49ers vs Oilers
| So after 19 weeks of competition, it comes down to one game with the Oilers as the strong favourites. But are the 49ers really the weakest link? | |||||
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49ers
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Oilers
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| Offence |
341 (7)
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356 (4)
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Rushing
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181 (2)
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143 (4)
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Passing
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172 (21)
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229 (9)
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| Turnovers |
32
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37
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Fumbles
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19
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19
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Interceptions
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13
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18
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| Sacks |
27
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34
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| Defence |
281 (4)
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332 (19)
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Rushing
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93 (6)
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114 (15)
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Passing
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207 (7)
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232 (20)
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| Turnovers |
39
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56
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Fumbles
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21
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26
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Interceptions
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18
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30
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| Sacks |
37
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26
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| On paper, the 49ers seem to have it with a good offence and a better, balanced defence. Because of their use of the running game, the 49ers have fewer problems with sacks and interceptions. The Oilers defence does not look like it has the power to stop the 49ers style of possession football. The two things that the Oilers have in their favour are: | |||||
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(i) their defence specialises in causing turnovers rather
than shutting down an opponent. Given that most of their takeaways are
interceptions this may not cause the 49ers too much of a headache.
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(ii) in order to reduce their losses due to retirements, the 49ers waived veteran DB Dave Waymer, a 3* 12 year old, before the close of the season. This has left them potentially susceptible to long passes although remaining veteran Darryl Pollard, also 12 years old, should be able to cover short passes and outside runs. Against the Chargers, the Oilers managed 19.7 yards per pass completion. Combining this with a 70% success rate, gave them 13.7 yards per attempt. A very impressive statistic in anyone's book. Clearly the 49ers secondary will need to play at their very best, particularly as the Oilers have a running game good enough to punish a defence relying solely on specialist pass defences.
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Of course, at the end of the day, Coach Sim is vastly more experienced than rookie Coach Harris. Combine this with the 49ers problems in the red-zone during the post-season so far and things look much less one sided. Hopefully the 49ers wont have to rely on Wade Richey's boot to survive this game as they did versus the Cardinals.
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| Unlike "Spooky" Pete Harris, I'm terrible at predictions but here goes anyway. Predicted score: 49ers 31 vs. 24 Oilers (lets hope you don't all call me "Crap" Harris after this). | |||||