Just Fantastic

What an outstanding afternoon of football. As the 49ers have been playing meaningful games in December these last 2 years, I've been constantly thinking how much more fun this is than worrying about which top 10 draft position they will end up with.

Obviously the win was great, if not unexpected. But the icing on the cake was the exercise in amazing football that was Packers/Vikings. Rooting for the Vikings is never fun for me, but if I had to do it, I couldn't have chosen a better game in which to do so. Back and forth the whole way, Peterson chasing an uncatchable record, Rodgers making you shake your head and wonder how the hell it's even possible to throw a football that way...it was just so amazing.

That feeling of rooting for a playoff outcome for our team is something we have definitely earned the hard way over a decade of misery and failure. When Walsh's kick juuuuuust grazed inside the right upright it was the kind of moment that makes you realize why sports kick so much ass. They are really really fun to watch sometimes. Other times you're watching your team lose by 30 to ass-face mcgee on national television, and you realize that it would be a lot more fun to not care about sports. That's what makes days like today that much sweeter, though. We DO care, and we're rewarded with experiences like this.

The week off is really really big for this team. All the injuries have forced new guys into the lineup, and one more week of preparation will do nothing but help them. It might even get J. Smith healthy enough to play. The defense looks completely lost without him. Aldon Smith is a shell of himself without a dominating inside presence. Very worrying for when they have to face teams with actual NFL offenses.

Either way, I'm once again just really really happy to be watching my team playing meaningful games in January again. They will have a reasonable-to-very-good chance at beating any of their potential opponents at home, but I'm rooting for a Seattle rematch. That game sucked. Let's wipe that goddamn smirk of Pete's face.

F****************€}!{+|'$$&@&$"&$***

I wouldn't want to be the Arizona cardinals right now, that's all I have to say about that game. Please God give us a rematch in SF. Pete Carroll is a f**king a hole hack full of faux modesty. Wipe that gahdam smile off his face, please.

Whoa

Might have something here. That was amazing. Of course they couldn't just give us a blowout, but I'll take it. Kaepernick is converting me more and more each week. That dude looks special. If Delanie would have caught a perfectly thrown ball in the rams game, he's undefeated as a starter. That was some epic stuff to respond the way he did when it counted.

Really looking forward to the Seattle game. They've been making hay on some shitty teams, I'm hoping they get a nice reality check next week. The division is basically clinched already, with only a home game vs Arizona standing in the way, but getting it done where it's supposedly impossible to win would be so fantastic. I really want that. This team is effing amazing.

Seattle- copy cats.

Another NFC west team already destroyed the bills this year. Too bad the media will get a case of amnesia and think this actually means something. Blowing out bad teams doesn't prove anything.

I just need to scream about this somewhere

Both of the seahawks' starting cornerbacks have been busted for cheating. The Seahawks' biggest strength thus far has been the surprising production from low draft picks in their secondary. Turns out THEY WERE BOTH CHEATING. How the F**K is this not a huge deal?

Pete Carroll cheated in college and now he's cheating in the pros. Somehow this gets a blind eye turned to it, but Jim Harbaugh shakes some guy's hand a little too vigorously and he's the next coming of Stalin.

Again: the Seahawks strength on defense is predicated on performances they got from people who have been caught cheating. Far from being outraged, mike silver just wrote a puff piece on Richard Sherman. The same Richard Sherman WHO WAS JUST CAUGHT CHEATING AND THEN LIED ABOUT IT.

I feel like I'm in the twilight zone here.

What the hell?

Why is Colin Kaepernick the QB again? Last week the loss was squarely on his shoulders (sure, if Walker catches the ball, they win. But if he doesn't pitch that ball, they win sooner), and now this week I don't think he did anything Alex Smith couldn't have done, save for that admittedly exciting run when the game was already decided.

I believe that Kaepernick is a more talented QB than Smith- there's not a lot of question about that- but if you allegedly made this switch to "add another dimension" to your offense, where is that extra dimension? Kapernick is putting up Alex Smith performances. Nothing wrong with that, it gets results. But why are we doing this right now? What's the point? I really hope they have something else in store for New England and Seattle because this offensive game plan will not work against good teams. This is getting ridiculous. You have the ability to drive your Ferrari of an offense on the autobahn, yet you're going 55 and everyone else is screaming past you on all sides. THROW THE BALL TO VERNON DAVIS GOD FRIGGEN DAGGIT.

All that said, if Randy Moss catches the pass thrown right to his hands, or if the referees aren't completely incompetent and call the BLATANT PI on that play, the game looks different. I realize that. I realize it's stupid to nitpick and complain after a 2 TD win, but that game did not feel like a blowout- it felt like a lucky victory at home against a middling team with nothing to play for who traveled 1500 miles. In 2007, I'd be ecstatic after a win like that, but this season more is expected and more is required. When I saw the final score before watching the game, I was expecting a performance that was a lot different from what actually transpired.

Maybe that's too harsh, but this team does not look like a championship caliber squad at the moment. Too many stupid penalties, too many dropped passes, too few passes going to your best (or maybe 2nd best) receiving option, too many handcuffs on the offensive playcalling.

One other nice thing: good to see Crabtree turning into a consistent threat on the outside. Maybe that's the biggest positive from the change to Kaepernick, and maybe it will get better with time. Right now, though, I'm unimpressed with what they're running out there on a weekly basis. Next week's game is huge, and they can't afford to be stupid and undisciplined.

Shitty Game as Expected, but...

Intentional grounding will not be called when a passer, while out of the pocket and facing an imminent loss of yardage, throws a pass that lands at or beyond the line of scrimmage, even if no offensive player(s) have a realistic chance to catch the ball (including if the ball lands out of bounds over the sideline or end line).