News Archive
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| Schedule Break Down Part 2 of 6 April 12 2002 By Bryan Hersh of 49ers Paradise Coming off a bye week, the 49ers will face their long time NFC West rival, and last season's Super Bowl participants, the Rams, at home. If there ever was a time for the 49ers to finally make the leap and beat the Rams, it would be this season, coming off the bye week. Last season the team was a few players shy, of beating the Rams, but this season - there should be no excuse. This is a game the 49ers have to win in order to have a shot at home field in the playoffs. Beating the Rams however, is no easy task. The Rams offense is always fully loaded, and last season their defense took tremendous strides. Perhaps the scariest team to face in the league, this is just the first of two games against the Rams. The 49ers then move on to Seattle, where Steve Mariucci will face his former boss Mike Holmgren. The Seahawks, a new addition to the NFC West this year, are a very well coached team and are never push overs. The 49ers would love to establish a dominance of the 'Hawks in the NFC West, and welcome them in '49ers Style'. This game however will be an emotional let down after playing the Rams however, regardless of the outcome in the Rams game, there is simply no way that the Seahawks can live up to the same hype. And thus the 49ers will have to put emotion aside when playing this game, and that is always difficult away from home after a big game. The 49ers will play a familiar opponent following that, in the Saints. A former NFC West team, the 49ers will play the Saints this season continuing the long time rivalry. New Orleans has developed a strong team over the past few years, and this game will be the first against a team with a truly mobile quarterback. The 49ers linebacker will be key in this game, and luckily the linebacking core this season should be a strong point on the team.
An extremely tough span of games, these three will put the 49ers through some intense emotion. It should be at this point during the season that we see how well the team is operating with each other, and just what 'name' it is making for its self. Both the offensive and defensive coaches want to do more this coming season, this three game stretch will be opportunity for them to put their money where their mouth is.
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