49ers vs. Saints: A look ahead to this monumental Week 14 showdown

The San Francisco 49ers are set for another high-profile NFC showdown with the New Orleans Saints in Week 14 after last week’s disappointing loss.

After Sunday’s heartbreaking loss to the Baltimore Ravens, the San Francisco 49ers will look to rebound against the ever-dangerous New Orleans Saints. This game will conclude the team’s current three-game gauntlet and it will not be an easy one.

Since the 49ers are slated to kick off with another early start time, the team has decided to stay on the East Coast and practice at a facility located in Florida.

Whatever it takes to get back in the win column, I am totally in support.

Getting back to their strength

With Lamar Jackson in the rearview mirror (for now), I anticipate San Francisco getting back to who they are on defense. That is, a fundamentally sound, disciplined, physical group of guys.

The 49ers have faced three mobile quarterbacks within the last month and a half, winning two games out of four. Normally this type of ratio would satisfy just about any and everyone associated with the team.

However, since the beginning of the season, expectations have been through the roof and San Francisco possesses the kind of statistical numbers to support that claim.

Of course, nothing is won during the season and each game is another opportunity to improve. During the second half of the Ravens game, the 49ers began showing signs of discipline.

Learning experience for Kyle Shanahan

I’m sure the Kyle Shanahan and Jimmy Garoppolo critics are still bashing the tandem for that 4th-and-1 play call against the Ravens. To be quite honest though, I actually had zero problems with the decision.

I do agree with what Shanahan said during his post-game presser when he stated that he “definitely could have come up with a better pass play.”

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Normally on short-yardage situations, especially with the elements being a factor, you’d like to see some sort of mesh/crossing routes just to (hopefully) free up one of your receivers. It also wouldn’t be a bad idea to move Garoppolo off his spot from time to time.

Too many passes have been deflected by defensive linemen all year and it’s not like Garoppolo is a small quarterback. I strongly feel that defenders are beginning to key on some of Garoppolo’s tendencies such as his cadence (which we heard of during the Seattle game), timing of throws, and even hand signals.

This is nothing new for opposing teams since it’s happened all throughout the league for many years now. The coaching staff must continue to improve on the little intricate details of the game.

Continue to roll Garoppolo out on bootlegs and allow him to make quicker throws/decisions. He’s most effective running the hurry-up offense which they seemed to have a lot of success with earlier in the season.

I fully expect the coaching staff to get things turned around efficiently enough before their playoff run. Looks like it won’t be a divisional run away after all.

The most important factor for any professional team late in the season is, health. Although the 49ers have had their fair share of the injury bug (yet again), it hasn’t all been as bad as it was during the first two years of the ‘Lynchahan’ (John Lynch & Kyle Shanahan), regime.

A first-round bye would definitely benefit a few of the walking wounded, but I’m working extremely hard to avoid looking too far ahead.

The 49ers have the best defense in football and the numbers back it up. dark. Next

First things first, New Orleans, HERE WE COME BABY!