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.

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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.

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Super Bowl XLVIII Champions

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….

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"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.

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

R. Sherman: "I don't want to be an island. I want to be a tourist attraction. You come, I take your money & you go."

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.

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Super Bowl XLVIII Champions

One game at a time and all that.

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

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Super Bowl Champions XVLIII

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.

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I <3 Nunchucks

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!

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"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!!!!

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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.

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Tanzania¹² "ALERT THE LEGION!!!"

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.

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Tanzania¹² "ALERT THE LEGION!!!"

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...

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

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Tanzania¹² "ALERT THE LEGION!!!"

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.

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Rzzzzz...

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.

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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.

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Sam Bradford is a game changer.

*He can change a win into a loss.
*He can change a loss into a win by getting injured.
*RedAlice is right.

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The Bears are gonna lose a few more games.

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Tanzania¹² "ALERT THE LEGION!!!"

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.

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Sam Bradford is a game changer.

*He can change a win into a loss.
*He can change a loss into a win by getting injured.
*RedAlice is right.

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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Super Bowl XLVIII Champions

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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The Lion has no interest in the opinion of the sheep.

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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Super Bowl XLVIII Champions

"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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49ers webzone: Win or lose, i hope you injure Sherman. Like a serious career ending injury. I don't want him to get paid.
49ers webzone: noise should not be the overwhelming reason a team is favored. they need to spray noise-damping foam onto the ceiling of that place.

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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SUPER BOWL 48 CHAMPIONS!!!!!!!!

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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49ers webzone: Win or lose, i hope you injure Sherman. Like a serious career ending injury. I don't want him to get paid.
49ers webzone: noise should not be the overwhelming reason a team is favored. they need to spray noise-damping foam onto the ceiling of that place.

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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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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Super Bowl XLVIII Champions

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From the white sands
To the canyon lands
To the redwood stands
To the barren lands

Been looking at the upcoming schedules for us and the 49ers today.

49ers schedule:

11/19: Bears
11/25: @Saints
12/2: @ Rams
12/9: Dolphins
12/16: @Patriots
12/23: @Seahawks
12/30: Cardinals

Seahawks schedule:

11/25: @Dolphins
12/2: @Bears
12/9: Cardinals
12/16: @Bills
12/23: 49ers
12/30: Rams

Maybe it's just me, but I could very easily see a December 23rd game featuring the 9-4-1 49ers visiting the 9-5 Seahawks in a battle for the division lead.

The 49ers beat a Bears team missing its starting QB, the struggling Dolphins, and the Rams on the road. They lose to a resurgent Saints team in New Orleans and to a Pats team gearing up for the postseason.

Meanwhile, the Seahawks handle the Dolphins after their bye, drop a close game to the Bears, beat the Cardinals at the Clink, and take advantage of the Bills' porous defense in Toronto.

Tell me that doesn't sound like a very realistic scenario.

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Super Bowl XLVIII Champions

That was the OP's point by saying "almost". As you acknowledged it's not 100%. The Hawks need some help from somebody like the Bears or more likely the Pats (in Foxboro) in order to avoid a tie with the niners. The divisional record tie breaker will probably go to SF. If we get some help that sets up the Hawks coronation as divisional champs perfectly with a victory over the niners on Christmas Eve. That would be an incredible Merry Christmas.

We can't end up in a tie with Niners in any scenario. Well, I guess we could tie them on the 2nd to last week of the season, but that's not what I meant.

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Super Bowl Champions XVLIII