The Five Best Super Bowl Winners Since 1985 posted by Colin Linneweber

The New Orleans Saints will play the Indianapolis Colts in Super Bowl XLIV Sunday at Sun Life Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida.

The Colts (16-2) are currently favored by nearly six points to defeat the underdog Saints (15-3) this weekend.

No matter what the ultimate outcome is, fans can expect to witness a thrilling game between the offensively explosive Saints and Colts.

In tribute to this weekend’s championship matchup, I have decided to rank the five best Super Bowl winners of the past quarter-century.

1)      The 1989-1990 San Francisco 49ers- The dominant 49ers (17-2) absolutely destroyed the overmatched Denver Broncos (13-6) by a score of 55-10 in Super Bowl XXIV to repeat as champions at the Superdome in New Orleans.

To this very day, the 49ers lopsided margin of victory over the Broncos remains the biggest blowout in Super Bowl history.

Legendary Niners quarterback Joe Montana was justifiably named the game’s MVP after he completed 22 of 29 passes for 297 yards and five touchdown passes.

San Francisco’s underrated defense stifled John Elway’s aerial assault and they managed to limit Denver to a paltry 167 yards on offense.

Joe Montana is a four-time Super Bowl champion and he has been the focal point of many tremendous squads.

Still, the 1989-1990 49ers unit was the greatest one that Montana ever played on.

2)      The 1985-1986 Chicago Bears- The Bears (18-1) humiliated the New England Patriots (14-6) 46-10 in Super Bowl XX at the Superdome in New Orleans.

The Best Quarterback Matchups in the Super Bowl Since 1985 posted by Colin Linneweber

The Indianapolis Colts will play the New Orleans Saints in Super Bowl XLIV on February 7 at Sun Life Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida.

The contest is expected to be an offensive shootout pitting Colts (16-2) quarterback Peyton Manning against Saints (15-3) signal-caller Drew Brees.

Manning, 33, a four-time AP NFL MVP, and Brees, 31, a three-time All-Pro selection, are two of the greatest quarterbacks to grace the gridiron during this generation.

In recognition of the impending Super Bowl matchup, I decided to rank the best quarterback showdowns to have occurred in the Super Bowl since 1985.

1)      Super Bowl XXIV- Joe Montana and the San Francisco 49ers destroyed John Elway and the Denver Broncos 55-10 in the most lopsided championship game ever at the Superdome in New Orleans.

Montana, a three-time First Team All-Pro selection who made the NFL’s 75th Anniversary All-Time Team, was named the Super Bowl MVP after he completed 22 of 29 passes for 297 yards and five touchdowns.

Elway, a nine-time Pro Bowl selection and five-time All-Pro, played horrifically in the embarrassing blowout loss.

In total, Elway completed 10 out of 26 passes for a measly 108 yards and two interceptions.

On this January evening, Montana and the 49ers overwhelmed Elway and the Broncos.

Nevertheless, this Super Bowl showcased perhaps the two greatest quarterbacks in the annals of the NFL.

2)      Super Bowl XIX- Montana and the Niners thrashed Dan Marino and the Miami Dolphins 38-16 at Stanford Stadium in California.

Penalties and Cutler's five interceptions doom Bears in San Fran posted by Joe Anello

I can’t blame the defense this time. On Thursday night, the Bears offense did everything they could to lose this game. Ten penalties and five Jay Cutler interceptions prevented Chicago from leaving Candlestick Park with a victory. I won’t bother boring you with the minutiae.  The final score: San Francisco 10, Chicago Bears 6.

The offensive line was atrocious. Jay Cutler wasn’t sacked all night, but he was constantly running for his life and hit six times. Matt Forte saw no rushing lanes whatsoever, racking up 41 yards on 20 carries. His lack of production caused Ron Turner to call 52 pass plays. Most of the Bears’ ten penalties could be attributed to the offensive line. Orlando Pace was on the sideline towards the end of the game and honestly, I never noticed when he went out. It didn’t matter. It was that bad. 

Cutler wasn’t horrible. Five interceptions would make you think otherwise, but only two were his fault. Devin Hester mess-ups (a slip and not running around the referee) caused two and a missed pass interference call led to another. Still, Jay’s two other picks came in the red zone, where this team can least afford them. Their red zone offense needs A LOT of work. Jay’s decision making needs to get better. 

Like I said, the defense can’t be blamed. They gave up only 216 yards of offense, sacked Alex Smith twice and intercepted one pass. Tommie Harris had a solid game after being ejected early against the Cardinals.  When did the Bears begin to master the screen pass? I remember this offense never could get this play right. They must be like, practicing or something. What a novel idea. While Forte didn’t rush well, he did catch 8 passes for 120 yards, mostly off of screen passes. Greg Olsen and Devin Hester added another 7 receptions each.  

Joe's Gameday Preview: Bears at 49ers posted by Joe Anello

Welcome to a newly streamlined and revamped Gameday Preview! I figured the prior incarnation was just too filled with stats and useless analysis. From now on the preview will be more akin to extended Opening or Final Drive commentary. This week sees the Bears heading to San Francisco to take on the 49ers on Thursday Night Football. Let’s get to it!

Chicago Bears (4-4) at
San Francisco 49ers (3-5)

49ers tight end Vernon Davis recently made headlines with his bashing of the Bears’ once-vaunted defense. "I think we can destroy their front. The guys up front, I think we can destroy them. “I don't see anything spectacular about their front line. Their linebackers, I think we can handle them pretty well.” Hmm. While insulting as those comments may be, Davis is spot-on. The Bears haven’t pressured much of anybody and their pass coverage has been mediocre at best. They’re even being gouged by the run. Still, Niners QB Alex Smith can hurl interceptions with the worst of them, so I doubt another total domination is in the books.

Chicago’s offense has struggled to move the football as of late, and is has nothing to do with Jay Cutler. The offensive line has committed penalties, given up sacks, and failed to open any running lanes. If the Bears win this game, it’s because Olin Kreutz and the gang decided not to screw up for a day. Primetime hasn’t been kind to the Bears this season, so they need to start fast in order to leave the Bay area with a win. Getting out in front of the Niners will force them to decrease running back Frank Gore’s touches. Since Gore is their best player, I’d say getting the ball out of his hands is a solid idea.

Week 3 posted by Henri "theactor" Ramsey

OK, I feel like someone kicked me in the stomach. That was a HORRIBLE way to lose but, it's also a good learning lesson.

We can take from that lose the fact that we are going to be on the receiving end of those kinds of game from time to time and move forward. I could not believe Favre hit his receiver with less than an inch of space in the back of the end zone. I looked and looked and deep in my heart I wanted to hear the ref come back after reviewing and say "after further review, the receiver's foot was out of bounds." But it didn't happen like that.

I am still very proud of the way the Niners played to last second of that game and never gave up when it looked bleek.

The refs gave the Vikings a few calls that I felt were questionable. But complaining about them now doesn't change the fact that we lost a close game and now we just have to get ready for the Rams.

One good thing that came out of this weekend was the entire division lost their games. Leaving us still in first place in the NFC West.

The 49ers are going to be just fine after this and should be able to come back and have a very good game against the Rams at Candlestick Park. I'm looking forward to hearing Coach Singletary's thoughts on this weeks practices.

As Staley stated in an interview, they just have to keep their heads up and move forward. Now that the 49ers have tasted the agony of defeat, I think they are only going to get hungrier and more determined to not let these types of games slip through their fingers.

I don't think I'll be watching the NFL channel...I can't stand to hear how "Great" Favre is and how the 49ers are not ready for the big games and all that bull crap! Favre got lucky as hell and that's it!

NFL Week 3: Notes and Commentary posted by John Frascella

(I've also posted this on my blog at FanNation.com).

It's been an interesting NFL Sunday thus far, so I had the urge to get my two cents in on the day's events. First thing that comes to my mind, it's going right into this post...

-New York football is riding high, as both the Jets and Giants have improved to 3-0. The Giants had a walk in the park against the laughable Tampa Bay Bucs, but the Jets had to work extremely hard for their victory against the desperate Tennessee Titans. Rex Ryan's boys (and my favorite team) certainly earned the win, but Tennessee's wide receiver drops had a little something to do with it. Kerry Collins' statistics were very misleading today; he actually played well. 

-My preseason predictions suggested a bit of a surprising season for the Washington Redskins in the NFC East, but the surprise is how BAD they are. Congrats to the Detroit Lions on breaking their seemingly endless losing streak against the 'Skins. Jim Zorn's crew had the opportunity to steal away the victory in the late fourth, but Detroit held its ground. Washington simply doesn't have the weapons on the offensive side of the ball. Clinton Portis played banged up but didn't provide much. 

-The Houston Texans continued their enigmatic ways, falling to 1-2 and giving the Jaguars their first victory of the season. Maurice-Jones Drew showed up in a big way for you fantasy addicts out there. Houston was about to tie the game at 31, but Chris Brown (aka Chris Breezy) fumbled away a sure touchdown. Tough one for the Texans and their faithful. 

Week 1 posted by Henri "theactor" Ramsey

Alright...That's the way to get the season off the ground!!

In the words of Mike Sigletary..."we go in...we hit people in the mouth" And that's what the Niners did today in Arizona. The San Francisco 49ers went in and got things going from the start. Although they struggled on offense today, Hill managed to dig down deep and move the ball when it was needed. 

The running game was totally shut down and that's going to happen. As long as they don't give up on it, it WILL have it's good games. And I know that coach Singletary is not going to stop running. There were a few plays that I wished we could have had back but, that too is going to happen. On a few plays, Hill over threw his target and few times he missed the open man. But, like I stated before, he made things happen when it really needed to happen. The 15 play 7:26 possesion was the series of the game. Vernon Davis has become a team player! I am very impressed with what he's been doing. He missed a pass or two but, caught a few as well. As the season gets going, I can see that he's going to get better and better.

The defense was ON FIRE! And yes...we do have a pass rush! They came out a little flat in the third quarter but after the talk that coach Singletary gave them, they woke up and got back to playing aggresive and got pressure on Warner. They completely shut out Fitz and Holdin in the first half. The first interception was a huge boost! and then they got another interception from Clements. They had 3 Sacks and 1 forced fumble on the day.

Overall, I am just happy that we went in there and came out with the WIN! Now we get ready for the Seachicks next week at Candlestick Park and that is really going to show if we are "real" I would write more but, these are my personal thoughts and not a report. 20-16 49ers winners over the Arizona Canaries. 

Ninkovich in the Cards posted by Randolph Charlotin

I’m not much of a poker player, but since the beginning of training camp, head coach Bill Belichick has been exchanging cards, looking for a full house.

They looked at QB Cleo Lemon. DE Kevin Carter seems to be getting serious consideration. QB Matt Gutierrez was cut and QB Andrew Walter signed to replace Gutz.

But no position has been as active since the end of the regular season as OLB. Even before Mike Vrabel was traded to Kansas City, we’ve seen Angelo Craig and Darrell Robertson signed. Both were cut before training camp got underway.

In between that action, Tully Banta-Cain came back from two disappointing years with San Francisco.

The latest player shown the door was Vince Redd on Sunday.

And there has been no shortage of rumors for the vacant spot. The Pats were incorrectly tabbed as interested in Carolina DE Julius Peppers, even though he was an unsigned franchised player. Oakland’s Derrick Burgess might be in New England’s crosshairs. And Willie McGinest is interested in coming back if he’s wanted.

With OLB one of the biggest competitions in camp, I thought the more the merrier would be the approach by the team as they search for the best player. Instead they streamlined the competition down to the favorites: Banta-Cain, Pierre Woods and Shawn Crable.

But Belichick always keeps his eyes open for a player that could help the team. Last week they showed interest in DE Stryker Sulak. Ultimately the Patriots signed Rob Ninkovich.

“Who is this guy?” was my first reaction. The good news is he comes from a Purdue program that has a history of producing good defensive ends that are able to transition to OLB. Rosevelt Colvin should immediately come to mind for Patriot fans. Another one is Anthony Spencer of the Dallas Cowboys. After a promising rookie season, Spencer will start for the ‘Boys.

Camp is in Session posted by Henri "theactor" Ramsey

Well it's finally here...TRAINING !

And it started off with some mixed thoughts in my mind. First off, I had never hear the 49ers "sound off" while they were going through stretching. It sounded GOOD to me. It actually brought back memories of when I was playing in New York.

When a team sounds off, it says something about the unity of a team. And that's something the Niners haven't had in a long time. 

From there is looked like the same old routine until they started the hitting! POP was the sound of the morning and there was a lot of popping going on out on the field. Personally I think the players are really into the padded practices.

I felt really bad for the rookie kicker who's trying to win a spot an a team that has two of the BEST kickers in the league. I felt bad for him because his kicks barely went beyond 30 yards. I'm not going to waste any more time on him because I'm sure he won't be here long.

Practice was nothing more or less than what happened last season under Nolan other than the fact that players were moving at a little faster pace and with a little more intent. Some time had pasted by when the horn blew and the players were called to the middle of the field. For about 5 minutes, all you could hear was one mans voice...COACH SINGLETARY! And he wasn't telling a bedtime story. Shortly after he stopped talking...the players lined up on the far sideline and the running began.

They were doing wind sprints from sideline to sideline. After about two or three sprints, a whistle blew and again the voice of a football god was heard say " I SAID TOUCH THE SIDELINE!! TOUCH THE SIDELINE WITH YOUR HANDS!!!!"

3 quarterback sleepers in the 09 fantasy football season posted by Michael Cooney

Let's take a look at the top 3 qb sleepers for the 2009 season:

Note: All stats and rankings are based on the following:
20 yards passing=1 point
10 yards rushing= 1 point
Td's= 6 points
Fumble/Int= -2 points


3. David Garrard
08: 3620 passing yards 15 passing td's 13 INT's 322 yards rushing 2 rushing td's

This guy always seems like a perennial sleeper. He finally came out of his shell a little bit last season, passing for 1111 more yards than the previous season, though he did play in 4 more games. Last year he was the 11th best qb, and yet is consistently ranked lower than 15 for the upcoming season. He should be able to crack the top 10 qb's this year given the addition of aging, yet talented, receiver Torry Holt. In addition, Garrard is effective at creating points with his legs, rushing for 322 yards and 2 td's last season. What keeps Garrard from being a top tier qb (besides his lack of receivers), is his lack of passing td's. For a man with 3600+ yards passing, 15 td's is a very small number. Cassel and Pennington passed for nearly identical yardage last season, and they had 21 td's and 19 td's respectively. If Garrard could ever pass for td's like he did in 07' (when he had 18 td's in only 12 starts) and have the health he did in 08', he could easily eclipse 20 passing td's. While I'm not so convinced of this that I will make him my starting qb, Garrard will make a terrific backup with the potential to catapult himself into a starting fantasy gig.

09 Projection: 3450 passing yards 20 td's 13 int's 280 rushing yards 2 rushing td's
Continue reading "3 quarterback sleepers in the 09 ..."

49ers tender contracts to Brooks, Bass (AP)

The San Francisco 49ers have tendered contract offers to linebacker Ahmad Brooks and offensive lineman David Baas. The move Monday gives San Francisco the right to match any offer sheet the restricted free agents sign with another team or receive a second-round draft pick as compensation. Brooks had a career-high six sacks last season and tied a franchise record for forced fumbles by a linebacker... [read full article]

From Yahoo! Sports

49ers place franchise tag on NT Franklin (AP)

The San Francisco 49ers placed the non-exclusive franchise tag on nose tackle Aubrayo Franklin on Tuesday and hope to lock him up with a long-term contract. The Niners made the move before Thursday's deadline. Franklin will be allowed to negotiate with other teams when he becomes a free agent next month, but San Francisco can match any offer or receive two first-round picks as compensation. [read full article]

From Yahoo! Sports