of defenses do, and I just don’t get it. Chicago’s offense was humming sporadically, but it seemed like the Seahawks were waking up to win this one.
Then this happened:
That was enough to open the floodgates. Final score: 34-17 Bears.
Seattle got guard Quenton Nelson in a trade from the Indianapolis Colts, as well as running backs Zach Charbonnet and Jadarian Price returning from injury. Despite this, the running game still went nowhere. After Sam Darnold threw an interception late that he didn’t even seem to realize was a pick, you have to wonder if there’s a quarterback problem in Seattle.
Sure, Seattle is now 2.5 games back, and that’s great for 49ers fans. The bigger question is the Bears. Did they need to be that scary in embarrassing Seattle?
Los Angeles Rams (4-4)
With a 24-9 win over the Chargers, the Rams are 4-4. That’s right, they have Ram’d it to .500.
The Los Angeles Rams beat the winless Los Angeles Chargers 24-9 at SoFi Stadium in the battle for L.A. nobody asked for.
It wasn’t pretty. The Rams didn’t pick up a first down on their first five drives, and they haven’t scored a touchdown on an opening drive all season. They led a 0-7 team just 10-9 at halftime.
But this is the Chargers. While the Rams haven’t scored a touchdown on an opening drive all season, the Chargers haven’t won a game all season. That’s right, defense carries this one. Rams safety Quentin Lake and cornerback Trent McDuffie each picked off Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert, and the field goals were the only type of points the Chargers could muster. Running backs Kyren Williams and Blake Corum both combined for 129 yards rushing while getting a touchdown each.
Quarterback Matthew Stafford finished 17-of-25 for 157 yards passing and an interception. Not exactly the encore to an MVP season. As I said, this was mostly a defensive game and the Rams’ running backs.
So the Rams own Levi’s South SoFi Stadium and are also back to .500. Credit where credit is due.
Arizona Cardinals (3-5)
We don’t even need to recap this game; rather, we will just jump to 1:35 in the third quarter. Because that’s when Jacoby Brissett got benched for Gardner Minshew.
And that means Minshew Magic. Also known as the QB, a bad defense like the Cowboys didn’t prepare for. You may need some audio to read the rest of this—call it setting the mood. Don’t worry, I’m here to help. Open this songin another tab and then continue reading.
So, 1:35 in the third quarter. Starting there, Arizona scored four touchdowns in regulation and would have won outright if kicker Chad Ryland hadn’t missed an extra point. Instead, it went to overtime, where a field goal sealed a 33-30 win over the Dallas Cowboys.
It’s fair to note that overtime came with just over a minute left in the game. Minshew took the Cardinals down the field and scored. Had the Cardinals made the extra point, there would have been no overtime.
Between Brissett and Minshew, the split tells the story. Brissett went 10-of-23 for 119 yards passing and an interception in nearly three quarters. Minshew went 17-of-23 for 188 yards passing, and three touchdowns in less than two, and three of his incompletions were spikes to stop the clock. He even got Cardinals legend Larry Fitzgerald’s attention with throws like this:
Beyond Minshew saving the day, another fun stat brought up during the broadcast is the Cardinals’ record in AT&T Stadium: they are undefeated. Nothing much has changed.
Hey, the Cardinals might be an NFC West rival, but I’m sure most of the people reading this would rather the Cowboys lose than the Cardinals win. And that was an epic loss for the Cowboys—one for the ages.
Onto Week 9
The 49ers come off the bye to host the Las Vegas Raiders. Las Vegas went into Week 8 at 3-4 on a four-game skid, then visited the New York Jets. And they could have lost to the New York Jets. They wound up beating the New York Jets 38-33. Kirk Cousins hasn’t been traded yet, so that game should be a headache for the 49ers, as Cousins seems to have career days against them.
Seattle hosts Arizona at Lumen Field in the week’s only division game. The Seahawks won the first meeting and can’t afford another loss. The Cardinals are running high on Minshew, who has been named the starting quarterback. Hopefully they can forget they are the Cardinals for one more game.
The Rams head east to face the 2-4-1 Washington Commanders, who hosted the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday night. The Eagles have worse injury issues than the 49ers, it seems like, and got smacked on Sunday Night Football. It’s the NFC East, but the Commanders can be sneaky on offense. The 49ers are starting to pull away in a competitive division, but it isn’t over yet. Commanders, make us proud.
1st: San Francisco 49ers; Next: vs. Las Vegas Raiders
2nd: Seattle Seahawks; Next: vs. Arizona Cardinals
3rd: Los Angeles Rams; Next: at Washington Commanders
4th: Arizona Cardinals; Next: at Seattle Seahawks
