The Seattle Seahawks (4-3) missed a golden opportunity to claim sole possession of the NFC West lead with their 13-6 loss to the San Francisco 49ers (5-2) this past Thursday, but the rest of the division did do them some favors come Sunday.

Both the Arizona Cardinals and the St. Louis Rams emerged from their games with another tally in the loss column after two tough matchups against NFC North opponents.

The Cardinals (4-3) put up a valiant effort against the surprising Minnesota Vikings without their starting quarterback, but came up just short of the comeback, falling 21-14. With the loss, Arizona has now dropped three straight. Looking ahead, things won't be getting any easier this upcoming week with San Francisco heading into town for a Monday Night Football matchup.

As for the Rams (3-4), St. Louis tried its best against the surging Green Bay Packers but were still handed the defeat, 30-20. The Rams are now faced with the uphill battle of traveling to London to play the New England Patriots in Wembley Stadium next Sunday.

Unless one of those two NFC West teams pull off the upset, the Seahawks will have a good chance to pull away from the bottom half of the division this weekend when they continue their road trip by heading to Detroit to play the Lions.