Four reasons the Rams are best in the NFC West and may be for awhile

It’s hard to know how good or not so good the San Francisco 49ers could have been if quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo wasn’t injured in Week 3 at the Kansas City Chiefs, a game they’d lose 38-27 to the eventual top seed in the AFC.

Subsequently, the promising Niners would go on to a 4-12 record and win only one game inside the division, a 26-23 overtime game against the Seahawks.

To look at the 49ers season, they managed to be in a lot of games that they’d eventually lose, like the Packers game in Green Bay 33-30 and the Chicago Bears 14-9. Unfortunately they’d lose big to teams in the NFC West like the Rams 39-10 and the Seahawks 43-16.

They just never found much of any traction after the devastating loss in Week 3.

As for 2019, you’d have to think getting a healthy Garoppolo back helps San Francisco in flipping some of those close losses the other way. Unfortunately, getting back to being a team over .500, something they haven’t been since 2012, won’t be an easy fix. While they have a young nucleus, getting to to top of the NFC West may be tougher than simply being competitive in the conference.

Getting Jimmy G. back is and will be huge for the Niners. How good he can be after such a tough injury will also say how far the Niners can go in 2019 and moving forward.