Friday, December 16, 2011

Have the Niners peaked?




Leading up to a brutal matchup versus the only team in NFL history with more superbowl rings than the San Francisco 49ers, fans are beginning to show concern. San Francisco has allowed 18 sacks in the last 3 games, more than it allowed during any 3 game stretch during it's previous 8 non winning seasons and it looks even worse than that while watching them play. Alex Smith takes the brunt of the criticism because A) he's Alex freaking Smith and B) when you are the QB, you take the heat when the team loses and get lots of praise when the team wins.


David Akers is set to break Jerry Rice's single season scoring record, a stat that makes many Niner fans cringe. We really don't care about Jerry's record being shattered, but we are very disappointed that it's being broken by a kicker because it highlights what we already know. This team leaves way too many points on the field, they settle for field goals far to often and our chances of beating playoff teams with field goals are not good. Early in the season we won games ugly, we won road games many thought we had no business winning. But now we have lost 2 of the last 3 and the team is not only injured, but not playing up to expectations of fans and of their head coach and his staff. Has the team peaked? It's easy to forget that this season was supposed to be a rebuilding season, with a new head coach, a new philosophy for running a football team and tempered expectations. That being said, this team got out fast and has overachieved, which leads fans to want more and more. Primarily because we are still living the dream of the super bowl parades and parties that followed, but this team is much different and we need to show some patience. To answer the question, no, they haven't peaked. I believe in this team and I know that they can play better, beat teams up in the trenches and make the fans proud, but I will admit that we now have very high expectations for this team. Sadly, with high expectations come even bigger letdowns and I won't be shocked when this team gets their butt kicked in the first playoff game in almost 10 years.

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