After kicking off the season on the road against the Green Bay Packers, the 49ers played their first home game of the season against another NFC North opponent, the Detroit Lions. The 49ers defeated the Lions 27-19, to improve 2-0 on the season and have many analyst debating are the 49ers the best team in football?

Quarterback Alex Smith; lead the Niners, completing 20 of 31 passes for 226 yards and two touchdowns. Both touchdowns were caught by athletic tight-end, Vernon Davis; who also had 5 receptions for 73 yards. San Fran’s running back, Frank Gore also contributed to the victory with his 17 carries for 89 yards and a touchdown. Fourth year wide receiver, Michael Crabtree had a solid game catching 6 passes for 67 yards. Smith has been very impressive lately and has shown a vast amount of improvement since his earlier years in the NFL. Even though, starting off the season 2-0, Smith stated in the post-game press conference, “There is a lot of room for improvement.”

San Francisco’s tenacious, hard-hitting defense was led by linebacker Patrick Willis, who tallied up a total of 9 tackles. 49ers defense also forced Lions quarterback, Matthew Stafford to throw his 4th interception of the year. Stafford struggled against the Niners secondary and only completed 19 of 32 passes for 230 yards and one touchdown. Stafford’s lone touchdown pass was too tight end Brandon Pettigrew. Star receiver Calvin Johnson was held to 8 receptions and 94 yards.

This is Johnson’s 2nd consecutive game without a touchdown. Kevin Smith was the Lions main running threat in Sunday night’s performance carrying the ball 16 times for 53 yards. Stafford and the Detroit offense have yet to find their rhythm this season and seem to be a bit out of sync. “I don’t think as an offense we’ve hit our stride yet,” Stafford said while addressing the press.

The Niners will be on the road for their next game, Sunday September 23 against another NFC north squad the, Minnesota Vikings. San Francisco will look to continue to take advantage of the mistakes their defense forces upon opponents. As for the Detroit Lions they will be heading south September 23 against a winless Tennessee Titans team and hope to get their offense to finally be as explosive as it was last season.

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The San Francisco 49ers started their preseason on a positive note after taking down the Minnesota Vikings 17-6.

49ers starting quarterback, Alex Smith, completed 3-of-3 passes for 16 yards and one touchdown pass in one series of play. Smith connected with fouth year wide receiver Brett Swain for a 4-yard touchdown pass towards the end of the first quarter. Michael Crabtree only caught one pass for three yards.

The Niners are trying to upgrade their pass game this season after finishing 29th in total passing yards last year. With the addition of veteran, Randy Moss, and Super Bowl XLVI standout, Mario Manningham, the Niners boast a revamped receiving corps for the 2012-13 campaign.  

On Friday night, most of the 49ers’ offense came from their strong running game, not to mention that starting running back Frank Gore did not play. Anthony Dixon had 12 carries for 46 yards, Rock Cartwright had 8 carries for 44 yards, and newly acquired Brandon Jacobs had four carries for 31 yards, including a breakout 23-yard run. Back-up quarterback Colin Kaepernick outran everybody and tallied up 92 yards on the ground, including a 78-yard quarterback keeper for the 49ers’ second touchdown. San Fran out ran the Vikings, 260 to 82.

The Niners have serious running back depth, especially with the addition of Brandon Jacobs to help in short down situations, but also by drafting rookie LaMichael James. Both Jacobs and James, along with Kendall Hunter, will be competing for 2nd string running back this offseason.

The Minnesota Vikings have some evident offensive issues that they should be concerned about, especially after tallying up only 208 total yards against the Niners. Quarterback Christian Ponder completed 4-of-9 passes for 80 yards in his first game of the year. Ponder, a second year starter, still has a lot to prove if he is going to continue to be a starter in Minnesota. Ponder was towards the bottom of the list for quarterbacks when it came to yards, touchdowns, quarterback rating, and competition percentage.

The Vikings offensive woes do not end there, they are also without star running back Adrian Peterson. Peterson suffered a gruesome knee injury towards the end of last season and is still not 100% better. Peterson has been practicing with the starters and is hoping to play towards the end of preseason. If Peterson is not ready, Toby Gerhart would most likely start. Gerhart carried the ball 5 times for 31 yards in Friday’s game against the Niners.

Ponder and the Vikings will be back in action Friday, August 17 against the Buffalo Bills. As for the Niners and their prolific run game, they will be back in action Saturday, August 18 against the Houston Texans.

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The Baltimore Ravens (8-3) emerged victorious against the visiting San Francisco 49’ers (9-2) in a game dubbed as the ‘Harbaugh Bowl’. A huge defensive effort from the Ravens was enough to secure a 16-6 victory as they secure their position at the top of the AFC North.

Unsurprisingly, the Ravens looked keen to run the ball early on, as the home side were 6-0 on the season when running back Ray Rice has 18 or more carries in a game. This allowed the passing game to open up for Joe Flacco, and he found Anquan Boldin for a couple of good gains as Baltimore moved to within field goal range and took a three point lead in the game on the opening drive.

The 49’ers opening drive was not as successful, as the visiting team went three and out, extending the Ravens record of shutting out opposition teams on opening drives to 19 games. This was to the delight of the injured Ray Lewis, or ‘Mufasa’ as his teammates call him, who was doing a very good impression of a lion as he prowled up and down the sideline.

San Francisco kicked a field goal of their own to tie the game up, and were unlucky not to take the lead when Alex Smith found Ted Ginn for what would have been a 75-yard touchdown pass, only for the play to be called back for a penalty against the 49’er offense.

The home side then put themselves back into the lead with another field goal, but were disheartened to not have got a touchdown when they had managed to get into a first and goal situation. This extended San Francisco’s steak of not allowing a touchdown in the first half to five games, the highest in the NFL.

The first half was then brought to an end with the 49’ers moving down the field and looking to target a deep threat, only for Ravens cornerback Ladarius Webb to come up with a great interception in the end zone, and allowing Baltimore to maintain their lead into the second half.

The third quarter offered little of note apart from the 49’ers leveling the scores with their second field goal of the game. Towards the end of the quarter however, the Ravens put together a 76-yard drive which saw completed passes to seven different receivers, and culminated in an 8-yard touchdown pass to tight end Dennis Pitta at the beginning of the fourth quarter.

Defensive coordinator Chuck Pagano will have every reason to be pleased with himself and the Baltimore defense who had been excellent all game, but seemed to find an even higher gear in the fourth quarter, recording multiple sacks and tackles for a loss.

An addition to their momentous defensive effort, they added another field goal, extending their lead to 10 points and making it a two possession game, which ultimately proved too much for the 49’ers to overcome. Baltimore managed to record nine sacks in the game, which tied the franchise record, and included a haul of three for linebacker Terrell Suggs, who continues to show that he can become the leader of this defense when Lewis does eventually retire.

The loss, although disheartening, will not damage San Francisco’s playoff hopes, and should the Green Bay Packers slip up in the playoffs, then this matchup could very well meet again in Indiana at the Super Bowl.

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The San Francisco 49ers (6-1) improved their record with a 20-10 victory over the visiting Cleveland Browns (3-4) at Candlestick Park. Although the Browns were tipped by many to fall short against the 49ers, Head Coach Pat Shurmur will be disappointed that his side was unable to kick on from their hard-fought win over the Seahawks a week ago, and move beyond the .500 mark.

The Browns were without both first choice running back, Peyton Hillis, and wide receiver, Mohamed Massaquoi, who currently leads the team in receiving yards. With these omissions, it looked as if they may struggle offensively, especially against the in-form defense of the 49ers.

Throw into the mix that Cleveland have only had nine plays of 20 or more yards so far in the season, by far the worst record in the league, and the Browns looked up against it from the off.

With Cleveland’s defense performing so well against the Seahawks last week, allowing just 137 yards, Defensive Coordinator Dick Jauron will have been unhappy that San Francisco managed to put together two drives, culminating in a rushing touchdown and passing touchdown for Fred Gore and Michael Crabtree respectively, without his side being able to offer anything in return.

While Gore was dominating the rushing game for the 49ers, making 134 yards on 31 carries, the Browns, bereft of Hillis, were struggling to make a similar impact, with Chris Ogbonnaya leading for Cleveland with 37 yards from 11 carries.

Despite Colt McCoy putting in a valiant effort — completing 22 of his 34 attempts for 241 yards — the 49ers defense held strong;  linebacker Navarro Bowman had an impressive performance with a game-high 11 tackles to his name.

The visitors did put themselves in with a good chance of securing a comeback in the fourth when McCoy found Josh Cribbs for a 45-yard touchdown pass with just over six minutes left in the game. This reduced San Francisco’s lead to just seven points, making it a one possession game and setting up a tense ending.

Unfortunately for the Browns, though, San Francisco worked themselves into decent field position before David Akers kicked a field goal to make it a two possession game, effectively ending any hopes Cleveland had of heading home with the victory.

The Browns remain on the road, travelling to Houston to play the Texans next week in what will be another difficult match for Shurmur’s side, and what could very well be a game that plays a big part in whether Cleveland will regard this season as a success.

The 49ers, who will also be on the road next week, playing the Washington Redskins, are looking like they could make a real impact in the playoffs this season, and are already four games clear of their nearest divisional rivals, the Seahawks.

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The Detroit Lions were dropped from the ranks of the unbeatens, as they lost 25-19 to the San Francisco 49ers yesterday. The Lions, coming off an emotional win over the Chicago Bears on Monday Night Football, got off to a great early start and looked as though they were going to use that momentum to propel themselves to a win.

The game seemed to be over before it started, as Detroit defensive end Kyle Vanden Bosch forced a strip sack on 49ers first offense play from scrimmage which resulted in a Brandon Pettigrew TD reception for Detroit. Detroit jumped out to an early 10 nothing lead but was held scoreless for the rest of the half by a stout 49er defense.

The 49ers kept the Lions run game in check, rendering running backs Jahvid Best and Maurice Morris ineffective by only allowing 66 yards on the ground. After a Frank Gore touchdown, the defense racked up an 11 yard sack for safety on Matt Stafford that allowed the 49ers to gain some momentum and take a 12-10 lead into halftime.

From then on it was a back and forth game with a total of four lead changes. The final lead change came on an Alex Smith fourth-down, 6-yard pass touchdown pass to Delanie Walker to give the 49ers a 22-19 lead with 1:51 left in the 4^th quarter.  The Lions had a chance to drive for the winning touchdown but thanks to the pressure from the 49ers defense, they weren’t allowed a first down on the final drive.

However the fireworks were not over after the clock ticked down to zero. During the mandated head coach handshake on the field, Jim Harbaugh extended his right hand for Jim Schwartz and with his left slapped him on his back. Schwartz took offense to this and chased Harbaugh down the field yelling at him — the two had to be separated by players.

In a season full of unlikely events, and with two young hot shot coaches, I think we have the start of our most unlikely NFL rivalry.

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