Today is Jim Harbaugh’s 51st birthday, duly noted by Michigan, and Mark Davis, among others. What will he get from Jed for Christmas? A one-way bus ticket to Oakland? The freedom to take the Michigan job?
Whatever happens, this team will have a lot of questions going into the 2015 season. I mean beyond the head coach leaving, and the possibility he takes a bunch of coaches with him. Least of which is the status of the disappearing pass-catchers. VD played like a guy supremely dissatisfied with his contract. Crabs was kind of involved. Boldin was solid if unspectacular. Both Brandon Lloyd and Stevie Johnson showed early promîse, but both faded down the stretch with nagging injuries.
Gore, despite the 158 he put up the other day, has been ignored/abandoned all year. Hyde looked great to start the season, but again, the 49ers went away from the run and he didn’t get much to do til he got hurt. Hunter of course was hurt in the preseason and LMJ was cut to leave the running corps in a bit of disarray. And that leafs out Marcus Lattimore’s ill-fated try to make the squad.
Does that mean we sign Gore? I’m sure the team will take a wait-and-see approach, but it’s within the realm of possibility that the Niners re-sign him. He still hits the hole hard, however his blocking has been sorely lacking this year after a career of being a stellar blocker. Speaking of blocking, this was probably the weakest unit on the team this year. Whether due to injuries, holdouts, or the ignominious presence of Jonathan Martin, the line play was the worst seen since the early days of Alex Smith.
The QB position also suffered a big regression. Gone was the confident swaggering QB who has recorded playoff road wins in tough environments the past couple years. Even up to the bye week, Kaepernick was having a solid if unspectacular season. After the bye, however, has been a different story. Indecisiveness, reluctance to run, locking onto WRs, waiting too long, taking sacks, throwing picks, fumbling, whatever, Kappy has suddenly come up small in these last few games.
The defense? Well, hot and cold. They overcame a ton of injuries, a ton of ridiculous penalties, and played as well as can be expected. The problems? Well, the disappearing pass rush. Some of that was due to the absence of Aldon Smith, but there were more than a few games (Bears, AZ, StL, Oak, Denver, SD off the top of my head) where the 49ers barely got a hand on the QB all game. More often than not you lose those games.
Going forward? No one knows at this point. Not even Jed. He may be itching to pull the trigger, but who knows who is on his coaching Christmas list.
Someone will be getting a lump of coal soon.
Forty Niners Forever 
Same analogy can be made for when you’re going in for surgery. You don’t want the 30-year-old “hotshot” Dr. Chatterjee from Bengali. You want the 70-year-old white guy who went to Stanford to slice you up.
Robaugh said they took the offense into the garage and re did it this year. Guess what, they built a clunker. Worse than that, they did it without precious experience and put in an inexperienced driver. The odds of that working add up as often as miracles do.. Even a numbers person should understand that.
NJ- I can’t find my Black Sabbath nor any Tangerine Dream. What the hell is going on around here? I feel like lost like Roman calling plays. I need to focus on this task and not worry about making any adjustments, just like Robaugh!
I was hunting for my Tangerine Dream CD 220 Volt Live too, nowhere to be found.
Since it’s cosmic/cerebral music to begin with, I’m thinking it got sucked into the Black Hole of Sonic Space.
I’ve vowed for several years to spend a weekend loading all my CDs onto the laptop and having it handy for the iPod but, I’ve just never found the time to do it.
I have 220 Volt Live. It is a great CD! I’m going to check the back garage. It’s cold in there but I will probably be rewarded by checking. I’ve got Bonamassa on while I look!
At this point, the inevitable changes come with mixed reviews.
I can buy the argument for Jim turning things around, as he has.
I also believe he was gifted a pretty talented roster to begin with.
Sure, it’s all about what is drawn up vs what gets executed, no question.
The constant common denominator however, is the success/improvement rate, which has steadily declined.
Where you place the onus of responsibility lies with your perspective.
If the good Coaches can’t get the young QB to execute the plays, what do you do?
I think the answer, for Baalke and the 9ers anyway is, to change the Staff and see where it goes from there.
We won’t know if it’s the right move until we see the future results.
Hindsight will always be 20/20, that never changes.
I’d have preferred another OC/Scheme approach as opposed to a wholesale makeover.
My guess is that Jim wouldn’t buy that option.
Hence, do over.
And so it begins:
Hey 12th, we were sharing opinions about that above.
Wait until the Black Monday changes hit the fan.
I’m sure we’ll hear a sh!t-load of inside dirt once the regime changes are completed.
I’ve speculated on the dynamic of JMart vs Anthony recently myself.
Could Jim/Greg have had a hard-on for Anthony in favor of JMart?
Jim being loyal to a former Stanford player maybe?
Does anyone beside me wonder how Anthony’s concussion took several weeks to clear up when the majority of other concussion related injuries routinely last about 1 week?
Who’s to know what that was all about but, fair to surmise that maybe Anthony wasn’t so quick to return if his OC isn’t on his side?
Did you read the link NJ?
there was a second, now deleted tweet from Davis.
I’ll get a look at it ASAP 12th.
Keep in mind that Anthony had scrapes at Rutgers with then HC Schiano.
Schiano more or less told him he wouldn’t amount to anything.
One thing I’ll say about Anthony, he’s got Jersey Attitude to the enth degree.
I think that serves him well as an O-Lineman too.
I read it 12th.
Obviously there’s a rift in their relationship.
I don’t buy into the Twitter nonsense myself, because there’s rarely anything good that comes from airing grievances as a Pro athlete, or an Owner.
I think it just serves to add fuel to the fire.
Pretty safe to assume Anthony and, others on Offense, have decided it’s time for a change.
The discord has reached epic proportions this year.
NJ- What do you know about QB Doughty from WKU? He looked like the real deal today. Nice arm, quick, over the top release, set his feet nicely. Keep him away from Roman. I only saw the hi-lites. Quite impressive.
Can I be honest Berger?
I’m scared to death to even attempt to evaluate QBs in College.
The success rate, even for the Pro GMs, is abysmal.
There’s a reason why so few make it.
The College games are often too overly simple in comparison to the NFL.
I tend to seek QBs that run Pro-style Offenses in College but, even then, they face mediocre talent by and large so, I tend to stay away from them.
Stats work for many other positions, like 40s, Ht and weight numbers, tackles and, what have you.
QBs?
They’re damn near impossible to project for me.
I’ve not really looked too deeply at them simply because I think we can still find something from Kaep.
I’m a big Kap fan, especially being from Reno. It wouldn’t bother me to bring in some competition in case RoBaugh successfully Jim Plunketted Kap. I’ve been fairly accurate judging college QBs. I’ve had a couple of clunkers too. I’ve been right about 75% of the time. I’m going to check on this Doughty kid.
I actually wonder if not so good pocket QBs can be taught to ‘feel’ the pocket?
If you’re Kaep and you’ve lived with your legs, your arm and the ability to improvise, can we expect him to stand still, be cerebral and dissect a Defense at this point?
How long do you give him, or the Coaches, to figure it out?
That my friends, is the multi-million dollar question.
IMO, Kap can do all of that. He needs a system that all the players have bought into. That was very obvious that did not happen this year.
People who have never been rammed by a 300lb D-lineman find it easy to fault with numbers. People watch film and find open receivers the QB did not see. That happens to every QB every game. How come Manning didn’t find those open receivers Monday night? He threw 4 ints. He must have held the ball too long. Or maybe getting moved off his spot and sacked a couple of times had an effect like it did to Brady vs KC.
it is very easy to criticize when 20/20 hind sight is combined from a comfy chair without getting sacked. I saw too many confused blocking schemes this year to lay the blame on one player.
Yeah, the QB is the field general but any field general needs better intel and support than Kap got this year. If one couldn’t see that by watching just listen to the players, they are now telling us.
Berger the simplest approach I can take from my recliner is that there seems to be problem with the type of team we’re trying to be.
We have O-Linemen like Iupati, Davis and Boone who excel in the running game.
None of them are adept at pass pro.
We’ve been searching for an identity that hasn’t found itself yet.
As I’ve eluded to numerous times, there’s a scheme-fit issue going on here.
We haven’t found a bridge between the Pistol QB and a passing game yet IMO.
12th used a word recently that sums it up pretty concisely, I believe it was ‘disjointed’?
We’re somewhere in limbo at this point.
We do lots of little things well.
We just can’t fit all the pieces into a workable scheme that keeps Defenses off balance.
Our game plans appear to be scattered about on 3×5 cards instead of cohesively organized into a script.
The thing that frustrated me the most this year is how often the running game was working and RoBaugh would abandon it. Over and over it happened. Probably the lack of rhythm Gore was referring to. I’ve absolutely given up asking to not call two plays in the huddle anymore. I think that actually might have happened in the last game. I wish a reporter would ask so we would know. For me, those were the two rhythm killers.
I never found any Black Sabbath or 220 Volt. I did find the Grinch That Stole Christmas soundtrack. I want to hear the song with stink, stank stunk! You’re a mean one Mr Grinch!
I went with ZZ Top Deguello! I’m Bad I’m Nationwide and Cheap Sunglasses are on this CD!
Nothing wrong with a little Texas Blues Sway on Christmas.
Excuse me while I go play some air guitar!
If you’re going with the Texas Blues, Stevie Ray and Johnnie Winter come to mind 😀
I love that I’m Bad I’m Nationwide song!
Tres Hombres was one of my all time favorites from ZZ.
I believe La Grange and Beer Drinkers/Hell Raisers were on that one.
Problem I always had with ZZ Top was the length of their songs.
Too much radio length stuff.
My Blues need to run longer than 3 minutes/song.
Most of their albums barely reached 40 minutes.
Waste of good music space.
ZZ is as fun of a concert as you will ever see. Everybody dances in front of their seats. If you haven’t seen them do yourself a favor, they rock. I’ve seen them 3 times. I think they just went on tour?
I’ve got almost all of Stevie Ray’s stuff and a little Johnnie Winter. Don’t forget Eric Johnson is from Texas.
Always loved ‘My Head’s In Mississippi’
Have you seen Tal Wilkenfeld play bass. She is from Australia and jams as well as anybody. Take a listen. Jeff Beck on guitar and Vinny C on drums. What a line up!
Gotta have some Buddy Whittington from Mayall in there too.
Maybe Gary Clark Jr and Gatemouth Brown, Fabulous T-Birds?
Albert Collins, Johnny Copeland.
John Mayall got me hooked on British Blues as a kid.
Clapton is one of my all time favorites as well.
Yeehaw!
Well NJ, I have worn down. Time for bed. Merry Christmas my good friend!
Same to you Berger.
Good health, good times.
Merry Christmas!
Merry Christmas to one and all guys.
Hope it’s a great day for everyone – Enjoy!
Hark it’s time for the TV YULE LOG! Merry Christmas and BLEEP to you all!
Merry Christmas guys, hope Santa is kind to you all, and especially to you Dennis!
And a very Merry Christmas to you as well, 12th. Levi’s Stadium could really use you next season. The inaugural fan base support only played to about 8 men out on the field.
I only got out to 2 games but I had an impact, I’m sure of it!
Merry Christmas everyone!
The only thing more excruciating than watching Tim Tebow trying to complete a forward pass is watching him co-host the Disney Christmas extravaganza.
Bah, Humbug!
Merry goddam Christmas you guys
And a Merry Fucking Christmas to you as well, Rob!!!
Someone needs to remind Leary that he spells his first name wrong. There are TWO “n’s” in Dennis. You’d think a fellow Irish Catholic alcoholic would know better.
A final game win would be a nice present. 8-8 sure beats 7-9 not by much of course.