Well, the good news is, we can talk to Rob Chudzinzki now. The bad news? Uhh, the Green Bay Packers tried to play a 55 minute football game, and succeeded. It was those last 5 minutes that sucked. Green Bay inexplicably turtled up when Morgan Burnett decided to lay down after a pick and a mile of green grass in front of him. Green Bay then went into full stupid mode by running up the middle 3 times, and give Seattle the ball right back with a breath-taking 30 yard punt.
After harassing Wilson all day, GB then decides to lay back and play coverage. Naturally it takes Seattle one minute to score. Throw in Green Bay’s Preston Riley moment (hello Brandon Bostick), and yet more soft defense (how do you float a ball 30 feet in the air that no one can lay a hand on on the 2 pt conversion?) and you have 15 points scored in 30 seconds. thus negating the entire excellent game played by the GB defense. Well, except for the amazingly stupid call to rush 3 on a 3rd and 19 play (from a 2nd and 30 set up by a Clay Matthews sack of RW), and allow a 30 yard pass to Doug Baldwin to sustain Seattle’s first TD drive.
This game was in essence a microcosm of the 49er season. Terrible red zone offense, Playing not to lose from ahead, ultra-conservative play calling, and going away from what has worked all day. What irked me is the fact that GB had pressured Wilson all day and forced picks because of pressure. Naturally in crunch time when they needed to pressure him most, they go soft and drop into coverage. When they need a couple first downs to seal the game, they go up the middle 5 out of 6 times for two 3-and-outs. The incomplete pass hit the TE who wasn’t looking for the ball. Huh?
It’s bad enough to take the ball out of Aaron Rodgers’ hands, but that play calling shit was perplexing in the least. GB had run fairly well, but those kinds of situations are begging for play action and misdirection. Not the most basic of plays that are easy to defend, and which Seattle is definitely looking for. Add a couple of special teams lapses, and you have ‘one of the greatest playoff games ever”. Please. Green Bay gave it away. Falling for a fake FG? Utter stupidity. In the end, Green Bay Yorked it up badly.
Forty Niners Forever 
In a side note, I feel bad for the children of Green Bay who had to witness Brandon Bostick’s epic flub of the onsides kick. Of all the playoff fuck-ups by the 49ers, the 1972 loss still hurts the most.
As most of you know, I was at that fateful game in 1972 when, on their way to to visit Washington for the NFC Championship game and their date with destiny, Preston fucking Riley let an onsides kick hit him in the facemask. Dallas recovered, thus opening the door for Roger Staubach to engineer a last minute drive to take a 30-28 lead.
After getting pinned deep on a penalty on the kickoff, the all-time pisser to me was the fact that AFTER the Dallas TD, John Brodie hit Gene Washington on a 50 yard bomb down the sideline that put the 49ers around the Dallas 45 yard line with 45 seconds left. However, the play was called back due to holding. They didn’t get a first down after that, and Dallas was thusly on its way to get slaughtered by Washington. Would the Niners have done better? No one knows.
Yeah but the Niners sucked even worse by not being part of the postseason. Losing the coach and the staff is suckitude in the extreme. BLEEP the Yorks!
And why would the Pack also run it up the middle, when they could have run power sweeps right at Sherman with his bad arm? That’s on the coach for being a dumbshit…
The ’72 Divisional game was one of my earlier memories of the Niners. I remember Vic Washington busting the opening kickoff all the way. Skip Vanderbundt’s great game, Bruce Gossett missing two critical FG’s and Roger Fucking Staubach. Preston Riley’s gaffe and then Vic Washington being inconsolable after the game.
That game and yesterday’s game are eerily similar in a lot of ways and both were won by teams I hate.
Fuck the packers and the seaturds, I hate em both. That was a true choke job by GB though and if it was any other team I would be lovin it.
I still say running the ball there is a good move. You either force the Seahawks to burn timeouts or you run time off the clock. 99% of the time that’s going to win you the game in that situation. Incomplete passes stop the clock and favor Seattle.
Not going after Sherman with either the run if the pass was stupid. It’s as if the Packers didn’t even realize he was hurt. His arm was effed up big time.
Only if you get a 1st down out of those 3 runs..as we have seen with the Niners 3 and out loses you games more than they win!!
That’s a pretty small sample size.
Like I said, most of the time it’s going to work. It took an historic turnaround to give Seattle the win, the biggest factor of which was the botched onside kick, not the 3 runs, which did burn two Seattle timeouts. Of course, running for the first down is preferable, but time in that situation was Seattle’s enemy. Forcing them to to use timeouts works to that end. Teams do it all the time, successfully. Even with that 3 and out, there’s no way in hell Seattle should’ve won that game. Major planetary alignment of that one.
Someone please explain to me how hiring Lane Kiffin fits into the winning with class mantra. More and more this whole fiasco is looking like an impending disaster.
If they have any brains, they are going hard after Cannibalistic Humanoid Underground Dweller.
I don’t know much about Chud, but he’s not Kiffin. That’s good enough for me.
Running isn’t necessarily bad in that situation, but you can play action the run up the middle and throw a short pass on a rollout. Something a little more imaginative than up the middle 3x. As it was, Sea burned 2 timeouts. It didn’t hurt them very much as there was a ton of time.
This is why I couldn’t stand Harbaugh. You play not to lose and you set yourself up for a fail if something goes wrong. That onsides kick fails 90% of the time, but that ONE time . . .
No rollout, Rodgers was playing on one leg. A backshoulder slant to take advantage of the crippled left wing, or any outside run.
A ton of time and it still took 15 points in 44 seconds to take the lead. I think Green Bay playing the prevent defense on the first TD was as big as the 3 runs, as was the absurd conversion on the 2-point try. I’m sorry, trying to grasp all the factors that resulted in Seattle winning is beyond me at this time.
All game long the Packers were kicking the crap out of the pretty boy. Why go away from that base defense? Ever? Coaches truly baffle me sometimes.
I don’t agree on the rollout due to Rodgers’ leg, but maybe something safer, like a bubble screen, would’ve been a better choice and had a better chance of getting the first down than simply running the ball. The Packers puckered up at the wrong time.
McCarthy is getting killed on Packer blogs.
As much as on-side kick was critical and the poor kid Bostick will be like Kyle Williams& Preston Riley needing the witness protection program, their was plenty of blame to go around in that loss.
You guys see that ST coach screaming at him for that bone-head mistake?
Yeah he felt like dog-shit,and it happens a lot in pressure situations, but you don’t have to get in his grill and spew out profanity at him!!
He “Man’d Up after the game, saying he let his team and family down,and all the Packer fans, which showed class on his part, more so then that ST Coach!!’
I think the guy thought he was in a nightmare. His worst nightmare and it happened right in front of his eyes.
The ST coach was screaming because he just saw his pink slip flutter through Bostick’s fingers. He might have escaped had it only been that score on the fake field goal. But, TWO massive ST screw ups?…
Rodgers was getting around well enough for a 12 yard scramble,. He certainly could have gone play-action rollout.
He gimped his way out of bounds, if you were paying attention. He was limping badly
the last couple steps. He also nearly fell down passing once when he rolled his ankle from favoring the bad leg. Any rollout increased the real risk of losing him for the game tenfold.
Whether he could even rollout, avoid pressure and get off a decent pass is another question.
Yeah, that was an ugly scramble. He was skipping out of bounds.
The upside with Chud, (if Indy allows him to interview), is that he’s TE friendly.
Mangini and, our Offense in general, didn’t do or, get squat, from the TE position at all this past year.
Teams that have moved on in the Playoffs have all gotten good production from the RBs and TEs.
If not Chud, Gase is still meandering around the interview circuit as well.
I still believe Baalke went to Denver to let him know he has the OC job in SF if all else fails.
Just have to see what Kubiak does now.
Tough noogies. Sherman and Thomas were both hurt. My main point is McCarthy took the ball out of Rodgers hands too early, they turtles up and lost.
What killed me is once zGB needed to move the ball, they did. Why couldn’t they of that one those 2 drives before theTDs?
I’d have sent an OG at Sherman and attempted to run right at him Chuck.
GB played not to lose.
Much like Harbaugh had a propensity to do.
It was a play-in game, for the SB.
Show some stones, as Pete did, with the fake FG.
McCarthy was timid, going back to the early stages of the game.
He was able to garner some breaks early, took the crowd out of the game too.
Too conservative.
Besides the laydown on the possible Pick-6 (as directed by Julius Peppers, who should know better), HTF do you give up a fake FG pass??? I can understand a fake punt, you have the return man and guys blocking gunners already occupied. But a FG?!??! What’s your excuse?
AJ Hawk choked on that one RT.
4th and 10 and he managed to get caught in No Mans’ Land, while allowing Gilliam to scoot right past him.
All in all, Pete and Cheathawks took chances to win.
McCarthy curled up in the fetal position, by wimping out early in that game, instead of going for the jugular.
Shame that the Bostick kid will take the heat for the muffed assignment on the OSK.
The new baseline for choking now belongs to GB.
For as bad as his game was going, Russell never quit.
Hate them as we do, they didn’t quit.
To be fair, Carroll had to take chances to win. They were doing absolutely nothing offensively. McCarthy was playing with the lead. But not being ready for a fake FG in that situation and not going after Sherman later are pretty hard to explain.
I hope Sherman’s arm is permanently damaged. Yeah, I said it. I hate him that much.
The best thing about hiring Gase or Chud for OC is neither of them are Kiffen!
I’d prefer Gase or Trestman if Chud isn’t an option.
We need someone to groom Kaep.
Somehow, the GBay collapse makes me feel just a little better. The Niners obviously aren’t the only team with idiotic play calls…
I don’t buy the “Bostick didn’t lose it” line, with the excuse that there were plenty of mistakes to go around. Because his job (to block) was NOT to do what he actually did (try to catch the ball), his F-Up cost the game. If he even makes a poor block, Jordy Nelson is right there behind catching the ball. Other Packers were doing their jobs, just piss poorly…
Yeh Snarkk, Bostick blew it for sure.
But, in general, the whole philosophy from the sideline, Coaching in general, can share the blame in that one.
Bostick is a ST player, he isn’t a front-line guy like AJ Hawk.
Coaching stands out as being way out-schemed in this one, beginning with McCarthy.
Complete meltdown in many phases.
Put some pressure on Russell on the 3rd and whatever maybe, instead of rushing 3 and praying?
Unfortunately for Bostick, his gaff will be the one most people will remember.
Had GB managed a 1st Down or 2 in crunch time, the comedy of errors would never had happened.
Comedy of errors is right. The guy who fielded the ball was the guy Bostick was supposed to block. With Nelson right behind him, what the hell was he thinking? Complete vapor lock. I read on a GB paper that everyone on their ST’s has the go ahead to field the ball, if (big IF) they KNOW they can secure it. Clearly he did not. It looked like he’d never caught a ball in his life.
Berger, the Safety from TCU declared for the Draft, Chris Hackett.
Tall kid, 6’2″/195 – Also has good hands.
Durrell Eskridge 6’3″ / 207 from Syracuse declared early as well.
Both guys are more FS-types but, tackle well and find the ball in coverage.
Both guys are tall, run fairly well too.
Several good Safeties coming into the mix this Spring.
My early favorites –
Ronald Martin – LSU
Anthony Harris – UVA
Jaquiski Tartt – Samford
NJ- If it is available, it would be nice if you could include projected round for these household names. I don’t see safety as a huge need. Somebody would need to jump off the chart as BPA if taking one of these guys high up.
Hate to say so, but I’d take Daddy Shanny for OC over Kiffin, if it come down to those two, and hopefully it doesn’t…
Agree Snarkk.
No Kiffen.
Daddy Shanny if he’s the only option for me as well.
The OC I wanted went to the Redskins. Bill Callahan is a run first OC who knows how to design an effective passing game. I don’t know enough about the remaining candidates to say much about if I want them. I know Gase and Trestman can design the passing game but I don’t know how they handle the run. Chud I know very little about but I do know he did well with Cam Newton.
The one remaining candidate who I know a lot about is Lane Kiffen. His rhythm in play calling is on par with Greg Roman. IOW, no rhythm. Roman actually had a nice rhythm in the last game this year. I’ve never seen a game where Kiffen had a good rhythm. Worse yet, he has the gift of glib. If he is hired he’ll be our head coach within two years. Disaster looms. If we hire Kiffen I’ll have to reconsider my enthusiasm for the 2015 season.
Kiffen is a college coach. His time with Al Davis was a cruel joke.