Forty Niners Forever

Christian Kirk is out. Mike Evans is a game-time decision, but I think he plays. We did bump a WR, Malik Turner, and linebacker Jalen Graham up to the roster from the PS. But I’m sure Turner is here for Kirk.

The next-man-up thing is great until we get like last year when we were playing 4th string guys at WR and LB. Spots where we are thin again.

At this point all I want to see is a game where we don’t lose 2-3 guys. We don’t need to go all-out for this win, but every game is a big one in the NFL these days. As is that #1 seed. If only to heal up.

I’m OK with Bosa not being back, as long as we can dial up the pressure like we did last week. We seem to struggle with mobile QBs, and Daniels is certainly that.

Rams having a tough time with AZ but Jesus. AZ has 5 FGs and 0 TDs. LA has 96 yards passing from Stafford. I’ll update this later, but wow. If AZ could get a couple TDs, they’d be up 23-9.

I’m sure the Rams will luck out and win this. Unless Stafford throws a customary pick.

Anyhow, we have our Monday night game cs the Commandos. A weirdly 1-3-1 team who ran 55 seconds off the clock and didn’t kick a game-winning FG in OT. They get to travel, they get the time change, we get the rest.

So, for all intents and purposes this should be a cakewalk. But we all know nothing is easy in the NFL, and we certainly struggled against AZ. And we are getting Juice back, and possibly the hologram that is Christian Kirk. I think we can run on these guys, control the line of scrimmage, and just cruise.

28-10 Niners. Fucking AZ is giving LA 10 chances to win this. Rams LOSE!!!

That’s what we used to call it when I worked for a startup in the City. Come 2:00, a select few knew the passcode to the server room. Where unbeknownst to most, we installed a kegerator. So, 2:00 to quitting time was happy hour. Miss those times.

Anyhow, the Seacocks barely have time to lick their wounds after getting folded, spindled, and mutilated by the 49ers. Even better they get to go to the mile high club and see if they can catch their breath and win a tough roadie. I guess the NFL schedulers have a bit of a sense of propriety where it comes to the scheduling nightmare faced by the 49ers.

Have to say, the defense shone in so many ways. Malik Mustapha looks like he really doesn’t want to give up his spot in the roster. He made play after play, including walloping JSN right before the big drop by JSN late in the game. 5 sacks. 2 fumble recoveries. Numerous pass breakups. Numerous hurries. Stopped the run game. The early season run-game woes were put to rest. For a couple games anyway.

For YEARS I’ve been asking the team to play defense this way. Show multiple guys on the line. Disguise blitzes. More press man. Morris is the man. He’s doing it in spades. We still drop into coverage with the LBs, but it isn’t readily apparent like the wide 9, 4 man front look we used 95% of the time.

Great stuff. But as we sit, we get to watch the Seakawks struggle and flounder in Denver and the Rams (hopefully) lose two games. They already choked away the Buffalo game. here’s to the AZ Cards playing strong. Hoping for a Bo Nix renaissance. And little Kyler Murray is back! LA usually trounces them though.

For all the vagaries of our 40,000 miles of travel this season, here we are at week 6 and except for the obvious, we’ve had 4 home home games and one trip to Seattle. The Rams have already gone to Philly (luck win) and Denver (loss), and they just lost at home to the Bills. Is their jet lag that bad? Or are they just high on their press clippings?

No matter. it simply warms my heart to see Sean McVay whining on the sidelines game after game. The sound bites aren’t as cute when you are eating shit. The Rams are in trouble now, and they mortgaged their future trading the farm for a broken Myles Garrett, and Aaron Donald is as effective as a UDFA rookie. Good times. They have a creampuff schedule ahead, but it may already be too late for them. Eat shit Bill (20-0) Plaschke. Hah!!

But, on to Monday Night. Jaylen Daniels is back. Talk about a team that has just crucified their collective fan base. Their lone win has come at the hands of the Super Bowl champ Seahawks. They’ve lost to Indy, Philly, and their horrendous tie last weekend would have had me throwing my TV out the window.

55 seconds left to kick a FG. It’s OT so the game ends on the kick. Clock the ball. Kick the FG. Instead, Washington runs the ball, tick tick tick tick tick. Daniels runs for a yard, and lays on the ground as time expires. Game over. Quinn throws a fit on the sideline. And no one answered the obvious question. What the actual fuck? And for you ‘riggers’ out there (Spitblood, NoFear49er), the Giants covered the spread @ +3.5 even if Washington kicks the FG. So that isn’t in play.

So, that means a romp, right? Yeah, we’ll see. Seattle may have taken them lightly, and they got bit on the ass. We just need to keep stacking the wins.

I wonder if we may try to get Third and Juan back. He has a stunning 2 catches for 9 yards in 4 games. He’s worth more to us than them obviously.

Give ’em a 7th rounder.

Lumen Field indeed. Strangely the 49ers have won 5 in a row in Seattle. Notwithstanding the 2 late losses last year.

But, holy shit. This tilt had the intensity of a playoff game. In week 5. Both teams made mistakes. Both teams capitalized on those mistakes. Both teams got chippy. Draymond Greenlaw got tossed for head-butting a helmet-less player (stay tuned for a one-game suspension). Both teams played outstanding defense.

But in the end, the 49ers were able to prevail with 2 late scoring drives. CMC got rest early on and had some tough runs to finish off the game. Evans saw the ball going to him almost exclusively. And the defense was all over the field. Even without Dre. 5 sacks, 2 picks. 2 forced fumbles. Including the srip/recovery by Gracen Halton. One of the rookies that are making a big impact on the D.

It was driving me nuts that the run game was working and Shanny kept throwing. Esp in the 1st half. Kittle was unusually quiet. And we are REALLY running low on wide recievers now with Deebo and (dark side of the moo) Cowing going down to injury.

Great spot to be this early, but we were here last year. I thought sacrificing Dante Pettis to the power station would buy us a week off from injury, but no. We are running out of WRs.

Measuring stick game? Sure. Important? Sure. Purdy’s revenge? Yeah, I can see that. But as we all saw last year, we started out on fire and slowly cooled as the roster was decimated by injury. So far this year it’s the same. When healthy we can play with anyone. And frankly, the 3 best teams in the NFL are the Niners, Seahawks, and Rams.

The Chiefs remain the best team in the AFC, mainly by attrition. Buff can’t stop a JV team now. The Browns? Jags? Ravens? Maaaaybe. If Lamar can ever finish a playoff game.

Point being, it’s too early in the season to put too much importance on this game. Sure, it would put us in great standing, and it would give us bragging rights, but the wonks and haters will come screaming out of the walls should we lose. But with 12 games to go, way too much can happen between now and the playoffs.

Much healthier team for sure. Of importance though is Purdy’s 2-4 record vs a Mike McDonald-led defense. If we can run we can win. Sea’s run D is poor.

Niners 28 – Seattle 20.

Mike Ditka passed away yesterday at the age of 86 yesterday. A tougher guy would be hard to find in the history of the NFL. He of course played in the era of no-holds-barred smashmouth football. Those 60s Bears were mean as hell and they did win the Championship in 1963, but they couldn’t ever seem to find a QB worth a plug nickel. But they had Gayle Sayers and Dick Butkus leading the way, and the craziest TE in the league. Dude was LB sized at 6’3″ and 228 lb, and did his part to modernize the TE position as being more than a blocker and a swing-pass guy. He was the original George Kittle, catching 75 passes for 897 in 1964 (14 game season) and 58 catches for 904 in 1963. Unheard of numbers at the time for a TE. And he was the first TE inducted into the Hall of Fame.

Then he coached the Bears in his brash image and won them a championship back in 1985. Sure, the defense was led by Buddy Ryan but the team was led by Ditka and his intense ways. The 49ers of the 80s and 90s had a lot of clashes with Ditka and the Bears, up to and including the 28-3 shellacking of those Bears at home in frigid weather in the 1988 NFCCG. We were the ‘soft’ team that couldn’t stand the weather. Then the next year the infamous gum-throwing incident. Fun times!

Even after his football and coaching careers and his announcing and TV commercials he fought tooth and nail for the rights of retired players. Even if his Hall of Fame Trust Fund foundation ended up being shut down due to mismanagement.

Definitely one of the greats that the NFL built its popularity on, Ditka is, was, and will always be a true giant in the game.

RIP Iron Mike

Here we go. Game 5. The BIG early test. The 49ers managed not to trip over their dicks to an inferior opponent in the Cardinals, but the Seahawks managed to lose to an 0-3 team down to their backup QB. Even in their latest win over the Chargers, they nearly slept their way to another loss in the 2nd half, getting outscored 17-3 to close the game out. And only a late fumble by hapless Justin Herbert kept the Chargers from a potential tying score.

Seattle did get 2 picks and a gift muffed punt as well. And they still looked shakey. But hey, they were likely thinking about week 5 as well.

Charbonnet is out but that means nothing as the Seahawks will try to assert their run game and control the clock. Darnold is having a decent season but he’s 27th in yards, 12th in completion percentage, tied for 13th in TDs, and tied for 4th with 3 picks and 5 sacks. But wow. His rating is 9th at 101.1 but his QBR is a dismal 37.4. Good enough for 26th place.

Purdy? Well, 12th in yards, 5th in completion percentage, tied for 1 with 11 TDs, and tied for 2nd with 1 pick and no sacks. His rating is #2 at 126.2 and his QBR is #1 at 89.7.

Last week was a struggle for the whole team, Purdy included but he still managed a 107.4 rating, 2 TDs, and 218 yards. The run game churned out 140 tough yards against a defense that did a good job of slowing it. Til the 2nd half.

I wasn’t crazy about the play calling by Shanahan, esp the 4th down call, but in the end our O line did wear down their D line and we managed to come out a lot more balanced in time-of-possession at 30:53 to 29:07. A far cry from the earlier games.

But in the 2nd half, Shanny saved his best for last by picking up on the zero coverage and the blitz by the LB that left Kittle wide open with only one block to throw for a 56 yard TD.

Got to say, Shanahan has really impressed me with the game-time adjustments that he has made so far as well. Let’s hope Raheem Morris goes hard and heavy after Darnold. He is a guy the NEEDS to be rattled early to get him out of his game. That and simply double Njigba every play.

Prog metal?

Color me a little surprised about how effective the Denver defense was at stopping the 49ers for most of the day. Denver played us a lot like Seattle, at least early on, in trying to take away the big plays, and running a 4-man front. It was very effective through the 1st half amid stalled drives and a blocked FG. But the offense finally wore down the Broncos and were able to score 21 points in the 2nd half to pull away from them.

But as usual it came with a cost. Lot of punts, lots of hitting and lots of injuries. The worst being Juice, who sustained a sprained knee, but avoided tearing anything. He’s out ‘a few’ to ‘several’ weeks. Sigle hurt his ankle, and Upton Stout hurt his shoulder. Both. appear day-to-day. Warner was battling flu symptoms but gutted it out.

On the Broncos side, they lost Patrick Surtain II to what looked like a calf pull. Not the achilles apparently but he’s a big piece of their pass defense. They lost their other CB Riley Moss to a rib injury.

All in all a tough win over what looks like one of the better teams in the AFC. Our defense was pretty stout in the face of losing everyone on the D line. The secondary was especially stout at stopping big plays, and keeping Nix to short completions. Yeah, we gave up a lot of passes but they didn’t go very far.

And Shanny called a super conservative game to start as we ran early and often to little positive results. He did make very solid adjustments to the play calling as he caught Denver in a blitz that sprung Kittle for a 56 yard TD scamper, and a nifty 1 yard TD pass to Deebo.

Pissed the Eagles shat the bed against the Rams. Onward to Seattle for the big showdown.

Here we go. This game and next week’s Seattle game are out big early test. Given the enormity of the Seattle game, it would be nice to have a 1 game lead on them but I don’t think Denver is gonna be easy.

But maybe the heat will slow them down. I have family in from Denver, and they ain’t used to this kind of heat. So hey, that’s something. It comes down to the pressure on Nix and stopping their run game. Dobbins is OK I guess. Waddle and Sutton are solid. And Nix can hit big plays given time.

Us? Same ond same old. We need to figure out how to better control the clock. Especially in the heat. It’s gonna be a scorcher tomorrow. Like 120 om the field.