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 
Alex leads the NFL in QB rating at 108.7.
Posted this at end of last thread. The National media is so biased it’s funny. I just looked at something Fox sports put out this morning called “Studs and Duds” and nowhere was Alex Smith even mentioned. How fucking crazy is that. The NY Giants know not to underestimate us and they will be coming with their A Game. I think we take em. I think this game will have to be won at the line of scrimmage and especially with our OL because take away that fierce pass rush and we should move the ball pretty freely.
The poor widdow ‘national media’ = east coast press, has not changed ever. Nor will they anytime soon. We could win 15 Super Bowls in a row and they wouldn’t be convinced. So what? Bill W had a few things to say about this exact thing: it’s us against ‘them’ and their pom pom girls in the press, gentlemen. Kick their asses and that will be our answer. The Giants got the last laugh last season due to our mistakes. Let’s deliver our reply on Sunday.
Last year before the Giants’ game was when Harbaugh said Alex was an elite QB. He didn’t have his best game but we beat NY and as in the Championship game, his rating was better than Eli’s.
I do believe the 9ers are going to be bringing their A game too as well as Alex
Yeah, if Alex has another game remotely similar to this one, he’ll get his props. I’ve been saying ffor a little while that this is the progression of Alex under Harbaugh. That they are looking to go deeper on the routes. Well, it is happening. The protection was excellent.
That being said, the Giants should bring the lumber harder next weekend. BUT that doesn’t mean the Niners won’t continue to push the envelope downfield.
Chuck predicted it! ….BLEEP!
Yesterday was the perfect offensive football game. Perfect. 310 passing, 311 rushing. Utterly balanced, ruthlessly effective. One of the most enjoyable games I’ve ever seen.
Next week will be harder. But we are more multi-dimensional than the Giants, and will be highly motivated after last year’s loss. I’ll take 27-17, 49ers.
I’m also going to predict that Alex’s achievements will gradually, grudgingly be noted by the East Coast media. By the end of the year, at least. He’ll be the NFC’s starting QB in the Pro Bowl when all is said and done.
“I’m also going to predict that Alex’s achievements will gradually, grudgingly be noted by the East Coast media”
It will be grudging alright. But them blind boys of the big bias on the east coast will not be able to ignore our success and Alex’s should we continue to WIN. Facts, they’re stubborn things…
27-17 Niners by Grump. Noted
Pretty amazing that Smith got so many yards on so few comp/attempts.
Yeah, It was a thing of beauty.
Who has the nerve to complain about anything Niners? Is Dennis finally ready for his Alex jersey?
I’m afraid not. But he did agree with Man that Alex and the boyz played a heck of a game yesterday so there is improvement
All the Alex haters and doomers who claimed that Alex’s poor play was not due to coaching had better take another look. If nothing else this year proves that a a good HC and a Good OC can make all the difference in the world. Dennis must be bored! he has nothing to complain about.
Matt Cassell threw for 300 yards against the Bills. The Bills’ defense is horrific. Brady hung 51 points on the Bills. Alex Smith has thrown for over 300 yards about six times in his entire career. Andrew Luck has done it three times in four attempts. Hell, Brandon Weeden has thrown for 300 yards in two games already in his young career – and I challenge you to name Weedon’s receivers without looking them up. The reality is, the Bills mascaraed as a professional football team. I’m not saying deny what Smith did yesterday. The TD throw to Kyle Williams was great. But before we come unglued, sniffing each other’s panties, let’s see Smith do that against a playoff defense. The issue isn’t Smith getting the 49ers into the playoffs – the issue is Smith getting the 49ers into the Super Bowl…. and winning it with good qb play for three or four games in a row in the playoffs.
You let this scumbag back?
Now this is funny. No, Mike he creeps back in every few months. It’ll be down soon enough.
http://profootballmock.com/?p=4810
Haha, good one Chuck, sounds about right.
Haven’t seen spitwad here in forever. Same old shit tho = Alex sux, prove it somemore alex, yack yack yack
17 minutes for you to smell Spitblood? Not bad, Mike.
No idea he was here, Chuckles. Shocked, really. Did you give him my address yet?
Before we start comparing this team to the ’84-85 Niners, or the ’89 version, a little perspective is in order. Niners were awesome on both sides of the ball yesterday, but it WAS the Bills. They are gawd-awful right now. Their second half D against the run and block avoidance efforts looked like a group of crossing guards waiving their signs. Pathetic. Gotta like the way Roman opened up the offense, though, against a Swiss cheese secondary, and no pass rush. Alex got it done in fine form. I’ll pick the nit that Seely needs to kick some ass. That punt return for TD can be relegated to the “shit happens” video, but it seems to me the special teams units are underperforming last year. That’s a high bar, but if I have a nit to pick, and it’s small, there it is. Since the Pack seems to be turning into a not-so-great squad 5 games into the year, the Giants coming in this week are the best test so far. Still, I think they’re a rung below where they were in the playoffs last year. If the Niners can win this one, my 11-5 prediction may turn out to have undershot the Ws. BTW, the NFC West is turning into one of the better divisions, not that many national pundits have noticed. Most are too focused on the silliness of the woeful Jets, Michael Vick turnovers, and the annual royalty crowning of the Hooded One and his BradyPats. The Niners need to make it to the SBowl this year. I’m guessing Roman will be gone next season for an HC role somewhere. I’d love to see him go to Cal, but he can do better than that. Fangio will probably stay, he’s a lifer Coordinator type, and they’ll pay him…
I didn’t like losing Constanza, and it’s showing.
Bingo…
And Colin Jones we traded him for peanuts
Well, these last 2 games really were tune-ups for the real thing. If the Niners go 2-1 with these next 3 (NYG, Sea, and AZ), it’ll be fine. AZ looks like a house of cards about to fall down right about now. 3-0 would be ideal, but we’ll see.
I think a lot will depend on how far the Niners get to start thinking about Roman leaving. If the niners do win it all, he might. However, he just might want to hang around 4949 Centennial for a little while longer.
Didn’t Roman interview for HC jobs after last season? I know that was probably kicking tires, but if they get even to the NFC title game again, I’ve gotta believe there will be some really decent jobs knocking at his door in the offseason. There is the strike while the fire is hot thing. And, I don’t know how long an offensive guy can stand to work for Harbaugh. He’s gotta be a pretty hard guy to work for…
If Roman leaves they have the Geep but I’m wondering if Rathman would like a shot as OC? Fangio leaving would mean Donatell or Leavett promoted. Would Tomsula make a good DC?
Smith didn’t become the top rated QB based on the Bills game alone. And the Niners have faced some piss poor teams in the Montana and Young years. Some horrible fucking teams. Yet they never did what our offense did yesterday. No Niner team has.There’s no “yeah, but”…
Sure there is. Those Niner teams won championships and won 10+ games every year for 16 years. We’re still in the infancy of the Harbaugh era. A great first season and a record breaking one game performance against a shitty opponent, is great to coo over, but hardly a yardstick for comparison to one of the greatest pro football dynasties of all time…
It’s simple, really. Put yout mind to it: No Niner team ever gained as many yards as yesterday. It’s a record..Was Maris a bterr HR hitter than Ruth? Of course not. But when he hit 61 it counted, dude. No one is saying this team is better than the great Montana teams. A fact is being stated: this team gained more yards yesterday than any 40er team ever- who also played sitty teams. Live with it…
Records are meant to be broken. The former Niner record was set in ’92 with Young. I could argue that in those days the D had much more ability to control the receivers off the line and without penalty, and there were far less protections against pounding the QB, but then, you would already know that. My point is a macro point. Great day, great game. Let’s see how great a season it turns out to be. It’s looking good so far…
You can argue any goddamn thing you want. It’s still the team record. BTW, Steve lost..
People makng 300 yards the only QB benchmark are pigskin morons. The two lowest rated passers in the league? The Spitfuck’s Weeden and Cassell…I know this is fodder for the “game manager” idiots, but throwing the ball to your own guy is still valued by some…
Guys overly impressed either play too much Madden or think this is Fantasy Football.
Not seeing the big picture and what counts.
Sheez, how far has this team come from the days of sleepy Ericsson and Nolan’s suits and getting geeked about a good game from Shaun Hill, and Hostler and Jimmy Hat and the HC dropping his pants and Mike Rumph and Kwame friggin Harris and Ken Dorsey and Dilfer and JT O’Sullivand and on and on? I saw Shaun Hill with Detroit a few games back and that brought back some bad memories. Those all seem like a thousand years ago, but they really aren’t. Harbaugh has brought some magic with him, that’s for sure…
And long may he reign here. Magic indeed, hell of a coach who’s not afraid to bring in excellent assistants and turn them loose. We’ve seen this before in one Bill Walsh who always was bringing good coaches on O and D, looking to upgrade always. He was happy when an OC or a lesser coach got a promotion and a raise. Not threatened it seems. Jimbo prolly like that too. I’m sure he’s got a list of replacement candidates for each player, coach and whomever in the 49er org. Now He’s the irreplaceable guy. One advantage he’s got over Bill: an owner who doesn’t seem to think he’s more important than the HC. So hopefully he lasts a bit longer…
I don’t expect Smith to be the top rated QB at years end but it wouldn’t be a shock. They’re just beginning to utilize all the new weapons- weapons that some said would be wasted on Smith. Jacobs is going to scare the shit out of some wimpy corners, Manningham will be more and more of a force, and teams have absolutlely zero idea how Kapppy will be used when he enters the game. Frankly. no Walsh team ever had this many weapons. This should be fun.
They ARE very deep. Hell, they haven’t even used Jacobs yet, they’ve got LaMichael James running sprints on weekends, and Dixon barely gets in even when they’re up by 35. I agree that Manningham has barely scratched the surface of what he can do for them. The guy is sharp when he has the ball. And, looks like Crabby has finally gotten motivated after 3+ years — the upgraded roster competition and Moss taking some defensive focus away is no coincidence in that, I should think…
“This should be fun” Oh hell yeah. Some have grumbled here that “the spread was never part of the WC/9ers attack; why would they do that”. Answer: because it’s effective and unexpected. It works esp w/Kap running it. It moves the chains and scores TDs. The combo of Alex and Kap is frankly unstoppable so far. This ain’t the Bill Walsh offense, it is the Jim Harbaugh offense but the goal is the same: baffle the opposition and beat the hell out of them.
Unca Chuck K Williams scored Td not V Davis
Good points Snarkk, but despite the woefulness of the Bills, Smith made very accurate passes which is something he’s been knocked for. Will it be harder against a top flight D? Surely. But I think this was a good game to grow Smith’s confidence, and part of pulling the trigger, especially when under pressure, is having that confidence, something Smith I think has not had in abundance in the past.
I don’t think for a moment this team is going to get full of themselves before this rematch against the team that knocked them out last year. I think they come to play and they out play and out coach them. If there’s a let down, it might be the week after, truth be told.
38-17, Niners.
Yeah we’ll see what they bring against the Seahags if they win- which I expect- against the Giants…
38-17 noted barley
Finding it hard to believe that this was the first time in NFL history that a team went 300/300. But regardless, it speaks to balanced offense attack. It’s a good thing to have a balanced attack. Teams that don’t balance their attack don’t do it because they don’t have the personnel.
Thank God we have the Niners to take our minds off the nearly-dead SF Giants
“Thank God we have the Niners to take our minds off the nearly-dead SF Giants”
Amen to that.
300 on the ground is pretty rare and teams that can do that usually can’t throw the rock very well- another example of unbalanced O
Oh, and “the Kappy thing”? Love it, more please. Opposing defenses have NONE clue what to do with that scheme
Ya gotta love the Kappy “thing”. Whatever that is. Springing it on the Jets with the TeBlow bullshit going on, I gotta admit, was devilish and creative of Harbaugh on the big NY stage. A middle finger to the media and football establishment, for no good reason. Very Harbaugh, I enjoyed it…
yep great stuff. We’re seeing a little bit of why JH was high on the Kapster before the draft
I also think Alex is starting to trust his own instincts, His runs were needed and at the right time. The more he runs when under pressure will make it harder foe Defenses to contain him.
I thought the same. The decision to run has to be a quick one or it never gets past the LOS. Alex was decisive on each run. It keeps drives going. And he knows how to slide.
Snarkk is confused by what “comparing” means. He seems to think it means two things, people, players, or teams are being said to be equal. There is absolutely no comparison even being made when it’s stated that yesterday the 49ers gained more yards than the Montana and Young teams ever did.. A fact is being stated.. but back to comparing: if I said that Alex Smith was 25% the QB that Joe was, that would be a comparison. What I factually stated about yards gained yesterday was not a comparison.
By definition, breaking a record is a comparison. Yesterday, this team broke a prior team’s yardage record. Great. In another decade, the record will be broken when breathing on a receiver and tackling a runner above the waist is a penalty. Does it prove anything? Yeah. This team got comparatively more yards in one game and broke that previous record, set in a different time under different competitive conditions. Does it prove Alex is better than Young? No. Does it prove Harbaugh is better than Walsh? No. Does it mean this year they’ll get to the Super Bowl? No. It is one fact in a sea of facts. I understand very well what that particular record means. A bunch of postings, for one. And, a few minutes worth of reflection and celebration of a “well done” over an outclassed opponent — I’d guess that’s all that Harbaugh thinks it means. And, not much else as he game plans for the NYG…
Well, that’s the rub, Snarkk. When Singletary was in the final throes of his regime, the entire team looked like a clusterfuck nightmare. From Jed and the front office on down. Too many mid-level guys with no clear lines of communication or structure in place, Sing complaining of rats on a sinking ship, players benched or starting for no apparent reason.
Enter Harbaugh and his coaching staff, and everything is coming up roses. Nothing really changed upstairs, but they look like geniuses now. Baalke has had a couple solid drafts, and we appear to be on our way.
= competent Leadership
Irish – I agree those Smith runs seem to break buffalo’s back. I loved the rollout he did, totally fooled em.
This lends creedence to what I said in 2009 when Sing was in charge. That no matter who they named in their GM ‘search’ Sing WAS the de facto GM. He was the linchpin around which the team revolved. As he went, so went eveyone else. Good or bad. And we all know whow that went.
Now that Harbaugh’s here, everyone around him suddenly is golden. From spreadsheet guy on down.
Yep, nobody’s hearing anything now about “Parag Marathe”, who used to be Ralph Barbieri’s Niner whipping boy on KNBR, for some reason. As far as I know, Parag is still doing his spreadsheet things, same as before…
Marathe simply did not do many of the things he was rumored to do. But an NFL front office may be one of the few business places where a person with an MBA from Stanford is viewed with suspicion…
Having gone to Cal, I view anyone from Stanford with suspicion. 😉
I’ll say the Niners will be 5-1 after a win this week against the NYG. After that, to get to my 11-5:
Seahawks @ the Stick: W
Cards @ AZ: L
Rams @ the Stick: W
Bears @ the Stick: W
Saints @ NO: L
Rams @ STL: W
Dolphins @ the Stick: W
Pats @ NE: L
Seahawks @ Seattle: L
Cards @ the Stick: W
That includes a 4-2 division record, I think the worst that they can do. I wouldn’t put 5-1 past them, but practically, they probably will lose at least one divisional game. Saints look to be finding their feet, that should be a good game in New Orleans. If they can beat an improved Pats team IN Foxboro (shoulda been last years SB matchup, and Niners would have rolled them), ya gotta think the Niners are primed to go to the SB…
Kevin, those QB runs are dictated by the WRs running deeper routes. For too many years, the Niners ran, and threw short routes. Effective at times, but it can be clogged up no matter how accurate or in synch you are with your WRs. Even the Minn game showed this problem. Those underneath routes, the WRs were jammed off their path, and had trouble getting open. The run game was ignored early for whatever reason. Minn has a fast defense and they were able to stop all the short stuff and thus cause some problems.
Flash forward, the WRs are running deeper routes, and suddenly the middle of the field is open. When Gore would get through the line, there was emptiness. Smith the same thing. Get past the line, and you have 12-15 yards of clear sailing.
The next trick is going to be screen passes. When these defenses start taking the deep game a little more seriously, then these kinds of plays can give you good chucks of yards. The added benefit is that checkdowns now get you 12 yards rather than 6.
I will fall off my chair when the Niners actually run a screen pass to a back, some sort of traditional type of screen. I can’t remember the last time I saw one of those done by a Niner squad…