loafoftatupu":3vk8z2sw said:
I personally don't think the Niners are dropping far from their previous venture with the playoffs and such. They are a little older and have a few key issues, but like the Hawks they are built to withstand a certain amount of adversity.
This assumes that Harbafreak continues to emphasize on a power run game and tough defense. If he gets cute, if he tries to turn the team into something it isn't, all bets are off. The Niners have won since that philosophy has been implemented. It doesn't allow for teams to get too far ahead and keeps the team in games. If they lose that edge, the Niners could easily drop a few games that first appeared to be wins.
Panthers? Oh hell yeah... they aren't going anywhere.
Kansas City. The 2011 SF wannabe, the difference being that this season their QB won't be able to add anything to his game and the simplicity of his limitations will make life easier for opposing defenses.
How exactly are they built to withstand these few key issues?
I know Niner fans want you to think that Tank and Dial are the next coming of Cowboy and Smith but the truth is they are currently third sting and the playing time they got was against mostly other third string guys. Their back ups looked gawd awful this preseason and I don't buy the its only preseason bull, they looked like shit and were trounced relentlessly.
That O-line has looked putrid and the replacements are not the only problem. Their best guard Iupati, has looked as bad or worse than Kilgore or Looney. They don't have any other guys ready to step in and be any better so how are they going to fix that O-line?
Kaep has also been a hot mess and I think mostly because of the pressure he has been seeing from his O-line play. Will it improve? Probably but all that depth we have been hearing about is falling on it's face and how much improvement are we talking about because from what I have seen it needs to improve significantly, not just gel a little, Kaep is not good when under pressure and those weapons will sit on a shelf if he sees constant pressure.
I just don't buy that they are near as deep as they want everyone to believe. Pillabusta on the webzone has been arguing all off season with anyone who would listen that this is the deepest and most talented team Harbaugh has fielded and the most talented team in the league pound for pound. I love his reasoning to. According to him this last draft is proof of why the Niners are the most talented team in the NFL will stay deep for years to come. Yup, the class that hadn't even seen an OTA when he started saying it is proof. It's really kind of comical.
Here's the reality. Any other team with as many issues as the Niners have had recently, between FO, coaching staff, contract issues, off field issues, losing key players, hold outs and now injuries, the entire NFL would be writing them off but because the NFL hype train loves to travel through San Fran, the NFL community has had all the depth BS shoved down our throats even though there has been no real reason to believe it.
Remember how poor they have been at subbing players in? That is because the drop off from starter to the next guys is to big to ignore. That is a problem you have when you lack depth, not the other way around.
Harbaugh was smart to try and get his extension this offseason but Ballke and Jed were smarter to see if he can hold this ship together when the seas get rough and getting rough they are.
