Forty Niners Forever

Hah! The good old days. Our Serra Senior Cut Day (1979) took place at the Pulgas Water Temple on Canada Road out there by the Crystal Spring Reservoir. Turns out San Carlos High had the same idea, so naturally a near riot ensued. To the point where one of the Serra football players, in a standoff with a San Carlos guy, decided to show how tough he was by breaking a beer bottle over his own head.

Of course he started bleeding profusely, and some pushing and shoving happened, and 30-40 dudes were just tumbling around the parking lot. Us loadies of course were over by the reflecting pool playing frisbee, getting stoned and drinking our own beer, and generally staying out of the mix.

Being veterans of any party where more than 5 guys from Serra showed up to a party, the cops arrived. But we were already on our way to Half Moon Bay with 2 baggies full of shrooms and enough partiables to get through the day.

Sad thing is, that riot pretty much closed the Water Temple Parking lot, and the county put up No Parking signs a mile in each direction from the parking lot. I think that lot was closed for 15 years.

Anyhow, speaking of cuts, we don’t have a punter or long snapper. But I guess we have a few more guys to IR to clear space for them. I’m sure Week the LS is gonna be fine, but someone might pick our punter just to fuck with us.

Anyhow, here’s the list as it stands now. But there will be changes.

I really thought one of the 3 LBs (Wallow, Gifford, Martin) wouldn’t make it. But I think that is insurance for Greenlaw. Cowing AND Watkins also made the grade. Watkins showed out pretty well in that Raider game.

M Williams and I Guerendo are on the PUP list along with Pleasants and Pearsall. I guess the good news is Kittle and Bosa are not on it, but whether they play or not remains to be seen. Frankly I’d spare Bosa the 32 hours of plane travel, but I don’t get to make that call.

Getting close to the real thing. 2 weeks (and a few hours) from kickoff in fricking Melbourne, Australia.

This final preseason game tho is a short hop to Vegas. Given the state of injuries on the team, I’m not too too concerned as we will not play anyone that could even risk getting hurt more. And then 2 weeks to healthy up for the 16 hour flight to the bottom of the Earth.

Gee, I sure hope the newly formed Melbourne Convicts NFL team is put in the Western division. We all thought it was bad when Atlanta and New Orleans were part of the NFC West. This’ll be great.

Better make sure someone keeps an eye on Jed. Sin City can be pretty tempting.

Well well. CMC isn’t holding in or out, and George Kittle isn’t going on the PUP list. Both practiced and happiness abounded in Santa Clara. Good news for a team constantly under the harmful effects of electromagnetic discharges, but that’s for another day.

Nick Bosa on the other hand is a bit more nebulous. He’s either working through normal post-surgery irritation or he’s about to the shelved for the year. He’s had a bunch of knee issues, and with every one, the risk gets greater for more problems. It may not happen, but the only guy I know who overcame boatloads of knee problems like this was Frank Gore.

I think the defense will give up more big plays, but I also think we get a shitload more turnovers. I like what I’m seeing from Raheem Morris and he’s not even going full-throttle with the 1st team yet. We are starting to get close to the actual thing, and as in the recent past, this comes with a shit-ton of excitement with a sidecar on trepidation. See above.

Saw these guys a couple times back in the day. Fun as hell.

Yeah, preseason. Still and all, seeing Cowing sprint sideways across the field and turn up the sideline for an 83 yard punt return TD was pretty damn impressive. Very glad to see him get that spot rather than Deebo. We have enough issues keeping our WRs healthy without subjecting him to that. Especially if him getting carries in the backfield resurfaces (pleasegodno).

Kaedon Black’s emergence will also hopefully put the Deebo RB shit in the can. He had some strong runs despite iffy blocking by that bothersome LG spot, and got positive yards after initial contact. It only got muddier with Austin Pleasants injury but he was already down the chart. Really need these guys to address the LG spot with someone that is a starter and not a stiff. Make a trade. We have enough LBs. Bethune? Greenlaw’s vulnerability will likely quash any trade talk there.

Jones is still a very big trade prospect, but no one has lost their starting QB yet. Still, Minn riding with Murray is a looooooongshot for success, and the Jets are going absolutely nowhere with Geno Smith and Klubnic. Miami and Cleve also spring to mind. Pittsburgh is one COVID vaccine from losing old man Aaron Rodgers. QB for a guard may be a tough pill to swallow, but hey, throw in a WR or safety.

Speaking of safety, I did like the tighter coverage that we showed. We didn’t give up a lot of stupid screens on 3rd and whatever. Our 2’s (D line anyway) against their 1’s on O did well.

Niners have a game in Levi’s South tonight as we face the Jim Harbaugh-led Chargers. A team searching for a playoff win for nearly as long as Pittsburgh’s playoff drought. 2018 to 2016. Harbaugh for whatever reason can’t stop talking about Brock Purdy and can’t wait to meet him.

As for the game, I’m sure it’ll be more vanilla than ever as we play these guys later this season for reals. But, it looks like Brock gets a series or 2, but no CMC, Kittle, and Evens was seen icing has ankle and quad, so no him, I’d think. But of all the preseason fun, this one will have the most #1s out there.

You bet your sweet bippy. Just when you thought the injury news was easing up, out comes a report from Mike Florio, and his co-hater buddy Chris Simms, is that CMC isn’t suffering from ‘muscle tightness’, he’s instead holding in for a new contract. he hasn’t practiced since last Wednesday, but given these clowns will throw any kind of chum in the water to garner clicks, who knows what is what.

If anything, this may get CMC to respond one way or the other. Other than that, the game last week was fairly satisfying. De’Zhaun Stribling looked ready for prime time as he caught 7 passes for 63 yards, including a sweet 32 yard catch on a fade route thrown by Kurtis Rourke. He looked very good as the back up to Mac Jones, and any and all good looks at Rourke only makes Jones’ trade value go up as this season wears on, and a quarterback here or there drops.

Gracon Halton looked very good as well going against the Titans #1 offensive lineman Peter Skoronski. His ankle injury is uncertain as far as status goes, but in the good news department, Nick Bosa was back at practice yesterday. Mike Evans is also back at practice.

Preseason Game Day 1 !! !! !! Tuxedos await.

No one plays. No one gets hurt.

And we are resting everyone. CMC and Nick Bosa have ‘tightness’ in their respective bodies, and all the rest are varying shades of close, except for Ricky Pearsall of course. Even Mike Evans is slated to resume practice with the upcoming joint-practice/Titans game on Thursday.

Even Shanny and his 70s porn star/Jeff Kent moustache will be back for the opening preseason game. Not sure why he thinks that’s a good look, but hey, we’ll see.

Other than the extra-caution around injuries, we have real-live football. And with the disastrous baseball season underway, and the slow death march of the GS Warriors, the 49ers are all we have now as a team that is in the mix to win it all.

You don’t win the Super Bowl in August, but apparently you can lose it then, to re-coin an old baseball adage.

The 49ers injury carousel is spinning wildly as Keadon Black and Mike Evans have both missed practices, both with muscle strains. Evans’ quad strain could be a 3 month deal, and Black’s adductor the same.

Yay!

Pearsall is out for the year as we know, and Mikail Kamara was cut after blowing out his knee. Christian Kirk has a calf injury.

ALL these injuries are nom-contact injuries. What is the fucking deal? Are they starting out too fast? If so, how many fucked up seasons do they have to endure before they understand that maybe pushing it from day one isn’t such a good idea?

They’ve wasted so many seasons with injuries it defies belief.

Deeebo’s back! 4 days into camp and we are down Pearsall and Kirk. Cowing is a ghost and Waktins is a hologram so they went and signed old friend Deebo Samuel. 1 year, $7 mill.

Hey! Maybe he can talk BA into suiting up! Be like old times.