While I did predict a Niners’ win, I definitely didn’t expect it to happen like this. San Francisco took advantage of Seattle QB Matt Hasselbeck’s many turnovers, with Alex Smith and the offense doing just enough to put points on the board while benefiting from an often shorter field for them to play with. While winning is great and keeps the team in the playoff race with only 3 games to go, there are still many questions that remain for this underachieving 49er team.

• Was Alex Smith a difference maker in the game, or would Troy Smith have done just as well, if not better? The answer to this was unclear throughout the course of the game, and I’m not sure if there will be a definitive response any time soon. A. Smith made some fairly poor and inaccurate passes, but the playbook did seem expanded with him under center, which may have led to the offensive outburst.
• Was the result indicative of an improved and overpowering San Francisco team, or was it because the Seahawks came unprepared and were outmatched throughout the game? While the Niners obviously played better than in the season opener against the same team, I don’t know if they’re good enough to beat the streaking Chargers next Thursday. I feel like the outcome was a combination of the fact that S.F. came prepared and motivated and the Seahawks were either fatigued or took the 49ers lightly during the week leading up to the game.
• Is this San Francisco team good enough to make the playoffs? This question is probably the most important out of the three, but surprisingly, the easiest for me to answer. Without a doubt, the 49ers are a playoff quality team. They definitely have the talent and at times will dominate their opponent. The keywords there are “at times,” which has been the achilles heel for S.F. all season. They have just been too inconsistent and haven’t adjusted quickly enough to put themselves in a good position to make the playoffs.

 So while this team is good enough on paper to make the playoffs, and they just might if they beat San Diego, the real question is do they deserve to make the postseason with the way they’ve played this year? Fortunately, automatic playoff berths don’t factor in if a team should or should not earn the seed, so we might see the 49ers going into Week 17 just needing to defeat the last place Cardinals to win the NFC West and in turn, heading to the playoffs for the first time since 2002. It should be exciting. 

I haven’t done too well so far this season, so maybe posting them here will give me some additional luck. 

San Francisco at Kansas City-San Francisco. Tough loss against the Saints, but Alex Smith finally stepped up when he needed to. The Chiefs strength is their running game, which matches up nicely for the Niners. K.C. will need to use their advantage on Special Teams, as Dexter McCluster is very explosive, and SF could have a lot of trouble covering him. 

Detroit at Minnesota-Minnesota. Favre came back to start the season 0-2? His 4 interceptions aren’t helping either. This is a must win game for them. For Detroit, losing Stafford hurt, but Shaun Hill isn’t exactly terrible. Jahvid Best had an amazing game last week, and he’ll have to do it again for the Lions to pull out a win.

Buffalo at New England-New England. If your team goes with Ryan Fitzpatrick at QB to create a “spark”, you’re in trouble. The Pats should take care of the Bills rather easily. 

Atlanta at New Orleans-New Orleans. The Saints are off to a good start, and Brees looks just like he did last season. Atlanta gets Michael Turner back this week, and they should make it close. Home field advantage for the Saints will be too much for the Falcons to overcome.  

Tennessee at NY Giants-Tennessee. Titans have Chris Johnson. Giants have allowed 249 yards on the ground in 2 weeks. Despite CJ2K having an off week against the Steelers, he should rebound and lead the Titans to victory. Watch to see how Vince Young plays after getting benched last week.

Pittsburgh at Tampa Bay-Pittsburgh. Think about how good the Steelers will be once Ben Roethlisberger comes back. Charlie Batch will start for them at quarterback with Dennis Dixon out with an injury. The Bucs are a surprising 2-0, but this will be their toughest test yet. 

Cincinnati at Carolina-Cincinnati. Carolina is switching to rookie QB Jimmy Clausen, a second round pick out of Notre Dame. This does not look hopeful for the Panthers. The Bengals shouldn’t have much trouble as long as they force Carolina to pass early and often.

Cleveland at Baltimore-Baltimore. Joe Flacco proved me wrong last week, but like Matthew Berry, I’m sticking with him and I think he’ll have a strong week, along with Ray Rice. The Browns haven’t been terrible; they’ve only lost by a combined 5 points in their first two games.

Dallas at Houston-Houston. This is, in my opinion, the biggest game of the week. If the Texans can start out 3-0, they’re on the road to making the playoffs for the first time and gives their fans a reason to be excited. For the Cowboys, Jerry Jones will not put up finishing Week 3 without a win. Just like the Vikings, if they want to make the playoffs, Dallas better pick it up now, or else there’s going to be a lot of questions going into the offseason. 

Philadelphia at Jacksonville-Philadelphia. Michael Vick has been named the starter for the Eagles, and I don’t expect him to disappoint. Should be an easy win.

Washington at St. Louis-Washington. Donavon McNabb is showing why the Redskins traded for him. The Rams, are well, the Rams. Shouldn’t be a contest.

Indianapolis at Denver-Indianapolis. Indy came back strong as Manning defeated Manning and showed why they are a perennial playoff team. The Broncos have been surprising, and Kyle Orton has done a good job managing games. Denver lost 2^nd year WR Kenny McKinely this week, and it’ll be interesting to see if that distracts or motivates the Broncos. Could be an exciting and emotional game.

Oakland at Arizona-Oakland. Arizona got killed last week against the Falcons, and there hasn’t been much to be excited about in Phoenix. Oakland is going with Bruce Gradkowski over Jason Campbell to start at quarterback this week. He’s been the only QB who could really get the Raiders offense going back to last season. Darren McFadden looks to be the real deal; he had 30 carries for 145 yards last week.  

San Diego at Seattle-San Diego. The Chargers beat the inferior Jaguars last week, and shouldn’t have trouble against the ‘Hawks either. Seattle has yet to establish any consistent running game, and it’s only a matter of time until Matt Hasselbeck gets banged up.

NY Jets at Miami-NYJ. HC Eric Mangini called out his team on Wednesday, telling the players to stop embarrassing the franchise. Losing CB Darrelle Revis for at least this week’s game will hurt, and wide receiver Braylon Edwards is dealing with a DUI arrest. Can they get past the distractions? 

Monday September 27

Green Bay at Chicago-Green Bay. Jay Cutler has been great so far this year, but Aaron Rodgers isn’t too shabby either. Both teams lack a strong running game, so whoever keeps control of the ball should win this game. The Packers defense, led by LB Clay Matthews who has 6 sacks so far, is just too good for the Bears to overcome.

Feel free to criticize and disagree with my picks. I’m no expert, I’m just trying to not to embarrass myself.

Quick look around sports headlines…

Philadelphia Eagles Head Coach Andy Reid announced that Michael Vick will be their starting quarterback going forward, not just for this week. There were reports that Reid had said on Monday that Kolb would start, but he only said Kolb was cleared to practice and that they would see how it goes. Vick got his first start since 2006, as he missed two seasons while serving a sentence for dog fighting, and spending last year as a backup behind Donovan McNabb, who was traded to the Washington Redskins. So far in 2010, Vick has thrown for 459 yards and three touchdowns, as well as having 140 yards rushing. 

Colorado Rockies shortstop Troy Tulowitzki became just the third player in MLB history to hit 14 home runs in a 15 day span. He also has 34 rbis so far in September. Tulo has been the main force behind the Rockies run at the playoffs, as they are only 1.5 games back going into Tuesday’s contests. 

Sad news out of Denver: 2nd year Broncos WR Kenny McKinley was found dead in his apartment on Monday. It appears to have been suicide, which comes as a shock to the Broncos staff and players, and they hadn’t noticed anything that would suggest McKinley taking such actions. Thoughts and prayers go out to his family and friends. 

Tomorrow I’ll be putting up my picks for this week’s NFL games, and sometime this weekend I will briefly look into the A’s offseason.

-K.A.

First off, it’s been a really long time. Oops. Well here’s to an effort to restart. 

This isn’t going to be a recap post, to be honest I don’t think I could put myself through that. Instead, this is going to be a quick response to the game overall, and then a look into the what the future has in store for SF.

To put it simply, the 49ers were really frustrating throughout the whole game. They were terrible the first few minutes, mostly from a bad snap resulting in a safety, and an ensuing Saints score, and then came back with two unanswered touchdowns to take the lead. New Orleans responded with 13 points, and the Niners kept on turning the ball over, finishing with four turnovers on the night. While Alex Smith’s two interceptions were off of tipped balls, they were huge momentum killers and they definitely hurt in the end.

Smith recovered beautifully and really delivered, to me, the most promising performance of the whole night. He marched the team right down the field for a touchdown that setup the game tying two point conversion. It was great to see Smith finally take control of the offense as his passes to Vernon Davis and Josh Morgan were thrown beautifully, as well as his two scrambles for first downs kept the drive alive. I’m really hopeful for this sort of effort to continue over the season, and that he ends up being the franchise QB the 49ers need. 

Despite all this, Drew Brees took the ball and lead the Saints to a game winning field goal, which was tipped by the Niners’ D-Line, but not enough, of course. That definitely hurt, and it was eerily similar to last year’s game against Minnesota, but it shows just how close the 49ers are to being a top team. They face the Chiefs and the Falcons the next two weeks, which are both winnable games. The key will be limiting careless turnovers, fine tuning special teams, and getting Michael Crabtree and Davis more involved.

The 49ers are lucky to be in a weak division, and they must take advantage of it if they want to make the playoffs. If Smith can step up and manage games like he did in the last three quarters today, there’s hope for the team still. He doesn’t have to be elite, but with the Niners’ defense and the offensive weapons they possess, he just needs to make smart decisions and come up with big plays when needed in order for this team to win. 

-K.A.

Not too much happened today, especially compared to yesterday, but here’s some noteworthy stuff:

• As expected, John Wall was taken first overall in the NBA draft, with Evan Turner and Derrick Favors rounding out the top three. The Golden State Warriors took Baylor forward Ekpe Udoh, who is basically a clone of two other players they already have on the roster. Lots of trades happened, but the only real big name mentioned was Kirk Hinrich, who looks to be headed off to the Wizards. Here’s an article that sums up all the trades pretty well.
• In world cup news, Italy had a shocking loss to Slovakia and was eliminated ending their chances of defending as champions. Japan beat Denmark 3-1, and moved on along with group winner the Netherlands. Paraguay joined Slovakia as the advancers from Group F.
• The Rangers extended their winning streak to 11, and the Chicago White Sox have now won 9 straight.
• The longest tennis match ever finally ended, after 11 hours of play. John Isner defeated Nicolas Mahut 6-4, 3-6, 6-7 (7), 7-6 (3), 70-68. Isner is back in action Friday against Thiemo de Bakker.
• Tomorrow features the final matches of World Cup group play, as well as more Wimbledon. Should be an even quieter day in the sports world.

Today was probably one of the most interesting days of sports we’ll ever see. If the NBA Draft wasn’t on Thursday and instead took place today, it may have gone down as the most epic day in the world of athletics to occur.

• Speaking of the draft, coverage begins at 7 pm EST on ESPN, not tonight as I incorrectly wrote last night, and John Wall is still lock for the top pick. After that though, who knows what’s going to happen. Especially with David Kahn still running the T’Wolves. 
• Like mentioned earlier (Recap Here), Team USA beat Algeria 1-0 with a goal in the first minute of stoppage time to advance to the Round of 16 in the World Cup.
• Wimbledon is in full gear, and today showcased history as the match between John Isner and Nicolas Mahut lasted 7 hours, in just one set. After already being suspended for darkness on Tuesday, the two entered the 5th set at 2 o’clock England time and couldn’t come to a result by 9 at night, forcing another postponement. The match will resume tomorrow morning, but seeing as how the 5th set is already at 59 games each, who knows when it will end.

Wow….what a game. 

In case you haven’t been paying attention, let me set up the match for you…

The Americans tied their first two matches, coming from behind in both, versus England and Slovenia. Coming back from two down, the US almost had a victory against Slovenia when Maurice Edu seemingly had the winner with five minutes left before the referee pulled it back based off of what has been decided as a “phantom call”. This put the US tied with England for 2nd, needing either a win vs Algeria or a tie and an England tie or loss. Now on to the game:

After nearly letting up an early goal again, America looked to have a goal in the 21st minute when Clint Dempsey put a ball in the back of the net. He was called offsides, which replays show he clearly wasn’t, and the goal was disallowed. Meanwhile, England took the lead against Slovenia in the 23rd minute, which would mean that the U.S. would have to win in order to advance. 

After plenty of missed chances, it was looking like America just couldn’t catch a break and was going to head home early. Landon Donovan had other ideas. In the first minute of added time, Goalie Tim Howard made a save and quickly threw the ball out to a streaking Donovan. With three other US players in tow, Donovan passed the ball to Jozy Altidore, who’ll I’ll talk about in a second, who then put the ball in front of the net for Clint Dempsey. Dempsey’s shot was blocked by Algeria goalie Rais M’Bolhi, but Donovan picked up the rebound and sent the winner into the back of the net. 

The U.S. was clearly the superior team on the field today, as they repeatedly created scoring chances and held the Algerian attack in check. Two standouts for America were previously mentioned Altidore and defender Jay DeMerit. Altidore, who sat out of practice yesterday, pushed the ball forward and made things happen on the offensive side. While he did miss a shot on an open net in the 37th minute, that was his only real mistake. DeMerit lead the defensive effort as he held the back four together, which was without Oguchi Onyewu, who was on the bench in favor of Jonathon Bornstein. Substitute Benny Feilhaber also provided a spark in the second half, including a shot on goal.

The next match for the U.S. is June 26th at 2:30 ET against the runner up of Group D.