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00:00The question we're essentially asking, have the Niners earned the contender label?
00:05Because I heard it.
00:06I heard it from some callers.
00:08We see it from texters, tweeters.
00:10Spadone said it earlier this morning.
00:11I was listening to him and Bonte, and he's like, look, the 49ers, I don't really buy
00:15them as contenders.
00:16They haven't beaten anybody.
00:18The funniest list of all in the list that we were going through, because I said it's
00:22also true essentially for the Packers, the Bills, the Commanders, and the Chargers.
00:27We didn't go through the Chargers.
00:29Listen to this.
00:30The Los Angeles Chargers, who are six and three, and coached by Harbaugh, so it's very
00:34believable because we know he is often running a program that is successful.
00:39Jim Harbaugh, good coach.
00:42List of teams they've beaten, ready?
00:44Six and three.
00:46Probably going to be a wild card team in the AFC.
00:50Six and three, ready?
00:52Raiders, Panthers, Broncos, Saints, Browns, Titans.
00:57Wow.
00:58Wow.
00:59That's the list.
01:00Now, they have had some good teams on their schedule.
01:03They played the first place Chiefs.
01:05They played the first place Steelers, and they played the first place Cardinals.
01:09L-L-L.
01:10Yeah.
01:11So, are the Chargers good?
01:14Well, I think so, and I watch a lot of Charger football.
01:17I have them as my defense on my fantasy team, so.
01:19That's a good pick, by the way.
01:20Well, yeah, and their defense is really good, and they can run the ball, and this team is
01:25built in Harbaugh's image, and so, yeah, they're a good team.
01:30They're a good regular season team.
01:31Are they going to be good enough to beat Baltimore or Kansas City or even Pittsburgh or Buffalo
01:37in the playoffs?
01:38No, I don't like their chances, but they look to me like a 10 or an 11 win team based on
01:43regular season, and ultimately, when you have a schedule that is like that, and this is
01:48where I look at Washington last night, where you go up against a Philadelphia team that
01:52is now playing some good football, and they've won six in a row, and Washington, as you
01:57mentioned before, they haven't beaten anyone either, but they had that last place schedule,
02:01which brings me back to the NFC West and Arizona.
02:04Arizona, by virtue of their four-win year last year, I think, three or four, they were
02:09terrible last year.
02:10Yeah, they were bad.
02:11I can't remember.
02:12I thought it was four, but whatever it was, they were last place in the division, so you
02:15get a last place schedule, and it helps you.
02:17But do you count Arizona right now as a good team, because Washington beat them by four
02:21touchdowns.
02:23I mean, Arizona beat the Niners, so for me, you can't look at the Niners as a good team
02:26without looking at Arizona, a team ahead of them in the standings, and a team that beat
02:31them.
02:32You can't look at the Niners as good without looking at Arizona as good.
02:35Commanders seven and four now.
02:37They have lost two in a row because they played two first place clubs, Steelers and Eagles.
02:42Here's the list for the Commanders.
02:43They've beaten the Giants twice.
02:45They've beaten the Bengals, the Cardinals, the Browns, the Panthers, and the Bears, and
02:51oh, by the way, asterisk on the Bears, that was a Hail Mary.
02:54Yeah.
02:55That was a Hail Mary.
02:56The Browns have two wins, and the Giants have two wins, and you beat them twice, and so
03:01you can look at the record of teams they've beaten, and it makes the Niners' schedule
03:05look a little bit tougher.
03:07And so for me, and this is something we can get into about the Niners, if they go 10-7,
03:12which means they would win five of their last eight, for me, 10-7 is okay if you win the
03:18right five.
03:19And I sent this to the group earlier when I was crossing the Golden Gate Bridge after
03:23my trip to Marin, and you hit me with a double question mark emoji, and so I tried to follow
03:28up with exactly what I meant.
03:30I think that's just the way it shows up.
03:32Yeah.
03:33Like, you know, when you hold your finger down on the text, and then one of the options
03:36that you can like it, you can love it, you can exclamation point it, or you can question
03:41it.
03:42There's something else too, isn't there?
03:43You're talking to an Android guy.
03:44I know.
03:45No, no, no.
03:46That's why I'm explaining it to him.
03:47It's not a double question mark.
03:48It's just the way that you guys get it, and you iPhone people, you iPhone sycophants.
03:52You iPhone people, why don't you just say, you, everybody who's listening, go ahead.
03:56Wrong, wrong.
03:57All of you imbeciles who are a part of the cult, all of you sycophants for the inferior
04:04technology, what we now get is exactly what you give to each other.
04:09I get what you normally, like it used to show up as a separate text message.
04:14It doesn't anymore.
04:15No, but you-
04:16I get your stupid emojis that you send.
04:17I know, but you get them and it lists the whole thing.
04:20That doesn't happen on my phone.
04:21You don't know what I get?
04:22I do know what you get.
04:23No, you don't know what I get.
04:24No, but we get it too.
04:26What you get is what you get.
04:27What I get is what you send to each other, and now I don't get a new text message.
04:32I get your question mark or your exclamation.
04:35I wanted to know what you meant.
04:37It was a please explain.
04:38It was a Roxy Bernstein.
04:39And I explained it.
04:41Go ahead, but that doesn't matter if you explain it to me.
04:43There are other people.
04:44At least I'm under the impression listening right now.
04:46I would hope so.
04:47Explain to them.
04:48If not, then we should pack our things.
04:50Probably.
04:51What it means is if they go five and three, what's important is the five that you win,
04:55and that means you beat Seattle, Green Bay, the Rams, the Cardinals, and either Chicago
05:02or Detroit.
05:03So you're giving up on the, and I get what you mean, not giving up on them, but you're
05:07lessening the importance of the trips to Buffalo and Miami.
05:11Correct.
05:12Because AFC.
05:13Exactly.
05:14Right.
05:15So if you beat the Cardinals, the Rams, and the Seahawks, I do believe that'll put you
05:21in position to win the division.
05:23If Arizona is also 10 and seven, you're going to win that tiebreaker based on head to head.
05:28It's a push divisional record.
05:30You would win over Arizona.
05:32And if it comes down to a wild card spot and it comes down to conference record, that's
05:37where the Packer game and the bear game and the lion game, that's where those become more
05:42important.
05:43We're going to know a lot more about Arizona in two and a half weeks.
05:47They don't play this week, so we'll learn nothing.
05:50I will predict that they will still be six and four after this weekend.
05:54Koo koo!
05:55Lock it in.
05:56But then it's back to back road trips.
05:59As the weather gets funky, this will matter for one of them, not the other one, but back
06:03to back road trips to Seattle and Minnesota.
06:06Now Seattle's not a great football team, but that's a hard one.
06:09That's a hard division battle and could be raining up there over Thanksgiving week in
06:14Seattle.
06:15And then they go to Minnesota and then they have to host Seattle the very following week.
06:19If they navigate those three games at two and one, then I think Arizona is going to
06:24be a problem all the way to the end, which may well happen.
06:28But if they go one and two and find themselves seven and six or worse, if they find themselves
06:34six and seven, then I think the Niners are going to have the opportunity to grab the
06:40division.
06:41Although, during all of that, the 49ers have really hard assignments as well.
06:46Like we're going to know.
06:47We're going to know.
06:48Even if they go ahead and handle their business this weekend, we're going to know after trips
06:53to Green Bay and Buffalo what we're actually dealing with here.
06:57Now when I threw the question out about a half hour ago, you didn't even blink.
07:03Of the 49ers earned the label this year, contender.
07:08You didn't blink.
07:09You said yes.
07:11What's your answer?
07:12Why?
07:13Yes, because I look at the NFC and I see eight teams for seven spots and we can go through
07:19the list and talk about teams that are out.
07:22And I look at Dallas and New York and Chicago now with a new O.C. and the Flus in maybe
07:29a little bit of a precarious spot and a quarterback who does not look to me to be the sauce just
07:36yet.
07:37So teams that are out.
07:38Dallas, New York, Chicago, New Orleans and Carolina.
07:43That's a quick five.
07:44So now we're down to 11 teams and I look at the West and I look at the Rams and Seattle
07:49and you can kind of put the pillow over Seattle's face this weekend with a victory.
07:53You would be then up two games on Seattle and you would hold the tiebreaker over Seattle.
07:57I think Seattle's on the precipice of maybe bowing out.
08:00The Rams are interesting.
08:02I think that the NFC South is a one team division and Atlanta right now is in firm control.
08:08So that puts Tampa Bay in a tough spot.
08:11So I look at Philly, Washington, Detroit, Minnesota, Green Bay.
08:15That's five.
08:16And then Atlanta and one team out of the West.
08:19OK, however, just my first response to your answer is it sounds to me like you're answering
08:25it as to whether or not the Niners are contenders to make the playoffs.
08:29I don't.
08:30That's not at least for me.
08:31That's not how I was asking it.
08:33Oh, for me, it's one thing leading to another.
08:35OK, so are you saying that all playoff teams are title contenders?
08:38I'm saying this team as a playoff team is a title.
08:42And why?
08:43So why do you think that even if they make the playoffs, let's say they are one of those
08:46seven teams, they find their way in, whether it's the West or the wild card.
08:50Why?
08:51Why?
08:52Why have they earned that label as a team that could win the whole thing, despite the
08:55fact that they're five and four and they have, quote, beaten nobody because of what Draymond
09:00Green said yesterday on the Warner Report podcast talking about the muscle memory.
09:06And I know he was saying that, you know, until you win a title, you can't really know what
09:10it is to win a title.
09:12But I look at this team under Brock Purdy, four and two in the playoffs, really four
09:16and one.
09:17If you discount the Philly game where his arm fell off.
09:19But I'm going to include that because it's on his ledger.
09:21They're four and two.
09:22This team with McCaffrey and Debo and George and Fred and Nick, we don't know if he'll
09:27play this weekend, but I hope he's going to be OK.
09:30And Dray is coming back and the rest of it.
09:32And Kyle Shanahan, I do think that this team knows what it takes to win playoff games.
09:37So if this team gets in, even if they're the seven, let's say they squeak in as a wild
09:42card at ten and seven and you're the seven seed and you then have to go up against Philadelphia
09:48on the road, you might be a small underdog, but you've won there and you know what it
09:52takes to win.
09:53Yeah, that game wouldn't scare me at all.
09:56Right.
09:57I wouldn't scare me at all.
09:58So you go to Philly and you beat Philly and then you would go on and take on Detroit.
10:03You go to Detroit, a team you beat last year in the playoffs.
10:05The road games to the NFC North in January are the ones that would right now, as we see
10:11here today, those are the ones that would give me pause.
10:13Any of those three teams.
10:15I think road games to those three spots could be tough in the playoffs, Green Bay, Minnesota,
10:21Detroit.
10:22I think those could be tough.
10:23But Washington doesn't scare me.
10:25Philadelphia doesn't scare me.
10:26Atlanta doesn't scare me.
10:28Arizona doesn't scare me.
10:29And I certainly don't take winning on the road in the NFC North off the table.
10:33It's possible.
10:34Of course.
10:35Here's maybe another way, though, to ask it, because I like I agree with you, but I think
10:40both of us were coming from a place where we're adding previous seasons into the conversation.
10:47Like if you just spotlight this year and ask for evidence of the Niners being a title contender,
10:54I'll submit.
10:56I don't really see it.
10:58I don't see it.
10:59There's not any of the nine games where I walked out and I went, man, now that's a squad.
11:05I probably walked out of opening night feeling that way.
11:09But that was because there's all kinds of stuff going on that we didn't realize.
11:11I thought the Jets were going to be a good football team.
11:13They're not.
11:14They're not.
11:16So none of the games have made me feel like this team is going to be a true problem for
11:25opponents.
11:27But I believe they're a contender because old habits die hard and because of I love
11:32that you reference what Draymond is saying, where it's like, no, this is a muscle memory
11:37of people who have succeeded in this position before.
11:40And the Niners have been 3-4 and 3-5 before, and look what they've done since they went
11:453-4.
11:46Well, it's not perfect, but they've won the next two football games, the 2-0 since then.
11:50We told them, right?
11:51That's what we said.
11:52Second half of the year, November, here we go.
11:54And he's won another November game already.
11:57So maybe it's headed that way again, and maybe the muscle memory helps.
12:01I think they're a contender because they've been a contender.
12:04I don't think they're a contender based on anything that I've seen them do so far this
12:08season.
12:09See, I would disagree only to the extent that what we've seen is a little bit uneven.
12:14But I look at the metrics, the basic metrics, yards per play.
12:18They're number two on offense and yards per play.
12:21They're number two in passing.
12:22They're number three in running.
12:24So offensively, even without Christian McCaffrey for much of the year, they've been good.
12:29The red zone has been a problem and closing out games, it's been a problem.
12:33But I look at an offense with, you know, the top five MVP candidate from last year coming
12:38back and that offense should continue to get better.
12:42And defensively, they've been a little bit uneven, but they're still toward the top half
12:47yards per play allowed.
12:49They're number seven.
12:50I get it.
12:51That stuff almost like frustrates me though, as a 49er fan.
12:55It should because you should be seven and two, right?
12:57Why are you ranked so high in everything and you're five and four and just ripping
13:03our fingernails off every time you win a game?
13:05Yeah.
13:06Week in and week out.
13:07Why?
13:08Yep.
13:09Why?
13:10It's because your special teams, they're worse than my picks.
13:12And I would love to have, hi, this is Kevon Looney, dude, why don't you send that down
13:19to, uh, Hey, this is Dan Dibley from Willard and Dibs.
13:22Hey Kyle, your special teams, they stink.
13:26You can look at every single game, it's probably, and that's been a big, a big part of it.
13:33And you know, Kyle's clock management has been a little bit wonky and you had a field
13:37goal kicker who missed three last game.
13:40Each game has had a unique reason why it wasn't an Ottoman game.