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Daily Madden: The 49ers Look To Clinch Early

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) - The surprising 49ers can clinch their division with a win over the Rams this weekend. John Madden told the KCBS morning crew he thinks clinching early is a good thing.

"I always liked that... I always wanted to clinch right around this time," Madden said, while acknowledging the down side.

"The argument otherwise is that you don't have a real meaningful, competitive, have-to-win game," Madden said. "You get into the playoffs and it's win and go on, lose and go home. And you haven't had a game close to that."

John said he likes the Raiders chances against the Dolphins in Miami this weekend, even though the Dolphins have been playing well the last few weeks.

"About a month ago it looked like they were in the suck-for-Luck bowl, you know that maybe they'd have the worst record and maybe they'll get (Stanford quarterback) Andrew Luck. And then they just kind of turned that thing around." Madden said. "On one side you say 'it's tough for the Raiders. It's tough that they didn't catch them when Miami wasn't playing well, and they catch them now when they're playing better. But that's not bad because they're not going to sneak up on you."

"I would worry more about the Rams sneaking up on the 49ers than I would about Miami sneaking up on the Raiders," Madden continued. (8:05)

Listen to the John Madden segment live weekday mornings at 8:15 on KCBS All News 740 AM/106.9 FM.

(Copyright 2011 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

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