Carolina v 49ers, week 1 GDT: Football is Back!

[Forge]

 

 

 

 

 

Sadly, with the release of Brooks, we are unlikely to see something similar to this again

 

Nor will we get to see this friendly smack talk with Kaep being gone

 

 

It's a new era in SF, and while I like what we have done this off season, don't love our chance in this game. We could shock them though - after all, the last two years we have been downright dreadful and started both years off with a victory. It'd be nice to think that Ward could go in this game, but that seems unlikely at this point, and even if he could, he's had almost no prep moving back to a position he hasn't played since college, so maybe we should just roll with Tartt and Jerome for the time being anyway. 

I think we will manage to do so work in this game though, and I don't think that it'll be a complete mess. I'm going to go with 37-20, but with the majority of that separation coming in the last quarter and a half. 

 

[J-ALL-DAY]

We have a six game opening game win streak going on. Haven't lost an opener since Harbaugh got here in 2011. 

But this will be a tough task obviously. I just want to be competitive unlike the last few years. Interested in seeing our how front 7 matches up against the Panthers run game. I think Cam is going to have a big game through the air though. Kelvin Benjamin is going to have a field day. 

Carolina 24 SF 20 

[48 1/2ers]

W #1 

New season with a lot of positive changes in the building. I'm feeling a little bit of that same magic that was going down in 2011, I dont expect us to dominate all season, but I think we match up well with Carolina. 

1- Panthers receiving corp is pretty weak and mostly just size which we have in our secondary but sadly we're also weak there. 

2- Rueben Foster and Navarro Bowman vs Thomas Davis and Luke Kuechly might be the battle for best LB duo in the league and we look pretty good there.

3- ATL put up 48 and 33 last year against CAR, I think Shanny can put together a good offensive gameplan. 

4- Cam still might have a tender shoulder/take it easy early in the season on hits based off last year 

49ers 30 - Panthers 24

[GW21]

Good news bad news: 

Good news-I have Christian McCaffery on my dynasty roster.

Bad news-The Carolina Panthers have Christian McCaffery on their roster.

[48 1/2ers]

Boulware spent his TC with the panthers, that's gotta be a plus to know how they might use McCaffrey/Samuel based off of what they did in practice to that point. 

[Forge]

Really feel like this game will hinge on the arm of Hoyer and the passing game, and truthfully, will be won or lost in the passing game for both teams.. Our run blocking has inspired absolutely no confidence so far, and the Carolina front is still the strength of their defense. This will be one of those games where Hyde will only hit 50 yards on the strength of like 18-20 carries, so I'm not expecting much there. But that Panther secondary? It's exploitable, and I don't think that our passing game has awful pieces. The offensive line, while not great, is a stronger pass blocking unit, and if Staley is a healthy start, that will help. Garcon is a very good receiver, though not explosive, but Goodwin can cover that part and I trust that Shanny can do a good job on the game planning to get the most from this offense 

On the flip side, I think our run defense is going to be solid this year, and the biggest issue will obviously be in the secondary, especially with Ward being a question mark. The Carolina offensive line is not great, so we should be able to get to Cam in the passing game while at least doing a serviceable job trying to contain McCaffrey and Stewart. The problem is that I really don't know who we have that can cover Olsen or Benjamin consistently. 

[J-ALL-DAY]

Stopping the run will obviously be important, but can we generate any pressure on Cam? If not, he is going to kill us just like he did last year. Our pass protection actually held up very well in preseason, but this will be a whole different animal against Carolina. I don't doubt our two tackles will play well, but the interior OL is going to get crushed. Nonetheless, excited as usual for week 1. This is one of the few weeks the last two years where the team has really shown up. After week 1? We come back to reality LOL.

[big9erfan]

12 hours ago, J-ALL-DAY said:

We have a six game opening game win streak going on. Haven't lost an opener since Harbaugh got here in 2011. 

But this will be a tough task obviously. I just want to be competitive unlike the last few years. Interested in seeing our how front 7 matches up against the Panthers run game. I think Cam is going to have a big game through the air though. Kelvin Benjamin is going to have a field day. 

Carolina 24 SF 20 

One of the more surprising stats I've seen lately.  Had no idea we were opening the season so strongly even over the past 2 or 3 seasons

[StevenK]

I agree this game will be interesting. I think it could go our way or Carolina's. If we come out playing like our preseason game against Minn, we should be able to win. Our defense will be my main concern, especially DB play. I wonder who will be on Olsen. Newton may have a down year again, but I hope not because I have him for fantasy football lol. I think we will do fine against the run, but we will have to put a lot of pressure on Newton like J mentioned. Should be a good game, final score, Carolina 31 - 20. 

[rudyZ]

Someone voted for the kicker and it wasn't me... what's happening?!

[y2lamanaki]

Obviously very interested to see how we come out of this opening week, and what the starters might actually look like this year (hopefully like against Minnesota). Most looking forward to Goodwin then Foster in the poll. I have a pretty excellent guess what we have in Foster. I'm more intrigued to see what we might have in Goodwin. 

If I could add an answer to the poll, the answer would be I'm most looking forward to Kyle Shanahan. 

[Forge]

17 minutes ago, y2lamanaki said:

Obviously very interested to see how we come out of this opening week, and what the starters might actually look like this year (hopefully like against Minnesota). Most looking forward to Goodwin then Foster in the poll. I have a pretty excellent guess what we have in Foster. I'm more intrigued to see what we might have in Goodwin. 

If I could add an answer to the poll, the answer would be I'm most looking forward to Kyle Shanahan. 

That's actually a good addition to the poll. I should have put him on there. 

[N4L]

14 hours ago, 48 1/2ers said:

W #1 

New season with a lot of positive changes in the building. I'm feeling a little bit of that same magic that was going down in 2011, I dont expect us to dominate all season, but I think we match up well with Carolina. 

1- Panthers receiving corp is pretty weak and mostly just size which we have in our secondary but sadly we're also weak there. 

2- Rueben Foster and Navarro Bowman vs Thomas Davis and Luke Kuechly might be the battle for best LB duo in the league and we look pretty good there.

3- ATL put up 48 and 33 last year against CAR, I think Shanny can put together a good offensive gameplan. 

4- Cam still might have a tender shoulder/take it easy early in the season on hits based off last year 

49ers 30 - Panthers 24

You stole all of my thunder. Especially #1 and #3. 

mccaffrey's first NFL game, should be interesting to see how they utilize him. They clearly wanted to add some speed to their team after relying on purely power for so long. 

Will be interesting to see how our OL holds it together for a whole game. 

[Fureys49ers]

They have what I feel is an underrated DL with the two veteran DEs and Star and Shortt at DT. I'm expecting our OL to have a rough night in both run blocking and pass pro. 

Even with Shanny having good success against them last year he had a much different team than what he'll be working with this Sunday.

Panthers WRs are no world beaters but I still remember what a KB fresh off not playing for a year did to us last year. Another year for Funchess and add in McCaffrey as a weapon to line up as a mismatch anywhere on the field and it could be a long day for our secondary. And I haven't even touched on Olsen who's always a threat in he middle of the field. Our CBs are going to struggle with the physicality the Panthers WRs play with.

Dont get me wrong I think we are much improved and the Panthers certainly have question marks of their own but I can't see us winning and would be happily suprised with a very close game.

[Forge]

4 minutes ago, Fureys49ers said:

They have what I feel is an underrated DL with the two veteran DEs and Star and Shortt at DT. I'm expecting our OL to have a rough night in both run blocking and pass pro. 

Even with Shanny having good success against them last year he had a much different team than what he'll be working with this Sunday.

Panthers WRs are no world beaters but I still remember what a KB fresh off not playing for a year did to us last year. Another year for Funchess and add in McCaffrey as a weapon to line up as a mismatch anywhere on the field and it could be a long day for our secondary. And I haven't even touched on Olsen who's always a threat in he middle of the field. Our CBs are going to struggle with the physicality the Panthers WRs play with.

Dont get me wrong I think we are much improved and the Panthers certainly have question marks of their own but I can't see us winning and would be happily suprised with a very close game.

Pretty much where I am. I don't know how we stop Olsen and Benjamin in the receiving game at critical junctures. I Think we will largely bottle and contain the running game, though their stats may appear more impressive than they actually are with possible broken plays and Cam scrambling and breaking free. 

I really don't worry about the o-line in protection. Not that we are great in that regard or anything, but Hoyer is very quick at getting rid of the ball, and I expect a ton of quick hitters, roll outs, etc that will help neutralize that rush.