Forty Niners Forever

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 with 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. 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. 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.

Pretty crazy stats, but once Brock Purdy reaches 1,500 attempts (in a couple games) he will be the all time-leader in quarterback rating in NFL history at 104.8 He will also be #2 in yards per attempt at 8.6 behind only Otto Graham.

He’s at 1436 so 64 attempts should hit in a couple games. This is pretty mind-blowing for all the slights and scorn directed his way by the national media.

I guess if you prostrate yourself on the field and wear your religiosity like like a cloak of invincibility, the dipshits fawn all over you, a la Tim Tebow.

But be a humble dude simply having fun out there and kicking major ass, you are a joke. Especially when drafted last. He’s up there in the pantheon of Bay Area stars like Stephen Curry, Joe, Steve, and the like. Humble but driven beyond reason.

This fucking team has to reach the promised land. A ring or 2 and t5hat’s the only way the national nabobs of negativism will put any respect on his name. So glad we got this guy.

Still wondering what the fuck I was doing instead of being here.

The most important injuries from the latest crash-test-dummy football game involving the 49ers are what they call day-to-day. Both Mike Evans and Trent Williams, two hugely important components of this high-flying offense, may play against Denver this weekend. Evans has a rib ‘issue’ that Shanahan isn’t calling a break, but Evans was in a boatload of pain coming off the field. The impetus may be to not run Evans over the middle and face big hits, but we all know how that goes.

Trent Williams issue was a neck stinger that Shanny said should be resolved by Thursday. Both of these of course come with the caveat that we don’t know shit, and they are tight-lipped about anything like this. Dre Greenlaw will be monitored for his quad contusion. He’ll likely play a limited amount. Romello Height is coming off hand surgery and will play.

And in other good news, Mykel Williams will have his practice window open Tomorrow so he will be available for the Seattle game. He will be closely watched I would think.

So the offense is in about as good shape as it could be in given all the previous injuries.

Defensively we are in the same situation we have been in. Stop the run. We have been fairly unsuccessful at doing that. Both Miami and the Cards had HUGE time-of-possession differentials in their losses. AZ especially could have won that game with a couple missed plays on our part.

And, hey, not all the games will go as planned. But we got the win. Just look at Seattle losing to an 0-2 Commando team using a backup QB in Marcus Mariota. Or even the 3-years-retired Case Keenum leading the Bears to a win over the Eagles last night.

Got to say I’m a little disappointed in Raheem Morris not changing things up to stop the run. Still seeing a lot of 4-man fronts. And the pressure is still not up to par. 2 sacks on 52 passing attempts isn’t stellar. Yeah, Bosa’s out. But scheme different looks. Send a corner in press coverage. Nix is no world-beater, but give him time and he WILL hit big passes.

This was a great day for the Niners in the sense that LA lost to Denver, Seattle lost to the Commandos, and the 49ers made it past the always-troublesome AZ Cardinals.

But as usual, it came with a heavy price.

• Mike Evans went out with what looked like at least a broken rib as he was really struggling to breathe coming off the field.
• Dre Greenlaw suffered a quad injury, but did return to the game.
• Gracen Halton suffered an ankle injury. The extent is not known.
• Trent Williams suffered a stinger and didn’t return to action.
• Deo Lenoir and Renardo Green suffered concussions but both returned.

All in all another day in the EMF zone. Move back to Candlestick point already.

Not sure how long they can sustain this win by losing players approach, but maybe 3 games in a row under the influence of the power station is too much for them.

As far as the game went, I thought Shanny called a great game until the end of the half, and the end of the game. The hook-and-lateral from Evans to Deebo was flat amazing. Deebo still has a pretty good set of wheels to go 80 yards on the pitch, and he ended up with 80 yards receiving and a TD on 0 catches. Evans was great till injured, Kittle had a big big day, and Jordan Watkins showed up on the stat sheet with 2 catches for 60 yards.

The run game was doing fine. But, with the ball and an 11 point lead, and 3 minutes left in the half, Shanny ran the ball effectively to get to the 2 minute warning at our 38. So, instead of mixing runs and short passes to milk the clock and close out the half with points, the Niners throw 3 incomplete passes, burn 15 seconds and give the ball back to AZ.

AZ drives and kicks an FG, cutting it to a one-score game. With 23 seconds left, AZ manages to leave Watkins all alone and Purdy hits him for a 34 yard gain, and just enough for Piniero to kick a 57 yard FG.

And late in the game with the 49ers trying to burn clock up by 2 with 2:08 left, Shanny calls a pass that falls incomplete. 2:03 left. THEN Shanny runs. Amazingly, CMC gets 12 yards on a run that looked to me like Dom Puni carried him and pushed the pile 10 of those 12 yards.

Point being, Shanny gave AZ extra plays and life when he shouldn’t have. I loved the aggressiveness with 23 seconds left before the half, and even the TD to Kittle to seal it. Though I really wanted the 50 yard scramble to count.

And Eddie Piniero has to get his shit together. Those extra point misses turned out to be big.

The defense played well until they simply wore down. TOP was awful yet again with AZ holding the ball 39 to 21 minutes.

And apropos of nothing, that was one of the worst officiated games I’ve ever seen. On both sides. Way too many ticky tacky calls that were huge. Much like the Denver/Rams game, the refs really decided the end of that game with 2 crucial penalties against the Rams late. But hey, Talano Hufanga had himself a Rams reunion with 2 picks, including a pick 6. Stafford now leads the NFL in pick 6s. Hah!

Down 6 of 9 defensive linemen. Can we stop the run? Will we activate Valdez? Sign anyone? Trade Jones? A lot will be determined after this game. If AZ runas all over us, there will be some kind of moves to be made as Denver and Seattle are next, and they are tougher than the Cards.

Sure we should be able to outscore them, but as Miami showed, it’s tougher to score when you don’t have the ball. And AZ isn’t as terrible as Miami.

Worried about this one.

At least it isn’t season-ending, or even a knee problem, but Nick Balsa, uh, Bosa is out for 3-4 weeks with a calf issue. I’m still waiting for us to sign Leonard Floyd, but I thought they’d do that when Thompson went down way back to 5 days ago, or when CJ West went down eons, AKA 4 days ago.

This is getting tiresome. But the entire league is having injury issues, so, instead of the 49ers dropping back to the mean, the rest of the league is catching up to us and our injury issues.

Got my new 49er hat in the mail today. Expedited.

Here we are two weeks into the season, and SIX starting quarterbacks are out.

1. Sam Darnold – Sea
2. Jaxson Dart – NYG
3. Jayden Daniels – Commandos
4. Tua Tagliovua – Falcons
5. Caleb Williams – Da Bears
6. Kyler Murray – Minn

Funny thing is, both Minn and Seattle are 2-0. Minnesota has squeaked by its two wins, and Seattle squeaked out their win over the Pats.

The Bears are down to their third string guy Case Keenum as backup Tyson Bagent (???who???) is in the concussion protocol.

The Giants looked like hot garbage with Jamies Winston at the helm. Washington is another disaster with Marcus Mariota.

Sea looks to be pretty good going forward as they are a strong team and Drew Lock is doing his best Mac Jones impression.

Minnesota? Well, they have Carson Wentz. Murray went down on their first drive on their first game. For them that was prolly a good thing. Wentz crushed the Packers in the 4th quarter of the GB game, and squeaked out a win in the Chicago rain.

Soooooooo, you’d think with all these QB injuries, the phones in Santa Clara would be smoking hot. But the buzz around Jones seems to be non-existent. The latest story out of the Giants camp is that they are looking to trade for Jimmy G. Or JJ McCarthy.

Really? Are we simply stating “we want a #1 + a 3”? “We want Justin Jefferson”? Are we asking too much? Holding out for more later? Granted, it is still very early in the season, and many more guys can get hurt, or Wentz starts sucking, but the fact remains they have to trade Jones. They made the mistake with Darnold and a one-year deal as he would have been a great trade chip.

I mean, it would be a major fuckup if we simply let Jones sit on the bench for the duration of the season and sign elsewhere as a free agent. The team has pretty much established that Kurtis Rourke is fine as the backup, so a deal should be out there somewhere for Jones.