No Excuses For The San Francisco 49ers

It is put up or shut up time in the Bay Area.

For the last 4 years, the San Francisco 49ers have been a tease. They have teased us by flirting with the playoffs, speaking of potential, youth, talent, and promises. Unfulfilled expectations will not be tolerated this year. There will never be a better chance for this team to make the playoffs and give the fans (finally!) a taste of what the postseason is like. I was 9 years old when the team won its last Super Bowl (Jan 1995). I still have memories of Young, Rice, Watters, Taylor, Jones, B. Young, Stubblefield, Hanks, McDonald annihilating the Chargers in Miami. That’s how much the fans long to see this team be in the playoffs with memories of Garcia, Owens, Stokes, and Hearst still in the hearts of the new generation of the Niners faithful. The 49ers to me represent the ultimate class organization in football that leads the NFL by example (although Pittsburgh would have a valid argument). We don’t care about the drama in Big D and Jerry Jones and his multi billion dollar global stadium and that America’s Team BS that never has made any sense to me. What does that even mean? “America’s team”? No, no, no…just win and get to the playoffs…forget all that other irrelevant extracurricular activity that the media loves.  Back to the point though…

The 49ers have the running back depth (Gore and Coffee), they have a decent group of receivers starting with Davis and Crabtree along with what is already an improving defense. They play in the worst division in all of sports (yes all of sports) and the other 3 teams have all moved backwards. In the last 4 years (all of which were non-playoff years)  3 of the years saw losses to lower divisional foes that could have changed fortunes. The 49ers must finish games this year as too many close losses such as those suffered last year to Seattle, Houston, Minnesota, Indianapolis cost them dearly in a year where they should have clearly been playing in the postseason. No need to emphasize the pressure on Alex Smith as he knows its now or never. He must embrace the opportunity as well as Clements, Willis, Davis, Gore, and Crabtree must all be solid. Most importantly, they must sweep the division and scrap for 4 additional wins in order to safely win the division. The four wins can come against Tampa Bay, Oakland, Kansas City, and either Carolina/Denver.

10 wins is all we need.

Like I said, no excuses.

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