National Football League

[Alpe d'Huez]

49er legend John Brodie has passed away, at the ripe old age of 90. I don't remember him playing, as much as hearing about him, how he was The Man™ in SF for many years. Then a revolving door of guys until Montana came along.

John Brodie, legendary 49ers QB and 1970 NFL MVP, dies at 90

 

[movingtarget]

Well, I guess Dobbins isn't playing after all (he did return to practice this week from IR). As I mentioned their running game diminished significantly when he went down & Harvey & Co couldn't pick up the slack. No running game is going to put more pressure on Stidham. OTOH, the Patriots come in with the the 6th best rushing attack led by impressive rookie TreVeyon Henderson.

Yeah and Raimondre Stevenson had a bad run of the fumbles previously but is playing well at the moment

 

[movingtarget]

NFL Divisional Round averages 39.2 million viewers, second-highest on record

 

[movingtarget]

Rams defense looking forward to flashing 'receiver skills' vs. Sam Darnold, Seahawks

 

[Alpe d'Huez]

That's a good article, and why I pointed out earlier just not turning the ball over may help Sam "lead" the Seahawks to victory. They also twice fell behind the Rams early in both games this year, and it took their defense almost a full half in both games to get pressure on Stafford, which pushed Sam into heroics. One game he almost pulled a win out anyway, the other he actually did.

I think Schula's plan is sound, to rattle Sam. If the Rams can get ahead early (again), and keep the game close as it goes on, that is their best chance. If they can protect Stafford in 4Q, he can win the game for them. But Seattle also absolutely has the ability to make that very hard for the Rams to do.

I would encourage anyone to at least watch the highlights on YouTube of both games the played this year (link to first game here, in LA. Second game, in Seattle). If you have an NFL+ account, you can watch the entire condensed games (or the full broadcast). Both games were close, tough. There's a reason both are here in the NFL championship.