SaintsBro

I saw it immediately. What happened to the 49ers this past year is exactly what happened to the Saints in '06. New coach and new coordinators came in, not a lot of film on what they were doing, for other teams to break down. Plenty of good players on hand, who had been poorly coached. Easy schedule due to the poor year they'd had the year before. Piled up wins. Won home field and a bye. Enormously off-the-chain, pumped-up home crowd and emotional players, that allowed them to win exactly ONE playoff game before they fell apart. Next year, 8-8 or 9-7, did not qualify, and that's exactly what I see happening to the Niners once they have to play a #2 seed schedule, and once teams study them a little bit and prepare.


Case in point: the Niners absolutely blew out Seattle early in the year, then the second time, those two teams played a really tough close game, late in the year, decided by only a couple of points. Once the Seahawks were able to look at film and prepare, the 49ers did not look nearly so hot. The Rams, same deal. The second game between them was much more competitive than the first, which tells me there is something going on with the Niners last year besides just plain dominance.


Now of course, looking back... if you offered me the Saints going from a losing record to being in the NFC Championship game in '06, I'll say OF COURSE I'LL TAKE IT. We'd never been anywhere near there before. But wouldn't you admit, that after that game at Soldier Field, and in the '07 and '08 seasons, we came to know how we were flawed -- that we maybe weren't as good as we thought we were... we were good, we were definitely a playoff caliber team in '06, but we weren't really an NFC Championship Game caliber team in '06. That's the moment the 49ers are at right now.


And I still can't believe people think the Rams are so bad. They had injuries but they're not a pathetic team, don't sleep on the Rams. I think the odds are good they're going to do exactly the above scenario next year, with a new coach nobody is prepared for, and win the NFC West over the 49ers, maybe even win home field. They have a good QB, a great workhorse running back, big playmaking defensive personnel, and new coaches who are coming into that division loaded for bear.

Remember back when our division was changing QBs and coaches every year, revolving door, the NFC South was a very unstable division, different teams won it every year. Now that's kinda stabilized, so you don't see it so much. But that NFC West is topsy turvy that way, they keep changing coaches and QBs out there and it's basically the Rams turn to get it together next year.

UK_WhoDat

You THINK?!

No one thinks they are drunk. That is horseradish.

They are or they aren't.

Tobias-Reiper

I sometimes think I'm sober...

Marlboro Man

If we had the EJ Girl Scouts as our defense, we'd be playing in the Super Bowl tonight

Danno

If we didn't give it away 5 times, we'd be in too.

Mardigras9

Just have to win home-field next year and it's money.

saintsfan1976

Then why did it take them so long to get back to a playoff game?

No credit due for THIS year, my friend. It's a new season.

The Niners must survive not only the changes within their own organization but those within their division. Teams will improve.

And just ask New Orleans how easy it is to duplicate that kind of defensive season the very next year...

jeanpierre

And we nearly bucked that trend despite an awful defense that couldn't prevent anything...

saintsfan1976

Not in the last two drives, no.

G504

I also think this trend will be broken, because at one time AFC East was a strong division. But now it's just an aging Patriots and a bunch of doormats. So playing the Jets, Fins, and Bills won't exactly prep the 9ers for the playoffs like it did for us in 09. We got four signature wins out of that schedule. Against the Bills, our D stepped up, Fins - first comeback from down more than 2 scores, Pats - beat a Superbowl contender, and the Jets were undefeated when we played them.