Race for the nfc west and the #1 seed

Originally posted by tyler9er71:

Originally posted by NYniner85:
Saints going down to the 1-7 falcons people need to realize how hard it is to win in this league.

Being 8-0 is f**king hard regardless of schedule.

Absolutely right.

Yup, winning is tough in the NFL. People crying about SF not curb stomping AZ on TNF need to realize that anything can and does happen in football. This team thus far as found ways to win ( and more often than not decisively).

8-0 is not anything to sneeze at, this team has lost starters every damn week and guys keep stepping up. Our coaching staff IMO has been the tits this yr. Guys are well prepared and our game plan is usually on point.

Originally posted by Fanaticofnfl:

Right now, I'm just thinking about making the playoffs. If we get to the Green Bay game and we're still in good shape then I'll start thinking about top-2 seed.

I know I'm probably in the minority here, but I care about getting that bye more than the 1-seed. If we're good enough to get a bye, then I believe we're good enough to win at the stadium of whomever the 1 seed is. Wild card teams in this year's NFC though will definitely be good enough to win in the first round, so avoiding the possibility of that happening would be great.

A game against the Packers and the Saints will be drastically different at Levi's than it would be at the Super Dome or at Lambeau in December.

Originally posted by flynhayn15:
A game against the Packers and the Saints will be drastically different at Levi's than it would be at the Super Dome or at Lambeau in December.

I agree. It's not the crowd and noise or the weather that I worry about. I'm more concerned about officials on the road. I don't think they deliberately favor the home team but on close calls it seems like it goes in favor of the home team more often than not, especially in loud stadiums.

Originally posted by CatchMaster80:

Originally posted by flynhayn15:
A game against the Packers and the Saints will be drastically different at Levi's than it would be at the Super Dome or at Lambeau in December.

I agree. It's not the crowd and noise or the weather that I worry about. I'm more concerned about officials on the road. I don't think they deliberately favor the home team but on close calls it seems like it goes in favor of the home team more often than not, especially in loud stadiums.

Lambeau in January makes me shiver just thinking about it. The Superdome is a big loud home field advantage for the Saints.

Originally posted by SkyZer0:

Cowboys will still be a threat, but that plays into the defense's strengths with the pass rush. Amari Cooper is such a beast

I think the Cowboys are a bottom 10 team. Only one win against a winning team and they can't win at home against a handicapped flawed Vikings.

More hype than substance. They are an easy win for a top team.

Originally posted by NYniner85:

Originally posted by tyler9er71:

Originally posted by NYniner85:
Saints going down to the 1-7 falcons people need to realize how hard it is to win in this league.

Being 8-0 is f**king hard regardless of schedule.

Absolutely right.

Yup, winning is tough in the NFL. People crying about SF not curb stomping AZ on TNF need to realize that anything can and does happen in football. This team thus far as found ways to win ( and more often than not decisively).

8-0 is not anything to sneeze at, this team has lost starters every damn week and guys keep stepping up. Our coaching staff IMO has been the tits this yr. Guys are well prepared and our game plan is usually on point.

its f**king hilarious on every show ive seen that the NO loss to ATL and GB loss to the chargers was just them having a "down" week and it dont matter. But god forbid we lose to a garbage team its ohhhhh told you they were pretenders

Originally posted by okdkid:

Originally posted by SkyZer0:
Cowboys will still be a threat, but that plays into the defense's strengths with the pass rush. Amari Cooper is such a beast

I think the Cowboys are a bottom 10 team. Only one win against a winning team and they can't win at home against a handicapped flawed Vikings.

More hype than substance. They are an easy win for a top team.

FACTS! its that damn star on their helmet that they get hyped up after a win over a trash team or loss. they do no wrong

Originally posted by RTFirefly:
Lambeau in January makes me shiver just thinking about it. The Superdome is a big loud home field advantage for the Saints.

The Superdome can get really quiet when the Saints aren't winning. I went to a game there in1996 and the fans were totally silent as the Niners pounded them.

Originally posted by RTFirefly:

Lambeau in January makes me shiver just thinking about it. The Superdome is a big loud home field advantage for the Saints.

Our game is made to win in the bitter cold. ARod wouldn't have very much fun getting smashed into froze turf by Bosa and Dee. A great run game and epic defense plays well in bad conditions.

We can't over react to 1 loss. But the schedule is much tougher now down the stretch than it was the 1st half of the season and it seems apparent we have some holes. Both of our OT's seem to have taken a big step backwards. In fact you could legitimately argue the backups played better. Our WR corps has no depth to account for injury and they all seem to have brick hands. Kittle being out has been costly already.

If Seattle can beat us at our house there is no reason they can't do it at theirs. Giving us a potentially 2nd loss to them. Green Bay and New Orleans now look like much tougher games to me than previously. The Ravens game is very dangerous against a mobile QB. You see how our D did against a mobile QB. Not good. We could not contain him or get as many sacks as usual. If we lost to Green Bay, New Orleans, Baltimore and at Seattle we would have a minimum of 5 losses not including any other unexpected ones that we may lose along the way. That is certainly not good enough for the #1 seed, #2 seed, a playoff bye or extremely likely the division either.

So that would leave us 11 - 5 and a probable wild card team. We may not lose all of those. But I think we are capable of it. Against mobile QB's our pass rush doesn't look anywhere near the same. So Seattle could beat us again. Baltimore could beat us. Aaron Rodgers can beat anybody. I think the Saints can beat anybody. Of course it's possible we don't lose all those games. But we really could too. Even Bosa and our edge guys were more neutralized against a fast, mobile QB who can get out of there and throw on the run. Bosa BTW has been somewhat more neutralized lately too in multiple games. He is still providing pressure. But he started the year looking like JJ Watt. It's impossible not to notice. I think he is still playing well but other teams are scheming for him and double teaming. But against mobile QB's it's impossible not to notice how much less effective overall our pass rush was.

Of course we could get it back on track too and we just have 1 loss so in a way we still control our own destiny. But I think against some very good teams, against some very mobile QB's and some of the best QB's in the league and the scheming the NFL has done to slow down Bosa and our pass rush there is some cause for big concerns going forward.

I just hope we can finish 10-6. It would still be a respectable season after most fans here expected 8-8 or worse.

I think Sanders will be out for a while. Kittle might be back, but we'll see if he is a 100%. Bottom line is, if either Kittle or Sanders aren't healthy, this offense is royally screwed, especially against the back half of the season.

You can't just rely on a running game. Seattle just stacked the box and played press man coverage. You think they cared?

Yes, the defense is elite and will keep us in games. But much like the Harbaugh years, you can't rely on the defense to keep bailing you out.

Someone already copied this thread lol.

Originally posted by Ensatsu:
I just hope we can finish 10-6. It would still be a respectable season after most fans here expected 8-8 or worse.

I think Sanders will be out for a while. Kittle might be back, but we'll see if he is a 100%. Bottom line is, if either Kittle or Sanders aren't healthy, this offense is royally screwed, especially against the back half of the season.

You can't just rely on a running game. Seattle just stacked the box and played press man coverage. You think they cared?

Yes, the defense is elite and will keep us in games. But much like the Harbaugh years, you can't rely on the defense to keep bailing you out.

I think finishing something like 11 - 5 is really possible. If we drop an unexpected game then 10 - 6 is possible. Both of those records would have far, far blown away my expectations. So it's hard to call the year a failure. But I could see some big problems now especially against mobile QB's, elite QB's and the schemes have adjusted to our pass rush a bit. Plus all the key injuries we have. We are just decimated now.

I was hoping for #1 seed, #2 seed, playoff bye, division champion and so on. But all of those are major league up in the air. It may be more likely a wild card team.

#1 seed, #6 seed, miss the playoffs. None of it matters if Kittle and Sanders aren't playing in the post-season. Team is one-and-done if they are out.

Originally posted by captveg:
#1 seed, #6 seed, miss the playoffs. None of it matters if Kittle and Sanders aren't playing in the post-season. Team is one-and-done if they are out.

In fairness it's a massively different team with Kittle and Sanders. Without both this is a pretty helpless team at least in the passing game. I would not expect us to beat many high caliber playoff teams without them. Maybe we could survive the loss of one. But both is impossible. I think we proved that tonight.