Christ, this feels like March. The Niners haven’t played a game in seemingly 2 months, and and were apparently off for a month before that lone Arizona game. But, after long last and much anxiety, we are back to playing football. The St. Louis Rams come to town, not to conquer, but to crumble. After a promising 3-2 start, including division wins ver Sea and AZ, the Rams have lost 3 in a row. Sure, GB and NE were likely pegged as losses, but Miami? Ouch. That one had to sting.
Sure, it’s early in the tenure of Jeff Fisher, but the Rams don’t seem to be doing anything particularly well. 28th in points scored and 20th in points allowed. Sam Bradford has been derailed on his way to elite status among the crop of young QBs in the league. He has been grinding through the Alex Smith school of new coaching staffs and offenses and players on a yearly basis kind of thing. After his rookie year of doing well (3500 yards, 18 TDs, 15 picks, and a near-miss at the playoffs at 7-9), he struggled through an injury-plagued season last year (1700 yards, 6 TDs, 6 picks). This year? Well, pretty much the same numbers he put up last year in 10 games. 1800 yards, 8 TDs, 7 picks. Erstwhile workhorse RB Steven Jackson has finally had it with the organization, and is on his way out after carrying the team for years and being the only bright spot for 6 seasons. WR Danny Amendola is probable for the game, so they may get one of their weapons back, but Bradford has been sacked 23 times in 8 games, so his protection isn’t all that.
The Niners? Well, we saw how they did after their mini-break. They dismantled AZ pretty easily. I foresee much the same this weekend. Gone were the drive-killing Cappy Capperson plays. The Niners ran at will, and thus were able to throw all night off play-action, and chew up big chunks of yards. AZ has a terrible line, and Red Skelton was pressured all night. Again, I see the same thing happening this weekend.
31-10, Niners.
Forty Niners Forever 
Also, much is being made of this year’s draft class not getting on the field after nearly all of last year’s draft class started or at least played a big part in the success of last season.
So, this year is a bust? Hardly. Yeah, I’d rather see AJ at WR than Ted Ginn, but I certainly get that Ginn has more experience. Same with LaMichael James. I’d love to see him get the ball out in the flat and burn for yards, but he’s behind Gore, Hunter, and Jacobs (and Dixon for that matter). The others are buried onm the depth chart (Looney, Robsinson), hurt (Fleming), or released (Slowey, Johnson).
Rams *should* be a relatively easy win but we all know how that is. As with the other teams in the division, we’re better on both sides of the ball. I’ll go with the “easy”- 31-10 Niners.
On the short yardage discussion-
Now I see that after some early failure, the Niners have actually done much better:
Short-yardage run conversions: Gore (4-8, TD); Kendall Hunter (2-2); Anthony Dixon (1-1, TD); Bruce Miller (1-1); Alex Jones(1-1).
The 49ers have called four pass plays on third-and-short this season and converted none. The tally: two sacks, an incompletion and a one-yard completion on 3rd-and-2.
Alex Jones? Ahhh.
Shhhhhhhhhhhhhh. . . .
Dierkes seems to think Wllson will be non-tendered and I can see that. Interesting are the figures he thinks Casilla and Romo will get: 5.4 for Casilla, 3.6 for Romo. They make sense-Casilla wil be in his 7th full year, hence the higher figure.
If Wilson is healthy yet leaves and they don’t retain Affeldt, I agree with Dierkes that they’ll probably need to add. Bochy juggled well, but the 7th inning guy was Mota after he was activated and they need to do better than that. Kontos *could* be the guy but he needs some kind of off speed pitch. Long relief was very poor last year as well. Again, Bochy somehow made it work but they need better there as well.
IMO.
Shit, wrong blog. Soph taught me multi-tasking….
“Brilliant” comments, though 😉
Oh yeah. I have hope for Kontos. Mota? He’s done . . .
“Soph taught me multi-tasking” LOL.
A horse named, Vee ($9.80), just won the second race at Hollywood. I wonder what that crazy mofo has been up to? Probably saying some tired and trite phrase like, “Did we sign Peyton Manning yet?”
“The 49ers have called four pass plays on third-and-short this season and converted none. The tally: two sacks, an incompletion and a one-yard completion on 3rd-and-2.”
Yes, I posted that. Unlike you and your devotees, I post honestly good and bad…
No, posting once or twice that Alex has some rough spots in his game doesn’t make you the epitome of truth.
Does honesty = invective in your mind? Preemptive intimidation to discourage any views at odds with yours. Discouraging any argument makes you seem right? Good for you. I crown you king of the pejorative post.
How different is that than the guy you insisted be banned?
If you didn’t notice, NoFear, I deleted everyone.
Who I ban is my business. And it is still only one person who has been.
Give it up, NF. Nolan isn’t coming back.
And Fear- try to keep on point, as Chuck says. No one is being attacked except in your imagination. And no one has ever been discouraged from offering their viewpoint. If so,it sure as fuck hasn’t worked.
Chuck, just because you’re favored by 35 pts. in our fantasy matchup this week don’t think you’re going to have a cakewalk in winning your 9th straight win. How the hell have you won eight straight? With autopicks like that, you’ll never attend a live draft.
Hey, I’ve made a few good moves over the course of the season.
I’m having a hard time trying to think of a reason to pick the Rams this week. Maybe Warner and Faulk could come out of retirement for just one more game…
Place yer bets men. Dragged to the front = Scoring Challenged? Hard to score when ya never play a game. Ok blew the Romney call but lets try Niners vs Rams:
Chuck: 31-10 Niners. Well, we saw how they did after their mini-break. They dismantled AZ pretty easily. I foresee much the same this weekend. Gone were the drive-killing Cappy Capperson plays. The Niners ran at will, and thus were able to throw all night off play-action, and chew up big chunks of yards. AZ has a terrible line, and Red Skelton was pressured all night. Again, I see the same thing happening this weekend.
Phil: 27-7 Niners. Careful I might make a call like 27-7 Niners vs the Rams. Yeah the focus on Alex I don’t go there…
Grumpy Guy: 31-3 Niners. Yeah, we should beat the Lambs pretty comfortably. Their defense is not *that bad* statistically – but this is a case where i think stats are biased. How many yards and points does it take to beat a team with a lousy offense? Enough to get a comfortable lead, and then you run out the clock. I think we get 240 yards passing, 210 rushing, and win 31-3.
Twinfan1: 31-10 Niners. Rams *should* be a relatively easy win but we all know how that is. As with the other teams in the division, we’re better on both sides of the ball. I’ll go with the “easy”- 31-10 Niners.
Chuck and Twin are gonna have to arm-wrestle for top honors if we win 31-10
Well, my left arm is shot. I need surgery on it soon.
Dennis, the spread is now +40 for you . . .
27-10 Niners, though if Nate Silver had the Rams winning by 17, I’d go with the Rams. 😉
Chuck can have it. I’ll say 34-10.
Got it and Chico’s too
12th man: 28-21 Niners. Well not that you bothered asking me Phil, and it hurt my feelings BTW, but here it is: Niners 28 Rams 21, lambs get fleeced.
barleyfreak: 25-7, Niners. The Return of The Vernon, Big day for Davis — 2 TD’s
Akers is 3 for 3, Justin Smith gets his 1st sack of the year. In the end zone.
Rams only score once, but with their defense.
NoFear49er: 32-17 49ers. I think the Rams getting Amendola back might be able to move the ball with Jackson being a threat on the ground we can’t ignore. I also think we should have been able to come up with some plays to get the ball to Vernon this week if that was the problem. My only worry is their pass rushing DEs. But I think we attack the Rams mostly on the ground since our o-line’s run blocking and Gore can’t be stopped. 3 TDs, 3 FGs and a safety just to make things interesting. 2 TDs and a FG for the Rams. 32-17 49ers.
Silver missed the North Dakota district 9 race! Slacker.
While Rove has people wanting to know where their dirty money went to..
And why Mitt’s voting machines didn’t tilt the elections in Fla and Ohio in his favor.
Is this on point then? More truth?
I always knew de Tocqueville had it right. I just hoped we could hold it back another generation.
http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/13221476-romney-family-buys-voting-machines-through-bain-capital-investment
It’s on point if it relates to the previous comment from the blogmaster…
NF I dragged this topic in here not anyone else when I said ruefully ” Blew the Romney call”. But I do agree with everything you’ve said politically. Still this is a Niners blog and for one I’m very glad you came over here NF.
Sooo…you got a call for us on the Slaughter of the Lambs?
Ditto for RT BTW; RT?, RT?
Nipper? Where the fuck is da nip?
Just my opinion NF but I believe we are probably the furthest from De Tocqueville’s notion than at any other time in history.
For the record, I could give a rat’s ass how Manning does in Denver, it has zero relevance to how he would have done here. Best guess: we’d be 6-2.
I put that manning/Smith compario for the bet Dennis and Flav had going. I’ll gladly remove it if it offends.
I’ve got it at the flap, need to update it. I’ll run it all year if you want to take the one you’ve got down.
I don’t mind it. There was some concern about the amount of Manning and ***** talk. Just trying to clarify the level of my interest in Manning.
Just saw that Obama won the military vote by 7 points over Romney per Reuters.
Bullshit! Post the link, bullit. Does that include the votes lost, burned and otherwise destroyed? So much of the military didn’t get a say in this election I’m surprised Barry didn’t claim 120% of the military vote like he got in Philly.
Maybe he meant the Kenyan military vote..
Now THAT is fucking funny as fuck…….
That was funny. Almost lost some good beer on that one.
LOL, good one…Kenya, sheesh…
Loved Bill O’Reilly and Karl Rove blaming the loss on the fact that more than half the country (read: minorities) wants ‘things’ and ‘stuff’ from the government. That white America is the only America they want to be a part of.
The racial prism that some people view this through is obviously an oversimplification of the issue, and stupid. But there is a problem is creating an escalating (multiracial / largely color-neutral) population of people who are consumers but not producers or stakeholders in our economy and society. Egalitarian democracy works best when the playing field is at least somewhat nominally level. The growth of a permanent underclass – and both left and right have made errors that contributed to that – is an undesirable outcome.
Meghan McCain is correct – the GOP needs to evolve. They need to include Latinos (most of whom don’t want handouts, but rather what we think of as the traditional American Dream) and other minorities. They need to stop looking for people to exclude, and start looking to find ways to bring more people into the party. The Democrats, OTOH, need to recognize that things have a cost, and our economy has limits. Everybody cannot have everything. Socialism doesn’t work because you run out of other peoples’ money to spend.
Until the two parties start to let the adults talk, I’ll continue voting my protest Libertarian line.
Well, you don’t need to worry where that 10 bucks in Super PAC spending went 😉
This is President Regan speaking…I’ve always said, “Well, well, if need be…I’ll take four more years of Obama over four more years of Alex. Now where’s Nancy and my Jelly Bellies? It’s time for another nap…”
Excuse me, that’s President Ronald Wilson *Reagan*
I told you fuckers that I needed a goddamn nap. And before I take my nap, can I ask nice people one question? “Did we sign Peyton Manning yet?”
Night all.
“I put that manning/Smith compario for the bet Dennis and Flav had going. I’ll gladly remove it if it offends.”
You’ve had that running since the get-go. And if I recall, I was on the wrong side of the ledger the first two or three weeks and taking a load of crap of about the bet. Now it “offends” because because I’m winning?
This is President Reagan here again telling you air traffic blog controllers to get back to showing the correct +/- totals or I’m going to fire your ass. Don’t fuck with me. I have a SAG card.
You know what’s really funny? I’ve interacted with Chuck on these blogs dating back to the SF Gate at least a good five, maybe six years now. And he still puts up and tolerates with all my horseshit. I do appreciate it. Chuck either has a heart of gold, or the mind of a gold brick. I’ll give him the benefit of doubt.
If I ever had the distinct pleasure after all these years of meeting Mr. Charlie Bay in person, you know the first thing I’d ask him…”Chuck, did we sign Peyton Manning yet?”
That would be nice but be ready to ‘duck’ in case Chuck hucks his lunch at ya. I advised thoughtfully…