Super Bowl XLVII: San Francisco 49ers

Super Bowl Sunday Countdown: 5 Days

The 49ers have appeared in two consecutive NFC title games, but make
their first Super Bowl appearance in 18 years on Sunday. They beat the
San Diego Chargers in Super Bowl XXIX. Photo credit to NFL Network.

It is both exciting and depressing that the week of the Super Bowl is now upon us. There is so much anticipation leading up to the main event, but well before midnight on Sunday, the 2012 season will be over.

It hasn’t felt like a long season, but this 49ers team is more than just a culmination of the past six months. When Jim Harbaugh was hired as San Francisco’s head coach during the 2011 offseason, nobody knew what to expect. Few, if any, expected that he would turn this franchise around and bring it back to the sport’s biggest stage. Even fewer, maybe nobody, expected it to happen so soon.

I still remember how the 2011 season began for the 49ers. I may be a little hazy on which team they were playing, though I’m fairly certain that it was Seattle, but Ted Ginn Jr. returned a kickoff and a punt for touchdowns in the final minutes of the game to carry the 49ers to victory.

It was a fluke as far as the experts were concerned. I certainly didn’t think much of it. But they kept finding ways to win. They won close games, they won in blowouts – most of you may not remember the Tampa Bay game from last year – it didn’t matter how they had to win; they won.

Yet, after losing just three games all season, when we reached the playoffs, nobody expected they could outrun the Saints if it turned into a shootout. They hadn’t beaten a team with a high-octane offense like that of New Orleans all season. Sure enough, the game turned into a shootout. The winner, however, was not the team many of us expected, as Alex Smith and Vernon Davis became Steve Young and Terrell Owens.

The party ended the following week, as errors haunted the team and the Giants advanced to Super Bowl XLVI.

This past offseason, Jim Harbaugh schooled his team in preparation. He never wanted his team to find itself in a close game and let it slip away from them. They had some rough games this season, more than they did in 2011, but to their credit every time they lost a game, they came back the next week with a big win, and they only lost one close game.

This week, though, if they lose, there is no ‘next week’ where they can go out and win a game and make a statement. This is the last game of the season. They won’t play another game that matters until September, and that won’t be counted as a part of this team’s accomplishments.

Many of these players came to San Francisco before Jim Harbaugh took over. He has transformed this team and this Sunday they will attempt to tie Pittsburgh as the owners of the most Vince Lombardi Trophies in the NFL. They also look to keep their perfect 5-0 Super Bowl record intact.

Baltimore, meanwhile, will look to duplicate what it did on Thanksgiving night in 2011. This is a different 49ers team than it was then; perhaps more vulnerable in some ways, but also much more explosive since the move from Alex Smith to Colin Kaepernick. This team may have been ready for the Super Bowl last year, but the second year has prepared them even more. Few teams get two years of steady building toward this game. This team did, and they’ve used these two years well.

Tomorrow I will profile the Baltimore Ravens and will continue my Super Bowl XLVII coverage all the way through to Sunday, when I will make my official prediction by noon. For links to new blog posts as they are published, ‘like’ my blog’s Facebook page and follow me on Twitter, @cpuffnfl.

Monday Night Football Afterword: Jets vs Texans

Houston DE J.J. Watt showed up huge on National TV
in the Texans 23-17 win over the Jets.

Unfortunately, my attention was slightly divided between this game and Game 2 of the Yankees/Orioles ALDS last night. I know my focus needs to be football, and it really should be, but I have to will my Yankees to victory!

Tim Tebow got to throw one pass last night, and it was actually a pretty nice throw, but it was dropped. Mark Sanchez looked okay at times, but 14/31 if a pitiful completion percentage; pitiful, yet on par with his season to this point.

Matt Schaub didn’t look great last night, but he didn’t have to be on point. He got his team out to an early lead and the defense did the rest. J.J. Watt is a top 3 defensive end in the National Football League, and if he wasn’t considered that before, he certainly ought to now.

The Houston Texans improved to 5-0 with their surprising close, 23-17 win over the Jets. It is tough to see them having a prayer at 16-0 this season, especially with today’s news that Brian Cushing will miss the rest of 2012 with a torn ACL in his left knee. But they Texans joined the Falcons in accomplishing something neither of their franchises have ever had: a 5-0 start to a regular season.

The Jets meanwhile fall to 2-3. They are still in the hunt in the AFC East, but with the Patriots hitting their stride and Miami improving with their rookie quarterback every week, it will be near impossible with Revis and Holmes both out.

But don’t fret just yet Jets fans (try reading that quickly five times), there’s word on the street that Terrell Owens is interested in signing with you guys!

2012 Preseason Week 1 Update

During the six months I took off from writing this blog I have been thinking of what I can do differently this year, or at least of something extra I can do with my blog. What I came up with is a weekly post, to be published every Wednesday, which outlines the top 10 most important things I believe you need to know heading into the upcoming week.

Some of these things could be news updates from around the league that I found interesting; some may be what to look out for during the upcoming week’s games. I may even included fantasy alerts, such as players who had breakout games the previous week who I think could have repeat performances, or who were one hit wonders, as well as other players who seemed to under-perform but could be poised to break out in the upcoming week. Just stay tuned to see what I include each week.

I would like to start today to get a feel for how I want to do this, and so you all can get an idea of whether this is a weekly post you think it is worth it for me to continue to write. I will only have five topics for this week.

5 Things You Need to Know

5.            Fantasy Football 2012

I’ll go ahead and start with a fantasy update, even though it doesn’t really mean much yet. The season is coming up soon and even though most drafts will not take place until near the end of the preseason, the next four weeks are an excellent opportunity to keep an eye on which players could do as well as they did last year and which ones may not perform up to the same level. Also keep a close eye on injuries to impact players that could hamper them all season so you know to avoid them during your league’s draft.

4.            Andrew Luck, Robert Griffin III set for NFL debuts

Luck and Griffin III will get national spotlight attention as a part of the NFL for the first time since the 2012 NFL Draft. We can assume they will each get to play a couple series in their teams’ preseason openers.

The Redskins play in Buffalo Thursday at 7 p.m. The nation will get its first view of what RGIII can do against an NFL defense. We will also see whether Rex Grossman has made any improvement over the offseason and what kind of quarterback Kirk Cousins really is (everything I have heard is that he could be the next Matt Flynn, not that we know for sure what that means yet).

The Colts play their preseason opener at home against the Rams Sunday at 1:30 p.m. In addition to Luck, Colts fans hope to see a backup quarterback who the team can actually rely on if the need should present itself, as opposed to no one of note backing up Peyton Manning for the past decade.

3.            Green Bay Packers injury concerns

The Packers are in the news for two reasons this week. The concerning one is their injury situation. They will sit 11 players from their game in San Diego on Thursday, including Greg Jennings. None of the injuries seem to be particularly severe, but so many injuries before they’ve even played a game against another team has to have the team a little nervous heading into the season. It certainly makes me a bit nervous about my pick to have them in the Super Bowl.

2.            T.O. in Seattle

He still has to get through the preseason before he makes the final roster, but Terrell Owens is back in the NFL thanks to Pete Carroll and the Seattle Seahawks. With reports coming out of Seattle that Matt Flynn has been doing very well, could Owens be just what the ‘Hawks need to make a push for a wild-card spot this postseason? I’m not convinced that Randy Moss will make a huge impact for the 49ers this year, so I’m definitely not feeling that T.O. will make too much noise in Seattle; but you never know until the season gets underway.

1.            First woman on the field during an NFL Game

Shannon Eastin will make history as the first woman to officiate an NFL game by doing so when the Packers take on the San Diego Chargers this Thursday evening. She will serve as the line judge for the game, which makes me slightly less nervous than I was to begin with, but my nervousness was for nothing as it was. Eastin is a six-time national judo champion who began training at the US Olympic Training Center when she was 11 years old, making her the youngest person to do so. She has also been a football official for nearly two decades, most recently in the MEAC, an FCS collegiate football division. The Green Bay/San Diego game will be on national television, and I will be flipping between that and the Redskins game Thursday night.

Hopefully this sort of post is worth writing. Any suggestions, either on how to improve this or even of better ideas for me to try out, are always welcome. Also, if you like the content I have in my blog posts, please help give my blog more attention by sharing posts on Facebook, or by ‘liking’ my blog’s Facebook page and suggesting the page to your friends as well. You can also follow me on Twitter, @PuffontheNFL. Enjoy the first week of the preseason. I will be back with another post soon, most likely next Tuesday, the day after the final game of the week.