Worst Division? Divided Opinion Leads Due West

Clark Judge, CBSSports.com Senior Writer

The New England Patriots are the best team in football, and the Miami Dolphins are the worst. That we know. But it's a lot more competitive at the bottom than it is at the top, which makes me wonder: What's the worst division in the NFL? You have the NFC West, the AFC West and the NFC South, and take your pick. The Rams and coach Scott Linehan finally taste victory after an 0-8 start.

Me? I'll take the NFC West because in the San Francisco 49ers and St. Louis Rams it has two of the four worst teams in football. The AFC East has two of the worst, too, but with the Patriots and resurgent Buffalo Bills it gains a pardon. Which takes me back to the NFC West. Once it was ruled by the 49ers and Rams, but now it's Seattle's by default. The Seahawks lead the division, but they were beaten by the Cardinals, who were beaten by the 49ers, who were beaten by the Seahawks. Twice. I didn't mention St. Louis because the Rams didn't beat anyone until last weekend. But at least they have an alibi for their 1-8 season. The 49ers don't. Plain and simple, they stink. If there were doubts before Monday there are none now. Their performance against Seattle was so lame you started hoping Tim Rattay or Ken Dorsey would reappear. One first down in the first half? Are you kidding me? And that was on the last play where officials ruled a completion on a pass that really wasn't.

Anyway, it was one of the lousiest offensive jobs I've seen in a long time. Or at least since Baltimore stunk up the joint the previous Monday against Pittsburgh. If I were ESPN, I'd demand my money back. It pays to televise football games, not infomercials for sleep disorders. Seattle should be good, and maybe its 24-0 demolition of the 49ers Monday is a sign of what's to come. Maybe. But it was San Francisco, so you just don't know. If that was New England playing the 49ers, the Patriots might have had 24 by the end of the first quarter.

But the Seahawks did what they had to do, which was win, and good for them. It makes them the only winning team in the division. Of course, that does not make them unique. San Diego is the only winning team in the AFC West, but only because it got lucky when Adam Vinatieri -- the game's most reliable kicker -- shanked a 29-yard field goal. The Chargers tried to blow a 23-point lead to an Indianapolis team that played without several starters before losing both their tackles and defensive end Dwight Freeney -- and they would've succeeded had Vinatieri not come to their rescue. Yes, they're 5-4, but it's a shaky 5-4. As for the rest of the division, Kansas City overachieved for weeks until it lost star running back Larry Johnson. Now that the Chiefs are in the hands of the inexperienced Brodie Croyle, it looks as if they're heading south for the winter. That could mean an opening for Denver, except the Broncos can't tackle anyone, and, yeah, that's a problem. Which brings us to Oakland ... OK, next.

Tampa Bay is another team that is the only winner in its division, and here's my question: With all the attention paid to how bad the West is in the AFC and NFC, how come the NFC South gets a pass? There is nothing extraordinary about the Bucs, other than they knocked off Tennessee. But they lost three of their past five and play four of their last seven games on the road. Lucky for them there is nothing special about Carolina and New Orleans, either. Like Seattle, the Saints could be -- no, should be -- a solid playoff contender, but they weren't just beaten by St. Louis last weekend; they were destroyed. They were torn apart in every direction, with Marc Bulger mining gaping holes in the secondary. That makes me wonder.

I wonder no more about Carolina. The Panthers always have been a solid franchise, but there's not much you can do when your choice of quarterbacks is David Carr and Vinny Testaverde, with Matt Moore waiting in the wings. Translation: Look out below. And how can we forget about Atlanta? People are talking about how the Falcons resuscitated themselves with two straight wins, which is great, except they barely beat the league's worst and oldest quarterbacks. Congratulations, guys.

Nevertheless, it's hard to beat the NFC West ... unless we're talking scoreboard. It has the league's lowest-ranked quarterback; the lowest rated offense; the lowest scoring offense; a club tied for the most interceptions and a club tied for last in turnovers. It is an NFL-worst 12-24 overall, but a more telling number is how it fares against the others in non-division games: The NFC South is 10-14; the AFC West is 9-15 and the NFC West is 5-17.

Case closed. The NFC West is the NFL's Worst.

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