VS
After a week 1 shutout victory over the woeful Rams the Seahawks are ready to lower Mike Singletary pants again and hand the 9ers a spanking. A win means the division lead and maybe, just maybe some media respect(I doubt it).
As a side note: Many predicted the Hawks to pick Michael Crabtree in the draft, but teams picking O-linement allowed Aaron Curry to slide to Seattle. Thaaaank God for Curry. I don't think there's any need to chronicle the non-journey of the Mighty Egomaniac who hasn't signed yet.
The 49ers are looking better than they have in recent history. The Seahawks look like one of the most improved teams and also an untested commodity after routing a team that USC would likely beat. Seattle won't have the benefit of the 12th man this game so this should be a better indication of their consistency as a team.
Injury Updates:
Seattle is missing Leroy Hill and will replace him with Will Herring at linebacker. Lofa is expected to play along with TJ Houshmandzadah (back spasms) and Branch has chronic lameness. The other big news is Walt Jones and Chris Spencer being back at practice. Depending on how their conditioning and health hold up they may even play.
San Fran is getting healthy at WR with Brandon Jones back to practice and DE Sopaga also back.
Things to watch:
1-Frank Gore was the focal point of a 26min press conference with Jim Mora found here
Gore was held in check week 1 vs Arizona and Mora feels they will make an extra effort to get him involved against us this week. Again our beefed up line goes against a quality running back after success vs Jackson last week.
2-Will Herring to start. He looked good in game 1, he's aggressive and athletic, but he's also had a career full of injuries over his first 2 years. Hopefully he looks good and healthy for the entire absence of our Franchise un-franchised LB. I would expect the 9ers run game to try to attack him. Speaking of Linebackers- it should be fun to watch Curry's development and schoolyard bully attitude Ala Ray Lewis. Also hoping Lofa is really healthy because that's a guy that's hard to replace.
3-Sene-Cat The coaches promise to make use of Wallace's talents and keep throwing more wrinkles to the offense with some duel QB looks. Will we see some gadget plays?
4-Two interesting things about week 1 for the 49's. They were ineffective on 1st down runs and they gave up a ton of yards per reception in the pass game. Of course, the reception stat could be misleading considering the Cards have great receivers.
5-QB pressure. Last week we were all over the QB. and regardless of sack total. we bothered Bulger. This really helped out our secondary issues and we'll need pressure again. Wilson and Lucas were good last week and Babs didn't give up the old Russell bone-headed long plays, but they also had the benefit of QB pressure. I believe stopping the early run will be crucial so we don't end up in a guessing game off balance.
Predictions-
I think we're underrated because we're off the radar, the 49ers are media darlings, and I'm a homer
That being said, I said we win 27-14.
