Who Needs to Have a Big Day Against the Saints Version 117

So it seems like everybody is doing one of these and I figured I might as well get in on the action here before it's too late. I will say that I have another, more original post coming later this week, but I wanted to write this style of post because it recently became law that all sports writers have to.

In the national media, it seems like most articles focus on Aldon Smith. That makes sense. I read somewhere that the weakest part of the Saint's o-line is their center. My Holmesian powers of observation and deduction lead me to the conclusion that Drew Brees is a pocket passer. As such, collapsing the center forces him to flush outside of the pocket. Aldon should be running inside stunts all fraking day. So yeah, not a bad choice.

Yesterday, Tre9er made an excellent choice in Dashon Goldson. I think that my dawg Tre is spot on. I would love it if Goldson learned how to wrap-up and cover by Saturday. Oh yeah, some of those nice INTs you've been collecting, Dashon, would be cool too.

In the comments of Tre9er's piece people brought up some good choice: Justin Smith, P-52, and yes, 99 Problems. I agree with all of the above. The 49ers are going to have to be clicking on all cylinders. So yeah, that means all the obvious choices too - AleX, The Inconvenient Truth, et al.

I have a couple of people to add, however, and unlike Tre9er, I'm not going to make you wait until after the jump. I just tell you straight away tha

I think two big contributors this game are going to have to be Kyle Williams and Chris Culliver.

I guess things would still theoretically be a bit up in the air with Mr. Williams. Head injuries can be nasty and I hope that he can come back for this game in full force.

But if he does come back, what a huge blessing that would be. Crabs and VD have really stepped it up with Williams (and to a lesser extent Ginn) out of action. I don't want to take away what they have done in the face of adversity. But man, Williams was really starting to break out before enduring such a horrid cheap-shot.

I think that Williams needs to open up the passing game for Smith. Clearly Gore is going to be the man this game; dare I say, the bell cow? We need to keep the ball away from Brees, blah blah blah. We all know why Gore and Hunter will be big this game, and they totally should be.

This, however, will open up the defense for Alex Smith. I have no doubt that the Saints are going to blitz heavy and dare him to pass. He will need all of his options in this regard. I hope Williams is up to it.

On the other side of the ball, I am going to go with a similar mode of thought as the Goldson post and name my guy as Culliver. First off, and I have said this before so sorry for the review, I think Culliver is going to have a bright future with this team. He may even supplant Brown in the starting defense soon (and he probably should, especially if we keep Carlos around, which we should).

But in terms of Saturday, I think the 49ers are going to keep a similar strategy in place that they have been using all season against high octane passing teams: when it is a nickel situation, it seems like Culliver lines up on the number 1 receiver with help over the top. Double coverage, essentially. This allows R&B (yeah, our starting corners) to lockdown other threats. And, for the like millionth time, the Saints have a lot of aerial threats.

So these are my guys. I hope they do well. I think they will.