Well, now we know how good the Denver Broncos really were. They came within a miracle pass of beating the Mighty Baltimore Ravens, a lot better than the Patriots managed. And Foxxy, you better stop beating up on Peyton Manning. He did throw 3 times as many TDs against the Ravens as Brady did. FFS, Manning is almost as good as the Incomparable Joe Flacco!
The 49ers must be the first team in playoff history to win a game after being outgained 202 yards to minus 2 yards at the start of the second quarter! Amazingly, if Akers had not missed the kind of FG that he always used to make, and if Crabtree had not fumbled on the goal line, it might not have even been that close. Alpe is not often wrong in this forum, but the Niners, following the Seahawks before them, established that they can, after all, play from behind.
But they have some worrisome issues going into the SB:
1) The Pass Defense. Matt Ryan torched them in the first half, and Aaron Rodgers did pretty well in the first half the week before. Why? It would seem not enough pressure on the QB. The 49ers only recorded one sack in the two games combined, and that was only a technical one, Ryan dropped at the line of scrimmage. My theory is that Justin Smith, who is the key to the other Smith’s sacks, is not 100%, and to make it worse, Aldon is now injured, too. Without A. Smith’s pass rush, good passers are teeing off on the team. The did play much better in the second half of both games, but still, with the game on the line, Ryan moved the Falcons the length of the field and almost pulled it out. He apparently suffered a separated shoulder (non-throwing side) on the last series of downs, which might possibly have made the difference.
2) Akers, the kicker. He continues to struggle. First, he was unreliable on distances over 40 yards, now he misses one from under 40. It turned out not to matter, but oh, boy, it sure could have. If the Falcons had scored on that last drive, then held off the Niners in the final minute, they would have won by three points. The 49ers are playing roulette, sooner or later a game is going to come down to a FG. It could be the SB.
3) Michael Crabtree. He’s under investigation for sexual assault. Did it affect his performance in the game? He did catch six passes, but not for the big yardage he was racking up in previous games. Maybe he was just covered better. But more to the point, if he is charged, will he miss the SB? I think you could say he is one of the three most important offensive players on the team, with Kaepernick and Gore. He has been Kaep’s favorite target, though Vernon Davis finally got involved in a big way against Atlanta. Without him, I think the 49ers are in a lot of trouble. Fact: Sunday, more than 90% of Kaep’s passing yards went to just three guys: Davis, Randy Moss, and Crabtree. Davis had been almost invisible up till then (he had as much reception yardage Sunday as in his previous seven games combined). Moss is not likely to get targeted more than 2-3 times a game. Manningham, of course, is out.
On the positive side, the offense has looked superb. Kaepernick showed again that he can win games without running. LaMichael James seems to have become the number two RB behind Gore, complementing Gore’s power with speed and elusiveness. Davis looked better than he has since last year, though Atlanta was known to be weak in covering TEs. And even Akers had one thing to be happy about: all five of his kickoffs went deep into the endzone.
Astonishing stat: the 49ers ran only 51 offensive plays, far below the NFL average, and far less than the number Atlanta ran. How could that happen? They only ran six in that atrocious first quarter, but even taking that into account, 51 is low. It seems they scored on big gains, so it didn’t take them many plays to get down the field. Kaep averaged more than 11 yards per pass attempt, and overall the team average was 7.5 YPP.
Can someone here explain to me how the scheduling of playoff games works? This question is prompted by several observations:
1) Last week’s divisional round featured two games on the east coast and two in the far West (Denver and SF). It would seem to me the best way to schedule these games would be to have one east game and one west game on each day. That way, each game could start at about the same local time, and yet, because of the difference in time zones, the games would not overlap. But the two east coast games were played on the same day, and the two west games on the same day. So they had to start at very different local times.
2) Both last weekend and this weekend there were games in New England and Atlanta on the same day. NE is very cold in January, Atlanta isn’t. Wouldn’t it make sense to have the NE game first, earlier in the day, when it isn’t as cold as it will be later? Yet both last week and this week, the Atlanta game was played first. Why? Don’t understand the logic here.
3) Green Bay won the wild card game on Sunday two weeks ago, but had to play the divisional game on Saturday of the following week. So they only got six days rest, instead of the full week. That doesn’t seem fair to me. Why not have the teams that win on Saturday play the following Saturday, and the teams that win on Sunday play the following Sunday?
4) There are also some inequalities in the championship round. The 49ers played last Saturday, while the Falcons played last Sunday, so the 49ers got an extra day of rest.
The issues raised in 3) and 4) could be avoided by having all the WC and divisional games for one conference played on the same day. E.g., the NFC WC and divisional games played on Saturday, and the AFC and WC games played on Sunday. You could still have both championship games on Sunday, with both NFC games getting eight days of rest instead of the usual seven.
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