Realistic Season Expectations

Originally posted by 190836:
I think we will start slow and pick up as the season advances. By week nine or ten we should see some signs of hope. 6-10 is my prediction.

to go 6-10 in a worthless, pointless season would be devestaing when Luck is on the board. But I somewhat agree, It's very obvious from the Saints game we are farther behind the curve then anyone of us imagined so it will be a slow start and get better as season goes but I think it'll end in 3-4 wins, not 6. I don't think we have the team to get the free wins sans the seahawks inter division that we typically get and I think out of division it'll be what it was for our division last year. Division teams looked like one thing vs each other, crap vs everyone else.

I think this season all bets are off, that Saints game reaffirmed one thing for me. Who in the world thought that Alex Smith, if he was capable of being sucessful in any system int he first place, could be sucessful in a west coast offense? He doesn't have the accuracy nor the vision to make the blitz killing throw, he never has....I understood the whole use him as a bridge qb to some extent but I think it would have served us better to pursue an Orton as a bridge qb. I'd give a 2nd round pick to get a year or two of leeway to develop/find our franchise qb

Originally posted by ssahnan:
to go 6-10 in a worthless, pointless season would be devestaing when Luck is on the board. But I somewhat agree, It's very obvious from the Saints game we are farther behind the curve then anyone of us imagined so it will be a slow start and get better as season goes but I think it'll end in 3-4 wins, not 6. I don't think we have the team to get the free wins sans the seahawks inter division that we typically get and I think out of division it'll be what it was for our division last year. Division teams looked like one thing vs each other, crap vs everyone else.

I think this season all bets are off, that Saints game reaffirmed one thing for me. Who in the world thought that Alex Smith, if he was capable of being sucessful in any system int he first place, could be sucessful in a west coast offense? He doesn't have the accuracy nor the vision to make the blitz killing throw, he never has....I understood the whole use him as a bridge qb to some extent but I think it would have served us better to pursue an Orton as a bridge qb. I'd give a 2nd round pick to get a year or two of leeway to develop/find our franchise qb

Not getting luck is not DEVASTATING, jeez the hype around that kid is ridiculous. He's good, ok, but he's not in the nfl the last I checked. If he kicks as much ass with half their o-line gone, and without harbaugh, then yes he could be the next peyton manning lol...Is it wrong that I actually hope his stock tanks just so ya'll can get off his nuts?

How do we not have the roster to get "free wins" like the seahawks games? What? Do you know who tarvaris jackson is? Miller and rice are not going to throw their own passes.We still have a better defense/pass rush, rushing game, and now without hasselbeck we even have a better passing game than them.

Alex smith had ONE WEEK of practice, come on of course he's going to look the same as the last 6 years! The fact that you point at the first preseason game, in which alex had exactly zero time to do anything, as an example..shows your baseless hatred for him.

Half of the team had 5-7 practices. We won't see much improvement until the third or fourth preseason game.

Originally posted by niner4life21:
Look, I know that you are one of the more intelligent posters in Niner Talk, but two people can both understand football, but they both don't have to agree on the same points. I've noticed that you and some other posters always single out people who criticize Alex as 'ignorant fans', people who have no knowledge of the game.

Just because I don't think he is a good QB does not mean I don't know anything about football. It's not as if the guy has lit up the league for the past years. No. He has played average football, at times absolutely terrible football, and other times solid and even great football.

So I'm guessing that every other sports analyst or person involved in the NFL who does not believe in Alex is also ignorant to the game of football? Didn't think so. People need to learn to respect other's opinions. And I will agree with you on one thing; the posters who are obnoxious and try to be funny with the constant 'Alex sucks' comments ARE ignorant and seriously need to either be warned or something. On the other hand, posters like me and others who state Alex 'sucks' but then proceed to back their argument up with facts and opinions DO have a knowledge of the game. Maybe our opinion does not match up with yours, but it does mean I don't know what the hell is going on on Sundays. It's not difficult to identify an overthrow or when a QB stares down his receiver. And just before anyone brings it up...I do not think that whatever happened on Friday night was Alex's fault, just the throws on which he missed his receiver, and also the countless other mistakes he has made in his time here.

Let me try and clarify this best I can. I do NOT think that everyone who suspects Alex of not having what it takes is ignorant or lacking football knowledge... even though I disagree with that view. I have always said that I am fine with people suspecting him of not having what it takes.

... but there IS a significant distinction between suspecting he doesn't have what it takes.... and outright claiming to know that he doesn't have what it takes.

I have always said that I believe he can be quite good if things like coaching and protection improve to an acceptable level. If someone disagrees with that, I don't haul off and insult. I have gotten nasty with those who use blatant crudeness, disrespect, and arrogant absolutes... and I'd never apologize for or feel wrong for doing that much.

Originally posted by mike:
Way to state the obvious on most of those teams lol. Skins, us, bills, raiders, bengals(dalton thrown to the wolves in a tough division), seahawks, maybe broncos(I say maybe because they have a lot of other needs and drafted tebow), dolphins.

I don't see any of the teams w/veterans going for him because they'll keep the rookie from starting and therefore busting- vikings have mcnabb so ponder won't get the chance to bust lol, gabbert won't start much over garrard, kolb may struggle but not enough for them to get luck, chicago will continue to stick with cutler.

So of those 7/8 teams, we're better than the skins(terrible team), raiders(now that they have no miller/asomugha), bengals(no palmer, no ocho/TO, no run game), seahawks(mediocre run game compared to gore, crap qb), we're even better than the broncos because their defense has always sucked. Dolphins are the only team really better than us on that list.

Realistically we have too much talent to end up with less than 6 wins.

Dude... we have Alex Smith!! I don't see 6 wins!! but I like your optimism!! as for the Skins.. I don't know if u watched, but they took it 99 yards down the Steelers D throat on the 1st drive of the game!! they wont be as bad as people think, but it is preseason I know!! so barring injuries and trades I only really worry about Mia, Oak, and Seattle getting Luck before us!!!

Originally posted by fortyniner52:

Originally posted by mike:
Way to state the obvious on most of those teams lol. Skins, us, bills, raiders, bengals(dalton thrown to the wolves in a tough division), seahawks, maybe broncos(I say maybe because they have a lot of other needs and drafted tebow), dolphins.

I don't see any of the teams w/veterans going for him because they'll keep the rookie from starting and therefore busting- vikings have mcnabb so ponder won't get the chance to bust lol, gabbert won't start much over garrard, kolb may struggle but not enough for them to get luck, chicago will continue to stick with cutler.

So of those 7/8 teams, we're better than the skins(terrible team), raiders(now that they have no miller/asomugha), bengals(no palmer, no ocho/TO, no run game), seahawks(mediocre run game compared to gore, crap qb), we're even better than the broncos because their defense has always sucked. Dolphins are the only team really better than us on that list.

Realistically we have too much talent to end up with less than 6 wins.

Dude... we have Alex Smith!! I don't see 6 wins!! but I like your optimism!! as for the Skins.. I don't know if u watched, but they took it 99 yards down the Steelers D throat on the 1st drive of the game!! they wont be as bad as people think, but it is preseason I know!! so barring injuries and trades I only really worry about Mia, Oak, and Seattle getting Luck before us!!!

not to mention its downright laughable to believe he and this team can master an offense that took 2 years for Montana and company to master in 2 weeks.

Originally posted by fortyniner52:
Dude... we have Alex Smith!! I don't see 6 wins!! but I like your optimism!! as for the Skins.. I don't know if u watched, but they took it 99 yards down the Steelers D throat on the 1st drive of the game!! they wont be as bad as people think, but it is preseason I know!! so barring injuries and trades I only really worry about Mia, Oak, and Seattle getting Luck before us!!!

We had alex smith and some other scrub qb's last year too, and dumbass singletary/raye lost us at least that one seahawks game at the beginning of the year with bad communication and generally horrible coaching decisions, we also lost gore toward the end of the year, and we still won 6 games. If alex didn't get hurt we would have beat the panthers too(david carr could do nothing against them and helped us lose the lead).

Even though it's a bit early to tell...we have what seems to be much more favorable first 6 games of this season. Even in this "waste" of a year, we have overall talent(gore, VD,willis, aldon, edwards,crab just off the top of my head) that many of those teams don't have.

With good coaching we'll do more with what we've got, I read today that the coach is already finding ways to make sure VD gets open quickly to counter those quick blitzes. It baffles me that a guy as talented as vernon davis couldn't do a proper quick slant route...

It is preseason, Grossman drove it 89 yards but didn't get a td out of it. Then scored later in the game against their 2nd string defense...David carr had 98 yds against the colts last year, nate davis had 114 vs the vikings, does it ever amount to anything in the regular season? Grossman is not better than alex smith. It helps that grossman didn't get sacked every 2 seconds too.

funny how u guys think. we got beat by the saints in a meaningless preseason game, game 1, the most meaningless one of the meaningless preseason games and were gonna suck this year. if we smash the raiders this week everyones gonna be talking about high hopes again. ill wait til games actually matter to get upset about something. we should know what kind of team we have by about week 4 of the regular season. chill out

Originally posted by hondakillerzx:
funny how u guys think. we got beat by the saints in a meaningless preseason game, game 1, the most meaningless one of the meaningless preseason games and were gonna suck this year. if we smash the raiders this week everyones gonna be talking about high hopes again. ill wait til games actually matter to get upset about something. we should know what kind of team we have by about week 4 of the regular season. chill out

Thank you.

Originally posted by hondakillerzx:
funny how u guys think. we got beat by the saints in a meaningless preseason game, game 1, the most meaningless one of the meaningless preseason games and were gonna suck this year. if we smash the raiders this week everyones gonna be talking about high hopes again. ill wait til games actually matter to get upset about something. we should know what kind of team we have by about week 4 of the regular season. chill out

Yeah that has been funny, I think most of those people didn't think highly of alex/the team to begin with so when they improve very little after some guys only get 1 week of practice...they get right back to whining.

There's a good chance we spank the texans in a few weeks too, schaub will score then they'll bench him+their new CB Joseph, and kaepernick will lead a comeback against the 2nd string of the worst pass defense in the league lol. Maybe even winning the starting job? The vikings game will be good with ponder vs kaep though.

Originally posted by mike:

Originally posted by hondakillerzx:
funny how u guys think. we got beat by the saints in a meaningless preseason game, game 1, the most meaningless one of the meaningless preseason games and were gonna suck this year. if we smash the raiders this week everyones gonna be talking about high hopes again. ill wait til games actually matter to get upset about something. we should know what kind of team we have by about week 4 of the regular season. chill out

Yeah that has been funny, I think most of those people didn't think highly of alex/the team to begin with so when they improve very little after some guys only get 1 week of practice...they get right back to whining.

There's a good chance we spank the texans in a few weeks too, schaub will score then they'll bench him+their new CB Joseph, and kaepernick will lead a comeback against the 2nd string of the worst pass defense in the league lol. Maybe even winning the starting job? The vikings game will be good with ponder vs kaep though.

i just think its a little ridiculous to be so upset over one preseason loss lol. its like they dont even watch football or know anything about it. how many years did we win more preseason games than we lost and how did those seasons turn out? i hope we get spanked in every preseason game, dont have any injuries and come out and shut everyone up when we tear the seahawks wings off in week 1.

Originally posted by hondakillerzx:
i just think its a little ridiculous to be so upset over one preseason loss lol. its like they dont even watch football or know anything about it. how many years did we win more preseason games than we lost and how did those seasons turn out? i hope we get spanked in every preseason game, dont have any injuries and come out and shut everyone up when we tear the seahawks wings off in week 1.

Yeah and considering harbaugh seems to be doing the "vanilla offense" as one of the CBS commentators called it, and fangio is also "hiding his cards" by not putting hardly any pressure on preseason offenses, it's really no surprise that we're not dominating. A lot of the stuff they're learning in practice isn't even being applied because it would give away the surprise. I want carroll s**tting his pants with the crazy pressure we put on them in week 1.

Anyway, to go off of what you said:
SF- 4-0
Oakland-3-1(only lost to us)
Arizona- 3-1
St louis- 3-1

Superbowl winners, green bay, went 2-2.

Then again, there are cases where crappy teams just start out crappy too, carolina panthers going 1-3 in preseason last year. But you're right these games are simply pointless to make a fuss about losing. It's what they do after each loss to get better that matters.

haven't read through the previous posts on this thread...but realistically I think with basically Singletary's team with a somewhat re-tooled secondary, if we play to the best of the team that we currently have we can go 7-9

Originally posted by Young2Rice:
"Look, Harbaugh already explained to the ignorant people (not naming you) that our QBs were essentially unable to show what they can do due to other aspects of football."


Ok? I know that.


"Is he a "guru" ? Most sure felt so months back. Is he more of a guru than you or I ? ... Yeah... I think it's safe to say."
Ok he knows more about QBs then me.


"Just try to stop using every little flaw as if it's clear evidence that your opinion is gold."


Ok. Should i use everyone elses little flaw as clear evidence that A.Smith deserves another chance? Oline, in game adjustments, bad WR, bad coordinators, bad owners, bad this and bad that bad fans
How do you want me to evaluate this dude? Based on his play or based on everyone else around him screwing him up? Thats not a good way to look at it. He looks the same as he always has, QB guru or not. BAD

Oh now i'm such a bad fan and i don't know anything about football because i don't beleive in A.Smith. This is the rebuttal of AleX smith fans.

"You don't know anything abotu football."
"Its the OL, coaches, WRs, coordinators, his age, blah blah excuse after excuse after excuse."

You judge a player on their play, within the context of the game or scrimmage. If Smith sat on the bench all evening would you be able to say he was terrible because he didn't make any plays? No. You would say he can't be judged until he has a chance to demonstrate, conclusively, his ability to master this offense. He has had a week of camp and you are ready to make the call? I know you think he is doing the same thing as past years...and why wouldn't he with only one week of camp?

Harbaugh stopped practice today to show VD how to run his slant pattern to thwart a blitz. He spent five minutes going over and over what VD should do while other receivers and QBs watched. This attention to detail has probably been absent the 9er training camp since Turner left. Can you agree that, given this coaching, Smith might make some improvement each week and that if he does perhaps your opinion of him will change? I can certainly say that if he does not improve he will be working himself out of a job and that will be OK by me.

Originally posted by mike:

Originally posted by ssahnan:
to go 6-10 in a worthless, pointless season would be devestaing when Luck is on the board. But I somewhat agree, It's very obvious from the Saints game we are farther behind the curve then anyone of us imagined so it will be a slow start and get better as season goes but I think it'll end in 3-4 wins, not 6. I don't think we have the team to get the free wins sans the seahawks inter division that we typically get and I think out of division it'll be what it was for our division last year. Division teams looked like one thing vs each other, crap vs everyone else.

I think this season all bets are off, that Saints game reaffirmed one thing for me. Who in the world thought that Alex Smith, if he was capable of being sucessful in any system int he first place, could be sucessful in a west coast offense? He doesn't have the accuracy nor the vision to make the blitz killing throw, he never has....I understood the whole use him as a bridge qb to some extent but I think it would have served us better to pursue an Orton as a bridge qb. I'd give a 2nd round pick to get a year or two of leeway to develop/find our franchise qb

Not getting luck is not DEVASTATING, jeez the hype around that kid is ridiculous. He's good, ok, but he's not in the nfl the last I checked. If he kicks as much ass with half their o-line gone, and without harbaugh, then yes he could be the next peyton manning lol...Is it wrong that I actually hope his stock tanks just so ya'll can get off his nuts?

How do we not have the roster to get "free wins" like the seahawks games? What? Do you know who tarvaris jackson is? Miller and rice are not going to throw their own passes.We still have a better defense/pass rush, rushing game, and now without hasselbeck we even have a better passing game than them.

Alex smith had ONE WEEK of practice, come on of course he's going to look the same as the last 6 years! The fact that you point at the first preseason game, in which alex had exactly zero time to do anything, as an example..shows your baseless hatred for him.

All this Andrew Luck talk would not even exist if we didn't have Harbaugh. I would love to have him, and think the chances of him doing well in the NFL with Harbaugh are pretty good, but if we hired a different head coach... Belicheck, Fisher, Cowher, etc. people would not be clammoring for Luck like they are.