2010 NFL season

[leah]

i know. kinda stressful.

[leah]

[Spazz]

Yea I agree.

[Arlos]

Holy mother of fuck! 49ers!

I, for one, welcome our new Harbaugh overlords.


That was a HORRIBLE interception Smith threw, I freely admit. And the 49ers were penalized way too much. But wow, did their D play well.

Was NOT expecting a win, but that was pretty convincing...

-Arlos

[Spazz]

Your team barely won how is that convincing? We woulda got you on that 4th down that would have been it. I wasnt expecting a loss and im feeling pretty crabby about it.

[Jay]

Well, in all fairness, and I can't believe I'm remotely defending Alex Smith, but that was his 2nd INT of the season.

I can't speak for Arlos but when he says that was "convincing" I think he means that the 49ers are for real, moreso than they convincingly beat the Lions. It was a close game and down to the wire every second of the way. Probably the best game all season long. 9ers are definitely the team to watch.

[Lyion]

Lions should have won that game. If they did better gap control and stopped Gore's big runs in which there were plenty of bodies around him they would have had an easy time of it. The announcers had a great point about the Lions biggest problem. Stafford seems to disappear for a quarter or two every game.

San Fran has a good team, and now have a really good coach.

Campbell going down is great news for the Chargers... If they can actually stop McFadden this time. Rumor here in Ohio is the Raiders want to trade for Carson Palmer. I'm not sure I'm buying it.

My biggest gripe this weekend was the two hand touch roughing the passer call that Tom Brady got. I get they want to protect the guy, but for fuck sake, does he get a redshirt next? The league is getting way too pussified.

[Lyion]

Hi Griever.

[Griever]

I don't know what to say. I would like to say we are struggling because we have 5 starters injured on offense alone, but we are just bad. The team at the beginning of the season was a mirage. I was sabotaged!

[Tikker]

.

[Lyion]

It's a strange season, really. I was surprised to see Pitt beat the Pats, but Lebeau had a great press scheme on the N.E. WRs. It wouldn't surprise me to see that copied every week, especially by teams with really good dime packages and decent CBs. Gotta get to Brady for it to work, and most teams can't.

The Bills are fun. They may not super bowl bound, but I love their offense and their mindset.

Skins have decent coaching, but lack players, Griever. It's why I thought the way I did earlier, plus the NFC East has always been a tough division.

I'm looking forward to tonight's game, but really when the Pack goes to SD next weekend will be the real test for the Chargers.

[Arlos]

So let me get this straight... It's NOT the 80s or early/mid-90s, right? We don't have Montana or Young at QB any more, correct?

And yet the 49ers have the 2nd best record in the NFL right before the halfway point of the season at 6-1? With still 5 games to go against Seattle, St. Louis and Arizona?

OK, who put the peyote in my ramen? Admit it already... This can't possibly be real....


-Arlos

[Arlos]

Sorry, Griever....

OK, not really.

49ers, 7-1 so far, and still with 5 games to play against the rest of the NFC West... (Who have 5 wins... COMBINED.)

3 good teams left on the schedule: NYG in SF this upcoming week, vs the Ravens in Baltimore on Thanksgiving, then a Monday night game vs Pittsburgh in SF.

Could we really be looking at a 49ers team getting a 1st round bye in the playoffs? 12-4 or 13-3 are both very possible...

Pardon me while I just enjoy the glow for now....

-Arlos

[Griever]

I don't have any more words to waste on this team. Even if it's a rebuilding year shouldn't there be some traces of progress?

[Arlos]

OK, the 49ers just beat a top-tier NFC East team, and did it without Gore for most of the game, by having Alex Smith win it through the air.

I officially give up doubting the 49ers, or waiting for the other shoe to drop. This is a truly good team. Jim Harbaugh IS that good of a coach. Best we've had since Walsh, or at the very least since George Seifert. I was wrong in my preseason estimates, I assumed that not having any sort of offseason would limit Harbaugh's impact, and boy was THAT wrong. Is there any doubt that he is absolutely running away with the Coach of the Year award? To take a team that went 6-10 and, without hardly any changes of personnel, (including keeping the much maligned failure at QB) he turns it into a team that could easily end up 13-3 or 14-2. That's nuts.

Only a nuclear-meltdown level collapse will keep them from winning the NFC West, and they're 2 games up on anyone else for the 2nd first round bye, as well. Considering that 5 of their last 7 games are against NFC West opponents, NOT getting the bye would be a huge shock. I really don't think they can beat Green Bay, IN Green Bay in December/January, though, so making the Super Bowl is insanely unlikely to happen. But I could see this 49ers team making the NFC Championship game, yes.

Time to buckle up and enjoy the ride....

-Arlos

[Kaemon]

You'll have to get past the Cowboy's, you know the team that actually beat you on your turf?

[Lyion]

Green Bay will spank the Cowboys in the divisional round if the seeding holds true.

Admit it, Arlos. I was right. I know it pains you. Not as much as Griever, but hey....

[Griever]

Just go ahead and give me the star now.

[Arlos]

Also remember the Cowpatties won in OT, after we coughed up a big 4th quarter lead, and it was only the 2nd game of the season, before things had really begun to gel, and while Harbaugh still had the training wheels on for the offense. I doubt a majority of people would pick the Cowboys to be able to repeat that win easily, if they DID have a rematch.

I guess we'll see how it all shakes out.

-Arlos

[vonkaar]

If the Niners and the Cowboys met in any round of the playoffs, I'd put my money on SF. Nobody is getting past the eventual repeat super-bowl champions though - strongest team I've seen in a decade. They're almost flawless.

[Arlos]

Yeah, I'd have to agree with Vonk. Barring some serious bad luck, like Aaron Rodgers going down for the season with a dislocated ballsack or something, I don't think any team keeps them from repeating as Superbowl champions. I don't know about them going perfect, though. There's always the tendency to ease off a bit once you have everything clinched, and with it the concurrent desire to play the key guys less, to reduce the chances of injury. In that, though, the 49ers being 8-1 may be the thing that keeps Green Bay going full throttle, actually. With the 49ers right on their heels, they may need to go all out for all 16 games just to make sure they DO get home field throughout the playoffs. (because if the 49ers have ANY chance to beat the Packers if they meet in the NFC Championship game, that chance, small as it may be, would be greater if the game is at Candlestick instead of in Green Bay.)

You guys have no idea how nice it is to finally, FINALLY, have a competent coach again. We haven't had one since they stupidly fired Mariucci, and even he wasn't anywhere in Walsh's or Harbaugh's class. It's been 16 years since our last Superbowl win, it's high time we get back competing for one again...

-Arlos

PS. Whispered conspiracy theory about the 49ers future I've heard around: 1) They do get to NFC championship game and lose, because Alex Smith can't throw the ball in Green Bay in January. This drives the 49ers to make a draft day trade with Indy for Peyton Manning, who is now expendable because they just drafted Luck. This then gives the 9ers a HOF QB to go with their outstanding running game and D, plus a full offseason of OTAs and a full training camp to fine tune everything, setting up a serious run for the 2012-2013 season title....

[Lyion]

If the Niners and the Cowboys met in any round of the playoffs, I'd put my money on SF. Nobody is getting past the eventual repeat super-bowl champions though - strongest team I've seen in a decade. They're almost flawless.

Rogers might be playing the best QB snaps in the history of the game. Brady with pressure could *never* come close to doing what Rogers does, Ditto with Manning.

The albatross is the GB D. They have a lot of holes and have been exposed. If not for Rogers lighting up pretty much everyone. The problem is if a strong run team goes to Lambeau in December they could ground and pound to a win.

Arlos, I'd put my money down that Manning is done. If he comes back from this, outside of a shadow showing I'll be really surprised.

p.s. Griever, don't worry about the Star. Since I equally hate the Cowboys, I don't want to look at that garbage. I'd offer to slap a Charger Bolt, but I'm in mourning due to their sucktasticness this year.

[Arlos]

Rogers might be playing the best QB snaps in the history of the game.

That might be going a bit far. Are you really saying he's better under pressure than Joe Montana? Elway?

I think I'd be pretty hesitant to be claiming best ever status. Better than anyone recently, sure, I can buy that, but ever? Not so much.

As for Manning, there's no way to know right now. Did read that doctor's had said it wasn't career ending, but the spine isn't something you get all risky about damaging, either. The risk that he might never be the same is, though, one of the things that might make a trade viable. Otherwise he'd command way too high a premium to be worth it to trade for.

-Arlos

[Lyion]

Rogers might be playing the best QB snaps in the history of the game.

That might be going a bit far. Are you really saying he's better under pressure than Joe Montana? Elway?

Per game, absolutely. I grew up in California and spent years in the Bay Area seeing Montana every week. Rogers is playing better now than Montana ever played. Ditto for Elway. Elway's legacy was in beating up on Cleveland in crunch time. Elway would have folded under the Pitt D in the Super Bowl, just like he did against the Giants. He was never as accurate as Rogers. Montana likewise made some great plays under pressure but game to game no season of his compares to Rogers current one. His arm strength was far weaker, and his mobility was limited. Granted, the rules of the game are different and Rogers isn't facing Lester Hayes with gobs of stick em and few P.I. calls, but the overall play from him is better than anything I've ever seen and I've been watching the NFL since the 70s.

When I watch Rogers play, he's playing the QB position as well as I think it can be played.

[Tikker]

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