NFL 2026

[Paul Heroy]

David has to be pretty fired up about the start of the season, with his beloved Niners winning big "down under" vs one of their division rivals. (Said division is insanely good right now with the Seahawks making it 3 legit Super Bowl contenders in the NFC West.) Looks like the incredibly detailed travel approach the Rams were reported to have used, utterly backfired.

Re: the game watching experience... I didn't watch the game though. Between X and other things pushing live scores onto my phone (and I can't find a way to defeat X displaying live NFL scores), I was spoiled on the score before I was ready to start trying to watch the game a couple of hours after KO. Then when I fired up Netflix to just check the experience, I quickly bailed as it was just not possible to easily start from the beginning and I had to manually hold a button down to start rewinding. Fail, Netflix and NFL on both of these thing. 

[David Vaughn]

David has to be pretty fired up about the start of the season, with his beloved Niners winning big "down under" vs one of their division rivals. (Said division is insanely good right now with the Seahawks making it 3 legit Super Bowl contenders in the NFC West.) Looks like the incredibly detailed travel approach the Rams were reported to have used, utterly backfired.

Re: the game watching experience... I didn't watch the game though. Between X and other things pushing live scores onto my phone (and I can't find a way to defeat X displaying live NFL scores), I was spoiled on the score before I was ready to start trying to watch the game a couple of hours after KO. Then when I fired up Netflix to just check the experience, I quickly bailed as it was just not possible to easily start from the beginning and I had to manually hold a button down to start rewinding. Fail, Netflix and NFL on both of these thing.

Paul, yes, I'm in a VERY good mood today

I picked the 49ers to win the game in the AVS Pick-em competition (our own SRW1000 won it last season) because I felt the Rams made a major blunder in their travel plans. All the hype that they're getting of being the "Best NFL Team EVER!" is the media hype train in full effect. 

Don't sleep on the 49ers. Getting Bosa and Warner back on defense is massive and the addition of Greenlaw really improves the linebacker play. On offense, they are completely stocked with CMC, Kittle, Evans (new addition), Deebo (welcome back), and rookie RB Black, which will keep CMC fresh for the playoff run.

As for the Netflix experience, I watched some of the pregame (which was over 2 hours long...I watched the final 30 minutes or so), the game, and then some of the post game celebration . Video quality was excellent on my LG OLED (C5) 77" TV--my wife took the theater away from me. I thought the pregame production was pretty good, and the game commentators were excellent (Noah Eagle and Luke Keuchly). I'll take this combo over what NBC and Amazon provides every day of the week and twice on Sunday! After having to listen to Collinsworth the previous night and his endless superlatives actually hearing coherent football analysis last night was a nice change.

From your description, it sounds like going back and watching an Amazon game--you have to go through all the pregame BS for hours in order to get to the actual game. They need to give the option to "start from the first kickoff" versus "play from the beginning." As for X notifications, go into your phone settings and just turn off X notifications. I actually have all notifications turned off on my phone now...I LOVE IT!  

[Paul Heroy]

The first 3 weeks couldn't have gone much better for you David, at least in terms of game results. Niners 3-0, neither the Seahawks or Rams are and the 2026 anointed Super Bowl winner is already just 1-2.

Who had us at 3 weeks in and just 5 teams left unbeaten - and two of them are the Vikings and Raiders?! My Chargers fanatic neighbor is already mourning another lost season. 

My 2 favored teams, the Bengals & Saints, both lost what looked like imminently winnable games in the 4th quarter. Ouch. I especially can't understand the Bengals looking like they finally have a viable defense, only to yield 30 to a previously toothless Steelers team. 

[David Vaughn]

So far so good for the Niners, but the injury bug is rearing its ugly head. 16 players on the IR and only 8 can be brought back. Right now our top 4 receivers are all injured in one way or another with one (Pearsall) being gone for the season. Hopefully Evans can play against Denver even if he isn't 100%, just to be a decoy. Bosa is out on defense as well with calf...I guess I'm used to it as a Niners fan.

As for the Bengals and Saints...those are two good teams to follow. Bengals have Burrow and Shough is going to be quite good as well. It's the NFL though and all teams will have frustrating losses. 

[Paul Heroy]

This past weekend could hardly have gone better for you, David. Niners get the huge W in a wild one in Seattle, Rams lost another wild one in OT tonight. (Ok, you lost Greenlaw for an idiotic incident, but only for a game and that's small potatoes in the big picture.)

Saints look terrible suddenly and seem to be marching backwards quickly. 

But wow, that play by Washington at the end of OT to lose a shot to win the game with a FG was one of the most baffling, situationally unaware plays I've ever seen. The previous play ended with 50 SECONDS ON THE CLOCK, Daniels and Washington futzed around as if they had a TO (they didn't), snapped the ball at :12 and watched in stupor as the clock hit :00 with them not having a way to stop it. Just sheer, inexcusable boneheaded idiocy that will likely contribute to Quinn getting canned this year.

[David Vaughn]

This past weekend could hardly have gone better for you, David. Niners get the huge W in a wild one in Seattle, Rams lost another wild one in OT tonight. (Ok, you lost Greenlaw for an idiotic incident, but only for a game and that's small potatoes in the big picture.)

Saints look terrible suddenly and seem to be marching backwards quickly.

But wow, that play by Washington at the end of OT to lose a shot to win the game with a FG was one of the most baffling, situationally unaware plays I've ever seen. The previous play ended with 50 SECONDS ON THE CLOCK, Daniels and Washington futzed around as if they had a TO (they didn't), snapped the ball at :12 and watched in stupor as the clock hit :00 with them not having a way to stop it. Just sheer, inexcusable boneheaded idiocy that will likely contribute to Quinn getting canned this year.

Very good weekend indeed. 5-0 is better than I thought we would be at this point (I had us going 3-2 through the first five weeks and 5-2 headed into the bye). Now 7-0 is possible, but you never know in the NFL.

As for the Washington game, you are 100% correct...that was completely insane, but just one of many coaching/player screw ups this weekend. The Jacksonville/Eagles game was another. The Rams vs. Bills last night...why settle for a FG if the defense can't stop you on 3rd down. Run a quick out and trust your veteran QB (Stafford) not to take a sack. Then when the Bills get the ball back, they kick the FG after the 2 minute warning on 1st down. Why not run a couple of plays and get the clock under 30 seconds (possibly down to 10 seconds) before trying the FG. If you make it, great, you win. If you miss it, then the worst you do is tie because the clock expires on the kick. It ended up not mattering since the Bills made the kick, but it could have been a disaster.