West Coast Killers indeed. Tampa Bay learned the hard way that this isn’t last year’s 49ers, last year’s coaching staff, or last year’s Alex Smith. The 49ers put a beat-down on the slow-starting (and slow finishing) Tampa Bay Buccaneers to the tune of 48-3. The largest margin of victory since the heady days of Bill Walsh (and Super Bowl XXIX). The 49ers, if they beat Deetroit next week, would BECOME the West Coast Killers. A suddenly a very legit powerhouse in the NFC. Hard to believe the speed at which they have assimilated the new offense of Harbaugh/Roman, and Vic Fangio’s newly aggressive defense. I guess Joe Staley was right when he said the O line doesn’t suck. The line pitched a shutout in protecting Alex, and opened up the tough TB D line for 211 (125 for Gore, and Hunter had some nice runs and 65 yards of his own late) yards rushing, and 205 passing.
The game yesterday was a thorough and complete beat-down of a tough NFC South team in the Bucs. One thing I like is the team has never taken the opening kickoff. They either defer, or the other team wins the toss. It seems to set the tone when they stop the opening drive. Especially when they can back it up with a TD. The Niners forced a 3-and-out, and scored in 4 plays to set the tone. The 2nd drive was stalled by the Gore fumble, but instantly erased by the Rogers pick 6. And the rout was on. Alex Smith now has the 3rd best QBR in the league at 104.1. His numbers weren’t huge, but they certainly didn’t need to be as the Niners threw for 205 and ran for 211. That’s balance. The big numbers in this game? 127.2 rating, 3 TDs, 0 picks. More importantly, he led the team on successful drive after successful drive.
The defense has suddenly become a ball-hawking (Nate who?) secondary that has 8 picks in 5 games. The D line has 12 sacks (including 2 by Aldon Smith yesterday) without blitzing very much. They confused and baffled Josh Freeman all day, and stuffed LeGarrette Blount to the tune of 38 yards. This was a statement game that I was fairly sure the Niners would come out aggressive, and not buy in to the grind-it-out style that everyone seemed to think it was going to be. These guys came out throwing (mainly in 2 WR/2TE sets), so there was little of the spread formations that were used the last couple weeks. Althogh Walker did line up in the slot for some big plays, includiong the opening drive TD that Smith put in there perfectly. They even used a bunch of 3 TE sets that resulted in some decent runs, and they threw once out of that formation for a 12 yard gain.
The great thing to see is that, with all the different formations and sets the Niners are running, there is a ton of shit for other teams to try and figure out. Passing out of 3 TE formations, running out of the spread, and being aggressive with the offense has been the biggest sea-change for this team. Harbaugh has fully sold this team on his strategies, and philosophy. I really didn’t think it would happen this fast.
Forty Niners Forever 
People do seem to forget that Harbaugh did inherit some talent- that’s no disrespect for the job he’s done- he’s getting something from that talent. But I’ve always disagreed that building a playoff team would be an arduous process- of course, I had more faith in Smith than others, making the postseason should be expected, IMO.
ESPN LIVES for that kind of shit. They’ll milk it til the cows come home. In other words, all week. Just like they’ll jump on the Niner bandwagon if they beat Deetroit. It won’t be the darlings of the NFC North anymore, it’ll be the resurgence of the 49ers. Return to glory, blah blah blah.
ADD theatre at its finest.
This is the NFL. Parity really does rule.
EVERY team is close to turning things around. No matter how bad. This IS the biggest difference between football and baseball. Jerry Jones may sue for the rights to generate his own income outside the purview of the NFL, but for the most part all the money is shared, and small market teams can compete with large market teams for players. The talent level for every team is high. How many times in recent memory have teams gone from worst to first? NO, Deetroit, AZ, Indy, among a bunch of others have done this. You have to be fairly inept (hello Matt Millen and Dr. York) to keep a franchise in the shit-house for long periods of time.
Singletary inherited a lot of talent. He did nothing with it. Shit, Nolan had the team off to a good start, and after the 2006 season, things were looking up. Much like 2010. Hence the trepidation this season.
Houshmanzada is in for a look at WR.
He played for brother John in Baltimore . . .
Well, I said 10-6, and no, I do not say 10-6 every year. Again, the main diff is the level of confidence in Smith. He may still shit in his pants, but I thought he’d thrive in the WCO. Those who were talking 7-9 and worse were mostly not confident in him. Lotsa blather about other factors but it’s all bullshit- the diff between 10-6 and 6-10 is all whether Smith is who I think he is or what most had thought….
That’s what was so dang frustrating about the Niners for past 5 years: talented players for the most part, getting better each year but underachieving due to piss poor leadership, coaching, front office, etc. Finally we got a coach. 48-3 did not come out of nowhere. A long process finally paying off for us a little bit.
No substitute for leadership, huh?
I’m surprised by Alex – but everything else is not BS. I’m also surprised, a lot, by the defense. Having some good players does NOT make a good defense. If it did, no one would be throwing on the Eagles. There is a lot of scheme and chemistry on that side of the ball too. With Franklin, Lawson, Takeo, Clements leaving and a new safety alignment, I expected a lot of spinning of wheels before everyone gelled. Fangio has done a good job thus far just getting everyone on the same page. It’s also helping a lot that Sopoaga looks much better in his second turn at the nose, and Bowman has been good beyond all expectations – no one I know was expecting him to have more tackles than Willis at this point. Basically, we came up all sevens on defense. We’re still vulnerable to passing, and that will only get fixed with time for Culliver to mature and another free safety to be drafted (Goldson is a SS, no matter where he is now). It’s not as big a story as Alex’s season, but it’s a big part of our success. Now if we can keep a few receivers healthy…
Aldon Smith is coming on in a big way these past 3 games. He is a big plus so far.
So what’s their record if Alex was the piece of dung you thought he was?
With the defense playing as well as it is, and Alex less productive (not epically terrible, just more like the offense was the first three games)? We still beat Seattle and lose to Dallas. We lose to Philly but beat Cincy and Tampa (though it is not a blowout win). So 3-2 at the moment, Probably finish around 8-8. If Alex continues to play like he is, and the defense too, we could *easily* make 10-6, and I’m not even going to tease Skeebs anymore for saying 11-5. Hell, 12-4 isn’t impossible given our soft second half schedule. If Alex was good but the defense sucked until the bye, again around 8-8 or 9-7. We’re not a team built to win track meets. If both Alex underperformed and the defense starting slow until after the bye, probably 7-9 at best, possibly worse, depending on the details.
The offense and defense are synergistic – having both playing well can yield results somewhat better than simply adding the two. that’s the key to our success so far: we are doing everything pretty well. Not terrific on defense, maybe, but solid throughout. And Alex has been making a case for terrific, anyway, over the last six quarters. If he can keep it up – if this is what he can do in Harbaugh’s system, and the defense has his back – then 12 wins is not pie in the sky anymore.
I had ’em at 8-8, but I was concerned with the turnover on defense, and specifically the secondary. Clements I wanted gone, but I didn’t know too much about Rogers or Madieu. The secondary’s play has been revelatory. But it starts up front. The base D (a 4-3 on passing downs) is getting consistent pressure. In large part due to the rook, Aldon Smith. 3 sacks in the last 2 games.
They had faith in McDonald (I didn’t), and didn’t bother with AF (I thought they should have). Soap has been solid in the nose. Even Nolan’s guy, RJF, had a great game last week.
I think most everybody here expected 1-4 at this stage, with Seatlle the only win. After the blow out loss to Philly, the Kappenmeister got the call against Tampa and suffered his first loss as a starting NFL QB.The calls for Carson Palmer grew louder and Harbaugh confirmed that he was the third head coach to get suckered by Smith. Palmer was unavailable, but Smith was released and left San Francisco in a Groucho Marx mask.
Whatever, Mike. A lot of people were guardedly optimistic. I had ’em at 3-3 at the bye.
Spitblood was about the only one who was formulating that scenario.
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