First of all I think that they can so let's just get that out of the way to begin with. I was going to try to use my amazing ability of persuasion to convince all of you. I was going to say things and talk about stuff and you know all of that annoying stuff. We have all been doing that. Nobody convinced anybody. And none of it matters anyway. It will all be played out on the field and in a 1 game series anything can happen. There is no fun in waiting on that so I propose we continue to argue. We all know that the only way to prove a point is to make up numbers.

For as a great man once said: "Facts are meaningless. You could use facts to prove anything that's even remotely true."

So here goes:

*First a disclaimer, this is not actually how stats work, I know that, but I don't care. Please see the quote above.

League
Median Average Points Scored per Game: 22.2
Median Average Points Given up per Game: 21.7

49ers
Average Points Scored per Game: 23.8
Vs. League: +1.6
Average Points Given up per Game: 14.3
Vs. League: -7.4

Saints
Average Points Scored per Game On Road*: 27.2
Vs. League: +5
Average Points Given up per Game On Road*: 24.5
Vs. League: +2.8
*Note that I didn't use their home stats because that didn't help my argument. I like to refer to this as an omission lie.

49ers vs Saints on the Road
Saints Road O vs 9ers D
Saints Road O: +5
49ers D: -7.4
7.4-5 = 2.4 below league average = 22.2 - 2.4=19.8 Points

Saints Road D vs 9ers O
Saints Road D: +2.8
49ers O: +1.6
2.8+1.6 = 4.4 above average = 22.2+4.4=26.6 Points

FINAL SCORE: 49ers: 27 Saints: 20

A couple other points I would like to make just for fun:

In 2006 regular season the Colts were dead last in rushing yards given up a game at: 173
During the playoffs they came out of nowhere and only gave up: 82.8
That is less than half, out of nowhere.

In 2007 Eli Manning had the following stats during the regular season then the playoffs:
Seson QB rating Comp % Y/A TD Int
Regular: 73.9 56.1 6.3 23 20
Playoffs: 95.7 60.5 7.2 6 1
That is a dramatic improvement out of nowhere.

These are just 2 that I thought of off the top of my head.

We all agree that the 49ers have a great D and ST's. And for the most part we think that they could be incredibly dominant if the O could just keep up. Keeping up basically means converting 1-2 more RZ opportunities. Converting 1-2 RZ opportunities could be something as little as breaking 1 more tackle. Getting a pass a little more on target. Or catching one more pass that could have been dropped. It is very possible and wouldn't take as dramatic a change as the 2 examples I mentioned above.