Oh, they are a significant upgrade. There's no reason to doubt that.Just Me wrote: I hope the two of you are correct, and I'll be watching the game (regardless of how painful it might be) but I just see the 49ers as a "significant upgrade" over the two teams we played to "draws," essentially (with one game needing overtime to win, and the other losing in the final seconds).
The upset is pretty unlikely, I'm just not willing to rule it out. I wish I could watch the game live. I may listen via NFL.com but I won't be able to watch it until tomorrow.We are at home, but we were against Jacksonville, too. The Vikes are at home so that is the only sliver of optimism I can muster in this game. I'd happily come in here after the game and "eat crow" on my predicition if the Vikes pull off the upset
My theory is IF the Vikings can eliminate the defensive breakdowns they've been making in the two minutes of each half, reduce the number of penalties they're committing and do a better job of protecting Ponder, that will give them a genuine chance. They'll need more than that to win, of course, but if they do those 3 things, I think they're capable of keeping the game close. To actually pull off the upset, they'll probably need to get enough out of their running game to keep the offense from becoming one-dimensional, win the turnover battle (or at least end it in a 0-0 tie), get more out of their receivers (including Carlson), and of course, stop the 49ers. When the defense gets SF in third down situations, they need to stop them. They can't let SF extend drives and chew up too much clock.
It sounds easy, eh?
There's been talk of Peterson getting a heavier workload this week but I'd actually like to see Gerhart more involved too, particularly in the passing game, where I think he actually posses a genuine matchup problem for most defenses.
This one is a tall order...
Edit: It occurred to me that all of that can basically summed up as: they have to play better.