Drew Brees after the hit:
In the woulda, coulda, shoulda game, the Niners barely pulled this one out over the mighty Saints in N’Awlins. If Frank Gore woulda caught the swing pass with 40 yards of shiny plastic turf in front of him, the Niners woulda scored and salted the game away. If the Niners coulda managed the clock and the red flag situation a tad better they coulda scored going into halftime. And, finally, the ref shoulda eaten his flag on the Ahmad Brooks sack of Drew Brees and subsequent fumble recovery by Patrick Willis in the closing moments of the 4th quarter.
As it was, Gore dropped the pass, Mangina, Kappy, Harbaugh and co. wasted all their TOs in the 1st half on a) the 1st series, and b-c) two challenges that were patently obvious to be nowhere near being overturned, and the ref threw the flag on the sack/fumble.
(Insert rant here: At what point do we just declare all sacks penalties? Or make it 2 hand touch on the QB? Brooks did not go for Brees’s’s’ head. He hit Brees across the chest and his arm slid up to Brees’ neck. Savage hit? Undoubtedly. Penalty-worthy? If so, then what do defensive players aim for? Below the waist is off-limits. The head is off limits. You can’t extend your arms to tackle the QB. If the upper chest is off limits, then you basically have an area of 12″ below the armpits and above the waist. You’re better off letting the QB run in circles, I suppose. These defenders have enough to worry about trying just to get to the QB. Now they have to stop and figure out the correct way to properly tackle the QB? Thanks for ruining the game Goodie Goodell. Goodell is all about safety, except where it comes in direct violation of slowing the money train. Can you say Thursday Night Football? Football in England for no particluar reason?)
Anyhow, this game will get dissected, like the last one, as to who f*cked up harder to lose the game. There were some positives around the loss. The play-calling was a little better. When the Niners put 4 WRs in a formation, 3 were actually WRs! An improvement (the downside was seeing Osgood on special teams make a special bus play to give the Saints 15 free yards on their final drive). The Niners took advantage of the NO mistakes. They scored a TD on the muffed punt, a TD on the Brooks pick, and got a FG on the forced fumble on the pick by Kappy. The situation they didn’t quite capitalize on was when NO went for it and failed on 4th and 4 on the SF 40, a play that would have been dissed heavily had NO lost, giving the Niners great field position. As it was they kicked a FG.
After that, it was 3 and out city. The offense did no favors to the defense by going 3 and out their last 2 drives to close out the game. Gore’s drop came after the Saints had closed the gap to 20-17, and he had a good 20-30 yards of clear sailing ahead of him. As I said. Woulda Coulda Shoulda. This is getting eerily rem,inidcent of the Nolan days where we played well eough to lose close games. This used to be a different story. Seattle, for all thier struggles in these recent games, figured out a way to win. Not to lose. Hence their 9-1 record.
My biggest peeve is not only do opposing DBs not honor our non-exisetent deep passing game, OUR OWN WRs don’t honor it at all as well. Jon Baldwin didn’t even bother looking for the deep ball thrown his way late in the game. He half-assed the route and was startled by the UFO that floated past his head.
The good news? Well, seeing as this is our 2nd 2-game losing streak, this team has the wherewithall to rip off 3 or 4 wins at the expense of some upcoming shitty teams. THese guys should be able to win 5 of the last 6 games. 11-5 should get them in.
Forty Niners Forever 
Yeah, the TV wonks and about 98% of anyone talking about it said it was a clean hit. The ref was behind the play and didn’t see where Brooks hit Brees, and thus went with the erroneous assumption that Brooks hit Brees in the helmet.
I was talking on another blog a couple days ago and said, as Ray Lewis did last night, plays like that should ne be reviewable. It completely changed the game.
As should that terrible flag pick-up last night. Even worse was the fact that after the refs picked up the flag, they ran off the field without explaining their actions.
Obviously Ted Ginn needed a change of scenary. He is looking like a pro bowler. Nice to see him doing well.
Yeah, he looked like Crabs out there yesterday. Thing is, he dropped balls in Miami and he dropped balls in SF. Not sure what the diff is now.
Didn’t think we’d miss him . . .
ha ha,.no, like I said he needed a change. He is with the right team and the right QB for him.
He’s also got Steve Smith taking coverage away from him down field.
We need a burner other than Vernon.
with the 49ers, I just don’t understand what a huge drop off at the Quality of WR’s the Niners have. I mean you cannot have two quality QBs, that is a fact. But the WR position?? The passing game is just sad.
It'[s kind of the perfect storm of shittiness. Bad WRs, lousy blocking by the line, shitty play calling by the coachung staff, and poor decision-making by Kappy.
Got a nice pic of Brees after the game at the top of the thread.
Funny. But I’m tired of the whining little girls led by our head coach. Goodell wants that hit called. Get over it. If Kaepernick would have taken that hit and it didn’t draw a flag the hysterical outrage would be the same. “No wonder we lost guys, the officials are against us in every game we lose.” What a great rallying cry. How about fixing the deficiencies in coaching and execution instead.
You think the Pats fans are genially acceptiong of the call that went against them yesterday?
NoFear49er it’s the principle that a bad call impacted a tight game.
Guys like Goldson are flagrant. Brooks put a text book hit on the QB IMO.
That play alone could’ve changed the game for us, as could the pass to Gore which was blown.
For me, it’s just another example of the League going overboard with QBs.
Had that hit been put on Kaep, I’d have the same opinion.
Do the Niners even have a 2 minute offense? They can barely get a play called off in time under regular conditions…
Bullshit, NoFear. It was a turning point, as was Gore’s drop. Plenty of moments, but that was a big one. Those kinds of plays should be reviewable. College does it now. Most people aren’t as petty as you make them seem. But carry on as you must.
Snarkk, we haven’t run the 2 minmute offense since Alex Smith did it against Indy in 2010. Scored a TD in 1:35. Haven’t done it since. Successfully at least . . .
Bullshit? You’re full of it.
Let Kap loose. Turn him friggin loose. Runs, rollouts, throw a bomb to anybody. Let’s have a couple of screens, whatever. How about a DRAW? I can’t remember when I saw one of those. Do SOMETHING different with this offense. And, not surprising Gore drops a pass in the open. He rarely gets thrown a pass to him anymore, it must have shocked him. Mike McGroin or whatever his name is throws 3 TDs against Houston at Houston. Mike McGroin? WTF — we weep when we get a completion for a converted 3rd down…
What happened to the positives of having a consistent OC and coaching staff? If this bullshit offensive scheme continues, I’m hoping some college offers Roman a HC position he can’t turn down…
The fact that Ted Ginn looked like he was an actual receiver with skills has to set Niner fans to scratching their heads. If he sucked with the Niners, but now he doesn’t suck, it must mean something in the organization MADE him suck. Now, we’ve got Dixon spouting off on Twitter about he PO’d he is about lack of playing time. WTF is going on with this offense?…
Well, Ginn sucked in Miami as well. But he was supposed to be the man. But he didn’t have that pressure here.
Yeah I’m hoping Roman gets a HC offer before people realize he may not be all that.
The worry with Harbaugh is he gets another OC in the mold of Roman. Or (urk) Jimmy-Hat.
Chuck nice addition of the ‘Peyton Neck’ to Brees.
I’m still fuming over that call.
Probably the best hit I’ve seen in football in quite some time.
Sucks that we couldn’t have capitalized on it though.
Yeah, this is the new NFL. As Jerry Glanville said, the No Fun league.
The hope is these last couple of bad calls prompt some action to review calls like these.
And Snarkk, I’m with ya there. They HAVE to try deep passes at least once early. Do it on 3rd down. Max protect and send 2 guys deep. If it’s a 50 yard pick. it’s as good as a punt. FUCK IT. They HAVE to show teams they CAN throw the ball downfield.
I’m all for dumbing it down and speeding it up.
Just try something new.
What we’ve been doing isn’t getting it done.
I really thought we’d have given Chris Ault a call when he left NV.
Let’s get that Fly Sweep in there with LMJ.
Maybe we should revisit that option if he becomes available.
http://tinyurl.com/kvqsdpl
Last I checked KC had him on their Staff.
He might be more valuable to us since he knows Kaep so well.
That’s exactly my point, NJ49er. Anything close to a QB hit in the head area will most likely get a flag. Everybody knows it. The players should walk out if they don’t want to play under those rules rather than whining endlessly about it when they get negatively affected by it. I don’t like the rule either but that’s the game today. There were many opportunities for us to win that game besides the sack. If you want to hang it on that call go right ahead for all it will change but Goodell wants the officials to make that call and err on the side of protecting the QB. I’ve proposed flags on the QBs and receivers years ago just to get it over with.
My take is you don’t agree to the rules of the game and then cry about them when you lose.
I understand the rule NoFear49er, it’s just that the hit was clean IMO.
I know what you’re saying, can’t fight City Hall I guess.
I’m just annoyed that guys like Goldson, flagrant head hunters, continue to inflict potentially career ending damage yet get away with fines.
It almost seems like it’s the money they seek.
Like cops making quota.
That play was clean IMO. Good old fashioned football hit.
It’s just getting tougher and tougher to see Refs disrupting good games and turning momentum.
It’s a fine line to be sure.
I’ve suggested the possibility of giving a Coach a chance to challenge plays such as this also.
Pats got stiffed with the mugging of Gronk too. Just picked up the flag and called it a night.
The rule is defined as shoulders to waist I believe?
Yet you see QBs getting hit low pretty regularly in the pocket.
Manning just a couple weeks ago vs SD.
Clearly Brooks did wrap up around the shoulders and kept his head outside.
The physics dictate that the ‘neck area’ and shoulders is an extremely small dividing line to judge intent.
Can’t avoid the momentum of coming into the neck area when one guy is going over the other.
Might as well eliminate contact all together.
Ginn still drops the ball. He’s just decided to take some hits which he always shied away from with us and with Miami.
Everyone seemed to think Roman was an offensive genius the past two years. Now he doesn’t know shit about offense? I doubt that. You can say he’s not very inventive or imaginative but an OC has to run plays with the guys he has suited up and still try to win the game. He was the guy that called the GB game wasn’t he? And the SB season?
Well we know Roman isn’t very imaginative.
He’s not much for rhythm IMO.
It’s either heavy run or heavy pass.
Has to mix it up, keep a Defense guessing.
I thought for sure Frank would’ve seen a lot more work vs NO since they’re run defense was so suspect going in.
Wear em out a little?
Kaep isn’t running, perhaps by edict? Hard to know from where we view things.
I was talking about Chris Ault and it appears that Roman did visit NV while with Stanford.
The Pistol could easily be the missing ingredient?
Perhaps they’ve taken Gun Control much too literally 🙂
Here’s an older piece with Ault –
http://tinyurl.com/k37u8n9