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 
There’s some good news. Glad they got this taken care of.
It’s actually 4/$16 mill.
The only real part is $7, the guaranteed part. Same with all contracts, only the guaranteed portion is real unless and until the team decides to add to it.
I would like to see the stat for how many “contracts” actually end up paying in full, especially the headline grabbers of a $100 mil.
I just returned from my neighbor’s birthday party. She turned 67 today. Kathy has exactly 20 years on and she has more energy, spunk and giddy-up in her step then I could even imagine. Why? I’ll tell ya why. The Niners have drained the life blood out of me. They’ve sucked me bone dry.
She made a great strawberry cake to go along with the Breyers “lip-smacking” ice cream, and I couldn’t even enjoy it. All I could think about was our anemic passing game and the sudden disappearance of our pass rush. Why can’t I have any fun?
I should have taken the big hint on Wednesday. First, after having Chinese food for lunch, I got a fortune cookie with no fortune inside. Then I went to my therapy session and my therapist forgot about me. I sat in the waiting room thinking she was going a little long with her current client. So I waited. And waited. And waited some more. I got engrossed reading the fifty years of “Doctor Who” article in the “New Yorker” magazine. Next thing I know forty minutes have passed.
I put down the magazine and knocked on her door. She was in a heated conversation on the phone when she answered. I asked her politely if I was there on the wrong day even though I knew I was there on the correct day and time. She put down the phone and looked at her day planner. She looked up at me sheepishly and said, “oops.”
Now I know what my fortune would have said had I got one inside my cookie. “Oops.”
“IIIII’mmmm dreaming of a White Thanksgiving.
Where the coyotes glisten, and roadrunners listen…
To hear… tourists crashing their recreational vehicles in the snow!”
I love the smell of the first fresh powder in the morning.
Another couple feet and I could ski down main street,
leastways I could if I had skis.
It’s an Omen! Tthe Niners can now run off 10 straight.
No medicine like the Redskin defense!
And they just gave Brock a 4-yr $16M extension? His ass would still be sitting on the bench if Nnamdi didn’t get injured. That’s how much they originally thought of his stock. They lucked into him getting more playing time.
It’s a goddamn wonder why I continue to support this Mickey Mouse organization. It must be one of the Joyful Mysteries of the Rosary that wasn’t taught in school.
49ers will win or else Chuck will blow his stack with some booming BLEEPS! His neighbors must be hunkered down for Monday night.
So Ol’ Bundle o’ Laughs told the Dallas Morning News that the offense he sees in games is not the same offense he sees in practice?
Anyone care to explain to Jer that, in games, ANOTHER TEAM is on the field as well?
(Reminds me of the old joke about the basketball team that was SO bad that when its opponent couldn’t show – due to a snowstorm, no doubt – they only lost 2-0.)
Thank Christ for the NFL Red Zone. First two scheduled TV games for tomorrow are the Vikings at the Rodgers-less Packers followed by the Titans at Oakland. How the hell did the Raiders sellout that game so it could be televised locally?
“Real” NFL football doesn’t start until tomorrow night with the NBC game. Broncos @ Patriots. Manning vs Brady. They’re gonna have to load me up on Valium so I don’t get overly excited watching those two QBs strut their stuff. I’m getting excited just thinking about it. I best go lie down for a spell.
Just stay off the sawdust floor. It’s dangerous down there.
Game of the day for me is Cowpatties at NYG Del.
That’s damn close to a Playoff game as well.
Could mean the Division for one of these 2.
Cold and windy in The Meadowlands tomorrow too.
Not the kind of game you want to be relying on the pass in either.
Should be a good one.
I’ve already been racking my brain as to who out of DAL, PHI or NYG would give us the best opportunity to win on the road in the opening WC round. I can’t come up with a definitive answer. They’re all very winnable games. At the same time they’re all very losable. I think it’s best not to wish for any one and just let the chips fall where they may.
Great. All the ABQ stations appear to be out. You’d think we’d never had a foot of snow before.
The gods are telling me to pass on the Jags@Titans game I’ve been so looking forward to, and go tobagganing instead…
Jags@Texans. Watch out for that tree!
Six straight plays for losses by the Chargers. Alex carries this team on his back, he does.
Miami holding Panthers to 3. Nice to see other teams handle the ones the Niners cannot!! And the Dolphins are ahead by 2 two scores at the Half. To deep throws to his WR. He was being chased both times. No guts…no glory. better see a pass happy team on Monday, I want to see change in the offense! Otherwise Harbaugh’s press conferences are just smoke up the fans ass!!!
And why the hell isn’t Harbs and Roman using Kaep the way the Panthers are using Newton?? One more time No Guts…no glory!!
I now steadfastly predict that the Niners will play in the wildcard round @ Detroit, or @ Chicago, or @ Green Bay, or @ New York, or @ Dallas..
And I am unanimous in my opinion.
Kevin, since no one respects our deep game, the CB stay at home and clog the running lanes. Throw in a little hesitation and there you have it.
Well if you force them to they will!! In the first half, Newton threw to 9 different receivers. Are you telling me that Carolina has 9 Pro Bowl caliber WR, TE, and Backs that can catch the ball?? And of course the Niners only have 2. IMO if you don’t throw to the the guys off the bench then why have them there?
I am sick to death of the lack of a passing attack, might as well have kept Sing and his hand picked OC
And you guys out here who use the sorry excuse that Crabs and other WR have been out, well I will go with the saying “everyone has 1 excuse and everyone has an asshole and they both stink”!!!
The AFC should forfeit their second wildcard slot. I’ll root for my brother’s Chargers as they’re playing the best ball of the sorry lot, but they also have the toughest remaining schedule.
Hmm, toss all their names into a hat, add in the NFC North runnerup, and hold your nose?
Who’s got it better then us?
Every fucking team that has a passing attack,which is the “Whole fucking NFL”
True dat, thank you very much!!
That s the problem. Did you see Baldwin last week get startled by the ball that went his direction? They have shit for WRs. That’s on Baalke. Lavelle Hawkins has speed ans is a good kr/pr. Of course we cut him cuz he was a little excitable.
I think Baldwin was startled cause the ball was actually thrown his way. I think in practice the plays arre called for VD and Boldin. They don’t have schemes to spread the field so those other WRs are not expecting any passes thrown their way. If you don’t practice 5 wide outs then not even your WRs are going to be ready come game time.
The Niners are in 3rd place in the NFC West.
And the way we’ve played that’s exactly where we deserve to be.