by David Zizmor

SANTA CLARA–Three wins in a row for the San Francisco 49ers make things a lot better. They opened the season with a win over Dallas and that was a great win considering Dallas is 5-1 and they have the best record in the league and then lost two straight to Chicago and Arizona those were rough ones. The 49ers kind of looked at themselves and course corrected and they realized they were focusing too much on the pass and not enough on the run.

They did that in the subsequent game against Philadelphia and won that one and continued the streak with wins against Kansas City and Arizona. The 49ers were focusing on the running game against the Eagles a game they won 26-21 on September 28th. The 49ers 22-17 win over the Chiefs they were able to stop the run and the win against the Cardinals the 49ers beat Arizona with the pass.

Against Arizona 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick had his best game of the season and threw for over 300 yards and he looked fantastic with amazing throws in last week’s Monday Night game. He cemented himself as one of the top quarterbacks in the league. Everybody knew but there was a little bit of doubt creeping in because the early part of the season was so unsuccessful.

Going into the game in Denver this Sunday it’s a whole new ball game, the Eagles are a very strong offensive team and the Niners defense does a great job to shut them down but the Eagles are incredibly banged up on the offensive line. One of the reasons the Eagles was unable to move the ball was because the Niners knew they can beat them straight up on the line in the running game.

Oakland Raiders update: It’s tough to say how this one will go as the Raiders host the Arizona Cardinals this Sunday at the Oakland Coliseum. Last week their game against the Chargers was just a no brainer that the Chargers were going to roll right over the Raiders in their win 31-28 that didn’t happen the Raiders came out with a little bit of purpose they had a much better game plan.

The Raiders were more confident in themselves they didn’t get the win but they made it very competitive the Raiders lost by a field goal. They put the scare into the Chargers. That was a close game 31-28 you have to give the Raiders credit quarterback Derrek Carr had a good game and head coach Tony Sparano did a good job having Carr looking at the playbook in this one.

Sparano had the Raiders stuck at what they were good at and they were successful to a certain extent. The defense didn’t really stop the Chargers in this one. This is something to work off of, they were much more confident in themselves and they played a much better game that’s something to be commended to Sparano. That’s something that we hadn’t see from the Raiders this season.

The fact that they hung in there tells you their going to be a little more competitive as they progress during the season. Are they going to be competitive enough to make any real impact in these games and the outcome that’s anybody’s guess. You have the same situation this week that the Raiders are going to face a very good team in the Cardinals the NFC West leading team.

David Zizmor covers the NFL for http://www.sportsradioservice.com