One of my favorite songs by one of my favorite bands, The Clash. Notably for the Elvis homage album cover.
Anyhow, the Niners are getting ready to tilt with the Jacksonville Jaguars in jolly old England. Jax is one of two teams without a win. The other being the TBay Succaneers. A team that gave up early and laid down like licked puppies tonight in a blase effort guaranteed to get head coach Greg Schiano an early start on the end of the season.
Jacksonville, on the other hand, well, the same hand, isn’t really providing anything resembling solid football. They are last in offense, last in scoring, 28th in defense, last in points given up, last in point differential, and last in rushing yards allowed. Needless to say, the hope is a quick painless win that allows the team to heal up for the bye and the and 2nd half push.
I’d expect to see running, running, and more running. Shove these guys out of the way and beat them down early. Bring in as many 2nd stringers as possible (hello Colt McCoy), and auto-pilot this bitch to victory. I know, on any given Sunday, blah blah blah, but really. A loss to this team would be a huge blow. To our playoff hopes, and to our psyche in general.
Put these kitties down and roll to our 5th win in a row. 6-2 at the break was about what I hoped for at the start of the season, and this would fall right in line with that.
Forty Niners Forever 
Oh Chuck, the whole run, run, run thing. until the Niners can show they can score at will, I think they need to blow this game out in the First half and start practicing for the Playoffs in the second half. As far as I can tell, and it is true I am not an OC, but the Niners do not have a game plan if Gore gets stopped. Seattle and Denver are the only two teams I have seen that have no problem when teams pin them inside their own 10 yard line. The Niners on the other hand go with the tried and true, Run twice and pass on 3rd down. For the Niners it is typically 3 and out when they get pinned inside their 10 yard line. When clearly they have the talent to get out of that situation. So yes, run, run, run in the first half. Second half experiment, experiment, experiment. Walsh use to script the first 10 plays to see what worked. Since no head coach for the Niners has done that since Walsh, this would be a good time to do it in the 2nd half. Script 10 plays that you have not used and see what works.
Losing to this sad sack would not just be a “huge blow”, it would be a disaster. At 6-2, Niners would be realistically still in the hunt for overall home field, even if they lost 2 more along the way in the second half. If they inexplicably lost this Jags game, the best they can do is wild card. This game shouldn’t be any more than an opportunity for the scrubinnis to get reps in the 2nd half. Do that, and no injuries worth mentioning, and we’re good to go into the bye, and have Manningham back for the next game…
Just kill these Jags…. period!
Kevin, it was 15 plays, but who’s counting? The point being get out of Jolly Old with a win and rest up for the 2nd half. I’m happier with the offense than I was after week 4. They are mixing things up better and they have Manningham ready to take the field at full strength after the bye week. I’d like to see Gore rested after the 1st quarter if possible. 1st half definitely.
Yeah, they can’t lose ground to Seattle as they have a pretty easy sched right now. Their only tough road game is against us. NO is in Seattle.
If Kyle Williams is on this team going into the playoffs, I won’t be happy, I’ll be hoping against a train wreck mistake. If he’s on this team next season, something is terribly wrong…
Manningham and Crabs (later) will take care of his spot. If he’s not returning punts, he’s not worth a spot.
Even when he’s returning punts, Williams isn’t worthy of a spot. Kyle’s T-23 (out of 27) with a 5.7 return avg. And with 19 fair catches, he leads the league (next is 13) by a country mile. They shoulda cut him after the NFC Championship Game two years ago.
Chuck, it was as many as 25 and it started as another Paul Brown coaching innovation.
It started with a handful (two or three) of “openers” in Cincinnati. It grew to a dozen with Fouts in San Diego and to 20 at Stanford. Settled on 25 with the Niners. And they were mostly plays well known to the players and were used to get a feel for the reaction of the defense to certain formations and motions and to set up plays to be used in the second half as well as to trot out certain gimmicks Walsh wanted to be sure to get into the game.
He often said it was easier to plan the strategy before the battle, including second half adjustments.
It worked well enough that we would often score on the first possession. Those were the days.
btw, I hate the London exhibition games. I’d rather flip a coin for the win/loss and take the week off. What’s next, a rotation of the designated globe trotters team?
The bad news is next year, they are scheduling 3 games in London. It was fine for the exhibition games, but not regular season.
BTW I’m out til tomorrow night.
Warm beer anyone?
I’d rather have a cold glass of water > a warm…
I’ll stop right there, because we all know I’m lying like a Persian rug.
So is James so far into the dog house he will never be used? Why not try him at doing returns??
Wake up everyone it is game time!!! Dennis I have your bloody Mary ready!! Extra Tabasco!!
You call that our National Anthem? They should have played the Ride of the Valkyries as a background to God Save the Queen to even it out.
Here’s a SB version:
Kyle Williams fumbled the opening kickoff and luckily recovered it himself.
Seriously. Why the fuck is he still playing? He must have photos of Harbaugh with a farm animal…
Nobody plays well after flying backwards across the Atlantic. Look at the Jags! Besides KW is the best we got at coming close to catching kicks.
One more time why not James???
The team has been in London for > a week now. Jet lag, travel, time change or whatever the hell you want to call it is absolutely off the table as an excuse. And if KW is indeed the best we got at coming close to catching kicks as you say, then that is one very sad commentary.
I’ve always been a firm believer that even the worst NFL team could beat the best college team. And quite handily I might add. But after watching the Jags, I think that ‘Bama and the Ducks would give ’em a run for their money.
The Jags are so bad, I can’t tell if the plays they are calling would work against a good team!! I like the play calling though!!
The offensive plays the Niners are calling
The way this game is going we should have a Colt McCoy sighting in no time.
Took the spread 18 1/2 easy call.
Only Kyle Williams is the Jags best weapon.
Freakin douchebag sucks big-time on kick- off and punts.
The Jags are on the board! The Jags are on the board! The Jags are on the board!
Now remove the 2×4 from under their feet and hit ’em over the head with it.