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The Bears are gonna lose a few more games.

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Tanzania¹²

Not quite.

At this point we need San Fran to lose one game. If San Fran won every game from here out expect versus us, they would end the season 12-3-1.

If we won out we would be 12-4. San Fran would win the division due to having one less loss than us.

Completely unlikely that the Hawks and Niners go 6-0 and 6-1 but at this moment we do not control our own fate because we need the Niners to lose one more game

if GB loses we jump to 5th seed.

I very clearly stated an assumption that the 49ers would lost a minimum of 1 game. Just sayin'. It's highly likely they will lose at least one considering the tough schedule coming up for them, and ASSUMING THAT THEY DO lose one, we DO control our own fate.

We still need to beat the ninners when they come here. I think most on this board have chalked that up as a win but I dunno.

I havent seen us even slow their running game in forever. Until I see us consistently stuff a good running team I have little confidence that we will even remotely stop the ninners.

We have to win 2 road games the rest of the way. The fins and the bills are the most likely ones. If we do that then 10 wins is gonna happen and we make the playoffs. Otherwise we are looking at 9-7 and having to scoreboard watch.

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We slowed their run game last season in their house. Gore ran 22 times for 59 yards. Zero TDs.

They did better in the 2nd game but still didn't get a 100 yard rusher.

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

Ok so with Hawthorn we were better. We were gashed by them last time. It is a huge concern.

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I hope we win against Miami. Thats the only thing i can hope for at the moment.

What gives you this thought? Last I checked we got gutted by about 5 trap plays and they still only managed 13 points. I'd say that is stopping the 49ers. Now you add in the fact that this game is in Seattle and I'd say it's a toss-up regardless of how we play the run.

I like that we are playing Miami after the bi and if Chicago can beat the 9ers they will be coming off an emotional win and set up nice for us to potentially catch them a little out of breath. Also the Niners have to travel to Seattle the week after traveling to New England, that will be a tall order for them also.

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"cheating", Eddie D. pled to a FELONY to avoid prison and paid players under the table. Brent Jones was paid 500k the year after he stopped playing for "services" in the 90's.. Of course, there is Carmen Policy also

Let's remember that Detroit has one of the best passing offenses in the league and one of the worst secondaries. We should expect to be able to pass on them, and we should expect them to make some plays. Evaluations of our performances on both side of the ball need to be adjusted by opponent strengths and weaknesses.

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"Check out my 2012 NFL Draft Grades. I just gave the worst grade ever to Seattle." - WalterFootball.com

Agreed, and I've been beating that drum when some here tried to throw our run D under the bus because it couldn't contain Adrian Peterson.

Still, the arrow seems to be pointing up for the offense, and I'm confident that they'll be able to show it more on the road than in the past.

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

"Controlling our own destiny" usually refers to making the playoffs, not necessarily winning the division. At this point, we control our own destiny to make the playoffs. We do not control our own destiny for winning the division.

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Funny about the perceptions of other teams.

Buffalo will actually be a tougher away game than Miami. Miami is the better team, but they play terrible at home, and good on the road. This has been a trend of theirs for the last season and a half. Buffalo plays very tough at home, and just lost to the Patriots, at NE, by 6 pts. Add to that a rookie QB that is inconsistent, and coming off of an injury, and Miami is a team we should beat, but their defense is good, and good against the run, so it should be a close, low scoring game.

Chicago will be tough. It will probably be wet, and their field is just terrible when wet. Should actually benefit us a bit, since shitty fields tend to favor power running teams, and Chicago isn't a power running team. Cutler should be back by then, and I'm looking forward to seeing Browner and Sherman match up against Marshall ( I think Browner is the better matchup). Knox and Bennett usually rip the middle out of our defense, so I hope we get that figured out.

SF worries me, as Dom says, we haven't stopped their run game yet, and Minny confirmed we have issues with the middle of our defense. I expect us to play better since Wagner will have tape on the Niners, it will be at home, and hopefully we'll be a bit healthier. Playing well against the run at Miami and Chicago will do a lot to alleviate my fears of an eroding run defense.


Optimistically, I can see us running the table, and as stated above, we'd have huge momentum going into the playoffs. Realistically, I can see us losing 1-2 more games...Chi and I'm guessing Buffalo. The Niners worry me more than Buff, but I just have a feeling we're going to want revenge, and it being at our house, we're going to be up for that game and we win it. the toughest game I see looming is the Chicago game, but SF will be tough too. They've beaten us 3 times in a row. We still absolutely control our own destiney, since we're actually the lead cantidate for the 6th seed right now.

12-4 will be good enough for the 2nd seed for sure.

Let's just do that.

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RIP ROAD WOES 12/2/2012

We only "held" them to 13 points because Harbaugh decided not to take the safety. We can say we were within a TD of every game we lost, but we can only say that because of the relative kindness of Harbaugh -- as weird as that sentence is to type.

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I will be more concerned with destiny after the next two games. Right now all I can think about is Miami. They are no pushover and play tough football. I'm sure the Hawks are very aware of this.

If I had to guess, I would say the Hawks are going 10-6 and looking at a wildcard unless SF can't hang.

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"What Jefferson was saying was, Hey! You know, we left this England place 'cause it was bogus; so if we don't get some cool rules ourselves - pronto - we'll just be bogus too! Get it?" -- Jeff Spicoli

Controlling your own destiny is so 2010...

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We're not playing the Bills at their home. We're playing the Bills in Toronto. The Bills are 1-3 in Toronto in the regular season.

We're also not a division rival of the Bills, so they don't know our team as well as they know the Patriots. For the record, the Jets also played the Pats close, and we destroyed them at home by 21.

I'm not as worried about the Bills game as I am about the Dolphins, Bears, and 49ers games.

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