In the grand scheme of things, this was a hard-fought loss. West going east, hostile environment, hostile weather, early start, hottest team . . . yeah yeah yeah. No moral victories here. We played tough till the end, and could have won. Without the mistakes we should have won. The defense was outstanding, we fought scratched and clawed till the end, and came up just a bit short. The run game had a surprising field day, with Raheem Mostert getting 146 yards on 19 carries and 2 TDs, while Jimmy G was 15-21 for 165 and a sweet TD to Deebo Samuels. A guy who is really coming on as a 1a type WR.

Thing is though, some troubling problems remain, even this late in the season. Jimmy G’s pocket awareness leaves a lot to be desired, as he fumbled away the ball deep in our own territory for an easy 7 for Baltimore, and threw a near-pick six deep in our territory as well. Yeah, the conditions were rotten, but Garoppolo has 5 lost fumbles (9 total, for minus 21 yards) and 10 interceptions, He’s solely responsible for 15 turnovers.

12 TEAMS don’t even have that many turnovers. The rest of the team has 4 fumbles, 3 of them lost.

These turnovers played a huge part in our two losses this year, and kept Pittsburgh in a game we should have romped in. In Seattle, Jimmy lost 2 fumbles and threw a pick. Yesterday of course, the fumble on our 20. Yes, teams have turnovers. Shit, we forced one from soon-to-be MVP Lamar Jackson. But that was his first lost fumble of the year. For a guy that runs so much, that’s something. Jimmy has the 5.

Seeing as we are in playoff mode right now, as in we need to win out to secure home field and the division, mistakes kill. And Jimmy G really needs to tighten his shit up.

Hate to say it, but I think we take the Saints pretty easily as well.  Our defense is much better than theirs, and I think we can shut down Brees and stop their run game.

Again, though, mistakes are the wildcard. Lose this game and we ARE the wildcard.