Rams Left Tackle Suffers Injury in Back-to-Back Weeks, Plus More NFC West News

It's been a rough start to the season for the St. Louis Rams offensive line. During Week 1 both Rodger Saffold and Scott Wells left the game with serious injuries. Miraculously, Saffold's neck injury didn't prove to be as serious as originally thought, so he suited up this past Sunday with the hopes of staying injury free. 

But, then the injury bug bit again as No. 76 left early in first quarter after spraining his MCL. The MCL sprain is of the third-degree and it will require him to miss at least four weeks of game action.

Fisher let it known that the injury was serious, yet he remained hopeful that it wasn't anything that was going to linger: "It's not season-ending, but it's significant," Fisher said. "He'll be back and he's got a pretty good attitude about it." 

Just as he did in Week 1, Wayne Hunter will fill in for Saffold while he's out. According to Pro Football Focus, Hunter played okay as a fill in. They had him graded out at minus-0.4, which is just slightly below an average game at 0.0. His penalties killed his grade the most with the two penalties, but his pass blocking grade was a solid 2.1. In 54 snaps, he only allowed one quarterback pressure. 

This week St. Louis travels to Chicago and there's no doubt their pass blocking skills will be tested against Julius Peppers and the Bears' front four. As a team the Bears already have eight sacks, four quarterback hits and 17 hurries. The matchup to watch will be Hunter vs. Peppers over on the left side.

With that, let me get you caught up on all the news around the NFC West.

Arizona Cardinals

Paola Boivin of AZCentral.com puts together a really nice article on how Cardinals running back Ryan Williams went from tears to relief in just a matter of minutes.

Mike May of Bleacher Report takes a look at what we learned from Arizona in their Week 2 win over the Patriots.

San Francisco 49ers

Dylan DeSimone of Bleacher Report does a really nice piece on why the 49ers are setup for a legendary season by 2012's end. 

John Breitenbach of Pro Football Focus breaks down San Francisco's win from the grading perspective of PFF.

Seattle Seahawks

Eric D. Williams of the Bellingham Herald gives us an update on Russell Okung and his status for Monday Night Football.

Todd Pheifer of Bleacher Report looks at Russell Wilson's Week 2 performance and says he's gaining confidence after a strong performance.

St. Louis Rams

Jim Thomas of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch talks about the obstacles the Rams had to overcome to beat the Redskins. These are no longer your same old sorry Rams from years past.

Andrew Garda the lead NFC North lead writer for Bleacher Report previews the Bears and Rams Week 3 matchup. 

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