San Francisco 49ers "Remedied Road Woes?" Commentary

The regular season of the National Football League is the most intense of any sport played in this country. In basketball, hockey and, especially, baseball, a team can have a few off games here and there and still qualify for their respective playoffs, or at least still be in contention late in the season.In the NFL, however, if a team has a few off games, its players will be sitting at home watching others compete in January. Sure, every so often a team with nine wins slips into the postseason, yet the only way to assure yourself of making the playoffs is to 4 Brett Favre Purple jersey
win at least 10 games. So far this century, only the 2003 Miami Dolphins and the 2005 Kansas City Chiefs have won 10 but failed to qualify.Based on the assumption that 10 games brings forth a playoff berth, let's take a step back and break down how a team can get to that magic number. Each franchise in the NFL plays 16 games -- eight at home and eight on the road. Only the best teams are able to finish 8-0 or even 7-1 at home for the season, and over the past 10 years, the clubs that make the playoffs average about a 6-2 record on their home turf for the season. That means those teams must go 4-4 in road contests to reach to the ever-so-important 10-win plateau. This is one area where the San Francisco 49ers need significant work, as they have been particularly inept when venturing outside the confines of Monster Park. Over the past three and a half seasons the Niners are 4-24 on the road, and have been outscored 815-430 in those 28 contests...an average score of 29-15. In 2003, this cost them dearly. That team went 6-2 on its home turf, but every time the Niners left the Bay Area, it seemed they forgot how to play football. Over the course of that season the Niners went a pathetic 1-7 on the road, suffering through blowout losses to Minnesota (35-7) and Baltimore (44-6) along the way, and did not log their first victory until their final away game of the season. Their failure to execute on the road resulted in a 7-9 record and a missed chance at the playoffs.Things only got worse from there. In 2004, they lost to Seattle and Tampa Bay by a combined score of 69-3 and did not record their first win on the road until mid-December against Arizona. In 2005, Philadelphia, Washington and Seattle put up 135 total points while the 49ers managed just 23 of their own. They would not win on the road that season until Week 16 against St. Louis.Through the first three away games in 2006, things seemed to be going along as usual. The 49ers lost to the hapless Cardinals in the first week of the season, and were then plastered by Kansas City and Chicago by a combined score of 82-10. But when they went into Detroit and came away with a victory last Sunday, they did something they have not done since 2002: They won a road game before December. 43 Polamalu white jersey
The only question is, Can they do it again? In their final seven games, the 49ers must travel to New Orleans, Seattle, St. Louis and Denver -- four teams that are a combined 23-13 so far this season. Two or three road wins this year would signify a major improvement, and if the 49ers can pull it off against competition that stiff, they will prove they are a team on the rise rather than a pretender that lucked out against a substandard opponent.Question or comment?