Just a (early) hunch...: Gut Check Week 6

...no, no, not like that...

Like a lot of people, I think the Giants will lose, so they'll likely win. I can live with that. But they don't have everybody on the field. And while that may pass against the Panthers and the Browns, I'm not sure how it will cut it in The Stick. Stop the run and see if the Niners can pass their way out of it against the Giants' depleted secondary? My fingers are crossed. Additionally, the GMen likely need a few big plays on offense to go their way to make it something like the game they want to play. The 49ers are really good at dictating the way games go.

Impressions & Depressions: Week 5

Unitas goes deep into the future.

Impressions

• Like has been mentioned somewhat this week, considering the era he played, Johnny Unitas' record of  a touchdown pass in 47 consecutive game is very impressive. I think it also means that Brees breaking it in this passing league on that offense is less so.

• It's odd, but coupled together in American football are brutality and sentimentality. Maybe its the number of games played with the physical nature of the game itself compared to other sports that makes it so manic, I don't know. But I wonder if it has always been this way. Are these "men" out there in the early 20th century sense of the word?

• The 49ers and Patriots are impressive for opposite reasons this season. The 49ers have really not changed and are still winning big, and the Patriots have changed quite considerably and are also winning big. Of course, they're destroying teams that have almost no business playing in the Canadian league let alone the NFL (cough *Bills*, cough *Jets*).

Depressions

• I have more to say on this later, but cheering when Matt Cassel gets hurt is bad at face value, but is it a single event in the history of the game or is it more common than people would like to admit.

• Billy Cundiff is out of a job again. I can only imagine his life right now. Do you press on or move on? I say he presses on. This all began when he missed a game-ending field goal for the Ravens against the Patriots in last year's AFC Conference Championship game. One could argue his miss was just as much to blame on him as it was on Raven's head coach John Harbaugh's sometimes poor game management skills rearing its ugly head. That receiver, Lee Evans, not holding on to a well thrown pass from QB Joe Flacco didn't help either.

• And the Bountygate continues...how awful. this just looks pissy at this point. Lance Armstrong was surrounded by athletes taking enhancements and these guys had to have been part of a bounty program generated by Greg Williams. Now Goodell just looks stupid, but he's been working on it since the beginning of the season with the ref lockout.

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