Well, game one is in the books. Crazy-ass game. Just when it was getting scary, it turned into the Ted Ginn show. 276 yards in KO and punt returns, and his 2 scores late in the 4th quarter sealed the game. He outgained both offenses. The D played well for the most part, barring the breakdown in the 4th quarter. 5 sacks and innumerable pressures werew good to see. Seattle didn’t run for much or pass for much.
Young Sir Alex? Well, he played what they gave him. Didn’t see the deep coverage, so it’s hard to see what was going on downfield, but he did miss aan open Crab in the end zone early on. Smith was more a victim of some questionable play calling in the red zone more than anything else. 1-12 on 3rd downs will not get the job done. 1-5 in the red zone won’t get it done either. Seattle seemed very intent on not letting Gore beat them. As he has had some of his biggest games against them. They forced the game into Alex;s hands, and he did OK with the sort passing game.
My fears of the defense being out of their depth proved to be unfounded. At least against Seattle. Jackson isn’t Romo, but the pressure was in his face all day, and the defense caused their share of havoc all game.
All in all, a game to build on. Let’s hope they give it a little more gas in the red zone next week.
Forty Niners Forever 
Orton is getting the business in Denver.
The Tebow chant starts up. Denver’s version of Nate Davis.
In case you don’t know, I hate Denver even more than the Raiders . . . This game has to be the record for most penalties.
You prefer twinklefuck, Skippy?
Hey, it’s all good. They beat a bad team. They lead the West. They played it close to the vest.
Yippee. I have concerns. OK? Can you live with that?
I guess not. Smith had a fucking great game. Astounding that he can complete 4 yard passes after 7+ years in the league. Huzzah.
Even so, he’s still running the offense and not being a victim of it.
Curry favor with my audience? You mean the ones I just blew out of the water recently?
R-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-ght . . .
Try again, Skippy.
All this talk about Alex Smith is really a waste of time. He’s the qb, deal with it. Harbaugh is making the entire team better, slowly. The special teams are good and we have offensive and defensive starters on special teams, and we’ve drafted and acquired players just for special teams play. Ginn is the real deal. Knock on wood, but he doesn’t drop punts and he doesn’t make many mistakes. Akres, even though he was run out of Philly for missing kicks in the playoffs, is solid. Andy Lee is our MVP for the past decade (sad).
On D we look good. This D is underrated right now. I look for our D to start knocking qbs out of games, and for our secondary to start getting a lot of picks. The one thing we can’t have, though, is easy touchdowns like we did Sunday in the second half. If you have a game manager at qb, he can’t score quickly, and quick TDs giving up by the D kill you. The D, along with the special teams, looked awesome against Seattle. I hope that trend continues against Dallas.
I don’t see Harbaugh opening up the offense. He doesn’t have the ingredients for a 5 star meal. He has a young line that gave up 22 sacks in the preseason. He has a qb who is one of the worst in the NFL, and his coaches are implementing a new system. It’s debatable whether the Niners can beat the Cowboys playing field position or game management football. The Cowboys are interesting because they aren’t the Packers, but they aren’t Seattle either. If the Niners don’t bring more to the table offensively, everyone will point to Alex, and rightly so, but it won’t make any difference because he’s the qb for the year. Now next year, if Harbaugh keeps Alex Smith around, Harbaugh’s an idiot. But this year, under these circumstances, it was the right move. Doesn’t mean Alex Smith is good. In fact, Alex Smith is probably the worst quarterback with this tenure in 49er history. I can deal with that, can Twinfan?
Let’s also add that the Cowpatties secondary is their achilles heel.
Harbaugh is smart enough to know that the NFL is still a matchup game.
Harbaugh also knows the difference between chess and checkers, (something Singletary hadn’t quite figured out), when he wore the headset on the sideline.
No, we aren’t ready for Primetime perhaps but, we should have enough talent to make a better showing in Game 2.
Dallas’ OL is not top shelf either so, can our DL make it a battle so our secondary can deal with Austin and Bryant?
That’s why we’ll watch.
I’m in the Camp that says Harbaugh is feeling his way into the Pro game. Given what we know, the OL is suspect in Pass Pro, Alex is again, in a new system, Crabtree has again, missed what little PS we had together and, Harbaugh had little to go on with Carroll and Tarvaris.
I’m happy with vanilla to a point. Perhaps this amounts to having some bonafide film to study on a Division opponent for future planning, perhaps it’s training wheels for all concerned on what needs to be executed. What makes sense is that the Coaching was real, the plan worked in a cohesive sense, and the Team gained a little confidence.
For me, Crabtree/Edwards/VD and the RBs need to see plenty of work together at game speed to get basic timing issues addressed and polished to where the reads and adjustments are done with the same brain. That will take time.
For the immediate response, we are 1-0 in the NFC West and it beats the sh!t out of the alternative.
NJ,
I agree. The 49ers looked great in all facets of the game – except offense in the second half. But there weren’t penalties, sacks, timeouts called for lack of communication, etc. Harbaugh is a football coach, and the coaches underneath him are professionals. The rest of the league will start noticing. But the one thing that Niner fans have to be aware of is that Alex Smith limits the offense and that the Niners won’t score much. The formula is field position, special teams, Ted Ginn, David Akres, Frank Gore and the D line causing turnovers. I think it’s great that Harbaugh has to learn to play field position, because those are good roots for a new head coach in the NFL. At some point, Harbaugh will find his dynamic qb and we’ll all be like, “remember when Alex Smith was here and we had to kick field goals all game?” It is what it is, but if Niner fans think Harbaugh and Alex Smith are going to open up the offense this year, think again.
Spit I’d be happy to see Harbaugh teach Alex to ‘feel the pocket’ and develop a clock in his head for the timing that the WCO requires. It won’t happen in the 1st month, maybe not the second either,
What we want is enough of a foundation for Alex’s successor to grab hold of and take things to the next level. Tolzien seems like a bright kid and he had pretty solid stats in Nebraska’s Offense.
Both Alex and Kaep are spread guys with no real comfort zone in the pocket.
“Tolzien seems like a bright kid and he had pretty solid stats in Nebraska’s Offense.”
All the more impressive, considering he played at Wisconsin!
It will be interesting to see JH’s game plan for this weekend. The cowboys have weaknesses but they are better than SEA.
Meanwhile — why is everything so fucking black and white? Is it truly mutually exclusive to be glad for a Win and simultaneously have criticism of any players or coaching? I am certainly not all over JH for one freaking game. The guy has success written all over him. I wish I could say the same for our QB. One thing I truly pray for — that at some point in the not too distant future — this year, next — we are not debating AS. Christ I’m tired of it.
Tom Brady had more offensive yards last night than the Seahawks and Niners combined, that is how pathetic the Niners are!! The Niners are going to continue to run the ball, and that is just plain stupid!! If Harbaugh really wanted to test/prove that Alex Smith was an NFL QB he would draw up plays to have him throw the ball down the field.
And Henne had over 400 and he sucks. Don’t let the morons here influence your normally solid thinking, Dennis. EVERY QB sometimes is callled upon to be a “manager”. Denver probably would have won last night if they hadn’t stupidly thrown 40+ passes against a team that couldn’t defend the run if Chuckles was the back.
It has been explained perfectly clearly to all of you, If you are still so woefully ignorant of NFL football, don’t bother those who do with your idiotic posts. The game plan was NOT to throw the ball down field against this team. There will be games, perhaps this week, when longer throws and a more aggressive offense ARE part of the plan. The offense that was planned was executed, period. Spitfuck’s ridiculous assertion that the offense won’t ever be opened up is unsuuportable bullshit, as always from this moderately entertaining imbecile.Alex “feel the pocket”? One could hardly be better in that regard than he was Sunday.Henne had over 400 yards , Orton over 300 last night. Did those yards make them better than Smith was Sunday? You’re a mental deficient if you think so. After Brady, the best QB last night was Campbell, who had very similar numbers as Alex but had the benefit of a running game. Alex will get his yards and his TDs, when the opponent and the plan call for it. Now make an effort to enjoy the win- they aren’t easy in the NFL, regardless of the opponent.
The league has changed the rules so drastically in favor of the WR and the QB that todays NFL is a passing league. Your most successfull teams do it regardless of the opponent. No I am not an Alex hater. I think he has skills, but over the last 6 years it has been all about the run. How do you evaluate a QB that just hands off the ball.
This is why it’s difficult to have reasonable discussions here.When in doubt, you guys just make shit up. And making grand statements of how the offense is going to unfold after just one game is in the books is flat stupid. That’s no opinion, fact.
The Jets are another prime example of a team that will not win a SB. There offensive play calling does not have Sanchez thowing the ball down the field.
Twin, for a guy who calls everyone he disagrees with a troll, you throw around a lot of insults.
I have news for you, not everyone who disagrees with you about Alex, the passing game, politics, or the price of tea in China is a “mental deficient”. Fact is, there are some bright people here. Probably brighter than you, as a matter of fact. Last time I checked, no one here was the Undisputed Authority on All Things Football on the Internet. Spit might think he is, but he is five and crazy.
Chill.
I have news for you, it has always been the Alex “dislikers” who hurl the insults, buddy. All I’ve posted is that he had a solid, not great, not bad, just a solid effort Sunday. And anyone who could dispute that IS a mental deficient or biased well past being able to fairly judge the outing. The first fucking time I posted here in the “Spit Era”, I made a positive post about Smith, and he’s demanding my fucking address. Hopefully Rob will stay aboard and others who aren’t sycophants to the assholes Spit and Denny will join the conversation. Fact is- you people consider yourselves the only knowledgeable observers and will happily fabricate to suppport your positions. I saw that Spit called Billick an “idiot”- as with Dilfer, that all stems from the fact that both like Smith- as do other “experts”. There is certainly room for argument on that but it ain’t happening when Smith is actually trashed for a good outing.
Grumpy- this had definitely been a Hate Smith blog with the insults being directed at anyone who said anything positive at all about Smith.If you can’t take some in return, fuck off. Your pals here have threatened him and anyone who likes him. It’s you guys who need to fucking chill, pal.If you want reasonable discussion, be reasonable yourselves. Chuck shut down the last blog because of Denny and Spit, and this going in the same direction,.
Just ignore Twinfan,
He thinks Alex Smith is good. Why debate with that? I’ve stopped. It’s guys like Twinfan that kill a blog. Do yourselves and the blog a favor by ignoring Twinfan.
You and Denny killed the last blog. “Dennis is fucking relentless. He and Spit are why I killed it. ” You want this to be your private spot to spew hate and ignorance. A birther and a blog Nazi. Quite the pair.
Grump,
You almost hit the nail on the head. I AM five, I AM crazy, but I AM the world’s greatest football authority. I’m the sharpest marble in the linen closet, and don’t you forget it.
Look, Mike. I killed the last blog due to the death-threat shit about Alex and shit directred at you.
That has stopped. If Spit and Dennis want to rail on Alex, fine. So be it. At some point, I’ll tell them to find another topic to rail on. Whatever. I just ignore it, because it is a moot point. Spit understands that the Niners are stuck with Smith. Maybe Harbaugh gets a big season out of him. Maybe not. Most likely it;s somewhere in the middle. Dennis? Well, he’s here . . .
I wasn’t thrilled with the offense, but that was more game-planning rather than Smith’s performance.
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Other things we can talk about besides debating Alex Smith
1.) Micheal Crabtree – is his “lingering” foot injury just a way to keep the Niners from restructuring his contract? If you restructure Ted Ginn, you restructure Crabtree. Crabtree isn’t worth 5.5 million per year especially if, for perspective, the Niners pay Edwards 3.5 per year.
2.) My fantasy football dominance week one. Last year I didn’t play because Singletary’s military in Seattle left me sleepless for a month. He, and Fredo, broke my heart. This year, however, I’m impervious to the great depression that ensues after the hype bubble bursts only because our hc looks to actually has substance. But, if you want to heap praise on my team and how amazing it is drafting out of the 9th slot due to my good buddy Del wanting to suppress my greatness, by all means, I’d love to debate the greatness of my fantasy football team and my amazing football knowledge.
3.) Who’s going to be our starting FS? Maybe it’s going to be Reggie Smith after all. As far as the preseason goes, Unca’s right in his assessment of Goldson. Goldson didn’t look good at all. Madia Williams (sp?) looked good on Sunday. That hit where he called for unnecessary roughness made all the past football greats roll over in their graves. I betcha, when Goldson and Smith are healthy, there’s a good competition between the two. If Goldson loses, after losing out in the free agent market, he needs to get really serious about trying to stay in the NFL. Carlos Rogers looked good – textbook pass defense in the endzone. That guy could be a keeper.
4.) Where are the seven step drops? I know this leads to an Alex Smith debate, but Harbaugh is no Mike Martz. I want to see seven step drops. Know why? They get your qb killed. Maybe we can borrow Mike Martz for a month.
I don’t give a shit if they and the rest of the blog want to rail on him. They’ll just need to learn to take it and like it when opposing opinions are posted. You have three or four posters who think this is their private hating grounds. No more.
An amazing throw and a great catch. Alex doing this without crab and Edwards? Hmmm. Impressive. Denny, now I see why you pussed out so quickly on the qb rating bet. Good move.
I don’t give a shit what spit/Denny say about Smith. I think it’s funny, except for the idiotic death threats. And if romo somehow ends the game with a better qb rating than smith, so be it. I haven’t checked where they are right now. Anyone got that #?