That is the question. Three weeks into the 100th NFL season, and the 49ers sit atop the NFC West, tied with the LA Rams. Is it real? Are we padding our record on the backs of patsies? Well, sure. But we don’t have control over the scheduling, so we play who they put in front of us. So far the teams we have played are a combined 1-8. TB is 1-2 (but a missed chip-shot FG from 2-1), Cincy is 0-3, and the Benless Steelers are now 0-3. Throw in the 1-3 Browns in two weeks and you have a whopping 2-11 record against (well, 2-12 when the Ravens stomp the Browns at home this weekend).
Still and all, the 49ers have the 4th best offense yardage-wise (5th in points scored), and the 2nd best defense yardage-wise (9th in points allowed). The problem? Turnovers. We lead the league in giveaways at 8. 4 fumbles and 4 picks. Our saving grace is the turnovers created. 7. 5 picks is a testament to or newfound pass rush, and we have forced a few fumbles along the way.
What of the rest of the West? Well the front-running Rams, 3-0 as well, have staggered their way through some sketchy games as well. They squeaked by Carolina 30-27, with a gimpy Cam Newton, they beat a no-wind (Brees-less) Saints team, and beat a Browns team that has talent but can’t seem to do anything right for any length of time. The Rams high-powered offense is mired in 16th place as Todd Gurley is off to a slow start, and the passing game is a mediocre 22nd in yards.
Seattle? They are 2-1, squeaking out wins vs Cincy and Pisstburgh, and losing to the Breesless Saints last week. The Legion of Boom is now the Legion of Meh at a middling 11th place (25th in points allowed) defensively, and the young offense is tripping along at 9th in yards and 10th in points. Decent, but not the scary dominant team of the early teens.
AZ? Well, they are exciting offensively and dogshit defensively. 0-2-1 is not an aberration.
As I said when the season started, we have the chance to rack up a lot of wins early to prepare for the grind at the end. Our first big test is LA on the road in 3 weeks. The other games are the Browns, Skins, Panthers, Cards, Seahawks, and Cards before we hit the meat of our season. If this team is for real, the team should be able to go 5-2 at worst. The Seattle game is at home, so 6-1 is doable.
If this team hits 9-1 or 8-2 at the 3/4 pole, the team has a great shot at the playoffs. Stagger now, and the end will get ugly and we’ll end up 8-8 or worse.
They’ve shown they can win ugly. Now comes the time when they need to simply beat the bad teams and hold their own against the good ones. The Falcons are beatable, as are the Packers if we can pound Mr. Rodgers. Ravens and saints on the road are tough no matter who is QBing. Hold their own in these early games, and 10-6 should be doable.
At least.
The Bosa Express® is #1 in the league, that’s right, #1 in the league, in QB pressures per snap played.
chuck- I just can’t look that far ahead. The way we’ve been playing i don’t think there will be an easy game for us. If the Browns end up 1-3 when we play em they will be in a corner on a Monday night game while we have had lots of time off. We shall see but i think it’s gonna be a dogfight the whole way. I really hope we can beat the fucking Rams and Seattle the first time we play em. That is what this team will need to do. Looks like there is no real news for the next 10 days or so and that really sucks at this time when things are rolling.
I’m not worried about the Browns. They are the factory of sadness until proven otherwise. They could very well be like us last year. A team that is close, but not quite there yet. Or the wheels fall off yet again, and they roll through another coaching staff.
As far as we go, winning builds confidence, and the Ram game will be an indicator of what we are. On the road against our division rival will be a big test.
Rams look to be 4-0 going in to Seattle in 2 weeks. TB shouldn’t be a prob for them. Seattle has AZ before facing the Rams so they’ll likely be 3-1.
Just hope they are dogfights before we meet the Rams in 3 weeks.
yeah, that would be nice to see both LA and Seattle pound each other.
I think we can easily handle the Browns.
Their coach Kitchens, doesn’t know JackShit how to call a game, the fans and vultures are circling a dead carcass in Cleveland.Keep the turnovers down and the protection good and a great early rush season total and they will kick ass.Bottom line Shanny is one of the best play callers in the league, and that teams are confused about when they go up against them..
He sure had the Patriots team all spun out in that Super Bowl. Great coach
What are you so worried about? This team is going undefeated, baby! We are the champions!! The parade down Guadalupe Parkway will be epic!
I’ll be derailed with a nutsack injury by November
Hmmm, you don’t have any nuts. How does that work?
Appropriate music for 3-0:
One of my all-time favorites, with unparalleled lyrics about a life we all secretly wish we could’ve lived but didn’t. Short but haunting alto sax solo.
By the blue-tiled walls near the market stalls, there’s a hidden door she leads you to. “These days I feel my life, just like a river running through, The Year of the Cat.”
Candidate for best non-political line ever written in a rock song.
Another 3-0 song:
What can I say? Steely Dan.
That’s the wrong Steely Dan song from the Aja album, oh well.
One more 3-0 song:
Recorded while they stayed in the same hotel snorting cocaine and writing these songs, one divorce in the making and another non-marriage relationship breaking up, the affair that broke up the marriage going on, and all done and recorded up in Marin County, I forget if Petaluma or Santa Rosa.
I was going off of a documentary on the band I watched. Wiki says Sausalito, where the recording studio was.
I forgot how awesome that album truly was, 100x with the backstory:
The Niners are 3-0. They make or break their own fate. They can
Always liked this one
Here is my favorite Al Stewart song:
One of my favorite songs ever, but then WW2 is sort of my thing.
Nostradamus is another great song by Stewart. He does some great phasing with the acoustic guitar.
Yep. And I love the flamenco riff in On the Border. Al Stewart was always a favorite of mine. And since I’m older than dirt, I remember when all those songs first were released.
There was a Tiger tank in the song. It had to be late summer 1942 at the earliest. The invasion was mostly Panzer Kampfwagen IIIs with a few Mark IVs.
In summer of 1941, with the Germans having reached the suburbs of Moscow, Hitler ordered two of the three Panzer armies away from Moscow. One went to Leningrad, to sit and twiddle their armored thumbs because Hitler refused to authorize an assault on the city (and the siege failed badly because of geography), and the other went to the Ukraine to successfully capture 500,000 Russian soldiers. But Moscow held, and Stalin’s reign survived.
I’ve been reading a bunch of different books on the theory and practice of British appeasement to try to overcome the overly harsh terms of the Versailles treaty after WWI and how it seemingly grew in strength after Hitler’s rise to power. Lots and lots of Nazis and pro-Nazis in Britain, mostly in the aristocracy, during that period.
“Guilty Men” by Cato (really 3 journalists working for Lord Beaverbrook, who was a Nazi sympathizer), published in 1940, finally woke the British people up to who exactly was responsible for the disaster they were in (it was only a partial list, naturally, there were a whole lot more)
Current book: “The Gathering Storm” by Churchill
Neville Chamberlain deserves a psychiatric hospital or two in his name. Did you know that the man who sold out Czechoslovakia to Hitler at Munich in 1938 was STILL looking for ways to appease Hitler in May 1940, after Britain and Germany had been at war for 8 months!
Chamberlain was as looney as Hitler was in April 1945, directing imaginary armies in the defense of Berlin. In 1940, Chamberlain was convinced that giving even more to Hitler would achieve world peace. The invasion of Holland, Belgium, Luxembourg, and France on May 10 quickly disabused him of that notion.
AFTER ALL THAT, King George VI wanted to replace him with an aristocrat, a Nazi sympathizer as Prime Minister. In one last and probably painful gasp of sanity, Chamberlain told him no, they must have Churchill. (The Tories, the Conservative Party, had a virtual monopoly on the government and could put in whom they would.)
Rufus, the song is in two parts: the first details the early days as the Russians are pushed remorselessly back to the gates of Moscow. The second part of the song is the part you’re thinking of, set 4 years later… “Two broken Tigers on fire in the night… Flicker their souls to the wind… We wait in the lines for the final approach to begin… It’s been almost four years that I’ve carried a gun… At home, it’ll almost be Spring… the flames of the Tigers are lighting the Road to Berlin…”
Ah, missed that, Grumpy. Thanks! Sorry for the dissertation, I have literally been cramming up on British ’30s politics in recent weeks and had to tell somebody even if they didn’t care lol.
Fun-filled fact:
Our 4th round pick has punted 7 times in the 3 games of the 2019 season. 49ers total punt return yardage given up?
0
Yeah kid’s got a strong leg and air time which is key getting downfield and a laying a lick.And he’s also had a few punts dropped inside the 5 ? I believe..
What was also cool ,was when the 49ers blocked ex punter Pinion kick in week1!! Fuck that guy!!
Yep. Good stuff.
I think we punted 7 times in the first half of the first game last year.
Csal game starting. Want to see Evan Weaver their DE. Tall and rangy, and only 220 but he’s a tackling machine,
I have this exact t shirt. It’s an XXL that wouldn’t fit a 4th grader and you can read the newspaper through it, but I bought it in 1978 in the Stick parking lot. A cherished keepsake.
2 for $10.00.
Nice Chuck!!
I still have the original gold satin jacket with red sleeves that spells out FORTY NINERS!! You would see a lot in their 81 championship season..Now a collectors item.
I bought a replica one of those for my son last year. It’s pretty sweet. If it ever gets cold in Santa Clara I’ll wear that thing, with the tshirt of course.
Speaking of Fleetwood Mac . . . this song should be 15 minutes long.
This futile blog needs to be IMPEACHED!