Once again, the San Francisco 49ers are on their way to the NFC Championship game. The difference being, the 49ers have to go on the road to reach the Super Bowl. Playoff history be damned (their playoff road record barely counts, as it is ancient history), but their last playoff trip to Atlanta was an unmitigated disaster as Garrison Hearst tore his ankle to shreds on the very first play, and the Niners never recovered, losing 20-18. This was Steve Young’s final full season with the Niners, and the Niners last best chance for a Super Bowl win. The Mooch/Garcia teams were never quite as good, and thus began the dark ages. Atlanta of course crapped themselves after beating the Niners, and John Elway trounced the turdy birds in that Super Bowl.
Flash forward to now. Is anyone really worried about Natty Ice and the Falcons? I’m not. After watching that game yesterday, I’m not too worried. Seattle spent the 1st half shooting themselves in their feet, and playing like they’ve been flying back and forth across the country numerous times for the last couple weeks. Atlanta grudginly took advantage of Seattle’s lethargy, and struck for some big plays, and did some decent running to back that up. Cue up the 2nd half, and Teflon Mike Nolan decided to go into his own special version of the soft shell deeeep dish pizza coverage that us Niners fans know and love so well. The old bend and bend over defense. After Dominating the game for 3 quarters, and not quite running away, it took Seattle all of 8 minutes to overcome a 27-7 lead and take a lead of their own. Funny thing is, Seattle did exactly what Nolan did in the 4th quarter, and that is drop the safeties deeeep, and give up the underneath sideline route that they are implicitly defending. Oooops. a 30 yard KO return, a 22 yard sideline pass, and a 18 yard pass to Tony Gonzalez led to Matt Bryant’s game-winning FG. Of course Bryant then followed that with the worst squib kick in the history of squib kicks. Sea then threw a stupid 8 yard pass that should have gone for 20 to give their kicker a shot, but instead set up the desparation pass into the end zone that Julio Jones picked off.
So, does anyone think the Niners change things up from last week? I think so. Teflon Mike just might be shitting his drawers over what to do about Kappy and his running ability, so I think the Niners may go away from that aspect of his game. Or not. Few of those runs were scripted, but a design of something I mentioined before the game, and that is to send the pass-catchers deeper than usual to open things up underneath. When Kappy saw long green in front of him, he decisively took off. And he also did NOT take the hits that guys like RG III were taking all year. Mainly because he either got OB or scored. He did miss some pases early, took a retarded taunting penalty, and the pick 6, but all in all, a game for the ages. Watching Kappy on speed turf is a bit intriguing, as Kappy on the Candlestick mush proved to be like watching Usain Bolt racing 6th graders.
So, on to the Cracker dome. The beauty thing about this game is, the Atlanta fans are waiting for the axe to fall. Yesterday WAS their Super Bowl, and Natty Dreadful showed he can win a playoff game with immense help from the other team. Next weekend? Not so much. I foresee a major crush job by the Niners.
Forty Niners Forever 
Because Kaepernick was able to run so much against Packer man coverage, I think Roman and Harbaugh are right now anticipating Nolan going zone and our coaches are looking at putting together “zone packages,” for Kaepernick to throw against. Kaep will always be a running threat, but he can obviously throw the football. I look for Kaepernick to throw more against the Falcons – needing to be patient. Throwing against zones means a lot of 6-12 yard completed passes with little RAC for receivers. However, it also means more options for underneath routes. I could see LaMicheal James having a big day against the Falcons. But Kaep needs to be patient and not try to score quick touchdowns. It’s harder for a young qb who just hung a lot of points in the divisional round to now be patient on a bigger stage. Sure, if the Falcons go man coverage and the pocket collapses, Kaep should look to take off. The game within the game will now be how Kaep beats zone coverages and hoping that he can immediately identify when the Falcons have switched back to man.
John Clayton writes that Cam Newton killed the Falcons with his runs. Russell Wilson isn’t Cam Newton or Colin Kaepernick. However, the Falcons have issues defending the read option regardless what defense they’re in. I see a lot of zone in the near future for Colin Kaeperinick. Here’s to hoping Harbaugh and Roman have Kaep prepared. They will, and the 49ers will win the Super Bowl.
Nice. Yeah, Kappy has struggled a lot more with zone coverage (a la the Rams) than he has with man coverage. Inexplicable that Capers of all people didn’t see what was coming. Actually I think the Niners may come out with the ground and pound to try and soften them up for the passing game. If the Niners can force more guys up closer to the line, then they can attack with play-action.
The real good thing to all this is the QB play in the NO game and how the Niners took the crowd out of it. They didn’t have too much problem dealing with the noise there, and the Atl fans are a bunch of pussies, so if we get on top early, they’ll be as quiet as church mice.
I think we’re going to see a Pats/Niners re-match for the SB. I’m hoping for a Harbowl but the Ravens had their win in Denver handed to them on a John Fox silver platter and I don’t see them winning again in New England. The Doity Boidies are an average, over-rated team, but will be tougher than the Cheesefarts were. Nevertheless, SF pulls it off. Now, can they beat the Pats again? I honestly don’t think so, but we’ll see how Sunday’s games play out before I make any SB prediction.
Typical of Teflon Mike defenses, they give up a ton of yards. They did a decent enough job of red zone defense, so that is the area where we need to capitalize.
The beauty of Kap is he can score from outside the redzone pass or run.
This was posted in the Sac Bee by Matt Barrows
To reach the Super Bowl this year, the 49ers will have to accomplish something they haven’t done since Bill Walsh roamed the sideline and Joe Montana threw passes to Jerry Rice – win a playoff game on an opponent’s field.
Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2013/01/14/5112403/49ers-must-end-playoff-road-woes.html#storylink=cpy
Yeah….. Nolan is looking hard at Rams / Niner film right now. I bet Belicheat is having someone (quality control) look at Niner / Rams film as well even though the Patriots are now playing the Ravens. But I think Harbaugh is smart enough not to show everything against a team like the Rams in the regular season. It’s almost as if Harbaugh was then saying, “We can beat the Rams with a limited playbook if we execute, so let’s not show how we are going to beat zone coverages in the playoffs.” I don’t think that’s too far fetched to assume. Harbaugh, Roman and Kaep are now focused on how to beat zone coverage. I can see Vernon and LaMichal having big days in Atlanta.
Atlanta is ranked in the 20s in both overall run and pass defense and John Abrahm is hurting. Lol. I think we beat Altanta by 21 pts. I think we’ll beat the Patriots by 21 pts as well.
Nolan’s D for the most part is adept and not giving up big plays, but does give up a bunch of little ones. Which means the underneath stuff SHOULD be open for VD. Which is why I think we come out running.
My hope is that Garrett Celek is getting a LOT of reps this week. Walker has proven to be the guy I thought he was when the season started. A lousy pass-catcher.
I’ve always been a bigger Harbaugh fan than most here. But I’ll admit that the change to the QB spot made no sense to me. I was all about Kap for next season but I thought it was super risky to make the switch in the middle of the season AND the fact that he was replacing a qb who was performing at a high level. And we were winning.
And then I watched Kap struggle a little, especially v Seattle and my concern over this move grew. I posted several times questioning why Kap wasn’t running MORE. He was almost intentionally trying NOT to run which made no sense to me since it’s his obvious strength and if he gets hurt, so be it, we are one of the few teams in the league with an outstanding 2nd option.
And then I watched the GB game and I was like, “Jim harbaugh is smarter than me.” If indeed this was the plan all along, to unveil heavy doses of the run option in the playoffs, and watch opposing defenses try helplessly to defend against it, then my hat is off to you JH. He mapped this shit out and despite opening himself up to massive second guessing he stuck with it and are in position now to destroy our next two opponents.
Maybe defenses will figure out ways to stop this game plan next year but I don’t see them doing shit the next two games to stop it. There isn’t a quarterback on the planet that I’d rather have QB the final 2 games of the year for us……..
Jim and his coaching staff are trying to do one thing, and one thing only: Win Super Bowls. Public perception, feelings and regular season wins be damned. The only thing I worry about is an injury to Kaep. He’s strong, and he handled the contact with the Packers well despite spiking the football in their face and drawing a penalty. But he needs to be more cautious. He needs to get out of bounds or slide feet first more frequently than he does. You can’t play the game of football scared, but you can play it smart. Get the heck outta bounds, and slide feet first unless it’s an Elway helicopter spin into the end zone type situation. If it’s not crucial, don’t do it. That’s the only thing that keeps us from winning the Super Bowl. And you know what? I think Harbaugh knows this. I think Harbaugh knows that he only has to put Kaep running a lot into game plans every three or four weeks. The defense just needs to respect the QB run and it opens up other holes for Roman and Kaep to exploit. I say run Kaep every three or four weeks, and in the Super Bowl, or in big games, let it all hang out. This may sound way, way over confident, but I don’t think the 49ers need to risk a Lombardi trophy on the Atlanta Falcons. I don’t think the 49ers need to run Kaep as much against them. Nolan and company are already preparing to stop Kaep. That alone should be enough.
Kappy’s struggles, at least with the Rams, was due to them running a zone defense. Man to man is easier to read and attack, as Kappy showed against the Bears and the Packers. Atl? Well, it’s Mike Nolan’s defense. He mixes shit up a lot and shows different looks all over the place, but his deal is usually a lot of DBs to prevent big plays. His big sub 4-2-5 defense. I didn’t pay too too much attention yesterday, but the 2nd half sure looked like the heavy DB package that used to give up yards by the truckload when he was with the Niners. Trouble is, it didn’t keep Seattle out of the end zone.
Kappy just has to be patient. When he’s clear on a target, he hit’s ’em with the best of them. He often gets a little indecisive when he’s forced to look around for secondary receivers. Teams that play underneath zones can stifle QB runs some of the time, and put licks on guys as they break contain. This is how Smith got nailed by the Rams. All this type of stuff leads me to believe that the Niners may come out and try to pound the ball if Nolan and his big suck 4-2-5 defense shows up.
Do you like cupcakes?
http://espn.go.com/nfl/team/_/name/atl/atlanta-falcons
We’ve certainly come a long way from Harbaugh is the biggest piece of shit back-stabbing son of a bitch anyway.
chuck, did you even watch the SEA-ATL game? ATL played a safety in the box and one deep all game. They did replace a LB with a DB in the fourth quarter up by three scores. Wow, radical. Think SEA might throw deeper routes being behind that far with time runing out and the running game becoming less of a threat? Missed tackles and an interception got SEA caught up. All a scheme can do is put players in position. They missed on blitzes and tackles.
What part of “I didn’t pay too much attention” did you miss, NoFear? What happened in that 4th quarter, BTW? Sea should have won. That’s what happened. Regardless, I WAS right. Nolan’s big suck defense did it’s job in the 4th quarter.
You write a piece condemning some facet of the game and claim you didn’t pay attention and then take offense at someone pointing out you don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about. It amounts to so much pompous windbag blather.
Your habit is to throw out a bunch of currently popular bullshit and repeat it endlessly if no one calls you on it. Pretty soon you’ll call it up as fact.
Currently popular bullshit? Wow. I’ve been called a lot of things, but that hurts. And Spitty thinks I suck. No one really cares, NoFear. But Jeeze, bring up Teflon Mike, and its go time. Like a goddamn cuckoo clock. Nothing sets off NoFear like a dig at Teflon Mike. He’is gone. Let him go. Your bro-mance with him is a bit odd. Are you his brother?
And nothing sets off Spitty like noticing he regurgitates others sposts as his own.
Boy this is fun.
Radical in the fact that it should have lost the game for Atl. I’ll laugh my ass off on that one, NoFear.
You have, NoFear. You sure like to put words in people’s mouths. Are you referring to folks here, or just the world in general. Not sure what your point is NoFear, when Seattle went up and down the field at will in the 4th quarter.
The fact that Sea took the lead isn’t a product of Atl suddenly forgetting how to cover and tackle, it’s Nolan nearly scheming them out of the game. That’s why they call him Teflon Mike. When the D plays well, he called a great game. When they blow a 20 point lead in 8 minutes, it’s the players. This happened in the same game!
As i recall,we went into Atlanta during Dipshit Singletary’s last season.Had the game won on a late interception by Nate Clements,pnly to see the fool get it punched out from behind.and the Falcons marched down the field for a GW FG!!!
Fucking Clements only needed to fall down and the game was ours.But Noooo he had to showboat and try and score.
Hey Alleykat, wasn’t that the game Mays had his miracle TD and we didn’t score a point after the first quarter. And they did win on a FG after White chased down Clements and punched the ball out.
Yeah NoFear that was the game.Only highlight reel ever for Taylor(im not Willie) Mays.
Did you guys see the cupcakes the Falcons have played this year? And they still have a defense ranked in the 20’s? That’s trouble for Atlanta. That’s big trouble. I might up my spread from 21 to 24.
I think I’ve said that like 8 times in the past 2 weeks, Spitty. . . .
Chuck – do you ever get tired of sucking?
A lot less than you enjoy swallowing, Spitty.
Friendship is a beautiful thing.
Scoring Challenge: Conference championship round Niners VS Doity Boids. Who you gonna call?
Phil: 35-17 Niners. Got the Ravs over NE too.
Grumpy Guy: 38-21 Niners. Ravens 35, Patriots 31.
PATS go down hard!
41 -34 Niners
i think the Ravens take em too Grump. 23 -21
Good read chuck, at the moment I am remembering many a Nolan coached game where we gave up yards like it was going out of style. His defenses do buckle down in the Redzone but I think we have the weapons to take it to em. I look for Moss to have a good game. I hope Kappy is practicing his Ally Oop throws.
Gee, NoFear, did the suddenly forgetting-how-to-tackle Falcons problems coincice with the installation of the big suck defense? Hmmm. Let’s look at the scoreboard. 21 points in 13 minutes has to mean something, eh? Duuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuh! I wasn’t paying that much attention, but I was still right, skippy.
I may be a pompous windbag spewing popular bullshit (whatever that means), but has anyone out there in the internets noted Nolan’s near failure? I only see it here. Plus you admitted that Nolan did take out an LB for a DB in the 4th quarter, right? Like I said, right? And you called it the right move, right? And THEN suddenly Atl forgot how to tackle? You are so cute when defending Mike Nolan and his Big Suck D. Gawd, your absolute brown-nosong in his case is stupefying.
Carry on skippy. ‘Scuze me while I laugh laugh laugh.
You rooting for Atlanta?
Atlanta WILL BE humbled in their DOME! Got that? Sure we all know the Niners are playing for keeps now!
Scores? Ok, here goes…Bradys over Ravens 35-21…Niners over the vultures 21-17.
Niners 42-10
Baltimore 34-31
I’m less confident about the Baltimore game (obviously) and I’m gonna take the points in my parlay, but I just don’t see a scenario where we don’t destroy Atlanta.
They have us beat on WR’s. And that’s it. And when, exactly, are the Falcons going to have the ball? it’s tough to catch a td pass when you’re sitting on the sideline with your helmet off. We are going to run all over them and dominant time of possession.
Plus, assuming we go up early, I don’t see the crowd a factor except in the very beginning.
Our defense is so beyond better than theirs it’s not even worth breaking it down…..
Kap on artificial turf? Um, more please.
And finally, Mike Nolan?
Utter destruction of the Falcons on Sunday…..
Shades of Spitblood’s 42-6 over the Pack call. But a big win I can sure see
Hee hee haa haa. Even I’m not that optimistic, Flav but this game could easily go to absurd mode pretty quickly. As noted, Atl has had a creampff schedule and still gives up yards in bunches. More throttle to the floor should kill these guys off fast.
As I said though, Kappy’s struggles have been with zone D’s, which is why I think we come out running and work play action off that.