Why this game is intriguing: This one did not jump off the schedule in the preseason. Based on popular opinion, the San Francisco 49ers looked fully equipped to overwhelm the lowly Seattle Seahawks. Not the case in mid-October. Instead, this game is an old-school cage match, featuring two of the NFL’s most hard-hitting and intense defenses. Can any pair of linebackers hit like Patrick Willis and NaVorro Bowman? (No.) Can any secondary abuse receivers like the Seahawks‘ group? (No.) And it only makes it better that both squads have in-your-face running attacks, with Marshawn Lynch and Frank Gore each leading a group of backs we wouldn’t want to meet in an alley. This should be fun.
