I was going to call this Niner Follies II, but I guess i've thrown enough gasoline on that fire. However, we all need something to do till those first training camp videos.

It was on a Niner message board, in a long thread about the cardinals, that I found this quote,  from 1 of 2 people who had reservations about it being so easy to bury the cards, the other one actually warned we might be better than expected (to universal scorn) and then, there was this...

"If the Card's season wasn't easy beyond belief, I would feel pretty good right now. "

and this from someone who seemed to be respected as a sensible, knowledgeable fan. Scotty, beam me up !

The explanation for this incredibly, uninformed quote and a chart of how they SHOULD rank strength of schedule, after the jump...

We were ranked 32 (easiest) in strength of schedule this year. Now, we all know we have the Niners, Seahawks and Rams in this division and that is why we have the easiest schedule, because of them and their losses being counted twice (once for each of 2 coming games against each one of them). 

What the person didn't bother to think about was this. All 4 teams in our division play the EXACT same opponents for 14 of the 16 games. So, for us to be "easy beyond belief" you would think for the other 2 games, SF was playing Saints and Colts and we were playing BIlls and Lions. But we aren't and they aren't.

So here are the ONLY 2 differing opponents and their 2009 record, we play

Vikings  12-4  and   Cowboys 11-5 .....  Niners play  Packers  11-5 and  Eagles 11-5

Vikings/Packers - a wash... Cowpokes (hate em as we do) beat snot out of Iggles. So, if they think we have reached parity, then we HAVE a tougher schedule than them because of the Cowboys/Eagles.  Now the quoted person garnered some agreement on his "easy beyond belief" statement, so we can infer this

Niners fans don't think their Team can even beat cream-puff opposition, if our "easy beyond belief" schedule worries them BECAUSE IT IS THE SAME SCHEDULE.

I know, this schedule strength rating is a crock, but it is of some minor interest, if you REMOVE the intra-divisional opponents. This chart use the same mathematics as the NFL, except ALL games within anyone's division have been removed. We know we are going to sweep our division (I'm sure lot's of teams fans say the same for their team) but what is the relative schedule strength for every other game ?  This chart shows it.

Strength of schedule OUTSIDE of division
Rank	Team	Opp Win %	Opp Wins	Opp Losses		Rank	Team	Opp Win %	Opp Wins	Opp Losses
1	Cowboys	.59	93	65		17	Dolphins	.50	79	79
2	Patriots	.58	92	66		18	Saints	.50	80	80
3	Bengals	.58	92	68		19	Titans	.50	80	80
4	Vikings	.56	89	71		20	Steelers	.49	79	81
5	Eagles	.55	87	71		21	Bears	.49	79	81
6	Cardinals	.54	86	74		22	Raiders	.49	78	82
7	Niners	.53	85	75		23	Bills	.48	76	82
8	Giants	.53	83	75		24	Seahawks	.48	69	75
9	Colts	.53	84	76		25	Browns	.48	76	84
10	Packers	.52	83	77		26	Jaguars	.47	75	85
11	Falcons	.51	74	70		27	Redskins	.47	74	84
12	Jets	.51	81	77		28	Chiefs	.46	73	87
13	Texans	.51	82	78		29	Panthers	.45	72	88
14	Chargers	.51	82	78		30	Lions	.44	70	90
15	Ravens	.51	81	79		31	Rams	.44	69	89
16	Broncos	.50	80	80		32	Buccaneers	.40	63	95