Here we are at the muchly anticipated home opener at the house that Satan built, if you believe the Candlestick 49er fans that didn’t quite get the temp difference between east SF and the South Bay. Can you say 30 degrees? Thankfully, this game is in the evening so the heat (!) factor will be minimized somewhat.
Anyhow, on the the game. On paper, the Bears appear to have a pretty potent offense, what with Brandon Marshall and young phenom Alshon Jeffries to go along with their bruiser at RB in Matt Forte. They of course are led (?) by the always entertaining Jay Cutler. A guy fairly similar to Tony Romo in that they can play very good football for small to medium stretches, and then lay some big steamers when you need a win.
Thing is, what they do does present a challenge defensively for the Forty Niners. They run well behind Forte, and they have quick-strike ability with their WRs. Their weakness, like Dallas last week, is their defense. I mean really. Giving up 200 yards on the ground to Buffalo is not good at all. Which is why I think the Niners play keep-away. We aren’t going to see that first 8 plays be passes. We are going to run. Hopefully out of our 2-3 WR sets like last week. No jumbo, please.
Beyond that, it’s the opening of the new stadium. I’d love to predict a blow out, but Jimbo doesn’t seem to have that bone in his body.
I’m thinking 28-20 in another game not as close as the score makes it seem.
Forty Niners Forever 
Chuck –
You can obviously say and write whatever you’d like but this team has been gutted over the last two years, and without replacement talent, it’s not going anywhere. You lose Dorsey, Anthony Davis, Bowman, Whitner, Rogers, T Brown, D Walker, A Snyder, Moss, Ginn and our coverage units on special teams, and others, and you don’t replace them with talent, the 49ers aren’t going to win. I don’t care how good Harbaugh is. Of that list above, the replacements have been Jonathan Martin, Ian Williams, Wilhoite, Ward, Brock, Vance McDonald and Ellington. While that group has promise, none of them have done much in the NFL. Brock has made the most plays – primarily against the Texans last year.
It’s like the New York Giants. Three years ago they were world champs. Since then they’ve lost Bradshaw, Tuck, Osi, Manningham, Nicks and a host of other players…. and they’ve replaced them all with nobodies. And now Eli is taking the heat… because someone’s got to. The 49ers haven’t replaced their talent they had two years ago. They will continue to lose because of it.
This is why teams decline. They have lower draft choices and if the GM isn’t dynomite, the team declines. 49er fans like to think our GM is great, but he sucks.
Blah blah blah. There’s turnover for every team every year. Harbaugh fucked this game up. He and Fangio got too conservative. I’m tired of this shit of being ill-prepared to play. 16 penalties? Yeah, that’s on Baalke. Harbaugh keeps coaching like this I’ll gladly drive him to the airport.
New thread is up.
Bethea’s playing better that Whitner, BTW. Moss and Ginn, we’ve been over. They contributed little. Moss was a good decoy that opened things up a bit. Rogers could barely get on the field. He’s a non-issue. They did little while they were here, and ain’t doing shit now, so why the tears for that flotsam? Because it serves you narrative of deflecting the heat off of the shitty coaching job Harbaugh is doing. The one guy I didn’t like losing was T Brown. What is hurting this defense is the absence of Bowman and Smith. So quit yer whining. This team has the players. Just like they did when Harbaugh got here.