RichNhansom
Active member
- Joined
- May 25, 2011
- Messages
- 4,256
- Reaction score
- 5
I love the "target on their backs" or the "you won't sneak up on anyone this year" sayings. It might be the dumbest reason Niner fans can come up with as to why we will fail this next year. Think about it, We ended 2012 as one of the hottest teams in the league and by most NFL pundits The Hottest and the team no one wanted to face. Only injury's to key positions in the cesspool of a football field in WA DC kept us from meeting the Niners in the NFCC game not to long after we had just curbed stomped them 42-13 and that was Wilson's rookie season.
They were right, we didn't sneak up on anyone. We got every teams best game and it was obvious. Several times it was nearly enough to beat us but more often than not winners do what winners do and we pulled wins out of what would have been sure losses for most teams, including the Niners. We were overall the odds on favorite to win the super bowl when the first power rankings came out, all the way through preseason and the regular season and even without our best two receivers we still won the super bowl.
This year again we will get everyone's best game just like last but this year we will know what that looks like. Now we know how good teams can play when they have the right mind set. So in some ways it now may just work to our advantage. The other side of that is teams will become desperate if they trail even by a small margin and will never feel comfortable with any lead where most games teams buckle down to slow the game down and limit mistakes when they have a comfortable lead we may see teams still forcing the ball when they normally wouldn't.
If our offense is improved anywhere near what it looks like on paper with Harvin Healthy and potentially Rice back on the field with something to prove or if either of the rookie receivers play carries over from all the hype they are receiving in TC, we will take early leads and force teams into passing mode to try and keep up or catch up. I can't think of a better situation than teams trying to pass in desperation against the LOB.
It is very possible we don't perform as well as last year or key injuries take to big a toll but from what I have seen since Pete Carroll arrived is he has his team ready. They seem to have massively improved each season by a large margin over the previous year and even though we went 7-9 in 2010 and 2011 it was blatantly obvious that was directly due to a drop off at QB not because the team remained stagnant. Statistically we improved across the board in every area except passing, red zone and 3rd down. I see no reason to believe Pete will not have his team ready again this year and I also see reason to believe we could once again be even better than the year before and if we are then holy cow how good could this team be?
Vegas knows how hard it is to repeat and yet they still have us as the odds on favorite again to win it all. Something else to consider if your one of those "its hard to repeat" guys. How many teams have ever made it to 4 NFC Championship games in a row? Yep way less than team that have actually repeated so by Niner logic they have a lessor chance of getting to the NFC Championship game than we do a winning the next super bowl. Chew on that.
They were right, we didn't sneak up on anyone. We got every teams best game and it was obvious. Several times it was nearly enough to beat us but more often than not winners do what winners do and we pulled wins out of what would have been sure losses for most teams, including the Niners. We were overall the odds on favorite to win the super bowl when the first power rankings came out, all the way through preseason and the regular season and even without our best two receivers we still won the super bowl.
This year again we will get everyone's best game just like last but this year we will know what that looks like. Now we know how good teams can play when they have the right mind set. So in some ways it now may just work to our advantage. The other side of that is teams will become desperate if they trail even by a small margin and will never feel comfortable with any lead where most games teams buckle down to slow the game down and limit mistakes when they have a comfortable lead we may see teams still forcing the ball when they normally wouldn't.
If our offense is improved anywhere near what it looks like on paper with Harvin Healthy and potentially Rice back on the field with something to prove or if either of the rookie receivers play carries over from all the hype they are receiving in TC, we will take early leads and force teams into passing mode to try and keep up or catch up. I can't think of a better situation than teams trying to pass in desperation against the LOB.
It is very possible we don't perform as well as last year or key injuries take to big a toll but from what I have seen since Pete Carroll arrived is he has his team ready. They seem to have massively improved each season by a large margin over the previous year and even though we went 7-9 in 2010 and 2011 it was blatantly obvious that was directly due to a drop off at QB not because the team remained stagnant. Statistically we improved across the board in every area except passing, red zone and 3rd down. I see no reason to believe Pete will not have his team ready again this year and I also see reason to believe we could once again be even better than the year before and if we are then holy cow how good could this team be?
Vegas knows how hard it is to repeat and yet they still have us as the odds on favorite again to win it all. Something else to consider if your one of those "its hard to repeat" guys. How many teams have ever made it to 4 NFC Championship games in a row? Yep way less than team that have actually repeated so by Niner logic they have a lessor chance of getting to the NFC Championship game than we do a winning the next super bowl. Chew on that.
