Winning ugly and the East Coast bias

The one game season for the San Francisco 49ers is still very much alive. In chilly East Rutherford New Jersey, the Niners won an ugly game outlasting the NY Giants 16-10. Two things are clear, the defense is responsible for this victory, again, and Coach Jim Harbaugh's offense is still not clicking on all cylinders. Of course Fox Network was picking the Giants before and during the game even after the 5 interceptions by the home team, reminding viewers they were still in it. The tone of the telecast sounding eerily familiar. Much like the World Series broadcasts, when Fox repeatedly picked anyone but San Francisco to win, showing east coast bias without restraint.

 Luckily the San Francisco Giants made Joe Buck eat crow winning their third World Championship in five years. By the end of today's broadcast, the 49ers showcased their defense and produced just enough offense to improve their record to 6-4 silencing some of the "haters," as Colin Kaepernick stated after last Sunday's win in New Orleans.  There's strong evidence illustrating the networks' lack of respect for west coast teams in pretty much every national telecast. Fortunately, the 49ers dug deep on the road, tapping into their proven track record to make plays when it counted. Sure it would have been nice if Kaepernick's passes in scoring situations led to touchdowns instead of field goals, but the Giants defense also showed it had some teeth. What they couldn't do was stop the Niners completely after their quarterback Eli Manning committed each of those 5 interceptions. The defense forced Manning to rush his passes and made outstanding plays time after time to force the turnovers. Rookie linebacker Chris Borland came up with two of those interceptions and was just one of the many positives of the secondary.
"There's no give-up in our guys," said Borland after the game. "We have guys, veterans, who have been there a lot. When it was going tough, we just pressed on and kept looking forward. Back to back wins on the road, we're all excited." And the faithful are right there with them. My friend Nina was texting me during the game wondering,  "how it was possible that we were still not running away with this game after all the interceptions?" Ugly or not, a win is a win, and the playoffs are still within reach.