One from Mick Jones . . . Well, it’s back to the Big Easy. The site of some of the highest highs and some very low lows. Montana to Rice vs Denver, and 5 yards away vs Baltimore. Last season’s penalty-filled game, and many many others.
That being said, the airwaves are once again filling with 49ers past and present stating things like Harbaugh is gone, the locker room is broken, we need to get back to what we do well, execution, on and on. Jerry has weighed in. Steve as well. Frank has dropped his words, Bruce Miller as well. When all is said and done though, it happens on the field.
No one doubts that talent on this team. A battered and short-handed defense is playing spectacularly well. The retooled Ferrari of an offense is in the shop with a timing problem, and what appears to be a clogged fuel filter. Shit ain’t moving right. We sputter and stutter regularly, and have bigger problems in the red zone.
So, wherein lies the problem? Since everyone has an opinion on this, it varies from Kappy not picking up his reads to the play calling to the rudimentary passing design to the play calling to Harbaugh sealing his own fate by losing and he and the Brinks truck travel to the Big House in Michigan (the Raiders? Shit, even he won’t touch that turd pile) to the 49ers throwing too much to the play calling.
Think it’s the play calling? At this point, who knows? All sides play their part in this struggle. But certain things haven’t changed. Getting plays in on time. Getting to the line with a sense of urgency. Scoring in the red zone. Since these issues have been part of the 49er landscape since before Kaepernick (and even before Harbaugh), one would think the onus lies on the coaching staff to devise ways to fix these things. Harbaugh talked about these very issues before the season started, and yet they remain. They had to take a timeout on their first drive last week. They burn timeouts like fishsticks (you’d have to know my mom to get that one).
They’ve tried things like no-huddle in the AZ game, and since it worked so well, they never used it again. Same with misdirection passes to Anquan Boldin. Oh, that works? OK, we’ll save it for next year. Thing is, there may not be a next year for these coaches. This ios a winnable game, sure. But going to the Super dome to fix your ailing offense and stand behind your depleted defense is a tall tall order. Win, and the outlook is suddenly pretty good, what with a roadie in Jersey coming. Fight and lose a close battle, and the talk will be of a disappointing season with too much adversity to overcome. Lose big like the Denver game, and the fallout will be immediate and loud. Harbaugh’s tenure will be finished.
Such is life in the NFL. Riding high in October, shot down in December.
Forty Niners Forever 
Jesus. Hell of a play. Kick the FG and get the hell out of there.
Wow, they won. Gamecast, FTW.
What the hell? Q knuckler but it’s good!
Looked like a Marichal or Mike Marshall screw ball…
Phil Niekro with the GW FG in OT.
Hell of a good game, culminating with a desperately needed win.
Season on the brink, saved by the defense.
Again…
Love this took Borland. Small, short arms not terribly fast but he makes plays.
35 tackles in 2 weeks.
Yeah, he’s a keeper. Covered the fumble, too. Nose for the ball.
His getting experience while Willis and Bowman are out is a huge upside of that …
I was waiting for the zebras to make some BS call on Brooks AGAIN to negate the fumble…
The fact that the network puts on this Perreira dude, the ex zebra honcho, to regularly decipher the zebra calls shows why the NFL is turning its product into crap. If you need regular explanations about calls, you’re diluting the reason people watch games — to watch players play, not zebras throw flags…
Adios gents. Thanks Chuck.
Play of the year has to be that game on the line 4th down broken play scramble Kap to the right, then fling it to Crabby way downfield to keep the game and season alive. Kap is good at that stuff. On the routine QB play, meh…
6-1 to finish should be doable.
Carson Palmer just went down as AZ is losing to StL.
Seattle took the lead, tho.
Good game dammit! Visiting teams have to have some luck to win there.
Funny thing is, Ahmad Brooks, the guy who had the terrible penalty that killed the game last year, caused the fumble that won the game.
Chuck, bust out the V-H brother!
Top Jimmy rocks!
Him flipping the game charts on the sideline was priceless today.
Thankfully we can laugh about it 😀
VMcD had a helluva game today.
Blocked his A$$ off.
Kaep found some short middle options for a change too.
All around decent game from the Offense, at least in the 1st half.
Can’t understand how we sputter in the 3rd Qtr all the time.
Suggests to me that the opposition adjusts at the half and we figure no one will notice what we did while continuing to trot out the same mundane sh!t only to punt.
I’ll take a road win like this one any day of the week.
We needed that.
Huge, gutsy game from the Defense today.
New thread is up.