Rams’ loss puts 49ers atop NFC West ahead of rivals’ Week 6 meeting

It’s Sept. 29, and the 49ers are in sole possession of first place in the NFC West.

Yes, the times are a-changin’ by the Bay.

After the Bucs’ impressive 55-40 win over the Rams in Los Angeles, the 3-0 49ers sit alone atop the division. It’s the first time San Francisco has been alone in first place since the end of the 2012 season, per ESPN’s Nick Wagoner.

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Who says the early bye week is all bad? The San Francisco #49ers will now sit alone atop the NFC West Division. According to my hasty check on the matter, it’s the first time that’s been the case since the end of the 2012 season.
— Nick Wagoner (@nwagoner) September 29, 2019

Here's how the NFC West standings look after Week 4:
49ers 3-0
Rams 3-1
Seahawks 3-1
Cardinals 0-3-1

The 49ers, off to a 3-0 start for the first time since 1998, were idle Sunday as they observed their bye week. While some have doubted the legitimacy of the 49ers’ hot start because of their weak early season schedule, the fact that Tampa Bay, the team the 49ers beat on the road in Week 1, just laid the smackdown on LA shows San Francisco truly might be for real.

NBC Sports Bay Area analyst Ian Williams, a former 49er, certainly believes so.

That same team the 49ers bullied down in Tampa Bay earlier this season, just came into LA and took the Rams lunch money and then finished it off with a strip sack, fumble, recovery and TD....
— Ian Williams (@IWilliams95) September 29, 2019

San Francisco returns from its Week 4 bye to face the 2-2 Cleveland Browns at Levi’s Stadium on Oct. 7 on “Monday Night Football.” If the 49ers win that one, they’ll be undefeated when they face the Rams in Week 6 in a showdown for NFC West supremacy.