Game one of the Jim Harbaugh era was a resounding success for the nascent head coach and the revamped coaching staff. I was especially surprised at the defense’s consistent pressure from a fairly basic set. The Niners didn’t blitz much, and therefore had good downfield coverage for the most part. The DBs were solid most of the time as well, and Rogers had a nice breakup in the end zone. Seattle, though, started going downfield more in the 2nd half, and they moved the ball much better in the 2nd half rather than the 1st. To the tune of outscoring the Niners 17-3 on offense. Fangio has spent enough time in the NFL to know his way around a defense, and he had to be happy with the results. Seattle has a very young line, and the Niners had their way with them.
The offense on the other hand was restrained to say the least. Seattle was intent on not letting Gore beat them, and they held him in check all day, minus a couple good runs. The passing game was dinks and dunks most of the time, and the red zone offense was bland to say the least. No mistakes by Young Sir Alex, but one TD in five trips to the red zone isn’t the way to dominate opponents. The one thing Smith has shown in his career is his taking care of the ball in the red zone. To the tune of 30 TDs to one pick.
The return game? Well what can you say? Ginn scored 2 times and iced the game for the 49ers. The Niners gave up a punt return for a TD, but it was called back due to an illegal block in the back. One that actually sprung the return, so there you go. You take your chance and hope it doesn’t get called. The Ginn TD on the kickoff return was critical to the game as the Seahawks had cut the lead to 19-17, and the Niner offense had mustered only one decent 2nd half drive (for yet another FG). A bit galling was the 6 shots the offense had inside the 10 (due to a roughing the kicker call on a made FG) to score a TD, yet couldn’t. This team has too many weapons to not try things a little bit more risky than Gore left, Gore right, Gore up the middle. I understand getting the lead to two scores, but Seattle ended up getting a TD in about 45 seconds.
All in all a solid effort. Going forward, they need to get this offense up to a higher speed. Sure, they played it safe due to their opponent, but Dallas, while not a top-tier team, is better than Seattle in many different ways. This will be a truer test as to how far this team has progressed in this compressed timeframe. As The J-E-T-S showed, Dallas can be thrown on. VD should get some heavy action, as well as Braylon Edwards. So, bombs away . . .
Forty Niners Forever 
WOW…. look at these stats I’m collecting to drive a man insane….
My criteria, just so you know, for consideration of the title, “WORST QUARTERBACK IN 49ER HISTORY,” Is that you have to have been the starter for at least three years. This weeds out the Norm Sneads, Steve Spurriers, etc. Those with at least 3 years as the Niners’ starting qb going back all the way to 1946 are …..
Frankie Albert
YA Tittle
John Brodie
Steve Deberg (debatable if he got three years as starter, let alone seven. Just imagine 7 years of Deberg…. the horror, the horror).
Joe Montana
Steve Young
Jeff Garcia
Alex Smith
Wow. I’m sure Frankie Albert’s numbers aren’t relevant because of leather helmets and they hadn’t invented the forward pass yet. Actually, maybe that’s when Alex Smith would have shined as a qb, before the forward pass? My bad, he can’t run either.
So, let’s see…. The championship title fight for the coveted and prized title of “Worst QB in 49ers History is between Alex Smith, Steve Deberg and I’ll take a peak at Brodie and Tittle stats just to be fair. But I think it’s between Deberg and Smith.
DeBerg is clearly worse on record alone. (7-28)
As Harbaugh attempted to poiint out to you people, those are the *team* records. By your alternate reasoning, Alex Smith is clearly superior to Archie Manning,
Yeah, Grump, I’m gettin’ there, but you’ve gotta spend the time to frame the debate. You can’t just declare someone WORST QUARTERBACK IN 49ER HISTORY. You have to create the criteria for acceptance into the debate, then select the relevant categories. It’s a process to drive a man insane. You don’t drive someone completely fuckin’ bonkers overnight. You must be thorough in your work. You know this…..
Yeah, but Grump, that’s the heart of the issue. Deberg didn’t start all three years. Alex has started seven fuckin’ miserable years. The idea is if you have a stinker of a qb, it shouldn’t take anyone this long to realize it and move in another direction.
7-28 is only two years. Not enough starts to qualify for my competition. He does, however, receive honorable mention.
“Alex has started seven fuckin’ miserable years”
Three plus, liar.
What clearly shows a hate monger’s bias is that they point to Smith’s career QB rating, weighted down by the rookie and injury seasons, yet disregard his 90+ rating since Raye left ,a far more relevant number to TODAY.
The criteria for competition in the fight for WORST QUARTERBACK IN 49ER HISTORY is that you must have at least 48 starts, or three years under your belt.
Then we are going to compare wins and loses, TDs, INTs, and completion percentage.
What else is relevant? I’m throwing out qb rating because that’s only been around for a while, and total passing yards isn’t fair because some guys played longer than others. I’m not getting into comparing certain years of productivity. It’s everything, baby.
The contestants are…… drum role, please…….
Alex Smith
Jeff Garcia
Steve Young
Joe Montana
John Brodie
YA Tittle
These are you qbs who’ve been deemed by the brass good enough to start at qb without replacement for over three years.
The categories again, wins and loses, TDs, INTs and completion percentage. Clean and simple.
Your stupidest post ever, and there’s plenty of competition.
Spewing out multiple irrelevant posts just to annoy one poster is truly juvenile, Tyler. Compounding the ignorance here is the suggestion that Brodie was ever a bad QB. He was a good QB on some bad teams. That you people still don’t understand that the QB is not only the most important player but also the one most dependent on the others, is indicative of your lack of knowledge of the game.
Since Spit’s posts are clearly irrelevant, untruthful, intended to incite ,and ignorant, I think I’ll turn our attention to a serious issue, the aforementioned. Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome. Part One of 24:
“Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome is a brain disorder due to thiamine deficiency.
Causes, incidence, and risk factors
Wernicke’s encephalopathy and Korsakoff syndrome are different conditions that are both due to brain damage caused by a lack of vitamin B1 (thiamine).
A lack of vitamin B1 is common in people with alcoholism. It is also common in persons whose bodies do not absorb food properly (malabsorption), such as sometimes occurs after obesity surgery.
Korsakoff syndrome, or Korsakoff psychosis, tends to develop as Wernicke’s symptoms go away. Wernicke’s encephalopathy causes brain damage in lower parts of the brain called the thalamus and hypothalamus. Korsakoff psychosis results from damage to areas of the brain involved with memory.”
The important thing that we all must realize in this competition is that a true 49er qb has to start long enough to be considered a true Niner. Jim Plunkett only started two years, but he’s more associated with the Raiders. Deberg was terrible, but he was a journeyman who also started two years. Deberg was a Chief and a Buc. Those guys are stop gaps or transition qbs. To be in this competition, and consideration for worst qb in 49er history title, the forty niner front office has to have made a commitment to you for at least 3 years (I’m certainly not advocating seven years). If the winner was here for seven years, those are stats to drive a man insane.
Well, we’ll see, won’t we? My feelings about Smith have run the course from a kid in over his head to a guy thrown under the bus by Nolan, to a guy misamanaged by Singletary, to him being the great unknown.
In the end, no one truly knows what he brings. He’s shown ability, but he still makes boneheaded mistakes. He’s yet to put together a consistently solid bunch of games. Maybe Harbaugh can coax consistency out of him. Maybe not. For the fifth time in his career, he’s on his last shot.
The truth still holds that he’s had more lives than any 3 cats as the 49ers QB.
Are you saying fuck the numbers, Mike?
Actually, Brodie was a VERY erratic, up and down quarterback during much of his time here, from 1957 through 1964. If you ever read his book, Open Field, you get an appreciation of just how immature and unready Brodie really was for the NFL. He struggled with some injuries, but it was own emotional demons that did a lot of the damage. Also a complete lack of coaching.
Things only changed when tittle came back in 1965 as Brodie’s first ever QB coach. Still, it took a near fistfight between the two on the practice field before they cleared up their animosity, dating from their playing days, and got down to work.
That year, everything finally clicked for Brodie, who posted a QBR of 95. That was in an era when 30 TDs was an astounding total. From that point through 1969, Brodie was indeed a very good QB on some very poor teams. Until 1970, when the 49ers finally got themselves some defense, and went to the playoffs.
It’s Brodie’s example, of a guy who finally harnessed his talent after years of not really getting it – that gives me what hope I have that Alex Smith could, with Harbaugh coaching him, finally get the light to fully come on.
No, I clearly said that more recent numbers are more relevant than older ones. Motherfucking DUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUH.
Oh, and if anyone wants shits and giggles, here are the career numbers for evey one of the 37 guys who have started a game at QB for the 49ers.
Sorted by QBR (descending), with record as a starter following.
Steve Young 101.4 91–33–0
Joe Montana 93.5 100–39–0
Ty Detmer 91.1 1–0–0
Jeff Garcia 88.3 35–36–0
Steve Bono 87.7 5–1–0
Shaun Hill 87.3 10–6–0
Chris Weinke 86.2 0–1–0
Jeff Kemp 85.7 3–2–1
Elvis Grbac 85.6 6–3–0
Matt Cavanaugh 85.5 2–0–0
Tim Rattay 81.6 4–12–0
Bob Gagliano 78.1 1–0–0
Troy Smith 77.8 3–3–0
Norm Snead 76.7 2–6–0
J.T. O’Sullivan 73.6 2–6–0
Frankie Albert 73.5 13–16–1
Alex Smith 72.4 19–31–0
John Brodie 72.3 74–77–8
Mike Moroski 70.2 1–1–0
Y.A. Tittle 70 45–31–2
George Mira 70 4–2–0
Ken Dorsey 63.7 2–8–0
Steve DeBerg 63.1 7–28–0
Jim Cason 62.6 1–0–0
Jim Plunkett 62.5 11–15–0
Steve Spurrier 61.2 13–12–1
Tom Owen 56.4 4–4–0
Trent Dilfer 55.1 1–5–0
Lamar McHan 54.3 2–7–0
Steve Stenstrom 52.7 0–3–0
Earl Morrall 48.1 1–3–0
Bob Waters 46.7 0–2–0
Joe Reed 35.9 3–4–0
Jim Druckenmiller 29.2 1–0–0
Scott Bull 24.8 3–4–0
Dennis Morrison 21.9 0–2–0
Cody Pickett 16.4 0–2–0
Unlike the rest of you, I both watched and knew Brodie. GG’s “review” of Brodie’s ghost written book, is subjective, not gospel.
Last time I saw Brodie was in a Palo Alto hotel room in the early 70’s. He and his agent were there to discuss Brodie teaming with my father and making a pitch for the MNF gig. My Dad was in Palo Alto for the East-West Shrine game, As usual for his West coast games, I worked in the booth with him. I think the old Mizlou network carried that game at the time. It would also turn out to be his last year with CBS, in large part because Brodie or his agent leaked the meeting to CBS…
Brodie strongly held that his introduction to Scientology transformed him as a person, and made a huge difference in his game. He also certainly benefited from having Tittle as a QB coach after getting very little instruction in QB mechanics through his first 8 years. If you have any anecdotes about Brodie you’d like to share, have at it.
If we can keep this the way Grumpy directed it ( Thank You) , I just may cancel the last 23 installments on Wet Brain…
Alex Smith 23-33 (win/loss) 51 (tds) 53 (ints) 57.3 (completion percentage)
Jeff Garcia 35-36 113 56 61.4%
Steve Young 91-33 221 86 65.8%
Joe Montana Greatest QB to ever play the game. Shouldn’t be in debate. I threw Young in there for perspective.
John Brodie 74-77 214 244 55%
YA Tittle 45-31 108 134 59%
Now to the analyzation of the data.
OK, Sir Spit, your data is overwhelming, Smith is the worst QB in NFL history, not just the Niners.
Winning Percentage
Smith 41%
Garcia 49%
Young 73%
Brodie 49%
Tittle 59%
Completion Percentage
Smith 57.3%
Garcia 61.4%
Young 65.8%
Brodie 55%
YA Tittle 55.9%