Paying Close Attention To Numbers

2-0 sure does feel good to start the season. Even better, the team is 2-0 in the NFC West after wins over division rivals Arizona Cardinals and Seattle Seahawks in weeks one and two. How about some even better numbers for you? Quarterback Shaun Hill is now 9-3 as a starter and remains undefeated at Candlestick Park. How about some more numbers?

QB Shaun Hill has an 87.8 QB rating thus far and has thrown zero interceptions, one of only five QBs yet to throw one so far this season. HB Frank Gore is just the second running back of all time to have two touchdown runs of over 75 yards in a single game. The other? Legendary running back Barry Sanders.  Gore also accounts for all four of the team’s offensive touchdowns so far this season. It seems when offensive coordinator Jimmy Raye said “It’s all about 21,” he meant it.

The 49ers are also rising in “the numbers,” meaning the Week 3 Power Rankings from several mainstay sources. Associated Content, NBC and Bleacher Report all have San Francisco within the top ten of the rankings which is about twenty spots higher than most outside the organization expected just a few weeks ago. ESPN, CBS and NFL.com all rank the 49ers within the top 13 of the league. This is certainly quite unexpected even for me, a die-hard fan.

One worrying number is the eight sacks the 49ers have given up over two weeks. The team is on pace, again, to lead the league in sacks allowed after doing so last season. Singletary has been quoted as saying he wants the load to be placed on the offensive line, but it’s this writers opinion that the line is far from ready to shoulder any kind of load.

How about another stat that could be seen as a huge improvement? Starting safety Dashon Goldson has more interceptions in two games than previous safety Mark Roman had in over two years–one. It’s not really a secret what my opinion of Roman is, so instead of getting into that I’ll move away from numbers.

It Was Ugly, But It Was Beautiful

This marks the second week in a row that head coach Mike Singletary has been quoted as referring to the game the Niners played as both ugly and beautiful at the same time. Certainly in Arizona the team looked…not so good. The defense stepped it up big time but the offensive line crumbled time and time again. Still, when the Niners played the Seahawks we saw an improved team out there on both sides of the ball.

It may have been an ugly win, but that record is getting prettier and prettier as the weeks roll by, and just as well the ugliness in week two could be described as average in comparison to how ugly the win in Arizona was.

What Does This Mean?

It means the 49ers are doing something this year that they couldn’t do last year: win in crunch time. The team failed at least twice last season in making sure a victory stayed a victory. They could not come together and play a full 60-minutes of football and these past two weeks they’ve done that. Next week the team plays an away game at Minnesota and should be a good test of their skill. The Niners will need to play a perfect game and upset the Vikes and I think they can do it if they continue to play this physical defense they’ve been playing. Check back tomorrow for a full player-by-player recap for the game against Seattle and the day after for a preview of this coming game against the Vikings.

And here’s to hoping come week five after playing the Rams the 49ers stay atop the West at 3-0.