Piling up a bunch of wins against "great teams" is just about impossible in the NFL [see blurb below]. That means that you must take a look at each performance and gauge your team. In the Niners case...they have performed better against the opponents they've had in common with the Panthers. They are also adding valued pieces to their roster, had an extra week of rest and an extra week to game-plan.
I see two potential outcomes.
1) Close game that the Niners win.
2) Blow-out game that the Niners win thereby showing the Panthers to be paper tigers.
- - - - - - - - - - - -
Undefeated Kansas City and stats-a-palooza Denver each have only one victory over a team with a winning record, in both cases shaky 5-4 Dallas. Cincinnati has a quality win over New England, but also three losses; Chicago 2-3 against +.500 teams; Green Bay is 1-3 against other winning teams; Detroit 2-2 against other winning teams. Seattle beat the 49ers but lost to Indianapolis, making the Seahawks 1-1 in authentic games. San Francisco 1-2 against top teams. New England has just one quality victory, over New Orleans, which in turn has just one victory over a winning team. For authentic accomplishments, so far Indianapolis is tops with a 4-1 record vs +.500 record.
[ Edited by Mankster on Nov 5, 2013 at 12:26 PM ]