The Chip Kelly era starts much like the Jim Tomsula era started. With a resounding win on Monday Night Football. Last year it was the 49ers manhandling the soon-to-almost-beat-Seattle-in-the-playoffs Minnesota Vikings. Last night it was the newly rebirthed Los Angeles Rams, as Chip and the Cookies stomped the piss out of a really bad looking Ram team 28-0. Jeff Fisher, as I’m sure you folks know, is not high on my list of good coaches, had the best defensive line in the game looking ill-prepared and slow. Their offense consisted of futile runs and sideways passes. Whether we were covering well, or they just didn’t take shots is up for debate, but as a whole, the defense played every minute and gave up little.
The offense is a bit of a different tale. The run game is a different animal with Carlos Hyde in there. He ran well behind what appears to be a vastly improved O line. The Rams may be an offensively-challenged unit, but their defense is no joke. They are rated as one of the top front 7s in the league. However, with Chipper’s faster-paced plays, and runs from 3 wide sets, the line was able to create nice holes for Hyde to run through.
Blaine Gabbert? Well, he had a fairly uneven game. 22-35 and 170 (1 TD) isn’t going to make anyone forget Joe Montana, but he hit passes that needed to be hit for the most part. The first half was going well, but the game ground to a halt in the 3rd quarter. LA changed their defense to take away the short passing, and the 49ers were skunked the entire quarter to the tune of -4 yards and no first downs. The saving grace was the defense shutting down LA the entire quarter as well. The point being, Gabbert got sloppy for no reason as he forced passes on bad reads, and nearly had 2 picks, including a near pick 6.
Just as inexplicably, Chipper got a little more creative and the offense started moving again. 14 points later the game was a blowout, and the Rams, behind Jeff Fisher (10 penalties for 102 yards) got demoralized, chippy, and stupid. Which led to Aaron Donald being ejected from the game for trying to behead Quinton Patton.
As for the D, well, pitching a shutout is hard in the NFL. Even with a challenged group like the LA Rams and Kasey Kaseum. The line held Gurley to 47 yards on 17 carries, and a grand total of 185 yards. They got nothing deep and everything was horizontal.
All in all, it looks like a good game to start the season. How this bodes for the 3-time-zone cross-country-trip-on-a-short-week-and-play-the-early-game-on-the-East-Coast (FUCK THE SCHEDULERS) remains to be seen, but we did this last year and it went south in a hurry.
San Francisco 49ers Forever 
Watching Arik Armstead push people backwards reminds me of Justin Smith. The guy is a beast. He pushed a double team straight back into the QB for Brook’s sack. He didn’t get the stat but make no mistake, he made the play. I was extremely happy when we drafted this guy and now you folks are seeing why. I was perplexed that so many of you did not like this pick.
If the D-line can stay healthy we are gonna be a force. I think if the Chipski has any tricks up his sleeve the Panther game would be a good time to use em. Loved the way we mixed our runs with passes the Rams D was off balance most of the game. I don’t know if the league catches up with our game plan or not but hopefully we can fool em for 9 or 10 more times. Actually we didn’t fool the Rams at all we just beat the shit out of em.
I didn’t necessarily hate it, but my fear was that he’d be slow to develop. And we needed a CB . . . We were banged up to start the uyear last year at CB and were depleted besides.
Even with Ian Williams and Glenn Dorsey out, the line looked very solid. Purcell held his ground well, and Blair gets kudos for holding the edge.
Too bad the Niners can’t play the Lambs again Sunday. A loss is expected for the next game. Carolina is not the Lambs. Cam Newton should be fired up for a victory at home.
The Ram’s game is over dude, let’s move on. Get on board with this team. They’re improved and coming off the last two years improved and moving in the right direction is a good thing.
There is a difference between conservative play calling and running an offense that doesn’t make sense in today’s NFL game. We saw the contrast last night. Chip’s conservative play calling was driving me nuts but his offense made sense. All I wanted was a couple of deep passes even if they were overthrown by 10 yards. Chips short game was being overplayed by the Rams in the 3rd quarter because we wouldn’t throw deep. We threw a deep ball in the 4th quarter that was overthrown and that backed the safeties off a little. We had more room to operate after that. That would not have helped the Rams to do the same thing because they allowed us to naturally load the box with their formations. That is the difference between conservative play calling and a poorly designed offense. The kind of poorly designed offense we ran in SF for years and years until now
Yeah, as Denver proved, you can beat a good defense with a short passing game. I too want to see more shots downfield for the reasons you note. I think it was Kerley on a post route early that Gabbert should have hit in his sleep that he missed badly on. Even tho he missed it, what it did was keep the safeties back.
I’d put our offense over Denver’s at this point. The D isn’t up to Denver’s standard. A huge test early in the season.
Meaning if a rook playing his first game ever can beat the NFC champs who’s to say we can’t?
The rook playing his first game is already better than Gabbert, and let’s just not even think about comparing WRs. The Niner defense looked fantastic but hasn’t played anybody yet. The Bronco defense is proven awesome. Even so, it took those non-calls on Cam and a blown FG at the end for the Broncos to win at home.
I have much more hope of an upset in Seattle than I do in Charlotte.
Siemian’s a second year guy, too.
He had never thrown a pass in a game.
Before we go there, I’ll root for the upset over the Panthers. It’s the NFL; weird stuff can happen.
I hear they didn’t show this on the TV Due to the NFL does not want to show it, but a Fan ran out onto the field in the 3rd or 4th quarter, he was tackled by security, and taken away. O over on KNBR this afternoon, Brent Jones was on and he said that in a loophole in the NFL minors aren’t sent to jail all that happens to them is they are banded from attending a game for a year. Brent also said when he would attend Giants games with his Daughters boy friends he would offer them $10K to jump onto the field and slide into home plate, he even told them he would pay their bail. I was LMAO when he was talking about this.
So Charlie are you going to get yours on to run onto the field at the Niner game when you go? Is he under 18? I will pay him, Not $10K though!! Ha ha
*son
You should all listen to the exchange between T Tolbert and B jones, they are funny as hell, I would love to sit in a bar with them.
You summed it up well, Chuck. Tons of room for improvement but a lot of good stuff also. This is the 5th game under Kelly’s regime and his offense, if you count preseason. There’s no way it’s going to be as good as it can be after such a short time, meaning it figures to improve over the course of the season. It’s a new system and it needs to be fine-tuned.
I watched the game again, and Gabbert definitely missed some throws that could’ve been big plays, but there were also several drops, notably by Garrett Celek twice in the first half. His receivers could’ve helped him out more. They also need to take some shots downfield with Torrey. He’s just being wasted as an underneath guy, but I think that’s coming as everything gets more settled. He’s too damn fast. Not trying to stretch the field with him isn’t using his talents to the max. I think Kelly is playing it even more conservative as the offense gets its feet under it. I’d guess it’ll open up more as thr season move on.
Carolina will be a different animal and all the good stuff from last night may well go away. Newton will be a handful as will the rest of their offense. There looks to be room for the Niner tight ends if they start to work them in the offense more. They could be effective
I know you guys hate Gabbert, but Steve Young made a good point last night about Gabs being to tentative in the past and not even attempting the throws an NFL QB has to make, namely into tight windows. He said Gabs has the arm to make all the throws. Sure enough in the second half he fired that one into Kerley, I believe, between 2 defenders exactly like Young described it. The dude is truly an athlete and if he’s trying to make those changes I still think his best football is in front of him. He runs like a damn fool. He can really hurt teams with his legs.
Kelly’s roots are as a QB coach and he was an outstanding one in his early years in college. That can only help the 49er QB’s. Fingers crossed.
Oh, yeah, does anyone know what the “S” and “8” stand for on Kelly’s play card? It’s driving me nuts.
Nope, Kevin, my son’s of age (19). No such pass for him.
That was fucking hilarious.
http://www.bleedinggreennation.com/2014/10/20/7001489/chip-kelly-mystery-s-8-eagles-play-card
Jeff Fisher heading for the record for most losses in NFL history – He’s moved ahead of Shula for sole possession of 3rd Place following our win last night.
A dubious distinction if Kroenke lets him go that far –
http://tinyurl.com/hmt5sqc
Thanks, dude. The mystery continues.
I said somewhere maybe it was here that Fisher may be out by the bye. That was an epically bad coaching performance by him. His dirty and undisciplined defense came to play and his offense was eerily reminiscent of recent 49er teams.
That being said, it would be funny to see LA beat the Seahawks. Maybe they simply looked past us.
Possible, but still that points to shitty coaching.
If these Rams beat the fucking Seahags, then all my rational thought is going out the window.
The playpen is in fine fettle this morning. According to Punxatawny Phil, THE FIX IS IN! Incompetent and inconsistent refereeing means Vegas controls the refs through the magical Tower of Officiating in Hoboken New Jersey. Guido Scarmassi has a bug in Dean Blandino’s ear for every game and every call.
As far as why the NFL allows breast cancer awareness days and such but no leeway is granted for honoring Dallas police/9-11/yadda yadda yadda is because the NFL MAKES MONEY off breast cancer merchandise. Duh to the Nth degree. Sell pink jerseys and shit, and the money generated goes to the ACS, but the NFL gets a cut as well.
Joe Shmoe wearing patriotic cleats doesn’t generate money for Goodie Goodell and the owners. Per Sports Illustrated:
Here is my assessment of the 49ers so far. On defense the front 7 is stout. The DBs are good too. The rotation was great. I don’t remember seeing that since Walsh. My only issue is the outside pass rush. We have only 3 OLBs. We will probably get a good push up the middle on Newton but I don’t see our OLBs containing from there. Lynch has good lateral quickness, he’ll be missed. One chance we might have is our DEs are really good at pushing people around. We might be able to contain Cam in the pocket, a big if.
On offense we have a nice system. I don’t know if Chip is calling conservative plays or the QB is being conservative. Maybe both. We’ll just need to wait and see. But the system makes sense and has some rhythm, something we haven’t seen on the 49ers for years. The O-line is looking great. Hopefully that keeps up. Our WRs look much better than anticipated. See, system makes sense. I’m not sold on Gabbert but he is doing OK. It is a new system, let everybvody get on the same page before judging. I’ve always liked Ponder and think he would be great in this offense. The only offense he has run in the pros is the Sardine Can Offense. Hard to look good in that offense. Kap is a Tim Tebow type of media distraction, he must take his political show and go away.
All in all I like what I have seen from the team. I don’t expect to win this week but I’m feeling good about Seattle. Go 49ers!
In other words, directly or indirectly, the NFL gets $62.50 per every $100.00 spent on breast cancer merch. The ACS gets $11.25.
And any non-sanctioned breast cancer awareness tributes are disallowed. While the NFL was busy blasting cancer awareness from everywhere, the league threatened DeAngelo Williams for wanting to wear pink all season to his mom who dies of breast cancer, and fined Williams’s teammate Cam Heyward for wearing eye black to honor his father, Ironhead Heyward, who died of a brain tumor in 2006 at age 39.
I have no idea your point? The NFL does not allow political or social statements but they are allowing the Kap BLM bullshit. I think they are walking on eggshells because they don’t know how to handle this mess. One thing is for sure, the NFL ratings were down this week over the first week last year. I believe it is because of the Kap political show.
Winder, The Rams are much like the 49ers last year. Except they have some actual talent. They will have some great games surrounded by ugly-ass ones. They expected to walk in here and roll us without trying. I’m sure there were a lot of laughs in the week leading up to the game.
Yeah, I am pretty sure they thought that this one in the bag. Just about everyone thought that, the Vegas odds reflected that also. I would love nothing more than a Ram victory this week. It would give the LA fans something to talk about.
They were talking about Fischer on the Mike and Mike show this morning, saying that the owner of the Rams does not really care about the team, just an added cash cow with the NFL. So Fischers job might not be in jeopardy
You want football, you got football. He’s some professional coaches quality All-22 film breakdown of some defensive plays, including several blown coverages where Keenum failed to take advantage.
Follow the thread to see it all.
http://www.49erswebzone.com/forum/niners/186668-week-2016-rams-game-coaches-film-analysis/
My take from it is just how impossible it is to judge performances from watching TV. Some of the mistakes are really subtle, an offensive shift requiring a response from a defensive player, and that defensive player’s shift requiring a change of play assignment by a bunch of different defenders…
I’ve made it farther into the thread. Here our offensive plays are diagnosed, good stuff.
RT- I get really tired of hearing about QBs who don’t see open receivers when they spend most of the game getting hit by 300lb linemen. I want those people to stand and get blind sided by a 300lb football player and tell how it affected their thinking for a few minutes. Keenum was getting thrashed. He had a legitimate excuse. This is why I always say defensive lines win championships. Our QB had mostly a clean pocket to throw from. He is an easier target to critique as he should have played much better.
What I saw is Gabbert needs to get his feet set better on some throws. He looks good with the upper body but he needs to sync his upper and lower body better. It is why he gets erratic. I would give him a little time because he has never played in an offense that has given him a clean pocket to throw from. His internal clock is probably going a little too fast. A fan analyzing game film has no concept of this, a good coach does. They will coach him up and settle him down or replace him at some point.
One thing Gabbert has is a strong arm. Strong armed QBs have a tendency to ‘strong arm’ throws. Especially short ones. ‘Strong arming’ is when you don’t use your lower body to aid in the throwing motion. He is just going to have to get more disciplined. This is one of the things Walsh harped on the most, footwork. I always maintain to be a good QB you need a good coach.
One more thing about Gabbert. I predicted he would be a first round pick because he has all the tools needed. I also stated I didn’t want to draft him because he was a gunslinger. What I meant by that is a lot of gambling on 50/50 balls and a lot of strong arm throws.
These days he is not doing much gambling, in fact, he plays rather conservatively but he still strong arms a lot of throws. It is up to the coaching staff to correct that. If they can’t he’ll be replaced because he will have some high int games trying to strong arm. That is not acceptable for most any QB but especially for a QB who plays conservatively.
Coming from Jacksonville and starting out on a horrible team can not have helped. Hope he can overcome it.
That’s the big takeaway from watching games live. Seeing downfield coverage and when guys are getting open and not seen by the QB. I remember the Miami game from years ago where Moss was being played 12-15 yards off the line by the Miami CB. I was screaming for them to throw to him as they could get 8-10 yards a pop without trying. They did it 3 times in a row and never went back to it despite the coverage. Nutty.
I have never really tried to analyze the game microscopically. I have been going to 49er games since the late 50’s and had season tickets a couple of time. That’s one reason Walsh’s teams were so fun to watch. Not a whole lot of mistakes. If things don’t work I tend to blame everyone. Works for me.
Berger, Steve Young was on KNBR and he was saying pretty much the same thing you were, Gabberts upper body needs to be aligned with his lower body to make good passes, Steve also thinks because of the shitty OLine he played behind for so long that is why he throws fast balls he thinks he has such a small window of time to throw the ball without throwing an interception. Steve thinks as time goes by he will slow down.
Yes, Steve and I have 3 Super Bowls between us. He has 3 and I have uh…… let me count one more time, 0. Yeah that equals 3, just as I was saying!
This protest shit can potentially kill the teams spirit. Looks like it’s starting.
http://www.pressdemocrat.com/sports/6090797-181/grant-cohn-some-49ers-grumbling?artslide=0
A back up QB has most of the press attention after players win a home opener, by a shut out, and those that played and risked themselves on the field after a hard game get pretty much ignored, while this jackass gets their press time and for what? Taking a knee.
They need to figure out a solution and soon.
This will all blow over. To take a knee or not take a knee that is the question. The real question remains, can Kap beat out Gabbert? So far, he can not.
I think Kap is the better QB Nipper, I just think he is an anchor on this team now, time to cut him.
Gabbert may settle in and play well, too soon to tell. I see that Ponder is playing the role of Cam Newton for the scout team. Kap should be doing it, very similar styles.
12th, what Cohn is saying is:
“I wasn’t in the locker room. I haven’t heard anything from anyone, but here’s how I think the players should feel about the situation.”
In other words, a pile of shit speculation that isn’t worth the toilet paper it’s written on. He’s a fucking hack who is fanning the flames by writing shit like this. If they win, it won’t divide shit. If they lose, Kappy likely starts. Then we’ll see what happens.
The media is creating the circus around this, not Kaepernick. If he held a press conference and no one showed up, what then?
You are 100% wrong Unca but nothing new there. You just loved being a liberal communist. Oh wow, here comes the conservative retorts. Keep selling your communism.
Spoken like a true Trump supporter.
You took and isolated a comment and completely obfuscated. If you stuck to the facts I would have said nothing. You being on the side of cop killers already sets me off. When you take things out of context then I counter with the same.
Poor baby. What am I taking out of context? Cohen’s article?
The NFL is about money. The NFL makes money off breast cancer awareness. Players do things on their own, they don’t make money. Hence coming down on cleats and shit. They also can’t actively tell a player how to feel or how to protest. The NFLPA would come down on them like a ton of bricks.
If Kaepernick held a press conference and no one showed up, what then?
Take it to the playpen, puppet boy.
The one thing I’l say is Kaepernick SHOULD set up press conferences outside the locker room if he wants to continue with this.
I’m not a fan of LoCo Jr either Chuck, but what he said was, I wasn’t there, here is a first hand report of someone who was and he named that reporter. That is hardly hearsay, having named the reporter.
Not sure how anyone can believe Kap grabbing the press for his political agenda after a football game, robbing the actual players of their glory, would not rub some (most) players the wrong way.
Jason Cole says Baalke wants Kap gone but Kelly wants to keep him
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2663713-insider-buzz-49ers-gm-wants-kap-out-chip-kelly-believes-he-can-develop
Rumors …..rumors….rumors …….and damn lies. For me I want to see what transpires between the lines. What can Kap do on game day? I’m sick of all the speculation about the locker room of the Niners. Bleep that!
Baalke is part of the problem with this team. And his bitch, Trent Dilfer. It’s still second hand info, 12th. Maybe the unnamed lineman was kidding.
Tony LaRussa had to pipe in his two cents. How pathetic. All these guys are media whores as if their opinions matter. BLEEP Them.
I think a bad season and Baalke is gone, a good season and he stays. Differ is a talking head, making comments as he is paid to do. This idea that Baalke has his hand up Dilfers back makes no difference.
It seems in the case of Kap we’re more concerned about his knee rather than his arm. The media and the fans have to get beyond this and they will. In the end we have find out if Kap gets playing time and if he can help the Niners win a game. He’s got to get on the field sometime during this season.
Maybe, but I think he’s doing more harm than good. I can’t stand Baalky but I do see and agree that Kap should be gone. Let him play for someone else.
Chuck-The parking lot would be the perfect place for Kap’s interviews. See how the tailgaters feel about Kap’s beliefs.
I felt Kaep was part of the problem between Baalke and Harbaugh too.
He does seem to be more a Chip fit now but..
Is he worth these numbers sitting/kneeling on the sideline?
Still want to see some progress from him, otherwise, bon voyage to the highest bidder.
Can’t have a well paid protester gumming up the chemistry.
Gabbert isn’t a tough hurdle if Kaep really wants it.
Of course Baalke wants Kappy out. He wanted Harbs out. The man’s an idiot. Funny, all the media heads I hear on ESPN and Fox say Kappy’s protest has unified the team, about football not politics.
Doesn’t Trent Dilfer work for ESPN?
Dunno, don’t care. I pay as little attention to Dilfer as possible.
As far as Jason Cole goes, I went all in for him after he wrote his glowing piece on my man Nate Davis. Cole was right and so was I – about the Texas Indoor Football League. Never again.
Dilfer and Baalke are close friends. Dilfer has a lot of ties to upper management. And he’s Baalke’s bitch. Baalke might as well said what came out of Dilfer’s mouth the other day.
Speaking of rats . . .
I’m amazed people give a damn about the national anthem. It’s not a very patriotic time in our history. There’s no draft, no marching against a war, no one cares about Syria unless they bomb something in Turkey or Europe. People get killed everyday in Iraq and it’s not even news. Yet there’s so much attention to one football player’s knee. Amazing!
Each to his own.
New thread is up . . .