Busy morning around the NFL today. The LA Times reported Ndumkong Suh was suspended for 2 games for stomping on Evan Dietrich-Smith’s arm during the Packer game last Thursday. Which means he misses the Saints game, and the Vikings game. For all the greatness of his play, he’s really screwing up big time here. That penalty came in the 3rd quarter, on a 3rd down that Detroit had stopped GB. With Detroit only down by 7, the penalty gave GB a fresh set of downs, and the next play resulted in a TD.
Detroit has gone from their gaudy 5-0 start to 2-4 in their last 6. Losing Suh for the Saints game is very big. Detroit is already on the wrong side of the playoff chase, and have games against NO, GB, and the Raydurs among the last 5. He’s not he only cause for their struggles down the stretch, but his penalties, and now his suspension, isn’t helping matters. Suh, who is pretty much the most well-known D lineman in football as evidenced by his endorsement deals, has to figure out how to control himself. He’s a phenomenal talent, and any team would love him as a teammate, but his damage-control talks to Goodie Goodell (2 so far) aren’t fooling anyone, or getting him out of trouble.
Meanwhile, down in Jacksonville, The Suit #2, Jack Del Rio, was fired as head coach of the Jaguars. 3-8 as of now, and 69-73 overall, the Jags owner said make the playoffs or get fired. Since the Jags were pretty much eliminated last Sunday, he’s gone. Replaced by DC Mel Tucker.
By-the-River’s firing should be the 1st of many to come in the next few weeks. Teams that wanted to make changes, and didn’t because of the lockout uncertainty will surely pull the trigger as their teams fall by the wayside in the next couple weeks. Tom Coughlin being the guy I think is next. The Giants laid another egg last night in getting thoroughly spanked by the Saints. They have GB next week, and 2 games with Dallas, and they looked like a team that has tuned out their coach. Stupid penalties, dropped passes, and no energy from the players has killed a season that looked promising after the Giants beat the Pats in Foxborough.
Tony Sparano is certainly close to the edge as well. Miami’s owner, Steve Ross had his ill-fated dance with Jim Harbaugh early this year, and was pretty much forced to give Sparano a 2 year deal after that fell through. After 7 losses to open the season, Miami went on a nice little 3 game winning streak, and almost knocked off Dallas for a 4th win in a row. You also have to wonder how much longer San Diego will continue to Norv themselves. Turner has underwhelmed, (and that ill-fated int/fumbled) their way out of serious playoff contention year after year. Poor Takeo Spikes. Another year missing the playoffs. For good or worse, I think Indy’s coach survives this season. Jim Caldwell will get a shot to draft and groom Luck while Peyton Heals up for next year. That defense certainly doesn’t look very good without Manning putting up all those points.
Which leads to the playoffs. The Niners have a one game lead on the Saints. They also own the tiebreaker should the teams tie, because the Niners conference recors is better that NO’s (as of now the Niners are 7-1, NO is 6-3). The Niners have 2 games that look tough. Well, one, and that is Pittsburgh. Seattle on the road could be a challenge, but Seattle is floundering pretty badly at this point. That being said, Seattle would like nothing more than to hurt/affect our playoff situation. Pete Carroll would circle this as Seattle’s Super Bowl. NO has games against (Suh-less) Detroit, Atlanta, and the high-flying Panthers and Cam Newton. NO would need to pass SF to get the bye. Not likely, but possible. If we do end up playing a WC team, that looks to be the Lions or Beaers, and we’d get the worst WC team. Given the bye? The best hope is a home game against the Saints. Playing them in NO is a near-impossibility. They are fast and Brees is on fire. Get through that, and we’d more than likely get Green Bay in the NFC championship game. In Green Bay. Hopefully with lots of snow. The Niners certainly can run better than GB, and a nice snowstorm would negate their passing game some.
The AFC? Well, there’s Balt, Pitts, and NE. One of those 3 is in the Super Bowl.
San Francisco 49ers Forever 
To clarify- we have to lose two games to lose the bye to New Orleans- and that’s if they win out.
( I’m clarifying for me, I’m sure the rest of you get it). Their toughest games left are at Tennessee and Atlanta at home. The rest are Detroit at home, at Minnesota, Carolina to finish, at home…
Setting all that aside, I consider our game against the Rams the biggest game since, gee, whenever the hell they made the playoffs last- 1854?
I wouldn’t write Detroit off just yet, but losing Suh is a big problem for the Lions facing NO.
I’m more that sure that Harbaugh will have these guys ready and champing at the bit to beat the Lambs. Sealing a playoff appearance with a win at home shouldn’t be too hard to get these guys up for.
Promises to be a great game against the Rams where our guys play angry (but fairly) to get the bitter taste of Raven outta their mouths. I can’t work up the old Rams hatred from their LA days when they were one of our main competitors but still it’s the Rams and they deserve to suffer- and die so to speak.
I say we put ’em outta their misery 30- 10.
Thank God for McDaniels!
Being a product of the 60s and 70s, I’ll NEVER get tired of kicking the Rams’ asses.
NEVER.
The L.A.-Hate is far too strong in my heart. Hate their fucking uniforms, hate the city, hate George Allen, hate Chuck Knox. Hate, hate, hate. I will always hate them, and they’ll always be the fucking LOS ANGELES Rams to me. They shit on my team, twice a year, too many years while I was growing up.
Did I mention I fucking hate them?
Why, no, Doctor, I don’t believe I have a problem, LOL… it’s just they’re THE FUCKING RAMS.
*Insert gay-ass smiley face with a large chain gun hosing down L.A. here*
LOL, yep they’re the fucking Rams all right and as I said- deserve to suffer and ‘die’. The LA Rams (and the armpit of California = Los Angeles) I care less for than St. Louis. I have good memories of time spent in St Louie back in high school days. LA? Hell no. Did the St Louie Cardinals even exist back then?
If I was a fan of the Niners in the 60s-70s yeah I would feel the same way as you. (My intro to football was in 60s Wisconsin high school, the era of Vince Lombardi, Bart Starr, Jim Taylor, many championships, etc). Of course that was ‘my team’ as it was for the 600 other inmates, I mean students, in the all boys boarding Jesuit HS). All except for some of the pathetic loser fans of the Bears, Vikings, Lions, whatever. ‘We’ ate them for lunch and shit them for dinner so to speak…
Yeah I quickly learned to FUCKIN HATE the LA Lambs but didn’t suffer what you did when I got out in CA after HS and became a Niners fan in 1980.
SO, I understand…
“Doctor, put down that hypo! The cure for this man is a thorough demolition of the Fuckin Rams!” LOL
And Doc? When ya gotta minute the cure FOR ME is gonna be the thorough demolition of the FUCKIN GB PACKERS!
Thanks doc….
I can’t see how the Niners don’t easily beat St. Louis by at least two TDs — unless half the team gets injured running from the locker room out onto the field…
Yes I agree, ain’t gonna happen….
30-10! Sloam the fuckin Rambs
Slam da Rams sheeze
Jaguars got sold today for $760 million or some such.
I can’t see how that makes any sense, unless the new owner moves the team to LA. Supposedly, the team will stay put, but I wouldn’t bet the house on that. The last line in this story quoting Goodell is telling, IMO…
http://aol.sportingnews.com/nfl/story/2011-11-29/jaguars-reportedly-sold-will-remain-in-jacksonville
Anyone else remember what Eddie D. paid for the Niners in 1977?
I think it was just 8 million dollars.
Pretty sweet investment.
Does the name Roman Gabriel do anything for ya, grump?
That’s Roman Mother-Fucking-Bastard Gabriel, Son.
That guy pissed me off to no end. Too bad he wasn’t there when the Niners beat LA on that Monday night back in 1976 . . .
That was the Jimi Harris Experience?
Cruel, unusual question,lol…l
I fully expect Staley to come out again this week and say that the OL doesn’t suck. That should start another long string of kick ass. And let’s pray for the return of Snyder. I never thought much of him until he replaced Chilo Turnstile.
Yeah, I’d think at some point, Kilgore and Person would be getting some time on the field.
They both looked good in limited preseason action.
Keep them progressing and get Chilo out of the rotation.
Yes, Chilo gotta go PLEASE!
Funny, looking back at my favorite website: pro-football-reference.com and it shows that Ron Jaworski was on the Rams. I don’t remember that at all. I remember John Hadl and James Harris , and I remember Gabriel going to the Iggles, but Jaworski on the Rams? Nope.
Gabriel, Namath (for about a half an hour), Hadl, Harris, Jaworski, Haden, Ferragamo, Haden again, Dieter Brock, Haden again, Jim Everett (or was it Chrissy?)… that team had more washed up and shitty QBs in as little over one decade than most go through in franchise history. And I enjoyed EVERY FUCKING MINUTE when they lost.
The Jimi Harris experience was pure fucking nirvana. I still have warm and fuzzy memories of Tommy Hart beating that tackle – Williams? – like a goddamned drum. Good times. Wish it had been more than the one game.
Dieter Brock. Hah! When they went down in the 80s they went WAY down. It was magical. I loved every wipeout and bloodbath we gave them.
Good stuff from our long time fans!
Jimi Harris? Jimmi Hendrix I sorta remember from the Wintertland (buzzzed as I wazz)
Pls enlighten us newish 30 year fans…. Jimi Harris? Was he a shitty LA QB?
James Harris, Phil. One of the first black QBs, had a cup of coffee in Buffalo I think, then started briefly with the Rams. Had a decent arm but was less mobile than Namath, who was less mobile than my 76 yr old mother. Since it was the “Ground Chuck” era of Ram football (for Chuck Knox), they mostly ran anyway. But they never really had a good QB, even when they were winning, except maybe for Haden, who was actually decent (though the Rams were never happy with him as he did not have the big arm). Jaworski had promise but did not start until he escaped to Philly. Ferragamo had one good year then bolted for Canada in the Great ‘Anywhere Georgia Frontiere is not’ emigration that also netted us Hacksaw Reynolds.
Thank you for this info grumpy. You know a lot about the earlier history of our boys!
Of course I expect them to beat the Rams- but regardless of the weak opponent, this remains their biggest game in years…
Chuck, other than their game against NO, I don’t understand your post about Detroit.
That’s what I’m referring to. NO has some tough games ahead. I didn’t see that you had Detroit in your post. I musta missed that . . .
I remember how the Rams in the mid-late 70s after Nolan used to just dominate SF (17-3 over the decade). So, when the Walsh era started and got into full run in the ’80s to 90s and into Siefert time, it was indeed sweet to see the utter dominion the Niners sported over the Rams (30-11 Niners over the two decades, 17-3 in the ’90s). Niners did not just beat them, but often beat them to a pulp over those two decades. Enjoyable. Since they’ve been in St. Louis, the rivalry hasn’t been even close to the same….
My point exactly…
I read these comments with a big smile on my face since I was a season ticket holder when I lived in Orange County…until Madam Ram skipped off to St. Louis. My heroes were mostly linemen after Gabriel era. Then I moved north, just for spite.
Nice! Big D…
Nor Cal better yep.
Well here at work we were discussing the Chris Everette non sack, oops I meant Jim Everette. Jim Rome called him Chris and he seemed to take offense to that.
Yeah, Jim Rome skipped away like the little girl he is.
I hate it when folks mistake me for a girl…! Why in the fuck do you think I grew this beard?
Poor Chrissy…I mean Jim!
Ok late, 12:50 AM. Manana..
The insult was to Chris Evert as much as it was to Jim Everett
You win the thread, good sir.
Heh heh. The whole thing sure looked like it was staged.
A way for Rome to get ratings and cred. If he stood up to Everett, then he might have. As it was, he simply looked like a chicken-shit guy hiding behind his microphone.
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