This is my Sunday column. This Super Bowl will be nothing like the previous one: Seahawks 43, Broncos 8. This one will be grim. The Seahawks won’t blow out the Patriots. The Patriots won’t blow out the Seahawks. Neither team will score more than 20 points. This year’s Super Bowl could come down the final play. As opposed to last year’s Super Bowl, which came down to the first play….
SANTA CLARA — Here is the transcript of Vic Fangio’s Thursday press conference, courtesy of the 49ers’ P.R. department. What went into the decision to play LB Aaron Lynch so much more? And how do you use him? Is it similarly to the way you use LB Aldon Smith? Is it a little different? “Well, the decision was, he had been playing a lot in the first three games anyway….
SANTA CLARA — Jim Harbaugh was interviewed by Bay Area reporters Wednesday afternoon. Here’s a transcript courtesy of the 49ers’ P.R. department. Is this different, just the preparation in any way, facing somebody at the quarterback position that you know so well? “To some degree it is. I think about it. When we start talking about the scouting report and it’s [Chiefs QB] Alex [Smith]. So, yeah, in some ways…
Kendall Hunter is a wild card for the 49ers this season. Last season, he averaged 5.2 yards per attempt on 72 rushes before he tore his Achilles’ tendon Week 12 in New Orleans. Only five running backs had better yards-per-carry averages last season – C.J. Spiller, Adrian Peterson, Jamaal Charles and Andre Brown. Hunter currently is on the Physically Unable to Perform list, but he runs around on the sideline…
Which quarterback will have a better 2013 season – Colin Kaepernick or Alex Smith? On the one hand, Kaepernick is the superior physical talent and it isn’t close. On the other hand, Smith had the superior passer rating last season – 104.1 to Kaepernick’s 98.3. This season, Smith will have the younger and better running back (27-year-old Jamaal Charles vs. 30-year-old Frank Gore), and the younger and better No.1 wide…
I don’t know for sure, but as I analyze it, it seems the Chiefs are the team that will most likely trade for Alex Smith. Here’s why. The Chiefs legitimately have no realistic quarterback options on their roster. Matt Cassel has exhausted his nine lives, and Brady Quinn is not the answer. The Cardinals, the other team reportedly interested in Alex Smith, have at least three quarterbacks on their roster…
