49ers FanPulse: Winning game of the year means consistent polling numbers

Welcome to SB Nation FanPulse — a survey of fans across the NFL, powered by SurveyMonkey. Each week, we send 32 polls to 100+ plugged in fans from each team. 49ers fans, sign up HERE to join FanPulse.

We’re back with another FanPulse to see what you think of the direction of the team. We say this after the 49ers won what may be called the game of the decade. There would be something very, very wrong if fans couldn’t get behind the team after that slug-fest against the New Orleans Saints.

Results headed into Week 15

How we got here:

• At the end of the season, unsurprisingly, 49ers fans were only 81% confident in the direction the team was headed.
• Things took a turn for the better after free agency, as that number climbed to 95%.
• Before the draft, the number dipped to 84%, and climbed two percent after the draft, to 86%.
• Heading into the preseason, we started sipping the Kool-aid again, and that number climbed to 90%. Now, with real football here, that number is at 89%. That’s the 11th highest number out of all team sites.
• Following the Week 1 victory over Tampa Bay, we’re up two percent, which brings us to 91%.
• After blowing out the Bengals, the confidence soared to 96%.
• After defeating the Steelers, despite turning the ball over five times, we’ve bumped that number up to 98%.
• With a bye week, that number may have dipped, or even plateaued. Not here. Up 1% to 99%
• Despite blowing the Browns out, our confidence dropped from 99% to 96%. The loss of Kyle Juszczyk and Mike McGlinchey should explain that.
• After dominating the Rams, that number jumped back up to 99%.
• The confidence poll dipped to 96% after the Mud Bowl. Evidently, style points matter when it comes to voting.
• Scoring 51 points against a top-5 defense brought that number back up to 99%. This was headed into Week 9. I’ll be interested if the 49ers defense having an off game will reflect the voting in next week’s FanPulse.
• No issues with the defense after a divisional win. The confidence is up 3% to 99%, which is the third-most of any team sites after the Ravens and Saints.
• After the Niners’ first divisional loss, the confidence dipped all the way to 97%. With everything that went wrong, that’s fair. There shouldn’t be too much overreaction until we see all the things that frustrated us consistently.
• Despite gifting the Cardinals 16 points, a game-winning touchdown toss to Jeff Wilson put San Francisco ahead, and a late defensive score made the score look worse than the game really was. A divisional win always feels good, and that’s why we are back up to 99%
• After destroying the Packers from wire to wire, everyone that participated in this week’s survey was confident in the direction of the team. For as much as we talked about the gauntlet of the schedule the 49ers faced, that was a heck of a way to start things off. The confidence poll is a perfect 100%
• The 49ers kept it close with the Ravens and probably should have won. There are no moral victories in the NFL, but the team showed they are one of, if not the best in the league. The confidence poll for this week dropped from 100% to 99%.

The game of the week ended 48-46, 49ers. With that, they stay at 99% for the second week straight. The 49ers can play anywhere as they showed the last two weeks with the Ravens and the Saints.

As for the rest of the NFC West, Field Gulls has taken a dive going all the way to 58% from last week’s 89%. Turf Show Times has had quite the jolt, going up to 81% from their previous 44%. Revenge of the Birds has gone up to 30% since their huge drop to 17% last week.

National question

We all thought the Miami Dolphins’ epic tank that they rode into the season would net them the first overall pick, along with a gazillion other selections to fill out their roster. If there ever was a team intentionally tanking, the Dolphins would have been the ones I’d look at. That was for the first few weeks and things are different in Week 15. This is between the New York Giants and the Cincinnati Bengals. My money is on the Bengals. I doubt Zac Taylor is fired after this season being that he was set up to fail from the front office and the Bengals don’t like firing head coaches (See Lewis, Marvin and Shula, Dave), but the Bengals 0-11 start was the worst in team history. The only win they have right now is against the New York Jets.

Right, the Jets lost to the Bengals.

I’m wondering why they weren’t kicked out of the league for that, but what do I know? The Bengals are looking like the first pick and are going to have a whole bunch of needs, quarterback being one of them. They benched Andy Dalton briefly and regardless of if he’s in or out of the starting lineup, they will need to move on. So it’s Dalton and then a football team for the Bengals.