According to NFL historians, no team has rushed for 300 yards and passed for 300 yards in the same game. Until yesterday. The SF 49ers completely obliterated the Buffalo Bills of Buffalo. To the tune of 621 yards of total offense. 310 through the air, and 311 on the ground. Alex Smith accounted for 303 of the 310 yards on 18 of 24 passsing, 3 TDs, a healthy 12.6 yards per completion, and a near-perfect 156.2 QBR (99.2 if you prefer the ESPN version). Some other numbers:
- Crabtree 6 catches for 113 yards (1 TD)
- VD 5 – 106 (1 TD)
- KW 2 – 50
- Manningham 4 – 26 (1 TD)
- Gore 14 rushes for 106 yards
- Hunter 11 – 81
- Smith 3 – 49
- Cappy 4 – 39
- Dixon 4 – 21
Crazier still is the Niners left about 21 points and 150 yards on the field due to early penalties and Cappy’s fumble on the 12 yard line. What should have been a 34-3 halftime lead was merely a 17-3 lead. Still, the offense came out better in the 2nd half and went through the Bills ‘defense’ like a hot knife through butter.
Plain and simple, this was the best this team has looked since the Steve Young era. Gone were the overthrows of the Jet and Minnesota games. Pass protection was flawless, as Smith had time to hit open recievers downfield for big gains. The run game was effortless as the line opened up big holes again and again. Defensively, the Niners only got one sack (a great blindside hit on Fitzpatrick by Ahmad Brooks), but Fitz was never comfortable in the pocket all day, and CJ Spiller was rendered pointless as he had nowhere to go. Culliver showed again how fast he’s become a damn good corner by picking off an underthrown pass by Fitz on the 5 yard line. Patrick Willis and the LBs played another flawless game, and Willis got a nice strip on a completion to Bill TE Scott Chandler.
Bring on the next NY team!!
Forty Niners Forever 
1. Coaching matters. See also, 49ers and Harbaugh, Saints and no Payton, Pack and no Philbin.
2. No, Alex probably won’t lead the league in passing. That’s not our primary focus on offense after all. Still. Aikman went to plenty of Pro Bowls being a ‘Game Manager’ who could throw it deep to Irvin and Harper when he needed to. If Smith can consistently display that skill set, we’ll win in the playoffs and he’ll go to Pro Bowls. The passing game is the ONLY aspect of this team that was in doubt. Running, ST, both phases of defense are excellent. If Alex can throw it long when he needs to, and still be efficient and avoid turnovers, school is out. Multi-dimensional teams tend to win over teams that are only good in a couple of areas. Ask Dan Marino. I like our chances this year.
I’d like to see more plays with Alex and Kap on the field together. So many things you can do that the defense has to account for. And while there mesmerized with that shit, have Alex just take the snap and throw it long to VD or a WR.
Make the defense have to defend against everything, and defend the whole field, and they’ll end up overwhelmed and stopping nothing. Get inside their heads and make them believe that we are going to beat them no matter what they do.
Greatest thing I ever saw in football was Joe’s 1988 Season SB drive to beat the Bengals. Because everyone in that stadium knew what was happening and what was going to happen. Including everyone on the Bengals’ sideline. And they could do absolutely nothing to stop it.
Wyche’s comments miked up during that drive were classic. From being with the Niners during the first SB years, he knew Joe very well, and knew that the Bengals were in deep doo doo with Walsh directing and Joe executing. That drive was great, but I still love The Drive against the Cowboys towards The Catch as my best Niner memory. It was like finally scaling Everest after many failed attempts. And, it was done with players not nearly as talented as the ones they had against the Bengals in the ’89 Super Bowl…
That game should not have even been close though. The 49ers were clearly better than the Cowboys. Without some gift PI calls and 6 turnovers, the Cowboys would have lost by 3 TDs. They were not nearly as quick or as good as we were; the country just had not figured it out yet. Even after we crushed them in the regular season.
The memory of Rice tends to obscure just how good Dwight Clark was. In the 1982 strike year, his stats project to over 100 receptions if there had been 16 games, at a time when no one did that. The ’81 team was weak at RB. Everywhere else, we were better than the Cowboys, and better by a considerable margin, in truth.
Well, whether Smith is regarded as highly as I think, it’s getting close.He’s passed Leaf, I’d guess. What’s a real hoot is the Insider- it was minimum 20-1 against with 10 of those rooting for “die, motherfucker”… he’s come a long way, baby…
That time is over. There are still a few people there who are hyper-critical of Alex, but they’re few and on the run, usually with 10 or 20 thumbs down every time they comment. People thumbs-down V now the minute he posts. No one even needs to read it – it’s the same shit he has posted the last 7 years.
Alex entered the league very unready to play. He got very little coaching or help for an extended period. He got hurt and lost a year and a half.
That’s all behind him now.
He deserves all the praise he is getting this year. He has worked his ass off and turned his career completely around.
Now I hope he shoves it down the Giants throats. Outplaying Eli would go a long way towards getting him the respect of the East Coast Media.
Sure I’ll take a double helping of Kappy and Smith from the menu here of the Evil Genius aka mad scientist Roman. Quoting Boone and the OL. Anything that works and fucks with the D’s head, I’m for that.
Here in fandom we got a few of our chronic blogger conflicts brewing in the last couple weeks. Shit even had a Spitwad sighting fer a minute there…
One thing we can All Agree On: This game was indeed One For the Record Books. Right on and bring on the fucking Giants
There’s some payback due and nows the time.
Other than ECoast bias, I don’t get the adulation for the Pats. They’ve had their share of SB appearances, but who wouldn’t love to be in a division with the Jets, Bills and Dolphins? And, they got the “tuck rule” gift to start it all. No wonder the Pats always get home field through the playoffs. At least two of their divisional opponents have generally sucked at the same time for the past decade, and sometimes all three. Meanwhile, the Steelers and Ravens maul each other to get into the playoffs, and are barely breathing when they hit Foxboro. I’ll put the NFC West this year up against that train wreck of a division, easily…
Brady is a good QB. But the Pats won’t be going to the SB this year. That will be between the Texans and the Ravens in the AFC. And I would not be surprised to see us beat Atlanta in the NFC championship game.
Chuck, do you have info on what Harbaugh actually DOES as HC? I mean from a practical, daily standpoint. Is he totally hands on with Roman re the offense? Does he get involved in the D to any degree with Fangio? Does he just let Seely do his thing on his own? Does he get into scouting reports and the draft in deep with Baalke, or is Baalke really controlling the draft and Harbaugh just has a veto over top picks? What is IT about Harbaugh that has turned this thing around? Organizational skills? Motivation? All of the above?…
I’d guess a little of all that. And leadership and organization being the biggest impact. And as much as Walsh’s offensive mind was ahead of everyone else, I’d also say his organizational talent and getting the right people in the organization around and below him was more important to our success in the 80s.
Well Grump, probably what you say. I’ve just never seen an article by any of the “beat” guys on what Harbaugh’s real role is in the organization. You know, what he really works at every day, what he does behind closed doors and on the field. All I know is the results (great) and the news conferences (he never says anything, and seems to be a bit of an ass). I’ve heard and read things about him that at Stanford, he wasn’t thought of too highly by the admins, but that’s not unusual for a football jock. Everybody knew Sing had nothing to offer the offense and was a train wreck organizationally. Though he grew up in a football family, Harbaugh is relatively new to being a HC. A coupla years at USD and Stanford isn’t exactly a huge HC resume…
It’s obvious he’s a “football guy” but I think he has the organizational skills and the team first concept that the players totally bought into.
Something new players to the squad have said is how hard they work in all the mini camps and TC, far more so than their prior teams.. Their conditioning seems to be better than the opponents. I read how detailed Harbs is, he is driven and pushes the players to be the same.
It should be noted that Harbaugh did not inherit a bad team, just an under achieving and brow beaten one, Obviously, improvements have been made but it was a team that *should* have made the playoffs in 2010. We should be forever grateful to Singletary for starting Troy Smith against the Rams in the penultimate game of that season or Mike might still be the coach…
Not bad, but lacking any direction or effective focus on either side of the ball, but particularly offense. Other than ‘hit someone in the mouth’. Also Aldon gives us a pass rush we did not have then. And upgrades to the secondary in Rogers, Whitner and now Culliver. Those moves took our defense from ‘potentially good’ to outstanding. Harbaugh also has fixed the shortcomings at guard, and at least upgraded to some degree at WR.
Shit, where’d my response go? As far as I’ve gleaned from just reading about the team and the coaches, Harbaugh is a control freak, but I don’t think Harbaugh is too involved with the defense. His main focus IS the offense. Also, as Winder says, he’s the de facto soul of the team. Just as Sing was the guy when he was here. It wasn’t Baalke or McLoughan. The team revolved around Sing and his passion. He was the face of the team, for good or bad. And bad won under Sing.
Truth is like Mike said, this was a good team in 2010. AND 2008. Both seasons were supposed to be the coming out parties for the respective coaches of Sing and Nolan. Both fell flat on their faces in miserable and all-too-obvious fashion. It was sickening to think that any guy off the streets could come up with a better offensive philosophy than the ones perpetuated by Sing/Jimmy Hat/Nolan/Hostler. Martz gets a pass because once Sing got bumped to HC, he did a better job of balancing the run with Martz’s pass-happy attitude. I thought at the time that they could work well together, but Sing had to screw himself into the ground and get ol’ Jimmy-hat.
http://www.guzer.com/animations/ghetto_delta.php
“Who’s got it better than us…nobody”
Martz seemed to be making some adjustments for Singletary, there was some real promise there, I thought. But Sing was devoted to three yards and a cloud of dust- and by any math that’s a yard short…
Real men don’t do math, they hit you in the mouth. After dropping their pants.
I smell a rat. :p
Perhaps he just wanted to take a leak.
Love Steve Young talking crap about the media East Coast Bias. Texans win and we get 20 mins of the Jets after the game. Priceless.
Steve Young “is that what 2-3 gets you?”
Missed that. But typical of ESPN.
Just checked the NLF Total QB rating and low and behold Alex Smith is on top of that list too. Wow, how’d that happen? And what must be wrong with THAT list to allow for such a shocking and unexpected outcome?
someone may have already posted this but here’s a list of all time NFL Total QBR games. He made #5. That list only covers games for the last 5 years, but still.
Flavor, here are some more stats to go with that amazing #1 QBR, Smith has completed 94-of-137 passes for 1,087 yards, and his respective rankings in those categories are 22nd (completions), 26th (attempts) and 21st (yards). He was tremendous against the Bills, no doubt, I’m looking forward to the Giants game this week.
dude we have a balanced team. We run the ball. If you can’t figure out that more running = less pass completions/attempts/yards then you are beyond help
Hah hah . . . Smith even got a 99.2 (out of 100) from whatever the new ESPN QBR thingie is.
Crazy. He likely won’t stay #1, but he’s well on his way to being top 5. Sacks ARE better than INTs.
New thread is up . . .