Merry Christmas to everybody at Niners Nation! The 49ers have provided us with a great Christmas present in the form of a 12-3 record and a legitimate shot at the number two seed in the NFC. If you had presented me with this situation four months ago, I would have called you crazy.
As Christmas Day rolls along, hopefully everybody is getting what they wanted. If you get any cool 49ers- or sports-related gifts, post a comment in here and let us know. If you find a picture, post it as well. Usually there are at least a few awesome 49ers-related Christmas presents among the NN community.
For me, my big Christmas present was getting to go see the 49ers up at CenturyLink Field yesterday. It is one of the more enjoyable venues to watch football. I love the way it is built and the crowd noise that is contained within the stadium. We ended up with great seats yesterday and it made for a great view.
Aside from the win, one of the highlights of the game was getting to see Aldon Smith up close. I've watched plenty of him on TV and on NFL Game Rewind on my laptop, but seeing him do his thing in person is a sight to behold. His combination of speed, size and power is unbelievable. With all the noise and action it was easy to get distracted, but every so often I tried to focus in on Aldon. I had a chance to observe his bull rush and his speed and finesse moves on various stunts.
He plowed through the Seahawks o-line several times and got one sack and a pair of QB hits. One time late in the game, I was fairly certain I saw him get triple-teamed coming in on the right tackle. He now has 14 sacks and is a half sack away from equaling Jevon Kearse's rookie record. He wraps up his regular season against the St. Louis Rams and while there are no guarantees in the NFL, the Rams are a good opponent to try and get some sacks.