The Super Bowl

The Niners were lucky to beat Atlanta yesterday.  The Niners were the better team, but came out flat (identical to what happened to Seattle the week before).  The Niners woke up a little quicker than Seattle (in the 2nd Quarter rather than the 2nd half) and were able to sustain Atlanta's counterattack.

Once the Niners settled down, they could move the ball at will against Atlanta's defense.  And luckily, Atlanta used up all their awesome plays in the first half.  Julio Jones absolutely molested the 49ers.  We could not guard him - he made several incredible catches.  We had a few defensive letdowns in the first half, but gotta give credit to Atlanta.  They have playmakers.

The most concerning thing to me was our lack of pressure on 4 man rushes.  The announcers were saying Atlanta brought in an extra offensive lineman, which meant we had 7 guarding 3 or 4.  Seems like enough, yet Atlanta was able to move the ball in the first half.  We finally began blitzing in the 2nd half.  The two biggest plays of the game came on blitzes - when Matt Ryan fumbled because we were bringing an all out, and when we knocked Ryan to the ground on a 3rd down, separating his shoulder at the end of the game.

The game was a little sloppy - missed FGs, turnovers, etc, but we got some luck (uncalled penalty on Bowman) - and that seemed to be the difference.  Last year the luck went the other way.

As for the Super Bowl matchup, I'm pretty zen about the whole thing.  The Ravens beat us up last year on Thursday night and I worry about their team.  They are confident enough to win and Flacco can make those big throws to Torrey Smith, which the Niners are only so-so at defending.  But now we have Kaepernick and it gives our offense another dimension which will hopefully give the Ravens problems game-planning for.  This is the only coaching match-up in the league I do not like.  Older brother Harbaugh has the mental edge over Jim and knows how Jim thinks.  The one problem with Harbaugh as a coach is he tries to get too cute at times and he is likely to do this knowing he is matching up against his brother.

That said, the good (and bad) thing about this Niner team is that it has the talent to control its own destiny.  We play good, we will win.  We play bad, we will lose.  The Ravens will not simply beat up in a straight up battle if everyone executes 100%.