That is the question. Three weeks into the 100th NFL season, and the 49ers sit atop the NFC West, tied with the LA Rams. Is it real? Are we padding our record on the backs of patsies? Well, sure. But we don’t have control over the scheduling, so we play who they put in front of us. So far the teams we have played are a combined 1-8. TB is 1-2 (but a missed chip-shot FG from 2-1), Cincy is 0-3, and the Benless Steelers are now 0-3. Throw in the 1-3 Browns in two weeks and you have a whopping 2-11 record against (well, 2-12 when the Ravens stomp the Browns at home this weekend).
Still and all, the 49ers have the 4th best offense yardage-wise (5th in points scored), and the 2nd best defense yardage-wise (9th in points allowed). The problem? Turnovers. We lead the league in giveaways at 8. 4 fumbles and 4 picks. Our saving grace is the turnovers created. 7. 5 picks is a testament to or newfound pass rush, and we have forced a few fumbles along the way.
What of the rest of the West? Well the front-running Rams, 3-0 as well, have staggered their way through some sketchy games as well. They squeaked by Carolina 30-27, with a gimpy Cam Newton, they beat a no-wind (Brees-less) Saints team, and beat a Browns team that has talent but can’t seem to do anything right for any length of time. The Rams high-powered offense is mired in 16th place as Todd Gurley is off to a slow start, and the passing game is a mediocre 22nd in yards.
Seattle? They are 2-1, squeaking out wins vs Cincy and Pisstburgh, and losing to the Breesless Saints last week. The Legion of Boom is now the Legion of Meh at a middling 11th place (25th in points allowed) defensively, and the young offense is tripping along at 9th in yards and 10th in points. Decent, but not the scary dominant team of the early teens.
AZ? Well, they are exciting offensively and dogshit defensively. 0-2-1 is not an aberration.
As I said when the season started, we have the chance to rack up a lot of wins early to prepare for the grind at the end. Our first big test is LA on the road in 3 weeks. The other games are the Browns, Skins, Panthers, Cards, Seahawks, and Cards before we hit the meat of our season. If this team is for real, the team should be able to go 5-2 at worst. The Seattle game is at home, so 6-1 is doable.
If this team hits 9-1 or 8-2 at the 3/4 pole, the team has a great shot at the playoffs. Stagger now, and the end will get ugly and we’ll end up 8-8 or worse.
They’ve shown they can win ugly. Now comes the time when they need to simply beat the bad teams and hold their own against the good ones. The Falcons are beatable, as are the Packers if we can pound Mr. Rodgers. Ravens and saints on the road are tough no matter who is QBing. Hold their own in these early games, and 10-6 should be doable.
At least.
RT,
Funny thing about those “Nazi Sympathizer” Brits, including the government of the day, they were at war against Germany for 2 years, with help from Canada and the Aussies and a few others, before Russia and America declared and started fighting, 2 brutal years.
The Battle of Britain occurred during those 2 years, decimating the Luftwaffe, and probably saving Western Europe, certainly Britain, from German conquest. You cast a pretty large aspersion against a people and its government, their sacrifice and courage, because some tried to come to a peaceful resolution?
No doubt Germany had some support in Britain, as it did in America and elsewhere or perhaps Nazi rallies here in our country aren’t in those books you read?
The King of England is a major player in The Committee of 300. That should explain a lot.
Tell that sob story to the Austrian Jews, when Britain abandoned her commitment there. Tell that to the Czechoslovak people, Jews and others, when Britain abandoned her commitment there and pressured the French to follow suit.
The reason Britain stood alone was because they kept throwing allies and potential allies under the bus. Read up on the subject, I implore you. Plenty of Britains cast aspersions against the British government and some of her powerful people. Churchill was nice in his criticism compared to some.
I don’t see how that plays with what RT wrote.
The idea that people in power control those without it is hardly a revelation regardless of which conspiracy is ascribed to.
I took exception to the broad brushstrokes of “Nazi Sympathizers” tarred onto the British government and its people.
Regardless of Chamberlain’s willingness to keep turning the other cheek in the face of German aggression, they did go to war, whilst America and Russia turned their cheeks for 2 years and America allowed Nazi parades down 5th Avenue.
Not so different from the world allowing Russia to grab Crimea from Ukraine right now, does that make us “Russian sympathizers”?
12th man- You make a good point. I don’t want to go further here. If you would like to email your phone number to me a fortyninerberger@yahoo.com it is a conversation I would enjoy having with you my friend.
The Russians offered to join the British in defending Czechoslovakia. The British refused in the course of selling Czechoslovakia out. After that, Russia no longer trusted the British word. The British broke their promises on the Rhineland in 1936, telling the French they wouldn’t back them up, repeating the procedure in Czechoslovakia in 1938, and nearly repeating the procedure with Poland 1939.
You think I am the one casting aspersions? I’m reporting what the informed Britains at the time wrote or said.
Heck, Edward VIII, the British king who was forced to abdicate over his marriage to an American divorcee, was practically a Nazi. Don’t believe me? The Duke of Windsor and his wife were shipped off to the Bahamas to keep them muzzled and kept under watch till the end of the war.
Nazi Germany wasn’t hard to figure out. Mein Kampf laid it all out ten years in advance, step by step. The British Foreign Office, the British ambassador to Germany, and British military intelligence all reported what was going on.
If we pressured Britain to surrender, knowing full well that many Britains would be tortured and killed, and a democracy with a decent army, including tanks, begging to be an ally was going to be militarily occupied, would that make us good people?
If we pressured Britain’s allies and potential allies to give it up, so that Britain could surrender, does that make it smart?
Czechoslovakia 1938
Just wondering where it is written that Britain should expend its armed forces and go to war to defend anyone in Europe? Or, if that was such a lofty goal, why America didn’t jump right on in and do something about it before Britain? Crickets…..
You’re pretty fast at blaming the Brits for not defending these countries and labeling the Brits Nazi sympathizers, yet the Brits were in the fight 2 years longer than the Americans and Russians, more crickets….
Oh and don’t make me laugh that Stalin couldn’t trust the Brits, he was one of the biggest mass murderers of all time, maybe eclipsing Hitler, and he lied constantly, when he wasn’t busy murdering that is, including to the allies at the conclusion of the war.
Royal houses have intermingled for centuries, so what? The kings don’t create policy, Parliament does.
I notice you don’t answer any of the points I made about actual American Nazi sympathizers, lots more crickets….
For whatever reason you have an axe to grind on the Brits, apparently for not doing enough in WW2, yet they were in it the longest of any country, fighting Germany, Italy and Japan, long before Pearl Harbor.
Nazi sympathizers my ass.
Britain would never have suffered the Battle of Britain had she defended her friend and the only democracy in central Europe. Czechoslovakia had a real army and real mountains with fortifications on three sides. They were willing to fight if the French and the British would help by attacking from the west (which would have been an easy victory at that time with the German army occupied in Czechoslovakia).
You are saying that Britain was smart in allowing WWII and Dunkirk and the Battle of Britain and their million dead. I think the dead disagree.
As far as Nazi sympathizers in Britain, read a damn book man. I can’t tutor you.
You might start with British foreign policy for the previous two hundred years plus. Prevent any one power from taking over Europe (as Napoleon did, when they failed), and use the British Navy to keep England safe.
Plenty of books on the subject. I think whole libraries devoted to it.
I should’ve have been so harsh. I didn’t know a lot of this stuff, too. If you want me to go through my references to show Nazi sympathy in Britain in the ’30s, I shall by quoting known facts from the books I’ve read.
English aristocracy constantly hobnobbing with top Nazis, and inviting them back to their estates in Britain. One Lord propounding, “I’d rather see a Nazi in Whitehall then a Socialist” (a very small British political party often allied with the Labour party at the time, not even close to being Bolsheviks).
Such things happened. Thanks to Churchill they regained their honor to some degree. But European countries have never forgotten to this day.
*shouldn’t have been so harsh
Seriously, I knew little of this stuff. My recent reading has shown me how appalling it really was.
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Now I’ll try to drop the matter, chill for awhile, and come back for the Browns.
We haven’t won the game after the bye week since 2011. 2012 we managed a tie, and at least 2011 it was the Browns. Good omen I guess.
I know it’s to early to have a bye week when your on a roll, but good for some players to get more healthy(Taylor,Hurd,Coleman etc)also the guys taking off to be with their families are in the case of Kittle and the Beater checking out their alma mater Iowa St leading the fans with some rad cheering before the kickoff as they rolled bigtime to a win!
New thread is up.