I know it's a bit early but if the Niners lose this week to the Bears, the Hawks will control their own destiny for winning the division. The Niners will have 6 wins with 6 games to go. The Hawks will have 6 wins with 6 games to go. But they play each other so even if they both win every game, one team will lose a game in Seattle and that game would decide the division winner essentially.

If they lose this week, that is exactly where we wanna be. If we win our games, we win the division. Crazy that we have a chance to take the division from the Niners with how some things went early in the year.

It is that way EVERY week including the first game of the season.

People that think that "it isn't that big of a deal if we lose this one" every week see..... by this time of the year..... that it in fact does matter.

Also remember that the 49ers have to go to New England the week before the SEattle game. The Bear's and Pat's games are SF two most likely losses aside from Seattle.

A division title would be huge. There's still a chance Seattle could end up with the 2 seed in the playoffs, assuming Seattle wins out and the Bear's lose 1 more game (aside from Seattle of course).

The perfect scenario as I see it would be 49ers beat the Bears (giving them 3 losses), SEattle wins out with a 12-4 record. 49ers lose to NE and SEA. SEattle takes the #2 seed and the division title by virtue of head to head with the Bears and the 49ers tie comes back to haunt them..

It's really cool that Seattle's in this position, but I'd say it's fair to remain skeptical that the scenario could even remotely play out until Seattle starts playing more complete games on the road and securing road victories. The offensive output in the Detroit game was promising, but the defense faltered (reversing the trend from previous road games).

Now, if Seattle gets healthier during the bye week and can go to Miami and put on a solid performance on both sides of the ball (and getting a much needed road win), then I could start to have some faith in this "controlling their destiny" scenario.

_________________


Okay, so maybe that pass rush is still an issue. Lather, rinse, repeat.

Having the Hawks go on an eight game winning streak may be a lot to ask for…

Not impossible just a bit much…

On the other hand IF they did have that kind of prosperity, they would most likely be the hottest team going into the playoffs….

_________________
"Est autem fides credere quod nondum vides; cuius fidei merces est videre quod credis."
Faith is to believe what you do not see; the reward of this faith is to see what you believe.
(St. Augustine of Hippo)

"Perfer et obdura; dolor hic tibi proderit olim."
(“Ovid”)

If they lose to Miami they don't deserve the division title. Miami is a team they should beat, even on the road. So is Buffalo. This team can definitely win all it's remaining home games. So if they do what they SHOULD do with the talent level they have, then Chicago is the only team we shouldn't expect them to beat. That puts them at 11-5 which is exactly what my preseason prediction was for them. Haven beaten SF at home to get to that record, the Niners would be 6-4-1 with five other games to play. A loss to Chicago or New England puts us up. I wouldn't expect SF to win both of those games. I still believe as I did before the season started that the game against SF will be for the title. We'd have to throw it away either at home against AZ or St. Lo or else shoot ourselves in the foot against Miami or Buffalo to knock ourselves out of it.

_________________
Richard Sherman doesn't just wanna get in your head, he wants to build a vacation home there.

Eh, I don't buy the "deserve" angle. Never have, no matter what team it's applied to. Do the 49ers not "deserve" the division title because they failed to beat the Rams at Candlestick? Deserve doesn't mean jack, because the 49ers still have a really good shot at it.

Don't forget that two weeks ago, Miami was 4-3. And they had just beaten the Jets by 21, same as us. Their rookie QB has had some really good games and some bad ones, same as ours. And their defense may give up a lot of yardage, but they're a top 10 defense in points allowed, even after that 37 point shellacking they took from Tennessee. Miami's not going to be an easy out, especially with the Hawks travelling 3000 miles to play there.

Still, it's not the toughest game left, and Seattle needs to win those winnable games to have the best chance at the postseason and possibly the division title. But Seattle could fall just short on the road (again) with a loss at Miami and then turn around and win 5 straight. And that might win the division, and it damn well will have been earned, no matter whether they "deserved" it or not based on the Miami game.

_________________


Okay, so maybe that pass rush is still an issue. Lather, rinse, repeat.

One game at a time and all that.

Still, it's time to buckle your seat belts.

_________________
My single greatest contribution to the board: "42-13" (formerly 24-14)

I am seriously not looking past anyone remaining on our schedule because "any given Sunday" and all that, but the only teams left that truly make my butthole pucker are the Bears and 9'ers.

_________________
Papaki douchebag love turtle long time

When the Thunder play the Grizzlies, I'll be cheering for a tornado.

How about an 11 game win streak? Been done in recent Hawks' history...
12-4 should get a bye too unless GB wins out.
If you are going to dream...why not dream BIG!

_________________

"Make good teams look bad and make bad teams look terrible!" -Michael Robinson

The Dolphin's, Bears and 49ers starting quarterbacks are currently injured. Anything is possible. I like our chances. We
are pretty healthy. More injuries that impact teams will be coming on this late in the season. AZ, the 9ers and Rams appear to be fading: 3 wins.........Dolphins no QB...4 wins........Cutler concussion.....5 wins....Bills? 6 wins!!!!

_________________

Two 10 AM road games after the bye are gonna really test this team's mettle. I don't wanna be a debbie downer or a donne darko but if "they are who we thought they were" we could be 6-6 at that point. But both those games are winnable so I won't count them out. Toronto is a 1 PM game, I'm not worried about that one. And we'll sweep the home games against the division. So 10-6, possibly 11-5 or better. Any one of those should get us a playoff spot, maybe the division. So as long as we don't totally shit the bed we should be in good shape.

_________________
Tanzania¹²

Historically....We stink after the bye and it doesn't matter where the game is played.

Historically....We stink on the road, especially with a 10:00 a.m. start.

So here we have 2 of our worst things happening on the same day.

That being said........We are going to win that friggin game.

_________________
Tanzania¹²

We are going to be 8-4 after the two road games. Tannehill will look worse than Sanchez did and Cutler will get pass happy after getting sacked 5 times and chewing out his o-line. I don't know why anyone would think otherwise, seems pretty depressing to think your team is going to lose. That isn't being 'a realist' since we as fans have absolutely no say in what happens on the field, so why not always feel like we should go into the game and take care of business? Who cares if we have only won 1 game on the road, all other games have been within one score. This isn't the previous Seahawk teams that get blown out away from home, we are in every single game, so my 'realist' approach is we will begin to win all those close games.

We are going to be a different team on the road after this bye week. I hope Cutler starts against us in that game so we can say we dominated Jay Cutler, not Caleb Hanie.

Many times Cutler dominates himself...

8-4 sure does sound nice going into that last stretch.

_________________
Tanzania¹²

You got that right, Sally.


To be honest, I actually think the Bears game is more winnable than the Miami game, the more I think about it. Miami is sort of an unknown this season. They have a rookie QB who has at times looked great and at times looked sucky. We need to make him look sucky. They HAD an effective running game early in the season, but that seems to have fallen by the wayside. With a healthy, rejuvenated Seahawks team coming off a bye week, we definitely SHOULD beat the Phins, but we'll have to wait and see.

Bears are who we think they are. We've played and beaten them before. They are largely unchanged from last season, with Brandon Marshall being the biggest addition. Marshall, meet Mr. Sherman. I don't fear any of the supposedly elite WRs anymore. Cutler is very easily rattled, and their O-line isn't what you would call great either. We can get after Cutler and make him turn into the whiney, bitchy, INT-prone wretch he really is. Their running game is alright. Their defense thrives on taking the ball away, thankfully Wilson has improved his decision making and has only given up 2 INTs in the last 5 games. That's pretty stellar. protecting the football will be key. Wear them down with Lynch and Turbin, open up the play-action pass then watch Wilson find Rice and Tate all over the field. I like Tate against their secondary, actually. look for Wilson to shower Golden with passes for big gains and TDs. We'll beat them with the Golden shower.

_________________
FrankerZ FrankerZ FrankerZ FrankerZ FrankerZ FrankerZ FrankerZ FrankerZ

There is no way the Bears game is more winnable than the Miami game, that's crazy. The Bears defense has been unreal this year [7 TD!] and if Cutler plays he is very dangerous with Marshall.

The Hawks should have no excuse for a 10am road game with 2 weeks to prepare. They can fly to Miami on Wednesday and spend 4 days getting on East Coast time if they need to. Miami is an average at best team with a rookie QB...and there is no excuse for the Hawks to lose that game.

The Bears game on the road is our most difficult game left.

_________________


Win Forever!

"Almost" control our own fate? We absolutely do. If we win out, we're virtually guaranteed to win the division. It'll be a miracle of the up-and-down-as-of-late 49ers win against 3 tough opponents coming up. The Bears, the (now looking good) Saints, the Patriots, and the Seahawks?

Winning out is like a 99% certain division win. IF we can do it. I'm confident of one thing, though; if we win against the Dolphins and the Bears, I feel pretty good about getting the rest. 12-4 would be awesome. Chi-town will be a tough game, though.