Made it through Thanksgiving, fatter, slower, and safely parked on the couch. I hope you all had a nice Thanksgiving as well. As far as the 49ers go, last I heard, from Greg Roman, is that there has been no decision made, and both guys are getting resp as the starter. And Smith still hasn’t been cleared to play.
In other words, same as it ever was . . .
So, what do you guys think? Go with Alex if cleared? Go with Cappy for one game? Go with Cappy til he fails?
I still feel the same. Give Smith one more game off. Go with Smith going forward.
Forty Niners Forever 
With respect and paid homage to Carnac the Magnificent…This joke has been hermetically sealed in a 12 oz Budweiser can under Frank’s watch on my porch since noon today. NO ONE knows the punchline to this joke. But I, in my borderline psychotic and use of cheesy schtick ways will ascertain it having never before seen the setup.
Answer: Allen, Judi and Alex.
Question: Name a wrench, a Dench and someone who just got benched.
Jed says Jim Tomsula has been getting all the head coach reps this week, He’s hoping JimT wouldn’t be stupid enough to bench the guy who lit up the Saints in the playoffs. York won’t name Sunday’s HC until game time but said to ask Donte Whitmer if there were any questions.
lol
Isn’t there an NFL rules deadline by when a team needs to name its starting quarterback? Jimbo isn’t making any new friends in Las Vegas. He’s going to piss off the wrong gambler and find out his dog or daughter went missing.
The game is off the board in many places. Last I looked, those still taking bets had dropped the line from 2 1/2 point Niner favs to a pick em.
I don’t get why he’s been so abusive towards the press and fans about this.No one is asking about the Benghazi attack, ferchrissakes.. He helped foment the controversy, people in the organziation seem to be either leaking false info or true info that he’s then denies, it never had to be so absurdly dramatic. As soon as Colin had his big game there was bound to be a controversy but he’s done evertyhing he could to turn it into a forest fire.There were going to be screamers either way but he either says “Alex is my QB when he’s he’s cleared” or “Alex has given us more we could have hoped for but we drafted Colin to be the QB of the future and the future is now. Alex totally understands and as soon as he gets off Delmar Denny’s ledge we hope he’ll agree to back up Tolzien..
I agree Twin, horrible way to handle it.
Nope Dennis. It can be a game-time decision. As far as Harbaugh goes, I’m sure the players know the deal. If Harbaugh is leaving the players in the dark as badly as this appears externally, then they all must think he’s lost his mind, and I’d think we’d be hearing more rumblings or something.
I still think this is all bullshit of the highest order. It’s just Harbaugh being a dick to the Saints and the NFL in general. He obviously dislikes the press to the nth degree. Plus, Harbaugh WAS a QB in Smith’s exact situation a fw times. He has to be dealing with this differently internally than externally. If not, then we’ll have our 3rd coach in a row lose his shit in his 3rd year.
As far as the earlier argument goes, the natural assumption is that if you change QBs this late in the season,after the other guy got you into 1st place AND got you to the NFC Championship game the year before, the replacement better do more than the guy they pulled. Unreasonable expectation? Damn right, but the decision to pull Smith after what he’s done under Harbaugh is ridiculous if you base it on one game. Or even 2.
I will say though, if Cappy does well in NO, it’ll be that much more fodder on SUnday night.
I would think the decision, if there is one, is based on a lot more than a game and a half Chuck.
I think it’s a bigger test than the Bears for him. NO has an awful pass defense but they have film on the Bear’s game, they absoluetly have to win, it’s loud, they hate us, and could very well blitz 7 plus the cheerleaders.
And according to Cosell their D has been much better having more time with the new zone blitz scheme. I agree this is a tougher test for him. Before the season began this game was one of the 5 I picked as a loss in my 11-5 prediction. I now think Niners win and would have with Alex at QB too but it’s no gimme.
Twinnie, you really don’t think Alex has bought into being benched, do you?
When DeBerg was pissed off and screaming after Joe came in the Red Zone, it was a fake.
You do know that coaches obfuscate to confuse their rivals.
I posted this on Skeebs. Here goes here.
Have some soul, brother.
RT, I really have no idea what you’re saying, nor do I care.You’re off the rails. BRO..
Happy Holidays.
Harbaugh has been prickly to the press since Day 1. I’ve thought he was a dick with the public since he arrived. Walsh didn’t tolerate fools gladly, but at least he worked with the media to some extent, and manipulated them to his advantage. Harbaugh just comes off much more cold and artificial, and the continual secrecy about everything, as if they’re curing cancer there in Santa Clara, is dumb, IMO. All he had to do when Alex went down was to say “we’ll monitor his progress, but even when he gets doctor clearance, we may be extra careful and sit him another week. Meanwhile Kap will start.” EZ, and allows plenty of flexibility…
Not right before facing a red hot Saints team in the Superdome. Out for revenge, too.
To address one thing RT does have a grasp of, Alex is probably ten times smarter than Jimbo and while he comes off as a guy with no self respect because of the way he returns like a puppy dog, the haters are right that he had little choice. He’s a “good soldier” because he still wants to play in this league.But I’d guess that secretly he hates Jimbo and would work for nothing and sacrifice his first born to stick it to him.
When Harbaugh said he was going with the hot hand, everyone in the football world, except here I guess, heard that as him giving the nod to Kaepernick.
Whether it was because it was the only decision that made sense or because he thinks Kaepernick is the guy from now forward or because he likes to put himself in the center of media hype makes little difference.
Whether you are “hater” or a “cheerleader”, what you believe has no affect on reality or Jim Harbaugh.
Personally, I’m happy to see the opportunity for Alex to be replaced by a guy with the ability to bring a vertical passing game back to the Niners’ offense. Kaepernick may not survive the hype that has demanded he play like Joe Montana on Sunday or be ridiculed by a certain segment of the fanship for Harbaugh’s games.
Walsh knew the value of a friendly press. He also knew a hostile press could be the undoing of a coach.
Twin, Alex could be the #1 QB for the Jags tomorrow. The OC, like Peyton does. Part owner of the Jags, tomorrow.
Peter Principle.
Alex is a smart guy. He wants a Ring.
Is JH a moron for “maybe” switching QBs? We don’t know because JH as usual is jerking us off… as usual. We’ll find out after Kap plays the Saints. It’s a risk true but maybe JH knows something about QBs…
Let’s see
Jerking us OFFf? Jerking us AROUND maybe. I’m excited to see CK start, but not THAT excited.
Ok then. Yer right, lol
Since most don’t wanna make a call on the Niners/Saints please allow me to shove this in yer face Oh Prophets of da Pigskin:
Scoring challenge, 2nd edition. Niners vs Saints:
Chuck: 34-21 Niners. “NO may be pumped, but defensively, they are 27th in points allowed, 31st vs the pass, 32nd vs the run, and 32nd overall by a large margin I think we can score on them. Cappy will do fine. Smith likely won’t get cleared in time for this. ”
rtfirefly: 26-17 Niners. I adjust my weekly prediction because of Brees, Kappy and the Superdome
barleyfreak: 30-23, Saints. I have this feeling that we’re going to lose at the Superdome regardless of who is playing QB. Their D sucks, granted, but I see them playing better in their house against us this week. They will be PUMPED, you can bet, less than one year after losing the NFCCG in heartbreaking fashion. I see them getting some points on us — and we’ll have score better than 30 to win.
Phil: 36-20 Niners. Kapster starts, we grab a lead, D goes all sack happy (again), the run game wears ‘em down and this sucker is nothing like the NFC title game.
Grumpy Guy: 41-38 Niners. I’m actually more concerned right now about T. Brown, Culliver and Goldson being hurt and ‘limited in practice’, than in who starts at QB. This could turn into a real track meet. Early prediction: Kaep starts, 49ers win a crazy game, 41-38.
Barley said last week we would score more with Kap and damn if he didn’t nail
it.
So we out score the NO MoFos I’m thinking. Maybe not by the 16 I’m calling fer tho…
This will be the game the Bears thought it would be. The Niners come out and run run run.
Yes, the run, lots… Can’t stop us
And I don;t believe for a second that any of our DBs are really hurting. Harbaugh is doing all he can to mess with the Saints.
I am more concerned with which Niner defense shows up in NO than which QB. If Brees puts up a lot of points and the Niners get behind it could be a long day for Kap with them pinning their ears back and our run game diminished.
This game has me worried but 28-27 Niners in a nailbiter.
The Saints don’t run particularly well, so the Niners D is coming out in the nickel. They’ll go dime on 3rd down. Brees will throw 55 times. Get his 300. That’s a given. It’s red zone defense and the pass rush that dictates how the game goes. The Niner D has been pretty good at not giving up big plays, but this will be tested early and often tomorrow.
Offensively, I think the Niners go jumbo packages and try to run down their throats. The Saints show a ton of different looks as opposed to the Bears and their straight-up defense. So they will disguuise their blitzes to confuse Cappy into mistakes/sacks. it doesn’t really matter how bad their defense is doing. At home they are tough.
If the Niners can shut the crow up by grinding out yards on the ground, plus keep the ball out of Brees’ hands, then the Niners should be OK. They aren’t as blitz-happy as they were under Gregg Williams, but they still show a ton of different looks.
agree Chuck, I would be surprised to see Kap come out winging it like the Bears game but then again surprise is Harbs forte so who knows.
There are numbers that destroy NoFear’s contention that Smith is a dinker and dunker- air yards per attempt, wjhere Smith is comparable to Brady and Rodgers, among other top QBs. Eyes glaze over when I go into the facts, so you’ll have to trust me or look it up yourself.
But perhaps the best stat in measuring performance is DVOA., ” or Defense-adjusted Value Over Average. This number represents value, per play, over an average quarterback in the same game situations. The more positive the DVOA rating, the better the player’s performance.:” Smith ranks 7th. It’s hard to argue the validity of the stat when one looks at the QBs rated higher, 1-6 are Brady, Manning, Brees, Schaub, Big Ben,Rodgers…
So let’s be clear-put your biases aside and face the fact that if Jimbo decides that Kap is the better choice than Smith, he’s really saying that Kap is also better than Ryan,Romo, Stafford, Eli, Luck- all of whom perform worse than Alex in comparable game situations.
Now I realize that this is an advanced stat so I don’t expect that most will value it over that always dependable “sniff test”. Matbe it will help if I note that if Kap actually maintained his 1 3/4 game performance, he would rank 4th in DVOA. As unlikely as that might be, I’d be the first to anoint him as truly the second coming of Joe-Steve Wonderfulness.
Twin, Kap had 6 over 20 yd throws in the Chicago game and I think we all saw the vertical game came alive. Stats are fine but we all saw what we all saw.
Alex has the short and intermediate passing game down, shot plays I read somewhere he is 3 of 15. The The thing about stats is they are an indicator but never tell the whole story. My guess about this particular stat is it favors the consistent intermediate pass, something Alex has been good at this year.
And in games against select defenses we’ve seen the vertical game with Smith. There’s no doubt that Colin has the bigger arm. If he really does take over the #1 job we’ll see if that translates into Terry Bradshaw or Troy Smith-who was very comparable to Kap after two games. I’m sure he’ll be better than Troy,,, well, I hope so. What’s kinda funny, though, Sing had a helluva lot more reason to try Troy than Jimbo does if he benches Alex..
There are lots of problems with your stats method Twinfan.
Stats are what happen *after* the guy plays not reasons to play him.
What the hell kind of stat can rate a player over his fictional replacement? (hint) It all goes to hell after an actual replacement plays.
Why won’t you hear this in a coaches meeting? “But coach we can’t put in Kaep. Alex’s Football Outsiders’ DVOA says he’s way better than his replacement would be.”
Why aren’t you pushing the QBR any longer?
None of it gets the ball down the field any further in the air or changes the distance to Alex’s preferred targets.
Also, if Kaep has a great game and you deem him worthy of praise, *then* it will be ok for everyone to go along? It would hardly make you the first to crown him. Only the first to do so after Twinfan gives his blessing.
When have I or anybody else been prevented from stating your opinions? That’s plain stupid, pal. Go for it as you always have.
“None of it gets the ball down the field any further in the air or changes the distance to Alex’s preferred targets.”
Your bogus allegation has been disproven.Now that Air Yard figures have become an accepted stat, you’ll be unable to lie about that anymore. Try to rememeber it’s not the air yard total that’s relevent- it’s *per attempt*..
Kap did throw deeper over one game. And it’s refected in the air yeards per atempt (6.0). ..but sorry boys, you can’t dismiss facts because they don’t fit your preconceived bias. Updated::QB’s with 4.0 to 4.3 air yards per attempt are Newton, Brady, Stafford at 4.0, Schaub and Flacco at 4.1, Manning, Griffin, and Cutler at 4.2 , Brees and Smith at 4.3… These aren’t numbers you can spit on with a bogus sniff test. I’m certainly not saying Kap’s are not legit- but as any informed observer would attest, he’s a mite short of a reasonable sample size.Henne went from first to 19th in a week..
“Why aren’t you pushing the QBR any longer? ”
I am. He’s 5th in the traditional QB rating, 7th in DVOA, and 8th in total QBR. All three of those are meaningless, of course.Or was “misleading” the word? I forget the nonsense that’s thrown out when you boys don’t like the facts..
Twin, Alex is 31 st in the league in attempts and 29th in yardage, he does pretty well with the attempts he does make but the “check down” moniker does fit. The run game argument mitigates those issues to quite a degree but clearly passing and specifically passing deep successfully is problematic for an Alex led offense. Kap with the same plays, players and scheme did considerably better. Sample size is very small but growing so we shall see how he fares. Kap is light years from Nate Davis/Troy Smith.
I am not putting Alex down necessarily, he simply has area’s of his game that are weak and I don’t think running out various stats that point up a particular aspect or other is proving that wrong.
There are lies, damn lies and statistics.