Ahhh, the heady days of the bye week. Manningham was coming back, the defense was shoring up with needed D line help from the rookies, and Eric Wright was on his way. Well, a funny thing happened on the way to the playoffs. Not to rehash the obvious, but the offense went into hibernation, and the blogwaves erupted with the millions of problems plauging the Niners, and thousands of solutions to fix those problems. Far be it (Roman) from me to (Roman) point fingers at the (Roman) sudden ineptitide of an offense that (Roman) never recovers from 2nd half(Roman) adjustments by our opponents, but the play calling appears to be the leading indicator. Wichi is under the purview of Greg Roman.
I don’t have the stats handy, but most every game, the offense completely fall apart by the 4th quarter, and cannot get a 1st down to save their lives. I know that in all the losses, the defense was forced to stay on the field at somewhere like a 2:1 ratio, as the offense goes 3 and out 2 or 3 or 4 consecutive times. I know in the Indy and Seattle games, while the score was still close, Roman gave up on the run at the cost of re-establishing control of the line. He’d pass too much. SInce the blocking is shakey, and the WRs invisible, this often didn’t work. This leads to the whole mentality of every player overthinking their role and trying to do too much. As in Kassim Osgood tackling a fair catching punt returner, or LMJ returning a KO 8 yards deep in the end zone, only to get tackled on the 9 yard line. The college football mentality. Throw in a borderline hit on Drew Brees, and there you have our second 2-game losing streak.
Beyond that clusterf**k, we have an extra day .5 to talk, bloggolisciously of course. At this point of the season we are pretty much at DEFCON 5. Lose on Monday Night, and we coould be passed by the Cards and the Bears and tied with the Iggles. In the grand scheme of things, it’s good to be fighting for a playoff spot, as opposed to playing out the string like preseason hopefulls like Atlanta Washington. The reality though, is that the Niners were poised to make a strong push to the #1 seed but fell flat on their faces.
Speaking of face-plants, our next opponents, the Washington Redskins are performing their own death-spiral. I thought Shanny rushed his star QB back into games way too fast, and RG III-VII started out pretty slugglishly by losing his first 3 games. It hasn’t gotten much better for them. RG III has recently come to taking potshots at his defense, various players, and his head coach and OC.
In reality, though, the Skins are the 6th best offense in the league, and cannot be taken lightly, even with the infighting. They have the 11th best passing attack and the best run game. For all their losses, RG III is in the top ten QBs, Alfred Morris is 3rd in the league with 918 yards rushing, and Pierre Garcon is 3rd in the league with 67 catches. Take these guys lightly, and they can light up the scoreboard in a hurry.
Defense is a different story. Washington is 30th in points allowed, and 28th in total defense. They are in the minus in turnovers (-2), and in the bottom third in sacks with 25. If the Niners can get on top of these guys early, it should be smooth sailing. Keep this one close, as we’ve done in all our losses, and we just may play ourselves right out of the playoff hunt. This losing streak has shown a glaring problem in that these guys can’t close out a game very well. Regardless the hit last week, we are not pressuring the QB near enough. 21 sacks isn’t getting it done.
Has Aldon Smith lost his fire? Is he merely getting back into game shape? I don’t know, but Brees, and Cam before him faced little sustained pressure. A sure-fire way to lose in the NFL.
Forty Niners Forever 
Shit even Harb’s brother knows and has a passing game, 245 yards passing today!! Shit he should be asking his brother to draw up some passing plays!!
Do you really think Harbaugh is going to change after all these years? He has never left his Big 10 roots. The passing game was never the point of emphasis. The Niners have attempted the fewest number of passes in the NFL. That’s who he is.
Did we fire Jim Harbaugh yet?
Well he had to do some passing, he had A. Luck!!
Jimbo ran the ball 56% of the time with Luck as his QB. Cost Andrew two Heisman Trophies. More proof to Harbaugh’s pudding…
Pats 3 possessions, 3 turnovers. Just put the Broncos in the SB and dispense with the formalities…
Not so fast there pardner
On’t worry, Dennis. Peyton will choke somewhere along the way.
Romo’s not playing, Chuck.
2 ghosts from the past: Brandon Spikes and Soap!
Brandon or Takeo?
Oops, Brandon.
Special teams make Chuck a genius
Games like this are why you need to be able to run the ball and stop the run.
Everyone playing like crap in it but the only one who gets accused of playing badly in cold nasty weather is Peyton. WTF?
Total collapse by the Pats in Half 1.
Total collapse by the Broncs in Half 2.
Only the weather gods could do this to teams of this caliber.
Pats 4 possessions 2nd half, 4 Ltd’s
Fuck the Broncos and Manning “Mr Choke” Dennis!
TD’s
You’re just upset like I am that Manning’s not wearing red and gold. There’s no denying that this team would be 100% better with Peyton at QB. Fuck Harbaugh for being a goddamn stubborn mule.
Hell of a finish coming in Foxboro. I only have two questions?
Did we sign Peyton Manning yet?
Did we elect Tom Brady president yet?
Let’s hope we can hang onto the 6 Seed and, an indoor Team like Detroit and Dallas win their respective Divisions.
Going on the road in January won’t be so terrible that way.
Hope not to see AZ one up us now that they handled Carolina and Indy, and we didn’t.
Now that another Seattle Seasmack was suspended for PED/Banned Substance use, just in time for a visit from Brees and Co, maybe that tilts the scales a little for NO on the road next Monday night.
NoFear49er, a running game is ALWAYS required, if you expect to succeed in the Playoffs.
We just have to find a passing game and an Offense to control the clock.
At the moment, we have the potential tiebreak over AZ due to the Rams (notwithstanding head to head). I love this stuff.
And NBC just flexed the Saints/Panthers into Sunday Night for Week 14, while bumping GB/Atl.
We need to keep pace and handle OUR BUSINESS.
Every play manning is in the shotgun, Denver only runs the ball to give the WR, TE, a breather!! Take notes gentleman. NJ49er, no you do not need a running game in the SB, not in todays NFL that favors the QB and the WR. When the Broncos go to the SB you will see.
Always need a running game to control the clock Irish Kevin.
Don’t leave home without one 🙂
Always about balance.
Ha ha, I hate running and I am to old to be clocked while I run!! Ha ha
Same here Irish Kevin –
That’s why we’re spectators 🙂
We’re looking for the balance and had better find it.
QUICKLY!
OT in Foxboro.
Wowser.
The really good teams rely on there QB to get them into the game if they are playing from behind!! Thy do not put it into the hands of a RB to get them back into a game!! Well the Niners rely on their RB to get them back into a game the are behind in!! And that is why they lose those games.
Belichick won the toss and elected to take the wind and give Peyton the ball.
This has pie in the face written all of it…
Humble pie my friend
And you know Welker would love nothing more than to stick a knife in the back of the Pats tonite too.
What a way to lose after a windblown clash of the titans…
I’m with you. After all that back and forth and mistakes aplenty a miss or blocked kick would be perfect.
Tony Carter=Kyle Williams
Accidental Goat in this case.
I DEMAND VICTORY! DC SUCKS!
Peyton Manning is 1-6 in freezing temp games. Add that to his shit playoff record and there’s only one conclusion to be drawn: this guy gets worse as the season goes on. Too much pressure? Likely.
had that stat wrong: he’s 3-8 in games played under 32 degrees. Either stat though tells me this is a QB you DO NOT want qbing your team as the weather goes bad.
The muffed punt was Welker’s fault. He’s the one directing traffic. He called for the FC too late.
Like the playoff game last year, a late int sealed Peyton’s fate. 19-36 for 150? Ehhh. Denver was running the shit out of the ball though and still couldn’t seal the deal.
Kevin, as I keep saying, the reason the Niners lost those ealy games was because they went away from the run. When the Niners are precieved to be in throw-every-down mode, they get killed. Due to bad play calling and lousy route running. No quick passes.
New thread is up…………………………………………………….