YEEAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhmmmmmm, uh. OK. Preseason. Like real football, but without any true meaning. True, there are position battles to fight for. WR being the most intriguing to me with the Crabs/Mario/Moss situation. The rest of the positional fights seem to be for backup roles, so there isn’t a ton of excitement there. The way it goes these days, you get about 10 series on offense and defense of 1st string players, and a lot of slop in the entire preseason. The caveat being the 3rd preseason game is usually reserved for a good bit (say one half) of starter action. We’ll see. Last year, Harbaugh went off-script and barely played the starters, and they were trounced by the Texans.
Jim Harbaugh gives a lot of creedence to fighting for positions during these practice games, but realistically he and the other coaches see what’s happening in practice day in and day out. Who’s busting ass and who isn’t. Who’s making plays, who’s on the sidelines. So, beyond these guys getting through these games without any serious injuries, what are you looking for Friday night against the 6 Kings? Me? I’m looking for Michael Crabtree in an actual preseason game. I ain’t holding my breath.
Anyhow, here’s the long awaited preseason schedule:
- Fri Aug 10 – Minn @ SF 6:00 PM
- Sat Aug 18 – SF @ Hou 5:00 PM
- Sun Aug 26 – SF @ Den 1:00 PM
- Thur Aug 30 – SD @ SF 7:00 PM
One last preseason story. Many (including me) were a bit baffled by Gregg Williams and his Saitns defense’s incessant blitzing during the first practice game of the extremely truncated 2011 preseason. It seemed like a bullshit move to come out balls to the wall since it was obviously a weird situation that the 49ers (and all teams) were in. The 49ers showed nothing that game, and were pounded relentlessly by NO and their all-out blitz attack. Many were (rightly so) worried about the blocking, or lack thereof, during the blitzing frenzy. It warmed my heart to hear the 49ers say they used that game as impetus to get prepared for the playoff game on January 14. Great for the Saints! They won a preseason game! Well, good on the 49ers. They won the playoff game in epic fashion, and the Saints are getting ground into berger meat by Goodie Goodell. “I suppose that you’re accomplice in the wood chippah?”
Forty Niners Forever 
49ers released their depth chart today in advance for our first preseason game. The ONLY WR listed as a starter is Michael Crabtree. The other side is either or. This courtesy from Barrows.
OFFENSE
WR: 15 Michael Crabtree 10 Kyle Williams 17 A.J. Jenkins 13 Joe Hastings
89 Nathan Palmer 9 Brian Tyms
LT: 74 Joe Staley 75 Alex Boone 71 Derek Hall 69 Kenny Wiggins
LG: 77 Mike Iupati 67 Daniel Kilgore 66 Joe Looney 60 Garrett Chisholm
C: 59 Jonathan Goodwin 67 Daniel Kilgore 61 Chase Beeler 62 Jason Slowey
RG: 75 Alex Boone 68 Leonard Davis 78 Mike Person 65 Al Netter
RT: 76 Anthony Davis 78 Mike Person 71 Derek Hall 69 Kenny Wiggins
TE: 85 Vernon Davis 46 Delanie Walker 82 Nate Byham 88 Konrad Reuland
48 Garrett Celek 47 Kyle Nelson
WR: 84 Randy Moss -or- 14 Mario Manningham -or- 19 Ted Ginn Jr. 18 Brett Swain
81 Chris Owusu 35 Ben Hannula
FB: 49 Bruce Miller 24 Anthony Dixon 44 Cameron Bell
RB: 21 Frank Gore 32 Kendall Hunter 45 Brandon Jacobs 23 LaMichael James
28 Rock Cartwright
QB: 11 Alex Smith 7 Colin Kaepernick 1 Josh Johnson 3 Scott Tolzien
DEFENSE
LDT: 91 Ray McDonald 96 Demarcus Dobbs 63 Tony Jerod-Eddie 69 Patrick Butrym
NT: 90 Isaac Sopoaga 95 Ricky Jean Francois 93 Ian Williams
RDT: 94 Justin Smith 92 Will Tukuafu 71 Matthew Masifilo
OLB: 55 Ahmad Brooks 98 Parys Haralson 50 Cam Johnson 44 Eric Bakhtiari
ILB: 53 NaVorro Bowman 54 Larry Grant 51 Joe Holland
ILB: 52 Patrick Willis 56 Tavares Gooden 57 Michael Wilhoite
OLB: 99 Aldon Smith 98 Parys Haralson 48 Kourtnei Brown
LCB: 22 Carlos Rogers 26 Tramaine Brock 20 Perrish Cox 41 Curtis Holcomb
RCB: 25 Tarell Brown 29 Chris Culliver 33 Anthony Mosley 40 Deante’ Purvis
FS: 38 Dashon Goldson 27 C.J. Spillman 23 Cory Nelms 43 Colin Jones
35 Mark LeGree
SS: 31 Donte Whitner 30 Trenton Robinson 32 Darcel McBath 36 Michael Thomas
SPECIAL TEAMS
PR: 19 Ted Ginn Jr. 10 Kyle Williams 23 LaMichael James
KR: 19 Ted Ginn Jr. 32 Kendall Hunter 23 LaMichael James
P: 4 Andy Lee
K: 2 David Akers 5 Giorgio Tavecchio, Jim Harbaugh
H: 4 Andy Lee
L: S 86 Brian Jennings 47 Kyle Nelson
And like I’ve mentioned before, it looks like they’re going to carry 6 RBs on the 53-man roster. And quite possibly all six will be active on Sunday’s. Which is unheard of. And if they deactivate one, as of now it looks like it would be LaMichael James. There’s a damn good chance both he and A.J. Jenkins are in 49er warmups when we open in GB. Helluva draft, Baalke. Helluva draft.
Sarcasm, right?
Yep I’m ready fer some fake football as long as the coconut internet can find a live stream of the game over there. I’ll listen on KNBR to Robinson and whazzisname…
Really looking forward to Harbaugh coming in as the 3rd kicker too.
Ted’s over in London doing the Olympics. I don’t know if he’ll be back in time to call the game. Even so, the SF Giants are playing that night at 7:30. They’ll take precedence on KNBR radio. I’d assume the Niner game will be on 1050. Hope you can get that via your coconut connection.
Looked up the \”American Football\” (not \’regular\’ football = soccer) on Vipbox.tv and sure enough they have all the preseason games listed including the Niners at 6pm Friday. Sadly that translates as 9am here on Saturday
morning. Ordinarily that would be a good time to listen as it beats 1am or 4am (10am or 1pm Sunday games) right? Wrong. 9am Saturday morning is primetime over here for all the kiddies who are out of school and the lonely hearts looking for boyfriends who aren\’t at work. So the bandwidth being limited in coconut land will be all used up by half-time. No more video. Then the NFL internet audio broadcast will go next and I\’ll be reduced to asking you all \”Wazz dat??\”
Wherever the local broadcast is the NFL will pick it up and put it on their Audio League Pass service. I checked that too Dennis but the usual problem is our crappy local bandwidth at that hour. Shit I remember getting a pretty good signal last year at the first pre-season game vs the sinning Saints and being pissed at the macho blitz packages they threw at us all game. That made the playoff win just that much sweeter eh?
That depth chart will change, for injuries if nothing else.
Test, posts not getting through WordPress
You’ve got this posted twice Chuck (also below). I’ll try my reply to Del Mar there….
Holy fuck. Wodrpress is having siezures again. I found 45 copies of this thread in my pending folder. I had to shit-can 3 responses to the earlier version of this, so sorry about that.
I also found a bunch of stuff in the spam filter that I let back in. I don;t know if they came back or not.
WordPress can’t handle the pressure of training camp? That’s sad…
Am I the straw that broke the WordPress camels back?
Yeah its a pre season game but I’m looking forward to it. Specifically looking for Boone, Kappy, Moss/Manningham and what they do with the RB’s.
The first string D sounds like its in mid season form but Culliver is one I want to watch. Dobbs too, if he has another strong pre season what are they going to do with him?
Who knows? Every once in a while, WordPress does random fucked up shit and throws everything into spam, makes you log in every time you want to post (thus losing what you’ve written. Grrrrrrrr), or now this. Posting 47 versions of my thread is a new fuck up.
Dobbs and Tukafu both look pretty damn good. Depth like that is a good thing to have. The defense looks like it is stronger than last year with Cox xoming in and everyone getting a full camp. Culliver had a few issues, but for a rookie CB he was outstanding.
I’m much more concerned with the offense and them gaining some continuity. Harbaugh naming Crabs the starting WR must be some kind of Jedi mind trick bullshit. the guy hasn’t even practiced with the team yet.
They SEEM to have the tools now to be more explosive on offense. They just have to get it done in the trenches, and from Alex. I would like to see a LITTLE more spread on 1st down. There’s nothing wrong with a strong running game, but mix things up more. Run from the gun and spread formations.
I agree Chuck, seems to me that Alex will be Alex give or take a little so nothing startling will change unless the scheme changes a bit to give him a bit of help. We have the quick RB’s now to successfully run out of the gun so it still keeps the D off balance from that formation. I doubt they show much variation in pre season but I hope to see something more than vanilla O in GB.
The starters will barely play. That’s FAKE football.
True Nipper, one or 2 series is about it, but that is better than the dog days of summer.
Yeah, that’s a BIG test in GB to start the year. My hope is the Niners come out in full attack mode. Green bay’s defense isw nothing if not pretty weak. the way to beat GB is to control the ball, and score points. Our defense should be up to the challenge, but they are a formidable offense.
The THIRD pre-season game will be the big one. That’s when the starters will play a half to three quarters, and we need to show some signs of being in sync and ready.
I think a whole of this season is going to come down to Alex Smith and Randy moss. If those two can develop some sort of connection that other teams have to account for, our offense will be better and we will have a reasonable level of success. If not, it could be frustrating this time around.
I think Harbaugh might mix in some extra blitzes for ol’ Ichabod Manning out there. Make him the headless horseman.
LOL, snicker, chuckle, lqtm….Yeah Manning’s on thin ice.
Against the Pack the gameplan might be to keep the ball away from a potent Packer offense through methodical ball control. Long drives and keeping the score in the 20’s might lead to a win..
I’d rather start fast and force GB to play catchup. Then lower the boom on Rodgers.
So Maxi Pad is the ONLY 49er who has not been made available for interviews since the end of last season. But his last words the day after the NFC Championship were, without mentioning his name, centered on ripping Alex Smith for not throwing him the damn ball (even when apparently covered) and giving him the opportunity to make a play like other QBs (Eli in particular) do at will.
One out of two ain’t bad.
Michael Crabtree was scheduled to meet the media on the second day of Training Camp but was pulled when he got hurt. If I were Michael Crabtree I would redirect my comments toward Greg Roman rather than Alex Smith. If Frank Gore only had 5 carries in a frustaring loss he would unload because he felt his hands were tied in helping the Niners succeed.