FanHouse Nfc West

According to a report in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the Rams will be without starting quarterback Marc Bulger for at least three weeks, and possibly the rest of the season. Bulger injured his knee in Sunday's loss to the visiting Arizona Cardinals. The injury is actually a fracture in the knee area, termed a tibial plateau fracture. The Rams are expecting to lose him for three-to-six weeks -- and there are only six weeks left in the season.

Kyle Boller will take the helm for the Rams. The team is 1-9, but has improved its play on both sides of the football as of late -- hanging with two of the better NFC teams in each of the past two weeks (New Orleans and Arizona). Boller appears to be a step down from Bulger, albeit a slight one.

The New Orleans Saints entered the game undefeated and the toast of the NFC. The St. Louis Rams entered the game with a 1-7 record. The Saints were favored by 14 1/2 points. The Saints also came loaded with their top-ranked offense to face off against the Rams' 28th-ranked defense. Simply put, this one had all the makings of a bloodbath.

Instead, the Saints escaped with a 28-23 victory by the skin of their teeth -- as the game was never clinched until Marc Bulger's hail mary fell incomplete as the clock struck 0:00. The fact that the Saints couldn't put the hapless Rams away earlier in the game is sure to lead to a bunch of "the Saints are overrated" talk this week. They didn't play well, but let's not go overboard.

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Anquan Boldin, when healthy, is one of the best wide receivers in the NFL. This isn't a secret. He's been to three Pro Bowls, enjoyed four 1,000-yard seasons, caught more than 500 passes thus far in only 87 games and scored 41 touchdowns. He's a running back in a receiver's body, though, so he has endured his fair share of injuries -- missing 16 games in his first six seasons due to injury. This season, he's played every game, but he's done so at less than 100 percent.

Looking at his numbers, it's evident he's not himself. His per-game averages show Boldin's on pace for career lows across the board. And he just doesn't seem himself, either. Considering his ankle injury isn't going away without rest -- and the fact that the gamer Boldin won't voluntarily sit out -- should the Cardinals bench him until he's healthy? One Arizona columnist says they should.

Steve Spagnuolo is going through a rough season in his first as an NFL head coach. He had the unenviable task of taking over a roster which was left in disarray by the previous administration. No real effort had been done to bridge the gap from The Greatest Show on Turf to the next wave of players, with the notable exception of drafting studly running back Steven Jackson before Marshall Faulk was retired.

The results to this point have hardly been surprising. Poor Spags and his troops endured seven losses, including several blowouts, before finally earning their first victory this past Sunday against the Lions. While he's cherishing this first win, Spagnuolo realizes it's the first step of many.

Walter Jones has been a staple for the Seattle Seahawks since 1997, but the Seahawks are going to have to play the entire 2009 season without him. Wednesday, during a press conference, it was announced that Jones has been placed on injured reserve, ending his season. Jones hasn't been able to shake the pain in his knee, which stemmed from microfracture surgery in December and then another scope on the same left knee in training camp.

The venerable left tackle has started 180 games on his quarterback's blind side, racking up an impressive resume in the process. The future Hall of Famer has made nine Pro Bowls and been elected as a first-team All-NFL player four times in his illustrious career.

When San Francisco right tackle Adam Snyder gave up five sacks in the first two weeks of the season, the 49ers were glad they had a Plan B.

Former Jaguars tackle Tony Pashos stepped in to replace Snyder and provided mediocre pass blocking. He wasn't good, but he wasn't nearly as bad as Snyder either--giving up three sacks in five games. For a team with a very leaky right side of the offensive line, that was actually an improvement.

But Pashos is now done for the season with a broken shoulder blade, which means that Snyder is back at right tackle. And what that means is new starting quarterback Alex Smith better be mobile.

It no longer matters that Michael Crabtree skipped training camp after being selected tenth in the 2009 draft, feeling he deserved the pay scale of a much higher selection. It also no longer matters that Crabtree missed San Francisco's first five games, watching from home as the 49ers compiled a 3-2 record without him. What's important now is that Crabtree finally signed his rookie contract, has worked hard over the last two weeks, and will see his first NFL action this Sunday in Houston.

It's likely he'll even be in the starting lineup instead of current No. 2 wideout Josh Morgan.

"I'm helping him learn my position and take my position," Morgan told reporters in the locker room Monday, as he said that coaches informed him Crabtree and Isaac Bruce would start on Sunday.

When an offensive linemen gets injured, very few fans notice. But if you want a good explanation for why the Seahawks laid an egg this week against the Cardinals you can point the finger at Kyle Williams. The Seahawks sure did, as Williams went from starting on Sunday to out of work on Tuesday.

Williams had been battlefield promoted from the practice squad to the starting lineup when a desperate Seahawks team lost its third starting left tackle of the season. Pro Bowler Walter Jones has yet to play this season because of a knee injury. Seattle was actually well prepared for his injury, as replacement Sean Locklear has been prepped as a left tackle of the future.

After three Rams losses, it's pretty evident 2009 is going to be a long season in St. Louis (the third straight of the variety). Monday, they received some more bad news -- that Laurent Robinson, a member of the already paper-thin receiving corps, will likely miss the remainder of the season after injuring his lower leg (both a fractured fibula and high ankle sprain) during Sunday's loss to Green Bay.

Quarterback Marc Bulger also left the game injured, but his injury isn't deemed as serious, now that he's been diagnosed with a bruised rotator cuff. Earlier Monday, some feared Bulger had a torn rotator cuff and would also miss the remainder of the season. Of course, clouding matters is that Kyle Boller came in relief of Bulger and looked far superior.

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Since arriving in Chicago, Jay Cutler's been fighting the stigma that he's more of a stat-monger than a winner. The only way to change the feelings of the general public is to go out and win tough games. Anyone can look good during a blowout of an inferior opponent.

For the second consecutive week, Cutler has won close games in come-from-behind fashion. Last week, he led the Bears on a 72-yard, game-tying touchdown drive and then a 41-yard game-winning field goal drive against the Steelers. Sunday afternoon, Cutler brought the Bears back from an early 13-0 deficit to lead 17-13. The Bears lost the lead, but that was of no consequence, as Cutler again led them on a game-winning drive.

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