In a game that wasn’t nearly as close as the score indicated, the 49ers beat the stuffing out of the St Louis Rams yesterday in one of those beautiful fall days that make Niner games all that much more enjoyable than the good old days of Giants games at the venerable, and nearly defunct, Stick. A game that started with a pre-game shoving match picked that theme right up with a lot of chippiness on both sides of the ball. Pushing and shoving, late hits, and a really terrible violation of Vernon Davis’s giblets was the theme of the day.
The Rams were coming off 2 big wins against what were thought of as bona-fide contenders in Indy and Chicago, but the 49ers made Kellen Clemens look like, well, Kellen Clemens. The Niners kept breakout rookies Zac Stacy and Tevon Austin completely in check. Stacy had 72 yards, and Austin had 4 catches for 25 yards, and was a non-factor returning kicks. The starting defense pitched another shutout, giving up only 2 FGs in the game, and were hitting everything in sight. WRs started getting alligator arms, which led to drops, and a Carlos Rogers pick.
The only real black mark was the fumble by Gore as the Niners were driving to put the game away. However, Jeff Fisher did us a solid and inexplicably tried a 4th quarter fake punt deep in his own territory. The Niners stopped it easily and salted the game away on the next play with the TD to VD. This was after recovering from being tackled by his (ahem) leg. The rest of the game was backups and garbage time.
All in all a good win against a decent team. As they have shown this season, the Niners can beat fair to middling teams. AZ did us a solid as well by losing to Philly, but then again, Philly suddenly is a contender for that last playoff spot on the back of Nick Foles’ golden arm. Philly has Deetroit coming to town while we of course have our big showdown with Seattle. After that, Philly has Chicago and Dallass (and the Vikes). The Niners have it pretty easy with Tampa, Atlanta and AZ.
There’s plenty of time to talk about Seattle, but let’s just see how they do against Nawlins tonight. I tell ya one thing, the Niner passing game was immediately better with Crabs in there yesterday.
Forty Niners Forever 
The only team between Seattle and the SuperBowl is the Niners…
Until the Niners beat them, it looks like the SB is a lock for Seattle
Esp if SB is in Seattle. It would be nice to kick ass Sunday and put a little doubt in their heads
Yep agreed
Well that was a nice feel good story Chuck, but I will still say not scoring at all in the 4th quarter is a concern. Do you really think the Niners will be able to get away with that against Seattle? By tonight’s score I would say no. If you guys think the Niner offense can turn it on whenever they want I have not seen that at all. The 4th quarter was a huge gaping hole on offense. Not even a FG?? You gotta be kidding me.
It doesn’t matter, Kevin. We didn’t have to score in the 4th quarter yesterday. Each game is different, and we just have to wait and see what goes down. Seattle should have lost to Houston. We kicked their ass. It bears nothing on next week’s game. I mean, if we can’t beat Seattle in our house next week, then there’s little hope we can beat them in the playoffs in their house.
We just have to see what happens.
Yeah, Seattle has battled through injuries and suspensions, and they still play untouchable at home.
Even if we win next Sunday it’ll mean little if we have to go through Seattle to get to the Super Bowl. The thing is, we won’t play them til the NFC Championship game, if we get there, so I guess we have to hope Carolina beats them on the road?
Chuck, like I said not even a FG, that means we did not even cross the 50 yard line. What is going to happen if the Niners are just 1 score behind in the 4th quarter?? That is the other thing the Niners have not shown they can come from behind to win a game. These are serious concerns in my book.
I’d be happy if we are only down by one score, frankly. The point being, the Ram game has no bearing on the Seattle game. These games all unravel differently. What you should be concerned about is we lost the lead in the 4th quarter in both the Carolina and NO games. The offense stunk in those games, and it looked better in the last 2. Some of it is the opponents. Some of it is us getting healthier.
There’s a ton of shit to be worried about, but this isn’t one of them. The fact that the Niners didn’t score late in yesterday’s game means nothing to me.
Wasn’t quite that bad. Davis scored his TD in the fourth Q and we mostly ran Dixon after that.
Davis scored his TD at the 14:41 time mark. Like I said Niners didn’t score in the 4th quarter!!
Davis’ score made it 23-3 so we didn’t need to score any more and had absolutely no reason to give them a chance to get back in the game with an errant pass or bobbled catch. Every coach in the league would have played it that way.
23-3 should be 23-6, same game logic.
Obviously Seattle did not play it that way to night by just running the ball!
If they scored in the fourth quarter tonight I must’ve missed it.
Seattle 4th Q plays:
RUN
RUN
SACK
RUN
INC
PASS
RUN
RUN
RUN
RUN
RUN
RUN
RUN
RUN
PASS
RUN
You are right NJ , my big mouth mistake
Meant No fear
Our offense needs to get lots better, no argument there.
Another shining example of a Rob Ryan Defense getting embarrassed.
If we had something more in the passing dept we should have taken it to them in NO ourselves.
For all their hype, the Saints don’t have much of a Secondary IMO.
Once again, it was another of those games we let get away.
They sure as hell aren’t tackling worth a shit tonight. Seattle is making them look like chumps.
Hate them as we do NoFear49er, they’re a tough bunch up there in Seattle.
We have our work cut out for us in the coming years.
Going to be interesting to see what, if any, wrinkles Roman and Mangina have concocted for Seattle next week.
After this cakewalk vs the Saints tonight, they hardly broke a sweat.
I was hoping for a body bag game.
No shit. I was hoping for a battle at least. This is a fucking breeze. They are impressive to say the least. Wilson is playing as well or better than anyone in the league. He has excellent vision and rarely gets hit hard or makes a bad read.
Going to be a challenge for us Chuck, especially with our OLine concerns.
I want to see something creative from our Staff for this one.
Up against Seattle without Staley and maybe even Iupati is going to rough going…
I don’t hate them, NJ49er, any more than any division rival. Some of their players, and a lot of their bandwagon phony fans, maybe. They won’t have it so easy against our defense. Yes, they are a good team on both sides of the ball. Tonight they got all the breaks and the calls, too. I’m surprised Sean Payton didn’t have a better game plan for them.
Speaking for myself, there’s a little extra chip to get this Seattle rivalry back in ou favor.
Just hope our braintrusts have worked out something more than they’ve shown in our recent matchups.
Payton goes as far as Brees takes him. I really don’t think the Saints are anything special.
Much like GB, they rely on their Offense too much IMO.
We need some of that in our repertoire.
But I agree, our Defense vs Seattle is a major factor.
Seattle has had more than their share of breaks this year, but tonight wasn’t one of them. They couldn’t have beaten them any harder than they did. It makes out loss to NO all the more hard to swallow.
My hope is the fact that we have most of our skill players back and we can control the ball better than NO did. Seattle being on the road on a short week also plays a part in this. No turnovers for the Niners, and force one or 2.
The big issue I have is the fact we haven’t closed out any tough games this year. Our wins have all been double digit except for GB. We’ve blown late leads and have let games get away.
GB? Seems like years ago. Let’s get back to that
34-7 They suck.
BLEEP!
Damn glad it’s in the Stick. Win one for the old pig sty…
New Orleans playing in rain and cold of Seattle exposes the Saints as the fair weather wimps they are. Get them outta the Dome in the playoffs and they’re like a Po’ Boy dropped onto the sidewalk — a mess…
Well the upside to this is, Saints got a beatdown on the national stage.
Up to us to show some stones in the rematch and, get a WIN.
27-17 Niners
You heard it here first.
I’m listening, 27-17.
BTW you called the 10 point differential against da Rams RT. I had said 14 which was pretty good until 18 seconds to go against our backups
My comments are made cause I don’t want anyone here thinking the Niner Offense can suddenly go toe to toe with Seattles. The Niners have a lot more to prove in this up coming game than Seattle does, if nothing else Seattle could coast on Sunday to prevent injuries if they wanted to. The only thing that will keep that from happening is Pete hates Jim and vice versa. If nothing else Pete will try to run up the score to show the Niners that his offense cannot be stopped.
The Hawks were smothering the line with up to ten guys. One safety. 4-6 of those 10 would then drop into coverage. The quick short to intermediate middle was wide open all game.
Brees just didn’t have time to take advantage. No time at all for a quick hitter (or anything else).
This game has Gore up the middle, QUICK slants and Kappy’s feet outside written all over it. Gore in the second level and see youse later.
Tough to watch the Squawks cake walk all over the Saints but the Niners D and them coming to the Stick is a whole other ballgame. I will take the Niners in a close game.
27-24 Niners
Consolidating:
rtfirefly says: 27-17 Niners. You heard it here first.
Nipper says: 34-7 Niners.They (Sea) suck.
Come on you pigskin prognosticators spill it
How’s 17-13 9ers sound PF?
I’m not especially convinced our OLine is going to handle things as well I’d expect due to injuries.
Hoping we sneak out with a tight Defensive victory.
21-17 Niners Phil
Gotcha Kev, NJ, Man, Chuck. Let’s git ‘er going fer the stretch run
How about the story following the KC loss to Denver that other day?
Turns out the victim is the son of a KCPD Sargeant.
Very curious……
http://tinyurl.com/nyl77cd
What I don’t get is they say 8 times in the article that the guy broke into a Jeep. That’s a Chevy pickup truck that they’ve taped off.
A new world has opened up that I had overlooked – Niners at #5. Saints and Panthers yet to play two. Say goodbye to the Fish Market, put away the umbrella, and say hello to those beauteous Tarheel gals in the divisional round.
Gooooo Panthers! “I’m goin’ to Carolina in my mind.”
Let the Hawks slug it out with Jim Schwantz or the IggBoys before we go up to whip ’em in The Land of 10,000 Types of Rain.