The Rams Beat The Snot out of The Cardinals on Thursday Night Football

You'd think that if your quarterback was 7 for 21 with an interception, you'd probably be on the losing end. Not always, and not when your defense pulverizes your opponent. The St. Louis Rams manhandled the Arizona Cardinals, winning 17-3 and getting above .500 for the first time since 2006. Suddenly the NFC West looks like one of the NFL's strongest divisions.

Sam Bradford kind of stunk up the stadium with his 33 percent completion rate, but two of his seven were for touchdowns and the Rams gave the Cards their first loss of the year. You could almost see this one coming. The Cards were coming off an overtime win, traveled far on a short week, and the Rams have one of the best pass defenses in the league. They sacked Kevin Kolb nine times, three of them by Robert Quinn. The Rams also bloodied Kolb's mouth for good measure. 

So with Arizona at 4-1, St. Louis at 3-2, San Francisco 3-1 and Seattle at 2-2, the NFC West joins the NFC East as the only divisions to have everyone at .500 or above. I think it's fair to say that right now the West is one of the best and toughest divisions in the NFL, and that hasn't been said in many, many years.

The game was pretty much a bore, but still a nice start to a week featuring a lot of good matchups.