From: rege@bongo.Berkeley.EDU (Ashutosh G. Rege)
Newsgroups: rec.sport.football.pro
Subject: Re: 49'ers will be champions again!!!
Date: 16 Apr 92 09:44:53 GMT
Article-I.D.: agate.sjialINN3mo
Organization: University of California at Berkeley
NNTP-Posting-Host: bongo.berkeley.edu

In article <1992Apr16.063022.16099@ncsu.edu> delarocq@eos.ncsu.edu 
(DERRELL EMERY LAROCQUE) writes:
>
>
>The 49ers will NOT win the NFC West or the conference for a number of reasons:
 

> 1. Joe Montana may be back, but the team has changed a lot.
>
  Only Lott, Craig and Millen are the three main people missing
  from the '90 season when they were a fumble away from an opportunity 
  to three-peat. Of these Lott was the only person whose presence was 
  sorely needed last season, and NOT mainly for intangible things 
  like "leadership" but because the secondary was thoroughly 
  decimated.

>2. The Falcons are overall better than the 49ers.

  Hmmm. Lets see :

  OL : The 49ers OL had an excellent season and barring serious injuries
       they should be fine with Foster the only aging veteran. 
       The Falcons allowed more sacks and both Hinton and Kenn
       are pretty ancient.
  QB : No comparison here, as many problems as he had Young is
       definitely more consistent than Miller and Bono was
       not exactly a pushover. (Of course if Joe is back ...)
  RB : Both teams have mediocre RB's though Rathman is a solid FB
       (who should be catching more balls IMHO). 
  WR/TE : Rison is a star but Rice is Rice and with Taylor,Sherrard, 
       and Jones this is a non-contest.
  Overall, offensively the Niners ranked 3rd and the Falcons 8th
  and things can only get better this year for the Niners.

  DL : The 49ers are solid, rock solid here. They've Carter, Fagan
       Holt, Roberts, Washington and Brown, all quality players.
       Falcons gave up Casillas to Dallas, and offhand I can
       only think of Tim Green as an impact player, correct
       me if I'm wrong.
  LB : Niners have stars in Haley and Harris (if he comes back from his 
       problems) and solid players in Romanowski, DeLong and Walter.
       Falcons have Tuggle and ?
  DB : Here the advantage has to go to the Falcons but the Niners
       have made a fair number of moves to beef up their secondary
       Plus Pollard and Davis should return. 
  Overall the Niner defense was ranked 6th, the Falcons 24th.

  Coach : Seifert may have been too conservative earlier in teh 
       season but hopefully that won't be the case this year. 
       Glanville is too disruptive for his own teams good IMHO.

>4. Their offense couldn't handle the defense of the Redskins, the Eagles,
>   or the Saints.
   
    Maybe you missed the 49ers-Eagles game last year. And
    Bono threw for over 300 yds and 3 tds against the Saints 
    in the second game (the first game was his first as a starter).
 
>5. Their defense, without Holmgren, would be pummeled by the Redskins, the
>   Eagles, the Falcons, the Lions, the Cowboys, the Bills, the Chiefs,
>   the Raiders (if Shroeder plays well), and the Saints.

    Ummm, err, but Holmgren was the OFFENSIVE coordinator; Seifert,
    once hailed as a defensive genius, is essentially the defensive 
    coordinator. 
 
Ashu Rege
P.S. The Falcons are a good young team which got rather lucky last year.
But their defense sucks big time and unless they get some decent 
pass rushers and run stuffers they aren't going anywhere. And of
course they need Miller to play a wee bit more consistently. If you
have to bet against the Niners winning the NFC West I'd go with
the Saints myself.
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