Week Two - Saints vs. 49ers

d-oh!

Notice I didn't capitalize that. The 49ers did play some competitive football last night, against the defending Super Bowl champs no less. Things are looking up for the 2010 season again, which is quite a relief. After last week's game, well, things could only get better, and they did. Then again, a loss is still a loss.

I'm not calling it a moral victory (because neither Coach Singletary nor I are 'moral victory' type of guys), but there were positives to be taken from the game. Is it okay to look for silver-linings? That the game had to be won on a last-second field goal shows how close the game was: the offense moved the ball really smoothly and effectively; Alex Smith played with poise; the offensive line play looked excellent giving Frank Gore a chance to shine, both running and receiving; the defense played pretty tight... if the team could only have eliminated the turnovers, they would have won quite handily. But there's the rub, isn't it? The 49ers turned the ball over multiple times, the Saints didn't, and that was the difference. The difference between a team that wins and a team that doesn't (last night, anyway).

At least after last week's debacle, the team showed how competitive they can be. Now they have to play consistently at yesterday's high level of play, while eliminating the tumultuous mistakes such as turnovers. There's an old saying that goes something like: "The more I practice, the luckier I get." I don't know if that explains why when the Saints muff a punt, they recover it, whereas if the 49ers muff a punt, the other team recovers it. Or when the 49ers tip a pass, it goes straight back to the guy who threw it, but when the Saints tip a pass, it goes for an interception. In any case, last night the Saints had the winning edge.

Next up are the Kansas City Chiefs, on the road. I trust that the Niners will have a better handle on how to play in a loud environment as they played in when they played Seattle. I liked how they adjusted their method of conveying the play calls to Alex for last night's game, utilizing a different system of using numbers that corresponded to the plays that were printed on something he could wear on his wrist. I don't know if it was as simple as that, but Alex sure seemed to have more time to work with! He played excellent.

Although the 49ers are only 1 game off of the division lead, they had better win this Sunday, lest they go 0-3 which would be unacceptable. Go Niners!