Inside the Lines: What's at stake in Cardinals vs. Seahawks Week 4 Thursday Night Football game
Two teams in the most competitive division in the NFL face a key game on Thursday
With all due respect to the NFC North, the most competitive division in the NFL so far this season has been the NFC West. The four teams in the division—the San Francisco 49ers (3-0), Arizona Cardinals (2-1), Seattle Seahawks (2-1) and Los Angeles Rams (2-1)—are a combined 9-3. That's the best record of any division in the league.
SportsLine's Inside the Lines team and projection model have crunched the numbers, and they also see little separating the four teams. In the team's latest power rankings, all four NFC West members rank between 12th and 18th.
| Rank | Team | Neutral win% |
| 12 | Rams | 54.0 |
| 13 | Seahawks | 53.1 |
| 17 | 49ers | 48.9 |
| 18 | Cardinals | 47.7 |
SportsLine's model agrees with the sportsbooks. It projects San Francisco to finish atop the division with 10.3 wins. The major reason? The 49ers have the second-easiest remaining strength of schedule in the entire league at 44.9%. But that win total is just 1.7 more than the last-place team, Arizona (8.6).
| Team | Projected wins |
| 49ers | 10.3 |
| Rams | 9.7 |
| Seahawks | 9 |
| Cardinals | 8.6 |
Even top sportsbooks recognize that a postage stamp covers the top from the bottom in the division. The 49ers enter Week 4 as the favorites to win the NFC West at +110, with the Rams (+190), Seahawks (+600) and Cardinals (+750) not far behind. No division has a closer spread between the favorite's odds and the longest shot's odds.
So in a NFC West race tighter than a pickle jar lid, one division game can have significant implications. That's exactly what will be on the line on Thursday when the Seahawks and Cardinals collide in the Thursday Night Football game at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Ariz. Seattle is a 1.5-point favorite in Arizona.
The Cardinals opened the season with consecutive victories over two of the lowest-rated teams in the league, the Saints and Panthers. But last week, Arizona lost at San Francisco 16-15 on a 35-yard field goal on the final play of the game.
Defense has carried the Cardinals so far this season. They are giving up just 17.0 points per game, which is tied for fifth in the league and the franchise's fewest through three games since 2015.
However, Arizona has lost seven straight games to Seattle.
Like the Cardinals, the Seahawks have lost only one game this season, also to the 49ers. Seattle opened the season with a 17-13 defeat to San Francisco but have rebounded with victories over the Steelers (31-17) and Saints (44-13).
The Seahawks' defense has been even better than Arizona's. Seattle is giving up just 15.7 points per game, which ranks second in the league behind only the Packers. The Seahawks have allowed 17 points or fewer in each of their first three games of the season for the first time since 2013, the season they won the Super Bowl.
After Sunday's blowout victory over New Orleans, Seattle coach Mike Macdonald addressed his players and acknowledged that the team has room to improve.
"We're rollin'," he said, "but we have more levels to get to in all three phases."
