Week 17: San Francisco 49ers (11-4) at Arizona Cardinals (10-5)

[Chrisksaint]

Divisions are fine and work out well, it creates drama and allows every team to pretty much control their destiny by playing each team twice.

[LowerWolf]

Finishing strong hasn't been a good foreteller of playoff success of late. The Ravens went 1-4 in their last five games last year. Four years ago, the Saints lost their last three after a 13-0 start. In between, the Giants and Packers went 3-2 in their last five (though each won their last two).

I think the playoffs are going to be wide open this year.

[wco81]

Kap started out okay, with some easy horizontal passes but has stalled.

Still not playing with a lot of confidence. Even when he completes passes, they're often not on target. For instance, Crabtree turned one for a nice gain but had to reach down for it.

He still can't handle heavy blitzes, though to be fair the 49ers receivers don't have great ball skills. For instance, the pass in the end zone to VD, he couldn't come down with (though the pass was low).

Playcalling was creative in the first few series but then has become predictable, like on 4th and 1 in the red zone, they telegraph the handoff to Dixon and you could see on replay that the Cards DL was moving uphill before the 49ers OL was moving forward.

Then on 3rd and 1 after a defensive stand against the Cards just now, they have some kind of unbalanced formation with motion to the left side that just got stuffed.

Would be nice to see a play fake off those. The heavy formations that the team runs force defenses to sell out. That should open up intermediate passes behind them but it's rarely attempted.

On the TD to VD, it worked, as VD slipped out uncovered as the Cards defense had to try to go uphill to defend the short run. They don't do that enough on the goal line and they don't seem to do it anywhere else on the field on 2nd or 3rd and short.

[LowerWolf]

I still think we're saving stuff for the playoffs ... at least, I hope so.

We're the worst short-yardage team in the league. I'd almost rather have a false start for a third-and-6 than a third-and-1.

[wco81]

The reverses and WR screens they were running in the first quarter was something they haven't shown much of before.

Almost seemed like they were going to attack Arizona at the edges, except for Peterson, instead of going at them within the tackle boxes.

Then once they had the lead, they tried to run through that brick wall.

They did line up a lot in empty-backfield sets but the route distribution was weird. They typically have Miller in those formations but wonder if they did it with Tukuafu today.

They did have Staley go out for a pass as a tackle eligible and he was left uncovered. But they really need to have Patton and maybe a 4th WR win match ups against nickel and dime DBs.

They also need to have McDonald become more productive since they like to run 22 personnel so much.

[The Chef]

San Francisco looked better early on, got the lead, then sat on it like they didnt need to score anymore and the defense would close it out, and while I can understand that to a very small degree, it was 17-0, not 31-0, so no point in taking your foot off the accelerator so early in the game. I still have no confidence in this team heading into the playoffs and could easily see them losing to Green Bay next weekend.