Fallacy of lack speed reciever and loss to Seahawks

Originally posted by crake49:
I guess I'm a little confused here. Seattle is the defending champion, right? Isn't the team supposed to be obsessed with beating the best so they can be the best? The Niners and their fans used to be obsessed with the Cowboys. Back in the day, for 20 years, we were obsessed with the Rams. That's what happens when a team is beating the Niners and preventing them from going all the way. Right now, it's the Seahawks. They deserve respect. Why pretend they're not the biggest challenge facing the team?

1. It's a parity league thanks to the salary cap, so the odds that Seattle remains THE BEST team in the league over the next five years are slim.

2. It's not a fact of life that we have to beat Seattle in the playoffs to win a Super Bowl. Another team could easily knock them out. So pretending the Hawks are THE SOLE FOCUS OF EVERYTHING 49ERS-RELATED is dumb and short-sighted.

3. The Packers & Saints have shown they are worth equal attention.

4. The NFL is a "next-week, next-opponent" business, and the 49ers are trying to get better period.

5. Seattle has only had two good seasons, which is nice and all, but to pretend they are DOMINATING THE LEAGUE AND CANNOT BE STOPPED? Again, there will be regression to the mean.

Originally posted by CWin4949:

Originally posted by crake49:
Why pretend they're not the biggest challenge facing the team?

Because going into this season, they aren't the biggest challenge.

So, the current NFL champions are NOT the biggest challenge even though they're in our own division and the Niners play them twice. If they're not, what is?

speed is important but i think a receiver who can get open is the bottom line. crabs, boldin and now stevie johnson give us 3 bonafide WRs who can get open when we need them to be. running good routes is THE most important trait a receiver can have besides being able to catch obviously. there are track star types all over the nfl that cant get open in the nfl

Originally posted by NickSh49:
1. It's a parity league thanks to the salary cap, so the odds that Seattle remains THE BEST team in the league over the next five years are slim.

2. It's not a fact of life that we have to beat Seattle in the playoffs to win a Super Bowl. Another team could easily knock them out. So pretending the Hawks are THE SOLE FOCUS OF EVERYTHING 49ERS-RELATED is dumb and short-sighted.

3. The Packers & Saints have shown they are worth equal attention.

4. The NFL is a "next-week, next-opponent" business, and the 49ers are trying to get better period.

5. Seattle has only had two good seasons, which is nice and all, but to pretend they are DOMINATING THE LEAGUE AND CANNOT BE STOPPED? Again, there will be regression to the mean.

I'm certainly not pretending that they're "the sole focus." They are simply the #1 challenge on a list of quite a few other challenges IMO. I can't even imagine why some of you guys are acting like this isn't the case. They won the division. They won the Super Bowl. So, by definition, they are number one on the list of challenges. And yes, of course the list includes the other two teams in the division, the Saints, the Packers and a few other teams. So what?

Originally posted by crake49:

Originally posted by CWin4949:

Originally posted by crake49:

Why pretend they're not the biggest challenge facing the team?

Because going into this season, they aren't the biggest challenge.

So, the current NFL champions are NOT the biggest challenge even though they're in our own division and the Niners play them twice. If they're not, what is?

Was Baltimore the biggest challenge just because they win the Super Bowl the prior year??

In the NFC Seattle is obviously a huge challenge, more so if we would have been 0-3 against them last year, but we weren't. We should have been 2-1 at worst. I know, woulda, coulda, shoulda.

This year with the way the schedule fell, we may have 2-3 game lead in the Div before we even play them and if we get a win in SC, then heck no they won't be our biggest challenge.

I can sea StL and AZ both posing huge challenges for us this year and every team on Seattle's schedule is going to be playing them like its the Super Bowl.

New Orleans ain't gonna be no joke either and GB will be right atop the Conference too.

Two things can be equally true...all of the points the OP listed, AND the fact that we needed a vertical threat against that defense. But this isn't just a need against Seattle, but against most teams who are content to stack the box and dare us to beat their man-coverage deep.

Originally posted by CWin4949:
Was Baltimore the biggest challenge just because they win the Super Bowl the prior year??

In the NFC Seattle is obviously a huge challenge, more so if we would have been 0-3 against them last year, but we weren't. We should have been 2-1 at worst. I know, woulda, coulda, shoulda.

This year with the way the schedule fell, we may have 2-3 game lead in the Div before we even play them and if we get a win in SC, then heck no they won't be our biggest challenge.

I can sea StL and AZ both posing huge challenges for us this year and every team on Seattle's schedule is going to be playing them like its the Super Bowl.

New Orleans ain't gonna be no joke either and GB will be right atop the Conference too.

No, the Ravens were not. As Walsh used to say, the first and biggest challenge is the division. The current champions also happen to be the Division winners. I'm not arguing that the Cards and Rams as well as the Packers and Saints aren't challenges. I'm just saying there's a list of challenges. The list I would make would be like this:

1. Seahawks
2. Cardinals
3. Rams
4. Saints
5. Packers
6. pick em - a bunch of others

I'm not disagreeing with your basic premise. On a very fundamental level, the current biggest challenge is the Dallas Cowboys. They're the first game.

Originally posted by GhostofFredDean74:
Two things can be equally true...all of the points the OP listed, AND the fact that we needed a vertical threat against that defense. But this isn't just a need against Seattle, but against most teams who are content to stack the box and dare us to beat their man-coverage deep.

Yes. Thank you. It's really the only thing missing from the Niner offense. Maybe Bruce Ellington will be the guy.

Originally posted by GhostofFredDean74:
Two things can be equally true...all of the points the OP listed, AND the fact that we needed a vertical threat against that defense. But this isn't just a need against Seattle, but against most teams who are content to stack the box and dare us to beat their man-coverage deep.

This. People are misconstruing the argument, even by accident or intentionally, to make it sound like this is all about Seattle when countless teams played the 49ers the same way. Stack the box, beat us downfield if you can, then they focus on locking down V.D., the only real deep threat and will count on the 49ers not being able to continually dink and dunk it down the field with Kaepernick to stop the offense.


A true vertical threat changes that entire equation, now not only do you have V.D. to worry about, you have a WR that could take it to the house on you at pretty much any time and you need to adjust your coverage necessarily which means you could see a safety dropping back to help out, this opens things up for the run game and really helps to keep the defense on their toes.

Originally posted by crake49:

No, the Ravens were not. As Walsh used to say, the first and biggest challenge is the division. The current champions also happen to be the Division winners. I'm not arguing that the Cards and Rams as well as the Packers and Saints aren't challenges. I'm just saying there's a list of challenges. The list I would make would be like this:

1. Seahawks
2. Cardinals
3. Rams
4. Saints
5. Packers
6. pick em - a bunch of others

I'm not disagreeing with your basic premise. On a very fundamental level, the current biggest challenge is the Dallas Cowboys. They're the first game.

I think Seattle will fall off this year, just like ATL fell off last year. They accomplished what they needed to, their star players in the secondary hot their huge pay days, they will play hard, but complacency will eventually set in. Yes they will be there in the end, but all three other teams in the Division will stay hungry and push forward with more urgency.

I'd put AZ/StL #1 and NO/GB #2 and Seattle # 3

ATL will be in the mix this year too.

Flame away, but Seattle doesn't scare me at all and honestly, I think when we finally play them on thanksgiving, the Div race will be against AZ and StL.

misdirection is the key. this year we have 4 true receiving threats in crabs, boldin, johnson and vd that scare the s**t out of defenses. we wont be as predictable this year if greg roman realizes that we are stacked on offense

Originally posted by hondakillerzx:

misdirection is the key. this year we have 4 true receiving threats in crabs, boldin, johnson and vd that scare the s**t out of defenses. we wont be as predictable this year if greg roman realizes that we are stacked on offense

Bolded and underlined...

Key!

- 98

Originally posted by hondakillerzx:
speed is important but i think a receiver who can get open is the bottom line. crabs, boldin and now stevie johnson give us 3 bonafide WRs who can get open when we need them to be. running good routes is THE most important trait a receiver can have besides being able to catch obviously. there are track star types all over the nfl that cant get open in the nfl

This, right here. Well said. It is the receiver that can get open that stretches the field, not necessarily the speed guys. We had Ginn, as fast as your gonna get, but how much did he really stretch the defense? Then you look at Jerry Rice, who was no where near as fast, but he put pressure on defenses all day long, because the man new how to get open.

One of the main reasons the 49ers couldn't run against the Seahawks was Red Bryant. He is immovable, and moved well along the line. I watch the 49er-Seahawks games several times after they're played and there was no answer for this guy. I watched a replay of the Hawks-Panthers game last year and Carolina ran effectively without Newton carrying the load. Watch this season, with Bryant gone, how the lanes open up when Seattle stacks the box. Running the ball will open up the deep passing game.

1. 13th man helped them out quite a bit.

2. Play calling had something to do with it.

3. Kap went on a charity event in just a few minutes.