A game that got Whittier and shittier as it went on took a terrible turn when NaVorro Bowman went down with an apparent Achilles tear. If so, our semi permeable defense becomes that much less good. Not a great thing when the D is struggling in many facets.
More than that, it sucks for Bowman the passionate leader of the defense. This is another season lost to injury. And while things aren’t going great, he is one of the most respected players in the league. Shame that he is done for quite a while.
He said himself when leaving the locker room that it was his Achilles. As for the game? Our D line is not playing well. They were supposed to be a strength, but more often than not they are washed out on runs up the middle. Our NTs have been terrible. The early pass rush, with Bowman of course, was getting pressure.
offensively we are still stuck in 2nd gear. We show flashes of competence around long stretches of crap.
Chip says Gabbert is his guy but soon the rope will run out.
Forty Niners Forever 
NJ- I’ve been reading good things about the NT from UW, Elijah Qualls. I hope to catch a Husky game soon to see him play.
Chuck, I’m moving this from the end of the last thread. I didn’t see you had the new one up:
The offense and Gabbert have been frustrating in large part because they show flashes of being good. You can’t deny those first 2 drives, in which they looked phenomenal. Gabbert made some amazing passes in the first quarter, especially the one to Celek on the right sideline.
Then he reverts to his bad Blaine form, throwing balls in the dirt, missing wide open guys downfield. If the O just flat out stunk all the way around, it’d be easier to take. The line is giving him a nice pocket to throw from, including on the botched post to Torrey, but they haven’t been run blocking for shit. Usually it’s the other way around because run blocking is easier for most OL. I don’t know if it’s drive or coaching or what, but these guys are good enough to open holes for Hyde, who’s running hard but has nowhere to go.
I don’t know who Jim O’Neil is, but his scheming so far has been dubious at best and he’s slow to make adjustments. Maybe it’s just the scheming, maybe it’s just the talent, likely it’s both. Losing Bow would be a killer to a defense already lacking cohesion.
One last thing, can anyone remember a season when the 49ers were NOT consistently vulnerable to screen passes? The entire stadium can see them coming but these guys play like they just rolled out of bed.
If this is a full tear for Bow, he’s may have to consider retiring. That’s about an 18 month injury for full recovery. He is passionate, but this is two major leg injuries.
They do get Lynch back this week, but I don’t expect much from him.
Lurker- We don’t seem to have the ability to defend the WCO. We keep getting beat by screens and it make you wonder, why can’t we do that too.
Chuck- I think just about everyone knows that it’s on Trent, that is all except Jed.
Yeah Trent is NOT about to be a Grand Marshall of any local parades, that’s for sure. Winning a Super Bowl seems about as far away as a trip to MARS!
How can one team decline so rapidly? Answer: TRENT BAALKE! I’m sure Jed is conferring with his parents about this very topic. Jed must be thinking better him than me! A sacrificial lamb is required very soon.
The D backs apparently made Dave Stewart walk the plank in baseball. Losing has that result on sports teams.
Bravo- I couldn’t stand him he just killed us when he was with the A’s.
When’s the next Niners victory? Come on you smart guys always come up with an answer. Who can Niners beat? Some team besides the Lambs.
Arizona on Thursday night…
Shit we can beat AZ. Unless they run all over us. Our shiftiness leads directly to the D line. They seem to think that falling down is preferable to tackling. Blockers are getting to the 2nd level with regularity. With the LBs engaged downfield, runnng lanes open wide. With that kind of push off the line, screens are a breeze.
I just want to see a complete game from the offense. Our only hope is to score a lot of points and hope we stop them a little.
Bowman going out is just a crushing blow. He’s had a rough few years.
Now that we’ve lost Patrick and Bowman, what exactly do we have on the bench to even consider as capable backups?
These 2 were the foundation of our stellar D for several years during our productive run.
Now? I can’t see any team with a running game having much trouble from here on out.
Unless, of course, O’Neil/Azz figure out what to do on the DLine.
Might be time for Baalke to cherry pick a PS player elsewhere while there’s an extra few days between games after TNF.
Add to that, a shoulder injury to Arik that’s lingering and, DeBuck on crutches.
What exactly are we doing with all the surplus Cap space on our ledger?
God, are we cursed or what?
Minnesota is letting the Giants hang around. Sure enough, the Giants get to within a TD.
I had Bradford completely wrong. He’s a damned good QB in the right system.
I think he finally has a good play caller in Norv Turner.
That bomb down the left sideline with the safety coming over to help a beaten CB was a thing of precision and beauty. I honestly only remember one other single pass tonight. The receiver (TE? WR?) went straight over the middle and the coverage was blown. No scanning the field and floating a safe pass by Bradford, he threw a dart absolutely on target as soon as the receiver turned around, giving him a chance for YAC. Just the kind of stuff I forgot existed watching Gabbert.
Speaking of Norv Turner, Gabbert is on track to match almost spookily precisely, Alex’ stats from 2006.
Yeah, and it took 5 more years and a killer defense for him to have a good year.
I think the talent level on the 49ers is OK. We have enough to have a winning record. I am starting to really worry about the coaching. Chips play design is not getting receivers open and his run plays don’t hit the hole down hill. On top of that, the play calling is very conservative. On defense this is the most passive defensive line scheme I have seen since Mike Nolan was coach. I don’t see us winning if the coaching staff does not get more aggressive.
As far as talent is concerned we do have some big holes. We are good at DB and DE. We need a good ILB and NT. We might be OK at OLB with Lynch back, still judging that one. On offense we have a good O-line and RB. 1st and foremost we need a better play caller and QB. Our WRs would be adequate with a better play caller/designer. We could use some better WRs but I’d rather have a stud NT and ILB. The most important thing we need on defense is a DC who dictates play instead of read and react. His D-line strategy is driving me nuts.
Bergs, that is what pisses me off the most. We haven’t had any passing routes that can get people open even remotely consistently. We ain’t the only team by far, but we seem to be the best at it. I saw Crabs do it the other day. Carr was on the move, and Crabs was open about 12 yards away. When Crabs saw Carr break contain, he vacated his open area, turned his back on Carr and ran into coverage. It’s baffling. It happened to Alex all the time. Instead of someone sitting in the flat giving the QB a target, they turn tail and go deep and run into coverage. 99 out of 100 times this doesn’t work.
This defense is looking like the vanilla defense of Teflon Mike Nolan. Wait to get pushed back rather than try to push the guy in front of you. If we had Willis and Bowman this might work. We don’t and it isn’t.
I don’t know, man. O’Neill gets aggressive at times, and then just goes totally soft. We drop 8 and guys still get WIDE open.
That cannot happen. If they can’t cover dropping 8, then they should be rushing 8.
We don’t have super WRs, But they are good enough. Any good scheme can get guys open.
Still waiting for that.
waiting…..waiting….waiting……crickets chirping away in the background……
The DC does seem to send the linemen on passing downs. I just started to notice this and I’ll be paying more attention going forward. At first I was worried that Bucker wasn’t able to make plays but now it seems he does that by design.
Nolan tried to have the linemen stand the guy up in front of him so the LBs would fill. It is the basic tenant of the 3-4 defense. The question is how far does a team take that theory. I think the D-line needs to be more aggressive in their lanes. Disciplined penetration destroys running plays. We are not penetrating on run downs.
Yeah but he wore a nice suit on the sidelines.
Bradford went through what Smith went through. A shit-ton of turmoil all around him for a lot of years. Look at Andrew Luck. Everyone knows he’s an elite QB but he’s wasting away on a subpar team. Even Frank can’t turn the tide for them.
It’s Pagano’s Sardine Can Offense.
In conclusion: It’s a whole lot of BLEEP and then some.
Hey the ads got quiet on wordpress. Thank goodness. A few days ago they were very noisy and annoying!
NFL ratings down for 4th straight week.
It’s twitter’s fault. Actually it’s online streaming’s fault.
People are leaving Comcast in droves. Full service huge package cable deals are becoming a thing of the past. Dish is trying to get ahead of the game by offering ‘choose your channels’ packages as a way to stem the tide of leaving their service. Comcast made a killing by bundling shit into giant costly packages.
Well, their model is being challenged by Hulu, GoogleChrome, and online TV services that are much less money. HBO go and shit like that is also getting big, so Comcast is losing customers in a big way. Local TV will feel it a bit, but the big players and network TV are getting gutted.
This will lead to the NFL losing giant cotracts. Which in turn will lower salaries as the owners cry poverty when the TV and ad money slows down.
Bergs, the D linemen aren’t penetrating all that much on passing downs either. Of the 7 sacks, 5 are by LBs. The 2 by the linemen are Dorsey and Armstead.
Armstead caused a sack by blowing up the pocket and causing Wilson into another players hands. OLBs should always have more sack than D-linemen in a 3-4.
Is the only way to watch the NFL games of your choosing through the cable providers? For instance, I can watch all the Giant’s games on MLB TV for $100 a year. That’s 60 cents a game. I haven’t found anything similar for the NFL, hence I’m reduced to watching national games or regional games involving the Seahawks.
They are steaming some NFL games on Twitter but those games are being counted in the total ratings.
Berger, this year I’m going on the record for another ‘Bama LB.
You liked Ragland last year, I’m in for his replacement, Reuben Foster, 6’1″/240.
Keep an eye on him as the year progresses.
I’ve already had my eye on him and two others. One is from LSU and the other is from UW.