Here we are at the cusp of another San Francisco 49ers football season. The preseason was a mish-mash of success and failure. The 49ers played badly against good teams (NO and Hou) and fared much better against lesser teams (Oaktown and San Diego). The better teams dominated both sides of the line, while the lesser teams were pushed around by our lines. Good, bad, or indifferent, this trend looks to be followed during the season. better teams (Pittsburgh, Balt) should beat the Niners with relative ease, but they should be able to beat the lesser teams like Cleveland and Cincinnati. Division foes for the most part fall into the lesser category. There are teams that they may be able to beat, but aren’t top tier teams. Detroit and TB fall into that category.
The fact that the Niners were able to put forth a decent offensive effort this preseason has to speak to the coaching staff at least somewhat. The run game was solid, and the run blocking was there for the most part. Hunter was flat great in his reps out there. Gore got a few good runs in. Dixon was likely passed by Hunter, except in goal line situations. Norriss is stil on the team for some unknown reason. He did catch the only ball thrown to him. The passing game was a mixed bag. Mainly due to the all-out blitzing of NO in the 1st preseason game, and the horrible blocking in the Hou game. Against the Raiders and SD, the passing game was decent enough.
The newly aggressive defense inder Vic Fangio looked good at times and looked bad at times. Again, this was more the opponenets they were facing. Even still, number 1 pick Aldon Smith looked like the real deal as a situational pass rusher. Fangio said that A Smith wouldn’t start, but would be in the rotation. This is a very good move on his part. There’s no reason to expose hin in pass coverage this early in his career. 3rd and long, 2nd and long. These are the situations to put him on. The D backs even made some picks this preseason. More than in recent history.
Again, though, all this is taken with a grain of salt as SD didn’t start 14 of their 1st stringers (including Philip Rivers), and preseason is preseason. I don’t think they are as bad as NO adn Hou made them look, but not as good as they looked vs the Raiders or SD’s scrubs. Still and all, this looks like a team that is at least moving in the right direction. Will the personnel losses and shortened preseason overwhelm the strides the team has made? Can Jim Harbaugh save Alex Smith? Is the line going to settle in and pass protect? Can the defense stop teams on 3rd down? Time will tell. This team likely faces a lot of growing pains as it makes its way through the season.
Forty Niners Forever 
This is a work in progress . . .
I see this Season starting with lots of motion and ground attack.
Our OL is going to take time to adjust to the new system, however, a WCO should help them once Alex and the WRs get into the necessary rhythm.
Game 1, lots of Gore and Hunter, 9ers win a close one. I do expect Harbaugh to take some deep shots though, VD and Braylon will be a nice duo.
The blog, or the 49ers?
“Can Jim Harbaugh save Alex Smith? Is the line going to settle in and pass protect? ”
I find myself caring less about AS than the OL. Maybe I’ve exhausted all possible lines in the Great Alex Debate. But I want a badass OL. I really do. I hope these run-maulers can be coached up to pass protect. Wouldn’t that be the best of both OL worlds.
Once again, new season, high hopes, mediocre expectations. I think we will see progress on a week to week basis, and that’s all we could ask for at this point.
Hey guys. Thanks for checking this out. Yeah, The run blocking looked good at times, and awful at other times. Pass blocking is really a work in progress.
Welcome back from Blog Hell, Chuck. Should be an interesting game. Hopefully not in the Chinese curse sense. On paper, we should win. Of course, we thought that last year, too. Oh, WTH, once more into the breech?
Hey chuck, I hope Kendall “end zone” Hunter can find his way there a couple of times this week, and that Aldon “don’t call me Al” can pulverize whoever is QBing for the Sea-assholes.
nice site chuck ! like the layout ! this seems much better than the other one ! good luck with it !
ditto
I don’t know about anyone else but I am starting to really hate Seattle’s football team. In fact it’s almost taking on Ram proportions.
wow ! WINDER is right it’s really easy to use , much better than blogger !
cool !
Yeah, I can ban assholes easier as well . . .
Winder, Seattle is the new Rams . . . Throw in the fact that the head coaches don’t like each other, and you have the makings of a nice rivalry.
You KNOW harbaugh is itching to beat the shit out of Carroll. And he the same . . .
Let the asshole banning begin!!
Nice looking site, chuck
Crap, Chuck… if you throw out all us assholes, you’re gonna die of loneliness… 🙂
Good to see you back, Dude!
Nice blog, Chuck. I’ll try to keep the tom foolery to a minimum, until Alex Smith makes me shit my pants …. then all bets are off.
Hopefully, for Week One at least, it’ll be Pete Carroll doing all the pants shitting. 😉
2011 Battle Cry….
Just BEAT Pete……TWICE
“Hopefully” you’ll keep your gay winks to a minimum.
What Spit lacks with the tomfoolery (it’s one word you fucking mook) I’ll redouble with the Tom Collins.
Chuck– excellent job joining wordpress. If you need any help figuring out how to ban certain words, phrases, names, IP addresses etc just hit me up on email. Once you get rid of all those dumb shit talkers who blabber on and on about the same shit for months on end, you might actually get some people to come back here regularly. I will put your link back in my blogroll right now……..
Tom foolery is the guy who almost destroyed the last blog. I’ll keep him in check. The other is “tomfoolery” and those are basic shenanigans, which I’m clearly too good for. BTW, Del, very well played last night sticking me in the 9th slot and then going to the bathroom. “Silly me.” However, you could stick me in the 19th hole (please do), and I’ll still embarrass your squad.
Fuckin’ Mook!
I wasn’t joking about the bathroom. I had just finished our yahoo! draft, and I tried to squeeze in a little dinner and take a piss before our ESPN festivities. When I returned from the head there were exactly three seconds left on my 1st rd pick. I had no idea I was first. You think I wanted to go first? Shit, only a fucking mook would think that.
Thasnks Flav. Yeah, we’ll see . . .
Del,
I don’t know about all the bathroom talk. I agree with Flavor, it’s not necessary.
The big thing about this game against the SeaChickens? Donte Whitner covering my fantasy football man child, Zack Miller. Whomever plays free safety better be able to get some shots on Sidney Rice because Tavaris Jackson will get outside the pocket and throw deep. Can the Niners stop TJ from getting outside and chuckin’ it up? Not yet. When the O gets beat, Jackson will get outside and that’s where Whitner and whomever plays FS need to defend against the deep ball It’s all about Niner safety play on D in week 1.
I’d be more worried about our corners if I were you. T. Brown and Carlos Rogers don’t exactly strike fear into NFL quarterbacks. Not even a fucking mook like Tavaris Jackson.
The pass rush, as it has been since Julian Peterson left, is the biggest concern. Jackson is easy to rattle, so the onus is to get to him early and often.
The DBs? Well they are a work in progress. We don’t even know who’s going to be out there. Seattle will go deep early and often as well given the chance.
I expect Carroll to be pulling out all the stops as well. Deep passing, lots of blitzes, lots of misdirection.
Let’s hope the Harbaugh Era is something we can all be proud of