Another NFL season is upon us, the 101st, and what could be the strangest one of the lot. In a lot of ways, the off season has flown by. Covid-19 has made everything, including time, screwy. The fact that most people haven’t really been able to do anything or go anywhere makes it a surprise the new season is here already, but it has been a continuous turgid blur since the beginning of March. The draft wasn’t the same, and we’ve had no pre-season this year. Additionally, the football (as in association football) season hasn’t really started yet, we usually have a month of that before the football (American football) starts in earnest.
Of course, in other ways it has been the longest off season possible. When your team is leading in the Superbowl and there is six minutes of madness and they end up losing, it’s a terrible feeling to drag into a long off-season (there aren’t many sports where the off season is longer than the actual season). Being so close and yet so far away. It still feels like a crushing blow.
The first game of the season is tonight, and that makes it even worse; the 49ers aren’t playing until Sunday night. If they could have held out and won, then it would be us playing tonight and kicking the season off.
Granted, when I wrote about my hopes for the 49ers’ season at this time last year, there was an expectation that we could have an improved season, that we could break even, or even, with a following wind get a winning season. The reality of that was far better than the expectation. If I had predicted that we would finish with the best record in the conference and homefield advantage, and use it to get to the Superbowl, you would probably have told me to lay off the drugs.
So, how do I follow that and look at the forthcoming season? It would be easy to say we can do the same again, but win that final game and fulfil the quest for six. And I would love that to be the case. The team has managed to keep the core of the squad that got us to the Superbowl last year. Yes, some players have moved on, but we have made some good additions. A lot of the players are going to be another year into Lynch and Shanahan’s scheme of things.
Yet, there are going to be so many unknowns this season; along with other things to consider. The main one being, is everyone will see us coming this year. Nobody expected the 49ers to be so good last year, no one would have bet on them being the team at 8-0 at the mid-point of the season. There were signs in the second half of the season that teams were getting a handle on us. There were a lot of close games. Only for us to approach the playoffs differently and confuse the opponents, smothering their game plans at birth. Until that last quarter. I expect teams to play differently against us this season, and there will be those raising their game because they are playing us, something that hasn’t happened in nearly a decade.
The atmosphere at games is going to be vastly different. Without crowds (or certainly not capacity ones), homefield advantage won’t mean a great deal (unless it’s in Green Bay at minus twenty degrees). This may well suit us, as we were one of four teams to post a 7-1 away record last season. Some teams will feel the difference; how will the Seahawks cope with only having twelve men in the stands and not the twelfth man? It will be a similar story for the defending champions as well, as the Chiefs have the loudest fans in the NFL. It’s not as if they are allowed to pump in crowd noise either, the Falcons got heavy fines for that a few seasons back.
There is, of course, the danger that Covid may hamper the season, and not just from a crowd perspective. If the expected surge in cases happens as autumn and winter come on, then full lockdowns could reappear, and seasons suspended or cancelled.
On top of this there is the political spectre standing as a threat in the shadows. There are likely to be player protests during the season. The NFL have been making some of the right noises recently, but they are still ultra-conservative and may not live up to those words if pressure comes from the Idiot-in-Chief, something that he likes to do, and has done in the past. There is an election during the season, and it would be no surprise to see widespread disturbances and martial law regardless of who wins. It’s another danger to the population of the US – most importantly – and it will be a possible additional cause of sporting events getting shut down.
Now that I’ve sounded doom and gloom all around, onto the season. We start against the Cardinals at home (as if that matters at the moment). We did do the double over our divisional rivals last year, but we made hard work of both games. This is likely to be another close encounter, one which I think we will win, but whatever the outcome, it will likely indicate how we are going to do for the season. I expect it to be the first of many encounters which end up being a lot closer than they should be and one that will be no good for any followers with heart conditions or high blood pressure.
The away game against the Rams will be in their new “most expensive in the world” stadium. With or without fans, a new stadium is difficult to play in, and it should be a case of another stadium the 49ers have won in, at the end of that game.
We end the season against the Seahawks again, this time at home. This is likely to be a division decider yet again, as both sides go into the game with 10-5 records and we come out with an 11-5 one. We won’t have home field advantage, but we will have enough to make it through to the conference final. After that I’m not prepared to say.
As for watching games, Sky now have an NFL channel, and I will imagine there will be a number of times the 49ers are shown live. Not that it matters, as I don’t have Sky Sports and I won’t be getting it, as it ties you in for years, screwing up your existing contract. If they stop putting RedZone on Sky Sports Mix though, there might be murders. And with the likelihood of numerous games on Sky then it probably means Game pass isn’t value for money either. Dodgy streams seem the most likely.
Which only leaves me with one thing to say before the season gets underway.
Go Niners!