So much for the dream team in Philly. The San Francisco 49ers had one of their toughest victories in quite a while with a stirring 2nd half comeback vs the Philadelphia Eagles, IN Philly. After a desultory 1st half where Smith threw for 66 yards, and gave up a fumble which resulted in 7 for Philly, the Niners were by all accounts lucky to only be down 20-3 due to an early Vick pick, and a very retarded play by Ronnie Brown when he tried to lateral the ball while getting tackled on the 2 yard line.
Alex Smith came back in the 2nd half to play about the best football of his star-crossed career. He was 13-17 for 225 yards in the 2nd half, threw for 2 touchdowns (no picks), and ended up with a 112.5 QBR when all was said and done. The Niners outscored a suddenly pourous Philly defense 23-3 in the 2nd half, threw for 291 yards, and rushed for 164. For all the shit the O line has taken, they run-blocked very well, and pass protected well. Although Anthony Davis had quite the adventure trying to block Shooty Babbit, uh, Justin Bieber, errrrr, Jason Babin to the tune of 3 sacks.
It wasn’t the cleanest game played, with 4 missed FGs and costly fumbles on both sides, but for the 49ers to come back on the road against a legit team says worlds for how good a job Harbaugh has done with this team this young season. They sorted out the run blocking, and gave time for Smith to hit some deep passes in the 2nd half. An aspect of this team that hasn’t been apparent. They also hit on a slant (a SLANT!) for the TD to Morgan.
A game to build on. Most defintely. TB at home isn’t easy, and Deetroit on the road isn’t a cakewalk either, but they certainly can be taken care of if they keep playing this type of offensive game. Strong running and a passing attack that takes advantage of matchup issues when they are there. Still would like to see a little more of VD deeep, but there’s little to complain about when Smith hits 8 different guys for 291 in the air. Winning these close games is light-years above all those mioral victories of the last two regimes. The Niners were losing these types of games for the past 4 years.
Forty Niners Forever 
Twinfan, your claims are outrageous and you’re being less than honest with the quote you attribute to me.
I gave your cuz Alex Smith credit for what he did in the second half today. But after six years of stinking it up he hasn’t earned deity status with a good half of one game.
Let him add a few more good games to his resume and he might look like he can get us through the season. Until then he’s earned himself the uphill battle he’s in.
I’ve not asked for “deity” staaus for him- just aknowledgement when he does play well- with out the lucky bounce and other team’s mistakes bullshit. The “lucky bounce” was then handledwith ioise and a huge loss was averted, And OF COURSE Philly mistakes played a part- that’s kinda how it usually goes for the losers- they make more mistakes than the winners.
And no, he didn’t “earn” an uphill battle- he earned his chance to show that it wasn’t all on him. Fortunately, Harbaugh agrees.
It was nice to see Aldon Smith make an impact.
Berger, you’re a great friend and I love you. But don’t you dare answer this question wrong…
Tony Romo or Alex Smith? I’m taking my phone off the hook if you answer incorrectly.
Alex Smith.
Tony Romo is a gunslinger type of QB. I don’t care much for the aggressive damn the torpedoes style. I like aggressive, calculating QBs. Alex hasn’t been aggressive enough, I blame that mostly on bad coaching, but he is very calculating. With him finally having a decent coach and system I expect him to be much more aggressive soon.
Dennis, while you’re at the doctor’s office, ask him why you’re so obsessed with choosing Romo or Smith as your QB. Is this some fantasy league inside joke?
I love all the people who like to cite Alex’s *career* record as evidence that he sucks. You can explain all the years before this one if you are objective. I said that this year would be different because of the circumstances and Harbaugh. I said that he and the team would get better as the year went on since they didn’t really have a training camp. So far, it’s all unfolding that way, albeit a few weeks earlier than I thought it would….
Again, try to remember where you were in 1981, who you were, how you acted. As a fan, that’s how you should be acting now. This is all new again. We haven’t won a super bowl in 16 years. Of course Smith isn’t Montana. That’s not the point. There’s a re-birth going on in SF though, and if you stopped sticking your Alex Smith doll with needles for a moment you might actually find yourself enjoying this…….
Flav, answer me this. Alex didn’t have the balls to tell Sing last yr during the Eagle game (after his horrendous fumble) that he wanted to remain in the game when Sing when gonna bench him. It was courtesy of his toady, Vernon Davis, who had to speak up for him and lobby his case. Is that the type of leadership you’re looking for in a quarterback?
Alex is a pussy and a mook.
Get over it. He gutted out a tough win TODAY.
Leave it at that. Last year is gone. Attributing (or even bringing up) Singletary is retarded in the extreme.
Why you would ask me this question? What in the fucking hell does this have to do with this year, their 3-1 start, their back to back road wins, their comeback in Philly from 20 down, and a QB rating for Alex that has to be, and I haven’t checked this, around 98 or so? Dennis, you are just someone that hates his life and takes it out on the players of the team he loves. I get it. You should try to get that, too…….
Correcto-mundo Grumpy. It’s a new season, new coach, really a new team. Yesterday came predictions that we would lose by 2 TDs, the spread be covered in one quarter but some of us said “We haven’t lost yet. We gotta chance to beat these guys”. Smith and team are doing something to this point that’s rarely been done before: sticking with same team during bad times, years, and coming back to be a winner. John Brodie said to have done it. Could be happening again right before our eyes. Wouldn’t that be tits??
I don’t understand why the beginning of success isn’t enough for some or that qualified praise for our guys isn’t okay for others. It’s a great, fantastic start! I for one won’t mope (or get in a pissing contest) cause any of that will interfere with my sheer joy and pleasure at taking the so-called vaunted Dream Team to the woodshed and giving them a royal spanking as pure underdogs. This is what I live for as a fan! Shades of humbling the great Cows teams of the ’80s. Get off the misery train and all aboard the 2011 San Francisco Forty Fucking Niners! Gotta love it!
Yeah, his QB rating as a 21 YO rookie on a terrible team and that from the year he was injured are cited as relevant. Not relevant is the fact that his QB rating is over 90 since Raye was fired. Suddenly, QB rating is “misleading”.
Come on, guys and gals. This was the biggest win in about 8 years, and it’s bitch, moan, whine and preen.
Dennis, just roll with it, baby. They won a hard fought game over a better opponent, on the motherfucking road no less. This is a sign that maybe things will get better down the road. These are the games that Singletary and Nolan would lose, and STILL hang their hats on them as moral victories. If you can’t come out of this win feeling good, then maybe there is a problem.
Smith is climbing up the QB charts. The offense really clicked this game (in the 2nd half). Harbaugh’s installing things as fast as he can. It for all intents and purposes seems to be working. I did not think they’d be 3-1 at this point in the season. If they do better than 8-8, I’ll be happy as hell. Because if they are better than 8-8, thay are going to the playoffs. AZ just choked away their game, and Seattle isn’t going anywhere this year. The Rams are getting floored by a devastating schedule, and could very well be 0-6 soon.
Smith will probably be about 9th by QB rating after this week, and it’s accompanied by the team’s 3-1 record so it’s hardly irrelevent. And it should be noted that after the early big run from Gore, they got practically nothing on the ground until the passing allowed it.Let’s just hope that Harbaugh learns from this- Sing never did. Smith is best the closer he gets to his spread roots.
Yep. Smile, be happy, don’t worry. I mean it. We’re on the 49er Mystery Express and let’s enjoy TODAY. Epic win! Really what is the problem?
And Berger, I chose Romo over Smith last week because I got caught up in comparing their careers. But you might be right. If you just look at how each are playing RIGHT NOW you have to look at this and say “maybe Smith”, Although that game v the Niners with the broken/punctured shit was unreal…….
Romo is 31, Smith is 27. Romo doesn’t throw well with consistency from inside the pocket. Smith does. Romo’s HC was his OC for a long time. He is in a familiar system. I will say Romo is one helluva competitor, but he is not an elite QB. Not even close. Alex has the potential to be an elite with the correct coaching and system. I’m still on the fence about Alex but I’m about to jump on the side of being sold. I am not on the fence about Romo, I don’t care for him.
I appreciate that analysis. I don’t watch football as closely as I do baseball. I’m surprised you would say AS has the potential to be an elite QB, I had high hopes for him when he was paired with Harbaugh but I never hoped for *elite*. I would take that, however. 🙂
I’m not predicting him to be an elite, but one can definitely see signs of potential. I would predict him to be a solid QB very soon. If continues to play the way he currently is playing for another 6 games I would say he is there. IMO, elite would take about 5 years of playing the way he is this year, so far. He would also need some play-off wins. We can surely hope.
The offensive formations were obviously different in the 2nd half. Harbaugh finally said fuck it and threw Smith out there. I was surprised at how easy it was, I bet Harbaugh was too. The running game in the 4th Q was a bit of an illusion, the Philly D is not in very good shape. They were draggin’ like a motherfucker. Gore didn’t look fast at all, in fact he looked slow to me, yet he still ate up yards. Maybe that’s cause I was comparing him to *Lightening Hunter*. But he was tough and ran hard till the end. The Philly D was just milling around on that last drive, though……..
The formations were not different. The difference was the line actually blocked better. Philly also didn’t blitz a lot. They prefer to rush 4 and cover. They were covering deep routes early. When Nnamdi bit on the double move, it seemed to open things up for the run game, and Gore/Hunter were able to start breaking off good gains. Feeding off that, the longer passes were working, because Philly would honor the play action.
They showed a FEW spread sets, but no more than they usually do.
We had a big brunch at the house this morning, I had the game on but watched the second half much more closely than the first half. To me, when they came out more spread in the 2nd half, that looked different. But I’m fine being wrong on that if I am.
I disagree. We ran a lot more spread today than in any other game this year.
Philly also wasn’t packing the line the way most teams usually do. They pretty much went with 7 in the box in the 2nd half. Which was real surprising to me. I’ll have to take a look at the 1st half to see if they were stacking the tackle box the way most other teams do.
Early that is.
That is because we ran a lot of 3 and 4 receiver sets(Spread formations) which backs the safeties out of the box.
dude, that is another astute observation. That’s EXACTLY why they didn’t flood the box. Chuck, what the fuck, this Berger cat is running the show here! Seriously, way too many fans are stuck on their ambivalence about Smith and it’s keeping them from celebrating one of the great Niner victories of all time (regular season)…….
Yeah! A 20 point 2nd half comeback is pretty cool!
What about the 1st half? We weren’t doing that much 3-4 WR sets then. Was Philly putting 8 in? I thought so, but I don’t know for sure.
What I’m getting at is I didn’t think we changed things up to start the 3rd quarter, but as the Niners started moving the ball, they backed out of their crowding the line.
I noticed some 3 and 4 receiver sets in the 1st half, but not much different than last week. In the 2nd half we didn’t things much different except we ran more Spread formations. What worries me is we might have done it only because we were behind. I will be interested to see how we the open the game vs the Bucs.
What about the idea of playing Gore and Hunter at the same time? Does that just cause too many blocking issues? I think Harbaugh could have a ball with that formation…….
Yeah, like maybe in an old fashioned Pro-Set formation, ala Craig and Tyler or Rathman and Craig!
There goes FF QB #2. Fucking Sanchez . . .
Smith’s third quarter set up the run. They ran just thee times in the quarter. It was on the game winning drive that they ran it up Philly’s ass- begiinning with Gore’s 25 yard run from the shotgun..
The Eagles losing two D-linemen might’ve helped on that last drive too?
Sure. Isn’t that part of the game?
Definitely. But I do agree with your assessment of the passing game helping the running game. It is all part of the game.
Dennis’ 7:34pm post is just about the last straw broken. I don’t know if I can respond to anymore of his posts. Amazing, I spent a straight week exchanging posts with this dude on the horse racing blog 3 years ago and now I’m about to ignore him? Denny, say it isn’t so? I just can’t respond to your drivel anymore, and I’ve tried as hard as I can to throw you a life preserver. You just don’t want to grab on to it……..
Flav, do what (or do not) what you must. But I stand by my 7:34 post. I didn’t make that shit up, Vernon had to speak up for Alex., Why? Alex is a pussy and a mook and was afraid to tell Sing to go fuck himself. That’s His problem. Alex doesn’t have the killer instinct…I want a QB who could kill his mother Saturday night, and wake up Sunday morning like nothing ever happened and win a goddamn football game.
I’ll say it again, Alex is a pussy and a mook.
I am leaning towards ignoring you because you don’t listen to reason. And you’re obsessed with a paranoia about a guy who is actually helping your so-called favorite team win games. You wanna talk about what he did or didn’t do with Sing last year? Idiotic. I’ll always love “Denny”. “Dennis”, not so much. You’ve changed dude. You’re not making sense. Fix that and we’re all good. I hope you get it figured out on one of these Wednesday afternoons. I sincerely mean that….
Flav, you need to win a game tomorrow: Alex or Tony?
We know who choked today and who didn’t, don’t we, Death Threat?
See, that was taken care of this afternoon, DTD. Alex led a stirring comeback. Pizza Boy choked… again.
I’m with Berger. Smith.
What changed in the second half was the score- forcing Harbaugh to take the shackles off. Tough to throw downfield when the receivers aren’t ruuning those routes.
Are you talking about last year’s Philly game, DTD?
“Death Threat Denny.”
That makes me chuckle. Chuckle almost as much when you and your brethren say you’d rather have Alex Smith over Tony Romo.
I do love a good laugh.
Mook.
Did I vote on that? I don’t recall.When you asked it last week I said I’d take Smith in the Dallas system since 2005 over Romo in the 49er system since then. Of course, I did note that Romo, thrown onto that 2005 team, would pray for nothing more than a cracked rib and punctured lung. And his prayers would not be answered…
Can you still chuckle? Or is it a wet gurgle?
Proud of yourself, Mike?
If so, you’re full of shit. That sideline dispute was replayed over and over- Smith was in Singletary’s face, and his anger is what Singletary claimed made him change his mind.
Bull motherfucking shit. Alex stood there like a pussy in a daze, a goddamn statue like always taking Sing’s verbal abuse. In comes Vernon to speak up for his ass. Alex acted like the pussy that he is..he was about to be replaced by David Carr, but Vernon told him that wouldn’t look too good on his resume. I can sum up Alex Smith’s resume in one word…
Mook.
Seriously. If any of you here think Alex Smith is a better QB than Tony Romo, you’ve reached a mook status unparalleled to none other. I ‘ll pin the gold star on your forehead myself. Fucking mook.
I don’t want Romo or Smith. I want Rogers. And a unicorn. Whatever. Great 2nd half by Smith. I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again, it’s what you do AFTER you make a mistake. All players make em. Today, Alex overcame and brought us back for a stirring unlikely win. I’m fucking stoked.
Also, despite the 4000 yards by Vick, I have to say our defense, especially our front 7, have some serious heart. They let Vick get out of jams, but they kept at it.
This was a team win. Despite some shaky ground, everyone contributed (except maybe Delanie Walker — that’s a bone for Spitblood). We’re not exactly SB material yet, but shit god damn, winning today felt pretty fuckin’ good. Way to go Alex. Let’s see some more next week.
Dennis — only a mook benches Gore in FF, unless it is a game of three dimensional chess that anti-jinxes him to pull out a winning score all while confidently knowing Rogers would bank 60+ points on your ass.
Hmmm, love me the taste of victory.