One of my favorite lines from the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. Anyhow, remember the thrilling days of yesteryear, when the Niners were coming off 2 resounding division wins, they were 6-2, 1st place in the NFC West, and there was a clear cut starting quarterback on the 49ers? You know, 16 days ago? Well, on that fateful day 16 days ago, the 49ers played the hapless St. Louis Rams. A team that was 3-5 and stumbling around pretty aimlessly under 1st year head coach Jeff Fisher.
Most everyone figured a crushing defeat for the Rams, but a funny thing happened on the way to the victory party. Steven Jackson ran the ball down the Niners throat. Jerry Amendola caught a ton of balls for a ton of yards, and with some stupid decisions on both sides, plus a few missed FGs, the game ended in a tie. And, Alex Smith was knocked out of the game in the 2nd quarter after sustaining a concussion. Colin Kaepernick did well enough down the stretch of that game to win it, and also made a play which could have lost it. Fisher made some very dumb calls, but all in all, it felt like a loss for the Forty Niners, given the circumstances.
Fast forward to the present, and the Niners know now that the Rams, for all their faults and growing pains, aren’t a pushover. Jackson shredded the Niners defense early, and the D missed more tackles in that game than in all the rest of the other games combined. Bradford had way too much time, and Amendola torched Carlos Rogers all day. I heard Fangio this morning stress tackling and say if their effort is the same as the previous game, the results will be similar. I don’t see that happening.
Offensively, both QBs did well vs the Rams. The run game gained steam going along, and both QBs made some good throws. We should know by tomorrow who gets the call. Other than that, KW is out, and also it looks like Kendall Hunter is also lost for the remainder of the season. Jewel Hampton, an undrafted RB, has been promoted from the practice squad to take Hunter’s place. The Niners are going with 52 guys for now, but I’m sure someone else will be added shortly.
BREAKING NEWS: NaVorro Bowman has been signed to a 5 years, $48.5 million extension through the 2018 season.
Forty Niners Forever 
Is that Jerry, Danny’s twin brother?
It was a reference to Jerry Rice.
And I couldn’t remember his 1st name.
The players who said the Ram game felt like a loss were right- it was a game we had no business tying, let alone winning.I can’t prove this of course, but I was 100 percent certain that Akers would miss that potential game winner. Why? Because while we all know that God doesn’t choose sides in sporting events,She does have her standards- and there was no way She was letting anyone win that game. Not being expert on football, She checked the rules and was unhappy to learn She could not make both teams lose.
if you don’t follow the news closely, you might have missed that both coaches have had locust infestations since the game, however.
That was funny and probably true
I figured they’d go heavy on signing Bowman before his contract ended next year. Glad to see them go all out now. All 4 starting LBs are inked through the 2015 season. Got to like that.
Yep.. Good news after the initial bad news on the offensive side of the team.
Just need a little more beef for the rotation up front and a DB to stay ahead of the game.
Paraag Marathe handles these things, he does a fantastic job.
With a name like Jewel Hampton the dude must be a baller.
So Kaepernick is The Good, Smith is The Bad and Harbaugh is The Ugly?
potd
The Bowman signing couldn’t come at a better time, we have been injury free for the most part of two years now and what a great moral booster this must be for the team. This is where the rubber hits the road in signings like this.
Jesus. Morale
Earl Morale. QB for the Colts, right?
Threw for over 20000 yards and went to the Super Bowl twice, once as the starter and once as the handmaiden. I could live with that kind of Morale from a career backup.
I’ll assume regardless of who is the Niner QB (maybe Harbaugh will make himself active), that Fangio is dialing up some method to counter Amendola. That last game he was ridiculous. Stuff him at the line, whatever. Can’t have him operating like that again…
Don’t know about you guys, but I’m more than a little concerned losing Hunter. More concerned than losing Kyle Williams. That plethora of extra running backs just got sliced to a pleth, and none are as good, as versatile and talented, as Hunter…
If they use Jacobs right, he can be a big force. And that’s not in short yardage situations. He needs time to get going- pitch outs,sweeps…IMO. He was 5 for11 on 3rd and 4th and 1 last year. Just wonder about his attitude.
Jacobs should get some looks, and I’d like to see LMJ mixed in as well. He’s more of a Hunter type. Smaller and faster though. I’d like to see AJ as well.
I’m not a big Jacobs fan. I’ve watched him for years and he’s easily the biggest back I’ve ever seen who so easily goes down with the slightest bit of decent contact. Watch how he plays if you haven’t seen it. If he doesn’t get through the LOS he goes down easily. If he does get through he usually finds an extra gear. But for a running back of his size, I would expect he wouldn’t be so easy to stop with the first hit……….
The “soft'” label has been the knock on him. And you never like to hear the words “when motivated”. But I’ve seen him a lot and he can do some major damage when he does clear the LOS. How about RBBC? Even with Kendall out they have what should be a formidable group to implement the diverse running game that should work very well with Coiln’s assets.
I am biased because I watched so many LMJ games in college. He is the fastest player I’ve ever seen play football. I don’t give a shit about his experience or why it’s taken him so long to get activated. I want to see his speed on display on Sunday……….
I could see LMJ in an Amendola type role in the slot as well as a scat back.
I picked the Niners at 12-6. One playoff win with Alex, then a loss.
I still think they were damned lucky the Saints DC decided to go single coverage on Vernon at the end.
You’ll notice nobody does that anymore.
The playoffs are a carpshoot. The ball bounces funny, and stuff happens. You just get there first, then get homefield if you can.
I only voted for Kappy once. I still agree with Coach that you go with the hot hand.
I actually never voted, I figured the answer was fairly easy to come to……..
Having said that, wouldn’t it be a hoot if JH started Smith this week? That would an epic move of surprise that no will have seen coming. Some writers are saying the same thing but I don’t think they believe it they’re just throwing shit out there to possibly look like geniuses if it actually happens—bumps up the twitter followers you know………..
We’ll see tomorrow, maybe. I would not be surprised at all, either way. JH loves him some media trolling.
Well, it would be a bizarre move. Even though Smith dd nothing to lose his job, once lost Kaepernick has done nothing to lose his.Quite the merry-go-round-which QB who did nothing to lose his job will lose his job this week? I’m for throwing a wrench into the whole deal and going with Tolzien..
That’s week 14, Twin.
Barrows says the niners have invited kickers for tryouts.
Yeah, Grump. I said the same thing on Skeebs blog. It’s been such a fucking hairdo these past 9 days that I’ll believe anything.
Harbaugh should just activate himself as QB and let the other two grab clipboards and wear helmets…
Jimbo’s career was mostly rather average,
Captain comeback.
Jim also got to within an eyelash of the Superbowl, in 1995 with the Colts- Jimbo threw a Hail Mary that would have won the game if completed- the pass somehow got to Aaron Bailey, surrounded by Steelers. Bailey had it- the Colts were goin’ to the Super Bowl! Then Bailey didn’t have it..
http://tinyurl.com/d774rpa
I just wanted to point something out before today’s supposed QB announcement. Lots of blogs, including this one have had some posters say about the NO game that the D won it by giving 14 points. Not to diminish those points, they were awesome and timely, but Kap got the offense into scoring position enough to win the game without the D points. The kicker Akers missed 2 FG, 6 lost points, which if made would have meant a 23-21 Niner win and that was after the D points were on the board and the play calling had gone conservative to preserve the win.
Ergo Kap did do enough, as far as the QB can, to win the game outright, in NO, in a hostile environment, against a grudge team in a must win situation with his second NFL start. I was very impressed.
Film is now rapidly accruing and you can bet college tape is being closely examined, teams will scheme to beat him if they can. He is a potential star QB and already very good.
Colin played well. The first big play was the 4 yard pass to Manningham that Mario took another 36 yards. For the game 131 of Colin’s 231 passing yards were YAC. That is no knock on him- he averaged just slightly less than Smith did in the lenghth of his throws. In the Bear game, he threw more downfield, so we’ll see what the trend is as he plays more.
Which Alex game are you referring to with length of throw Twin?
I’m referring to Smith’s average air time- 4.3. The same as Brees and Manning, a little more than Schaub and Brady. Coiin still leads the league, largely because of the Bear game. That’s why I said we’d need to watch the trend.As I pointed out to Fear, it’s not a knock on Colin to point out that in the NO game, he didn’t go downfield much. His air yards were 100 out the total 231. NoFraidyCat dissed Smith for throwing short, I don’t fault either one if they’re effective.
So in your statement you compared Kap’s NO game against Alex’s aggregate where Kap came up short. Then after I asked specifics you compared Kap’s aggregate against Alex where Kap has the better numbers. I’m glad I asked.
Why are you boys treating this as a criticism of Kap?. It shows he can actually throw some touch passes and lead a receiver properly to get those YAC. You may notice that the top five in AirYPA are Colin ( the NO game was similar to the averages of the best QB’s in the league), Newton, Eli, Luck, and Wilson. Alex at 4.3 is with Manning, Brees, Brady..
I’m not taking it as a knock on Kap Twin, I am studying how you are choosing to use stats to present something, ditto using a statement from Maiocco after the Bears game and presenting it as though spoken after the NO game. It goes to whether I am comfortable taking something at face value or not.
Both LMJ and AJ comported themselves pretty well in preseason, For that matter, so did Brandon Jacobs. James is bad-ass, and I know he goes against Harbaugh and Baalke’s idea of big players, but he’s a rocket. Get him loose on some screens and let him fly.
Jacobs reportedly got himself into much better thape than he was when he left the Giants. I was looking forward to the new attitude he would bring, but I fear all that is gone with the fact that he’s seen one play so far this year. It’s unclear why they aren’t using him in short yardage situations. Smith got dinged on a short yardage play, and Gore has been historically not-so-good in that role. Look at Dixon in the NFCCG last year. He failed miserably 2x to get one yard.
As I posted yestrday, Jacobs was 5 for11 on 3rd or 4th and one. That’s a big part of why he’s ours. .
http://espn.go.com/blog/nflnation/post/_/id/56392/jacobs-and-nfc-west-short-yardage-guys
I’ll say it again. I think Harbaugh goes with Smith. The Cappy deal was merely a test and a taste of what Cappy offers.
Harbuagh’s telling statement was Smith shouldn’t lose his job due tro an injury.
Could be.
As I said yesterday, benching Colin would give Jimbo the rare coaching two-fer: sitting 2 QBs who did “nothing to lose the job”. I can see that going viral: “Gee, boss. What did I do wrong to get canned?”
“Smedley, you did nothing to lose your job.”
“Uh, OK, thanks. I feel better now.”
I read on one of the beatwriters blogs that how he treated JJ who Harbs had called “like a son” was telling. When cuts were anounced JJ was one of them despite Harbs saying he was in a dead heat with Tolzien for 3rd QB. Not a lot of sentiment in Harbs despite his sentimental proclamations.