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 
Yesterday I posted that there was nothing to bitch about and someone piped up that there was. Wrong Bongo- things to address, things to be concerned about? Sure. Anything to bitch about? Unless the dog ate your sandwich, not a Goddamn thing..
I haven’t even seen the entire game yet but I can see our game wasn’t designed to feature Alex and he was restricted to short work. In that he did a pretty good job. But Harbaugh either doesn’t trust Alex to open up the game or is trying mightily to protect him and build his confidence, even at the cost of a win.
Seattle obviously knew right away Smith wasn’t going to be a factor and set up to stop Gore, who didn’t look that hard to stop, btw.
The play calling was terrible, especially in the red zone. It looked a lot like when Jimmy Raye was favoring the WCO formations and awkwardly throwing in motions and shifts just to look like something was happening.
I liked the defense in their man free style. More zones slowed the pressure and the DBs. Some interesting subs and uses of the nickel and dime packages. I liked RJF at nose for the first time ever.
Ted Ginn, wow. I hated his acquisition and had written him off as a guy too afraid of contact to be an effective return guy.
I’m glad we got the W but I hope we prepare the offense better for Dallas.
NOFEAR
imo harbaugh is trying real hard to help smith gain confidence ! remember we got to 7-9 in 06 with smith , and have better talent on the roster now ! imho if harbaugh can get the best out of smith we have a shot at a better record than the 7-9 we put up in 06 this year because of it !
😀
i agree with GRUMPY at 4:55
I’m really surprised that there is so much negativity about yesterday’s win. A win in football isn’t like baseball, it’s a god damn gift that you fucking celebrate. Harbaugh is smart. He’s infinitely smarter than all of you. If he decides that the game plan for the Seattle game was to go vanilla and put the game in the hands of the D, so be it. He got lucky with some special teams plays but that’s what football is, players making plays.
I will be SHOCKED if this is the game plan in 6 weeks. With the lockout there is no reason in the world that any sane person would expect him to be able to get *his* offense installed in Game 1. He’s building up Smith’s confidence and those of you that don’t understand that little tidbit about success in sports at this level should just stop typing and go straight to focusing on securing food and shelter, the only two things you’re qualified to spend your time on.
I never heard back from Dennis about the bet I offered. Didn’t expect to. He’s like most bloggers, content to shit talk their way 24/7, probably almost preferring the team lose as long as he can find more ammo to target a guy he wants to murder. Idiotic. I also love how the “DMD’s” of the blog world never have any suggestion of who should realistically be playing QB today. Why would they? They fucking LOVE IT that Smith is QBing—if he wasn’t they’d have no one to threaten to kill.
And if the Niners lose Sunday (and you can see Denny rooting for that so badly, fucking pathetic that he calls himself a Niner fan) I am sure that most of you trolls will focus on the play of Smith. And maybe that will be warranted, we’ll see. But to sit here on Monday and not celebrate the win along with some very solid play from Alex within the parameters he was allowed to work is just totally lame.
Mike, try Kyle Orton. The human interception machine. Chicago fans and now Denver fans, are understanding that in a big way.
The reason it is negative is because a) Seattle sucks. b) The play calling was too Singletary.
Look Flav, Smith has been in the league 7+ years now. Yeah, he’s learning a new offense. But to say they are treating him with kid gloves at this point in his career is ludicrous. Build his confidence? I don’t know. If he needs to be coddled at this point, he’s beyond help. Cam Newton?
Yeah, Smith didn’t turn the ball over. Bully. But I hated the ulttra-conservative shit in the red zone. A good offensive team beats our conservative shit every time. The game was in the balance, and the Niners had put together ONE non-3-and-out drive in the 2nd half. I was very concerned until the returns.
Sue me for wanting to see the offense take some shots down field. Or try to score TDs in the red zone. Prove me wrong. Get aggressive on offense. Again, I was worried about the defense heading into this game. But I had no idea they’d dumb down the offense this far.
Like me and everyone else is saying, there’s time, and this is LIKELY a result of the short preseason, but look around the league. Lots of new guys are lighting it up.
Cam newton is the last guy who needs to worry about confidence. He’s probably got statues of himself and his house. People are different, Chuck. If Smith needs some confidence building at this point in his life, fuckin let him build it. Do you think harbaugh trusted that o-line to protect Smith long enough to go downfield? After that shit pre-season that they had? He was gauging where the O-line was at this point and factoring in the shit competition. We will see the offense open up in the coming weeks (6 of so)
Talk to me about stodgy game plans and the checkdown Charlie bullshit after they’ve played more than one fucking game. I’ll go with Harbaugh’s assessment of Smith over yours, “Skippy”..
The line WAS pass-blocking well. And the did a little more downfield passing in the 2nd half. The piont being, the running game wasn’t there. They have to take shots when things aren’t working.
God, Mike was wondering what other QBs get ridden mercilessly? Did you just see what Orton just did? Facing little pressure, he dropped the ball.Oakland recovers and drives for a TD in 2 plays.
That’s not what I said, don’t fucking make shit up. I said you people don’t apply the same standard to Smith as you would another QB. And you’re the worst, IMO, because you changed your position only to curry favor with your audience here.
The line was pass protecting better, not well. Smith threw with pressure in his face over and over. Including when he checked down to Gore while The Diva did her act in the EZ..
Holy shit.The Raiders must have 250 yards of penalties.
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.