It has been a long time coming... and it finally took over this past season.. all out offensive displays like we have never seen.. mostly in the passing game. Mind numbing numbers.. offensive shootouts and TD passes by the bushel basket.

Defense after defense shredded on a weekly basis.. if you don't have a dynamic fast pass rush.. you were sitting ducks.. and if you got home be wary, the "Don't touch me red jersey" mentality has extended fully past the practice field. Almost to the point of why bother restricting them with shoulder pads and a helmet.. they sure in the hell don't need them to play this brand of football.

Okay.. that last comment is a little preemptive at this point, give it another off-season or two of rule book tweaking.. lord knows that the mass public is devouring this brand of football.. these basketball type scores on a weekly basis.

Well don't include me in that demographic.. I truly despise this version of the game.. this rule born bias towards the offense. Teams selling out to take advantage of the slanted and unbalanced rules. I don't blame them for doing so.. but damn is it disheartening to watch the pure nature of the sport wither away.

There are a few teams that buck those trends and play a more traditional version of football.. and two of the leading teams play this weekend. The Ravens and the Niners..

Albeit the win over the Saints was more about the offense keeping up with the Saints last weekend.. but anyone watching that game knows that their defense came to play last Saturday and dropped them hammer on anyone wearing those gold helmets. Good old fashion smack them in the mouth football.

The Ravens Texans game was another old fashion grind them out football game with two defenses that play a complete football game.

So there is hope that football, the true game of football by nature, can be saved.. I doubt it as the NFL will do there best to take that away from defenses as well.. but there is a flicker of hope.

I know.. lawsuits, injuries, and ratings oh my.. but honestly the traditional roots of the gladiator sport are fading rapidly.. and it is only a matter of time before that trickles down to all levels of the game.

Just don't color me a fan of the movement....

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Agree with you on most of this, Shawn. (And welcome back, by the way! Great to see you!)

Especially about SF.

Though I have one small quibble and one larger one.

The small one: Isn't it annoying that the most fundamentally sound team in the NFL (SF) is from the land of fruits, nuts, and Nancy Pelosi?

The larger one: Baltimore defense is better than the Packers is. That doesn't take much. But I personally think they are much less impressive than SF. They look better because mainstream football is so dominated by suckitude with the fundamentals. But in the earlier eras of smashmouth gladitorial combat, I think they'd be a second tier team.

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Yes.. yes it does.. for a person that once loathed anything 49er related.. it is hard to stomach. However, I am thoroughly impressed with Jim Harbaugh as a coach.. took a team that was beaten down and raised them up with very little off season to do so. IMO.. coach of the year in the NFC.



Yes the Ravens are old and slow.. but there overall brand of football is balanced. They run the ball effectively.. the ball control on offense and they still have a sound defense that plays balls out when Reed is in the game. And they can apply pressure.. something that a majority of the defenses today can't with the quick throw mentality.

But yes.. they are not the physical presence that say the 49ers are. Watch out for that Texan team next season on defense.. that is one hunger young defense.

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It really bugs me to say this, but I think I enjoyed watching the SF defense in the Saints game more than any other game this year.

(Well, maybe not more than the second Packer-Viking game. But second to that.)

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Agreed.. that was a pleasure to watch that game.. some say it was boring until the last couple minutes.. I strongly disagree.. to me, the was one of the best games I watched this season, hands down.

And you could see that it was drawing a direct effect on the Saints offense.. they were looking to get hit. One of the few times we seen that all season.

The defenses will adjust.. but with the rule book and fines directly opposing them.. how much is the question.

IMO.. this is the beginning of a less physical league, but IMO, backassward in thinking.

If they allow more hand checking and contact from the defenders in the passing game, it will prevent players from reaching full speed, thus reducing the impact of hits and thus making the game safer.

But instead, because the NFL wants an offensively oriented game, they actually expose players on both sides of the ball to hits with greater impacts.

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Don't forget Zombieslayer, a regular in the Haight Ashbury district. "If your going to San Francisco..."

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I agree full heartedly, Shawn.

I'm apparently am one of the few that enjoyed the first LSU/Bama match up as much, if not more than, as I enjoyed the Rose Bowl game (that was some crazy lack of defenses!). And I was watching the Rose Bowl with some serious bias, not so much with the SEC matchup.

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I've been bitching about the offensive favored rules for a long time now and even think Quarterbacks are overly protected. Look, injuries are part of the damn game! If Don Majkowski wouldn't have been injured, how long before Brett Favre emerged? Or any other countless examples. The fact is, the NFL is SUPPOSED to be dangerous... its why we fucking watch the games! What are you gonna watch, WWF or MMA? MMA because there's MUCH more danger involved!

Remove the damn helmets in the NFL and it'll fix a lot of problems. I explained how an why in another post. You all can look an find it.

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I'm a little in the middle on how you posed this one...

Let me start by saying that I prefer defense. I think that the two most enjoyable games I've ever seen were the 17-7 victory over the Cowboys in 2009 and the 9-0 win against the Jets in 2010...

That said, I'm not that big a fan of that smashmouth style of football you speak of.

Yes, I still like to see the Ravens defense play these days, but not like I used to.

It's that psychological effect, the speed, the surgical precision that does it for me.

Even on sacks, while there's nothing better than seeing Reggie White fling a 300 pound man to the ground with one hand, I prefer having those speedy edge rushers. A Dwight Freeney, a Willie Davis, someone who has that ridiculous agility and speed for a person that size.

That said, any form of defense is suffering right now. It's all geared towards offense and I'm not a fan, either.

Ps. I know, without those 350 pound NTs, those 320 DEs, all that speed would be worthless, but you get my point.

Well, I don't disagree that the actual violence plays some part, but I'm drawn to MMA more than pro wrestling because it's actual competition, and not theater. I mean, I'm not a pro wrestling hater, if people like to watch movies, then pro wrestling is okay too.

MMA > football, these days for me. I don't know if it's because of the rule changes like Pack93z said, or post-Super Bowl depression syndrome (what do we have to win anymore?).

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