Coming down to the wire here. There’s a lot on the line for both sides. Seattle has little chance to win the West, but they are fighting for their playoff lives. If Seattle IS to win the West, they need this game plus help. If the Niners want to get the 1st week bye, THEY need this game. Green Bay is playing the Tennessee Tuxedos, so they will most assuredly go to 11-4. Seattle has some depth problems in the defensive backfield. CBs Thurmond and Trufant are questionable, No decision has been down regarding Richard Sherman, so he’s apparently cleared to play, but Brandon Browner is still serving his suspension. I’m sure Jim Harbaugh knows this, so I see the Niners opening up early on the deep passing attack again.
The Niners D of course has to worry about Marshawn Lynch and Russell Wilson. I think the defense come out of the nickel they played a lot of last week. The Niners need to focus on Lynch more than they had to with NE. Lynch is a beast, and he looks to tear the Niners up if they go light on the line. But Wilson brings a big run threat as well as his passing game. They use the read option, and have been slowly running it more and more. So who decides this game? The crowd? The weather? The coaches? Turnovers?
Yeah, could be all of the above. This will be the 6th nationally televised game for the Niners, and they are a gaudy 5-0 so far. There’s a shitload of talk regarding the freshman class of quarterback who are tearing up the league. From Griffin to Luck to Wilson, they are gathering all the press. Colin Kaepernick. For all he did in his few chances, there’s not a hell of a lot of notice about him, other than his tattoos and how he got the starting job. A few out there are taking notice, but as of now, he’s still pretty much under the radar. Frankly, that works in the Niners favor, but in the end it doesn’t really mean much.
Seattle’s a young team making waves, but I think the Niners are the stronger team, and they will prevail. Also, I’m gone all day, so play nice…..
Forty Niners Forever 
You got to think that game last week took a lot out of this defense.
Like I said before dat: “Maybe this is our Super Bowl so let’s win it”.
Gentlemen, we will not win 3 in a row this year
Fuckwads (= coaches)
Did we fire Jim Harbaugh yet? After you kindly answer me that question, you can tell me if we’ve ever gotten around to signing Peyton Manning yet.
Merry Christmas
Has dennis been banned yet? What an annoying twit.
If you’re going to take the time and effort to take a crack at me, at least have the common courtesy to capitalize my name please. We annoying twits have earned that right and respect.
You fucking mook.
You Bronco-loving, Manning-licking troll. Get over it. It’s just one game and you’re celebrating your supposed team’s loss. I doubt you’re even really a 9er fan and I hope to God you’re not really a Raiders fan.
Well, better to see how Kappy and the coaching staff handle pressure now rather than the playoffs.Kappy did fare, coaches get a big fat raspberry. IMO i don’t think they get very far without J Smith.
Harbaugh is beginning to give me an uncomfortable Marty Schottenheimer vibe. Good enough for 11-5 and the playoffs; not good enough to win three or four in a row when he gets there.
Yeah my expectations are dropping like muffed punts
Dennis is fucked in the head. Good bad or indifferent, he’ll whine. He still doesn’t believe the Giants won the world series 2x in the past 3 years.
Lol. But he’s got the DVD.
Not time to panic. Yet. Win this game, and hope Minn takes care of biz.
The injuries are becoming an issue. AJ may finally hit the field. :Let’s hope he’s ready
Whats up with Twin?
He left.
Well that won’t do at all. Twin stop pouting and come back.
Merry Christmas all.
Same at you Winder
Merry Christmas to all, even Scrooge.
Those at home and those away from home.
http://bit.ly/10e5VTH
I had impure Charlotte Church thoughts when she was only fourteen. Fourteen or not, she truly has the voice of an angel. I really should be locked up for thinking like that. But since it’s Christmas they let everyone out for the day. And being it Christmas, I’d like to wish everyone here a very Merry Christmas to you and yours. And one less lump of coal in Chuck’s stocking for all his time, effort and dedication to his blog. You made Santa’s “Nice” list. But watch your ass, mister.
Merry Christmas
I’m the biggest Disneyland fan/supporter there is. Have been my entire life. But their Christmas special this morning left a lot to be desired. The on-air talent was B-rate at best. I didn’t recognize half of the music performers. And the one’s I did were past their prime and hackneyed. The production value was sub-standard and it lacked direction. It amounted to nothing more than a two-hour commercial for their Magic Kingdom. Who in the hell is running that Mickey Mouse organization anyway?
Well, I know yer fucking Goofy . . .
Merry Christmas one and all. Even you, Twin.
I hope that characterization was meant to be a proper noun and not a transitive verb.
Well, it WAS capitalized.
Goofy is transgendered? Scary that
And a Merry Christmas and Happy Psychotic Venom to all!
I was hoping for a dementia love fest in my stocking today….
It’s a day of good will towards men. Even for us crazed jackals.
Merry Christmas bloggeritti.
Same at you Man
I had to drive up to Tahoe to pick a relative up who needed help. Left Sun at 10am to be sure I’d catch the Niner game when i got there. It took me 10 hours to drive from Palo Alto to Tahoe—and I have snow tires, didn’t need to put chains on. Multiple fatalities, people that don’t know how to drive in the snow and were literally stranded on the summit. Unreal. 10 hours. Anyway, I missed almost all of that shit-fest so the trip wasn’t a total bummer…..
Look, Seattle is probably the hardest place for a visitor to venture these days. I’m not sweating that loss one fuck, in fact I kinda figured we’d lose. I want to get back to the Super Bowl as much as the next Niner fan but if we don’t get a bye or all of our playoff games at home, big deal. A little adversity is a good thing.
Along with Chuck, I AM worried about these injuries popping up at precisely the wrong time of the season.
But unless we lose to Arizona, we are in great position to go all the way this year. Perfect position? No. But having to go on the road to beat a playoff team in their house, if we manage to do it, will make the Super Bowl that much sweeter…….
Merry Christmas, ‘Forever’s…..
Just to keep it in perspective, the 49ers have won just two road games in the playoffs, in their ENTIRE history.
One was the Chicago game where Joe wiped the floor with Buddy Ryan’s 46 defense while it was a gazillion degrees below zero, as Bob McKittrick went into hypothermia in his short sleeves.
The other was another almost equally cold day in Bloomington, Minnesota, with a QB named Brodie.
The fact that there are only two, in our long and storied history, should give you a inkling of the challenge involved. Yes it can be done. And no, it will not be easy. The Vikings could help us a whole lot by upsetting the Packers Sunday.
Win a playoff game on the road? Too ambitious. How about winning 3 in a row anywhere this season? That’s a reasonable goal.
Since we’ve come up empty five times after winning two, perhaps it is not as reasonable as we might hope.
Sadly you are correct Grump
I can save you guys a bunch of time, trouble and effort…
1. ATL
2. GB
3. SF
4. DAL
5. SEA
6. CHI
SF > CHI
DAL > SEA
GB > SF
ATL > DAL
GB > ATL
Now you can get back to your festivities while cursing my name under your breath and thinking I don’t know WTF I’m talking about. In other words, Christmas is just like any other day…
I think the Vikings beat Green bay and Redskins beat Cowboys.
The Gate has Alex to the JETS, I hope not for his sake: http://www.sfgate.com/sports/ostler/article/QB-Alex-Smith-should-land-with-Jets-4141389.php
It’s beyond idiotic to use the franchise record as an indicator of how we would potentially play on the road this year in the playoffs. Without looking it up, I’m assuming the Niners had home field advantage in all of their super bowl wins. If not, I stand corrected. So only winning 2 road playoff games in their history is a dumb thing to highlight since they almost never play road playoff games. In fact, how many road playoff games have they played since The Walsh Era? I’m not looking it up, I’m just throwing it out there.
And Dennis, no one gives a flying fuck about your predictions. You also said that Brees would wipe Alex off the field in the playoffs last year. How’d that dumbfuck prediction work out for you?
Thanks for the vote of confidence there, but really, you should look stuff up or at least read before you post. OBVIOUSLY we did not have home field advantage in 1988, if we played the Bears at Soldier Field. Very, very obvious, I would think. I’ll blame too much Christmas cheer, if you like.
Franchise record in playoff games on the road: 2-10. Winning percentage of .167 by my math. But go ahead and check me on my division, I’m only an idiot, LOL.
http://www.pro-football-reference.com/teams/sfo/playoffs.htm
Oh and right… “Since the Walsh Era.”
That would be 0-5. Winning percentage of .000 I do believe. 🙂
So you’re saying 5 games, played over the course of the last 30+ years. Is actually going to dictate how we do in 2013 in a road playoff game? Nice. How many road playoff games did the Giahts win last year? And Green Bay the year before that? Playing a road game and getting your panties rung up over the prospects of a loss is absurd.
0-5 since Walsh on the road in the playoffs. 12-4 at home.
Gee. I think we’re more likely to win at home. 🙂 But then that’s what we like to call, ‘blindingly obvious.”
Wtf r u even talking about? Since the Walsh era we’re 0-5? You pointed out yourself that we won in Chicago– that is “since the Walsh era started”. And I don’t give a fuck about what we did 25 years ago on the road.
Grump, you’re obviously not a stat guy if you are taking such a small sample size (not even computing it correctly) and willingly assigning a prediction based off that to a road playoff gm we might play in jan ’13.
The sf giants hadn’t won a gm 7 in their sf history, right? Doomed them this year, right. Whoops.
Most people would read “since the Walsh era” as after he retired. Not quite the same thing as “since the Walsh era started.” But:
Since the Walsh era started, we are 1-8 on the road in the playoffs. 18-5 at home.
So, still, I’d rather be at home for the playoffs.
And as for the Giants winning a Game 7 this year – it snowed in Texas today, too. That hardly means Global Warming is incorrect. One data point means nothing. If you’re a ‘stat guy’, or a scientist, like I am, you understand that. 🙂
well no shit, I’d rather be at home, too. I’m just saying that going on the road isn’t a death sentence (with the Giants and the Packers as two recent examples of super bowl winners who won multiple road games to get there).
And my point, which you missed, is that a small sample size means NOTHING in terms of predicting an outcome for this team. The only way I’d look at a small sample, and I’m talking about barely giving it credit, is if the numbers were associated with the current team—all of the games you’re talking about happened 20-30+ years ago.–totally meaningless……..
LMAO. Like: “Yes it can be done. And no, it will not be easy. ” Some death sentence, there. Strawman much?
And losing playoff games on the road in 2001 and 2002 was not exactly 20 or 30 years ago. Not by my math, anyway.
It’s best not to talk out of your ass without actually doing the research.
So are any of those players from those loser road games still on the team? You don’t get this and I’ll stop trying to educate you. This is old dog/new trick territory.
Flav why so ah, grumpy? I realize you had to drive through frozen hell to rescue a family member BUT you’ve just won yer 3rd Scoring Championship Challenge.
Okay this ties you with Dennis but still…just askin’
We suck on the road in the playoffs that’s obvious but hey I’m no scientist or some kinda grumpy flavor of a stat guy. We also suck every third game we play this year. Also obvious, right?
If by some Christmas miracle Minn beats the Pack well good. Personally I don’t see us going to Lambeau and beating them in January OR at the Stick. Or anyone else “Anywhere” else. Why, why Chief Gadfly Phil do you say such a thing? Why indeed?
Simple. Look it up: every third game is a turd floating in this fan’s punchbowl. Oh and the Chief Turd Layers are the HC, O and D coaches on the 2012 SF Forty Niners. That crew does not have 3 good game plans in a row in ’em.
Gents we won’t win 3 games in a row this year (or in January). Bet on it.
We’re the most inconsistent team in the league. We’ve had games like Buffalo and Chicago and the first half of New England, where we can score as fast as we get the ball and shut the other guys out. We’ve had other games, on that every three week schedule, where we shit all over ourselves. Not just at QB or on offense either – our defense and ST were the biggest turds floating in that bowl Sunday. When we suck, we suck in every way.
As much as I *want* to see it, I cannot see us going all the way this year either. I’ll root for the team to the bitter end, but this just feels like ’85 or ’92… close, but not nearly close enough.
Yup grump, I just don’t see any reason to believe anymore this year…I’m sorry to say my friend
“We’re the most inconsistent team in the league.” Uh huh, true, proven fact
It’s simple. Forget road or home. Without Justin Smith they are toast.
I took like seven shits this morning.