It really sucks to lose the home opener. Losing at home and/or to Chicago is not so bothering.
I say this every time when predicting W/L over the course of the season -- the 49ers (and I'd say the same for the Seahawks and every single good team in the league) will always lose a game they shouldn't and win one that they might be in over their head. Cowboys in 2011, Vikings and Rams in 2012 come to mind.
Unfortunately I was 13 hours ahead in time zone so could only watch the game up to 10-0 and had to track it through the game day feed on WZ. I saw that there was a ton of penalties being called on the Niners, and homer biases aside I'd imagine there was a lot of unnecessary calls for both teams.
What is disturbing is this is the 2nd straight prime time home game for the team and they played rather mediocre in both. Going back over the years (even through the dark ages), primetime SF was almost always a guaranteed W, or at least a hardfought game (nearly beat Saints in 2010 MNF). It was the closest thing to a surefire W for this team, and now it's become a lousy trend.
Another thing I was hearing was how the Niners game plan looked like crap, like they were trying to be too clever in their schemes to beat Chicago -- being Buffalo 2.0 instead of SF. As a chess player I sorta know that mentality, when instead of going for the surefire, thorough, boring way to defeat an opponent when they're clearly weaker, you try and get too cute and it backfires.
Can't win them all, and Niner fans and most fans around the league of a top team cannot seriously believe their team will start 9-0 or 10-0.
Hard to point the finger on execution vs. heart. Not showing up for a game is easily correctable......having real issues with O or D is another story.
I still predict a W in Arizona, maybe more so now than before.
Division opponents tend to eliminate the nonsense. I remember we get doused by the Giants two years ago and then thought we would drop to the Seahawks at home, and we played real SF football that night.
