Here we are, the final game of the opening week of NFL 2016. We get the east coast/west coast Monday Night double-header. Cool for us on the West Coast, but if there are any 49er fans in New York, they get a 10:40 pm start time. Kinda sucks for them, but Monday Night Football has always been a bit of a fuck-a-row for the East Coasters.
Anyhoo, this game is going to be a test for both teams. Chip kelly is for all intents and purposes seemingly done a decent job of taking a bunch of miscellaneous parts from the previous regime and a recent draft that focussed on both lines to give us a small sliver of hope that the team may have a solid base to work from. At least this is what gives me hope.
QB? Well, this is a bit of a quandary. Blaine Gabbert won the job merely by being there more than Colin Kaepernick. Nothing great, but not a lot of mistakes either. Kappy? Well, depending on how tonight goes, he could very well be the starter by next week. He will bide his time as the insurance policy. As far as routes go, I’m hoping we played it close to the vest as there was very little mid-range top deep passing.
RB? Both Carlos Hyde and Shaun Draughn played little in the preseason due to injury, but both showed a lot of solid running. Keeping Hyde healthy is vastly important to the fate of this team. Draughn is a very nice compliment to Hyde, and backups Davis and Harris even looked good.
WR? The big unknown. Adding Rod Streater and Jeremy Kerley at least gives us some experienced guys after Bruce Ellington went down again. Torrey Smith has an amazingly great attitude after basically being ignored all last season, so the hope is, as with the QBs that we can open things up tonight and get the ball downfield more than the 6 yard bites we saw in the preseason.
The O line, despite the shenanigans of Anthony Davis, looks vastly improved over last year’s version. Trent Brown has been very solid at RT so far, garnering praise at all stops, and the return of a healthy Kilgore Trout cannot be understated. Andrew Tiller replaces a reluctant AD and pushes him to backup RT. Joe Staley is still in fine form, and FA acquisition Zane Beadles has been solid as well as he has kept first round pick Josh Garnett from cracking the starting lineup.
Vance McD looks to be finally on the verge of a breakout year, and he’s decent enough as a blocker, as is Garrett Celek. Bell has shown flashes of good hands.
On D we should see a lot of improvement. The DBs are healthy and have looked nothing short of fantastic. Eric Reid had a nice pick 6 on Trevor Siemien, and the coverage was spot-on most every game with the starters.
The pass rush is another matter as no one has shown too much against us in the preseason to make a determination. Marcus Rush looked like a pretty good 3rd down option, but he’s on the PS for now. Aaron Lynch is serving his 4 game suspension, and a significantly lighter Tank Carradine steps in for him alongside Ahmad Brooks, the enigmatic on-again-off-again presence. Ray-Ray Armstrong had a very solid preseason and camp to push his way into the lineup alongside NaVorro Bowman.
The D line suffered a major blow since Ian Williams wasn’t able to make it back from his ankle injury. The entire D line hasn’t played a down yet together as NT Glenn Dorsey is also nursing nagging injuries, but we get to see the bookend Ducks Arik Armstead and DeForest Buckner hit the field tonight along with Quinton Dial. The key here will be the rotation to keep these guys fresh against Todd Gurley. Mike Purcell at NT and Tony Jerrod-Eddie will also be rotating throughout the game, I’m sure.
So, shoot me for being a little optimistic. I think this team looks a lot better than it did one year ago. The coaching staff can’t help but be better than last year’s train wreck, and that should lead to a couple more wins than last year. Better overall play on both lines is my main reason for hope.
Forty Niners Forever 
No, I don’t have to love this. We should be able to get more than 4 yards in the 3rd quarter. Gabbert looked terrible and should have been picked twice.
Glad they took the yards. Fisher is an idiot. His team looks completely outcoached
Patton torched that CB twice, once before and once after that catch and run.
Yeah baby!
Gabbert seems to have settled down after Chip told him he’d be cleaning the toilets after the game.
Bench Gabbert with a 3 touchdown lead? Not likely. Kap is nowhere near getting in there outside of an injury. It’s the first game, it’s going to be choppy at times. The Rams stepped up their D after halftime, both on the run and the pass. Bad third quarter, but he just led them on a 77 yard TD drive. He’ll get better.
Lets hope.
Gabby’s played well enough to beat the Rams at home. You don’t bench a guy after a win like this. Wait till after the road games against the Panthers and Seahawks, THEN do it.
chuck, i know we should be doing better with some things but the overall team looks pretty good. We all knew Gabbert was a ?, but once again our D shows up.
This has been a very encouraging first game on both sides of the ball. The Rams are good defensively, but the O overall looks competent, without that deer-in-the-headlights look we’ve seen since Harbaugh left. There’s potential there and it can only get better with more work.
The D has been great against an inferior offense, we’ll see how they do against better teams. I think they’ll be fine too. There’s going to be ups and downs, but I’m pleased with the improvement. I don’t know how you couldn’t be, including Gabbert.
Where’s Mike Curtis when you need him?
I’m just going to keep positive until they give me reason not to be. Kelly is in control, that much is obvious, and that’s a 180 degree about face from last year. You guys are being too hard on Gabbert. He’s made some good throws and he’s forced some. Keep working.
I’m a big Kelly fan. So we can agree 50%.
Like I said, until he gives me reason..in Chip we trust.
I just don’t get the 3rd quarter. Very conservative. No pocket movement to offset the smothering coverage. D shows 8 in the box and we run into it. We don’t spread the field with multiple WRs. Finally we move the pocket and do things differently and score.
Hey, all I’m saying is you can’t expect to go 3 and out 5-6 times in a row and expect the other team not to inflict damage. Yeah, the Rams are suck, but most teams would take advantage of the stagnation.
The Rams are getting Goff in there in a matter of days, not weeks.
Not really sure why we are amping it up now. Get Hyde out and run the ball.
Niners, 2 penalties for 10 yds with 7 minutes left in the game.
Fisher’s team yet again is out of control, . Is was and will be a hack. Fisher has wasted more talent than any 5 coaches. And his players are out of control.
Whatever I said about Fisher a couple of weeks ago I should probably rescind. I was watching Hard Knocks and things looked pretty good. But now, it’s hard to see him coaching L.A. next year.
This year? He might not make it to the bye week.
If they played another quarter at this rate, the Niners would blow up the over/under. The Rams have completely given up. I can’t see well coached teams doing that, ever.
Not in the first game especially. Fisher’s probably not too popular in the locker room.
Wow. Didn’t think the Rams would be be THIS horrible.
Jesus. Get Hyde OUT OF THERE.
Nice he gets 2 TDs, but get him out,
Yeah, Goff has to be in there pretty soon. And I agree, that third quarter won’t fly against good offenses. More stuff to work on. Gabbert, 22-35 for 170 yds and a TD and another 43 on the ground. Hyde, 23 carries for 88 yds and 2 TD’s.
That was Jerrod-Eddie that went down BTW. Berman is real bad these days.
Man, get Bowman out as well.