A funny thing happened on the way to the usual dick-tripping-over-late-game clusterfuck-catastrophe this team seems to have perfected. They got ept late in the game! You know, the opposite of inept. After stumbling, bumbling, dropping passes, and penalty-ing their way to a 13-9 deficit at the half in Soldier Field, Chicago, the 49ers awoke from their four-and-a-half game malaise and strung together some competent compelling football in the 2nd half.
After giving up a field goal to start the 2nd half that put the Niners down 16-9, the 49ers scored TOUCHDOWNS on THREE straight drives to put a game but fair-to-middling team out of their misery. The Niners even added a FG on their 4th drive. Amazingly Shanny did a couple notable things. He went no-huddle to stop the Bears from subbing out their defense and quickened the tempo to attack their defense. He made adjustments!! He threw deep!! And. It. Fucking. WORKED! If not for a bad pass by Jimmy after the 50 yard bomb to Samuel, the 49ers would have gone into halftime up 14-13. Shanny also overcame a 7+ point 2nd half deficit for the first time. Strange as that may sound, he’s never done that. Maybe the old sod is learning something. He also stuck with the run game even when the game was not decided yet. Mitchell had a fantastic day, as did Deebo. Mitchell had 137 yards, and Deebo 171 in their respective positions. Brandon Aiyuk even had 4 for 45.
Gone were the sideline out routes that get picked off. Jimmy looked very solid throwing on the move, and hitting passes over the middle. You know, the stuff he does well. Kinda nice that the coach sticks with what the quarterback does well. Jimmy even added a couple rushing TDs to punctuate his homecoming. Best play of the game however was the 3rd down and 20 *gulp* bubble screen that Deebo took for 83 yards and a near-score.
The defense? Well, they had their usual problems with a guy like Justin Fields. A mobile guy who ran for over 100 yards, but we also got to him for 4 sacks. His 23 yard TD run 4th down run nearly cost me my remote. I’ll tell you one thing, it irks me to no end to see Nick Bosa flying inside on fakes and completely giving up the edge. This has been an issue with him since his entrance into the NFL, but it doesn’t take away the impact he has on the field. he and his invisible pass rushing budy Arik Armstead are on the field a lot more than they should be, but with everyone going down on defense, we are what we are. The walking wounded.
The Niners played the CBs WAY off the WRs early presumably to avoid the slew of PI calls that they have been suffering. it sure allowed for a lot of easy throws for Fields, and it was infuriating to watch, but as the game moved along, the coverage got a little tighter, and the line got more and more pressure. Fields ended up going 17/27 but only 175 yards. Jimmy G for comparison was 17/28 for a much better 328. Running, Herbert and Fields ended up with 175 yards between them but, man we are down to third string linebackers and 2nd string D linemen all across the line. Along with the injuries to our secondary.
Anyhow, this isn’t a huge deal, but hey, it sure feels better to win a game like this rather than lose. Can they build on this? Maybe. But Shanahan needs to put together a game plan that works for an entire game to be able to beat teams like the Cards and the Rams. Our next two opponents. If we want to reel in the teams above us, winning the next 2 games will go a long way in getting there. It’s a long fucking season and we aren’t even halfway done.
San Francisco 49ers Forever 
And that fucking Clown gets Post of the Day!!
I actually missed a lot of the game. I suffered through most of the 1st half and then decided to do some yardwork while the fleeting sun was out. Since I am totally superstitious I may have to miss some of the game next week. I always have something to do in the yard so that is no problem.
It was nice just watching the highlights for a change.
And because it’s the 49ers the hits just keep on coming..Elijah Mitchell suffered a rib injury late in the game, there hoping it’s not to serious for his availability this coming weekend..
Damm they need this guy he’s hitting his stride, I don’t want the usual BS next guy up mentality I want Mitchell in there! Take a few days off, get treatment and be ready for Sunday..
https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2021/11/02/texans-trade-charles-omenihu-to-49ers/
49ers trade for Charles Omenihu, a ppass rushing DE from the Texans for a late round pick.
6′ 5″ 280 lb, he was a fith rounder in 2019. Pretty solid guy. 4 sacks last year in 7 starts.
Can we get a corner? Trade Sermon for something. We have Wilson, Mostert, and Hasty. Of course they never seem to be healthy, but really we need a CB in the worst way.
Get Kyle Fuller from the Broncos since they are in sales mode.
Developing story…
Raiders WR Henry Ruggs charged with DUI resulting
in death of another person following traffic collision in Las Vegas..
Wow!
I don’t know if it’s the same or not but they usually charge you with vehicular manslaughter. In Calf. that’s 15 to life. Gonna be interesting to see how Las Vegas handles this. Rugg’s just made a life changing decision though by driving.
In Vegas that is 2 days in jail and a $50.00 fine.
No idea really, but Donte Stallworth got 30 days in jail (in Fla) for vehicular DUI manslaughter. He was suspended for the 2009 season.
And I’m sure the family got a big fat check.
Yeah, I remember that.
Ruggs was drinking heavily at a Top Golf Facility ( actually I’ve been to that place) posting a video around and instead of getting a Uber for chump change he hopped into his Corvette and plowed into the rear of a Toyota Rav 4 engulfed the whole rig into a fireball that killed the driver inside.Theirs a video of it from TMZ ( are those guys everywhere are what?) at 3:40 am when the crash happened.Thoughts and prayers to the family who lost a loved one due to an irresponsible idiot, who’s life is over along with his football career! Guess Ruggs suffered a hip injury and was taken to a hospital, probably didn’t feel a thing being so wasted.
It’s a pity the Niners don’t get to play the Bears, Eagles and Lions every week.
The Cardinals, even without Kyler the squirrel (he might play) will be a bigger test and the Rams the following week is no less so.
I’m not a believer based off of the Bears game, but even a split of those games keeps them in the running.
Like Chuck said, why they didn’t try to get a corner at the trade deadline is a head scratcher, all the more so because they aren’t playing either rookie, presumably because they aren’t good enough to start yet.
Shannalynch are probably being to conservative worrying about the future.
One or both of them may not be there to see it through if they can’t get this SB ready roster playing up to its hype.
Yeah, last years draft centers around Lance if he turns out to be dud it will be an epic failure, one like we have never seen before. Mitchell looks like a keeper and hopefully at least one of the cb’s pan out. But it looks like Banks and Serman are wasted picks and that really hurts. I have lost faith in both Shanny and Lynch. And, I know Lynch is a gamer so either he’s getting some bogus reports or else he’s not very good at evaluating.
Yeah, trading up for Pettis and Joe Williams, and even Aiyuk, are all questionable moves. Let alone the 1st round picks they’ve wasted.
The one thing they did was they dropped the corners to avoid the deep pass/PI problems. That’s why Chicago was going up and down the field at will early on.
I foresee the same thing esp if Murray is playing. They don’t want to give up the big play. I wonder if we will ever go cover 2 with our safeties. I think both Tartt and Ward got hurt, so I don’t know what’s gonna happen, but we rarely go 2 deep safeties. If we were healthier at LB I’m sure we might drop our guys to help with the deep passes.
Look at how teams are playing KC now. It is with both safeties deep so Hill doesn’t get free downfield. Mahomes is forced to dink and dunk, and he seems to be really averse to doing that. He’s forcing balls into coverage and throwing picks. Plus their defense sucks.
We looked very weak on the D line, but again we are losing guys everywhere. Loke the guy we traded for today.
In other moves, the Niners released Joey (not so) Slye. I guess this means Robbie Gould is on his way back. They also released LB Tyrell Adams.
Confirmed: Kittle, Wilson, and Gould are all ready to come off the IR. Kittle and Gould being the closest.
From the Athletic Tim Kawakami
here are the main things that have gone wrong for the 49ers so far in 2021:
The 49ers’ 2020 and 2021 early-round picks have given them almost nothing this season
Quietly, the 49ers are duplicating the Rams’ method of wiping away all of their premium draft picks, except the 49ers don’t trade their first- and second-round selections for key veterans, they just mostly miss on those picks.
Wait, did I just write that? That’s mean! I should be fair and point out that the 49ers landed both Nick Bosa and Deebo Samuel in 2019’s first two rounds and they’re both quite good. And they’ll play Lance at some point. I think he’s good, but nobody knows quite yet on that one.
Beyond that? Well, the 49ers had two first-round picks in 2020, Javon Kinlaw with the 14th pick (now out for the season after knee surgery and will miss 15 combined games in his first two 49ers seasons) and Brandon Aiyuk with the 25th pick (recently re-emerging as a key pass catcher after a bizarre early-season interlude when he seemed to have lost Shanahan and Garoppolo’s trust). That is not a solid current return on two premium selections.
Let’s go to this year: After taking Lance, the 49ers used a second-round pick to select guard Aaron Banks (couldn’t beat out right guard Daniel Brunskill and hasn’t played a single offensive snap so far) and third-round picks on Trey Sermon (inactive the last two games despite the 49ers’ running back injuries) and Ambry Thomas (inactive in five of the first seven games). Very non-solid return for those selections.
Hey, I’m all for avoiding instant reactions on young players. Sometimes it takes a lot more than one season to judge a player’s ultimate value. But it’s not a good sign for the future of high-round rookies when their coaches won’t even play them halfway through the season. Is that a personnel issue or a coaching issue for the 49ers? Probably a combination of both. There clearly have been some draft misses. And Shanahan is particularly tough on offensive skill-position players, dating back to 2018 second-round pick Dante Pettis. But the ones that make it through generally are terrific.
There just haven’t been enough of them for the 49ers recently. In the five drafts of the Lynch/Shanahan era, the 49ers have produced six proven offensive or defensive starters — Kittle, Mike McGlinchey, Warner, Bosa, Samuel and Dre Greenlaw. Add in punter Mitch Wishnowsky. Meanwhile, Lance, Aiyuk, Kinlaw, Elijah Mitchell and one or two others could or should get to that level.
The defense isn’t nearly as talented as it was in 2019
On Monday, I pointed out that the defense has been handed plenty of opportunities to crumble under the strain of the 49ers’ offensive struggles, and the 49ers’ defensive players and coaches have held up fine. Workable. Solid enough. Coordinator DeMeco Ryans and his group are game for this. Which is good to know.
But this column isn’t about grading on a curve. Taking a hard look at what’s going on, this not only isn’t a great defense, I’m not sure it has the pieces, especially in the secondary, to be a great defense this year.
Sure, the 49ers haven’t been dominated by any opponent offense in seven games, and that’s important. But they sure haven’t dominated anybody for a full game, either, and I am not sure how they can unless Bosa wins a game or two almost by himself. That’s possible. Not probable, especially without Buckner beside him anymore.
There’s been so much attrition that I think even the 49ers’ brass would agree that it’s time to stop comparing anything to 2019. They’re not close. They’ve lost Buckner, Sherman and coordinator Robert Saleh, among others. Kinlaw isn’t another Buckner. That just isn’t happening. And Ford likely will never play at the sustained level he was able to get to for much of 2019.
The rest of 2021 will be about piecing it together on defense. Some teams have won a lot of games that way — rush the passer, play bend-but-don’t-break against the best offenses, hang on tight against power running teams, try to get a key takeaway or two, hope the cornerbacks don’t commit two 40-yard penalties per game. Just survive, basically, and maybe the 49ers can win a few more games in the 30s.
What’s Shanahan doing with Garoppolo and Lance?
I’ll quickly give my omnibus theory for Shanahan’s occasionally confusing handling of the QB situation (note: just a theory!): Maybe he really wanted to draft Mac Jones because he believes a pure pocket passer is ideal for his system, moved off that when team scouts and execs argued for Lance, was excited by Lance’s vast talents when the 49ers selected him, felt good about it through OTAs and most of training camp, talked about a two-QB system in the regular season … and then Shanahan decided he really wanted a pocket passer after all. At least for 2021.
So from an outside perspective, it’s been fits and starts; there have been hints about Lance getting a lot of playing, then it’s been mostly Garoppolo with suggestions that Lance simply isn’t ready to run Shanahan’s system. There was the one-week interlude in the Arizona game last month when Garoppolo was injured and Lance played. And in that loss, Shanahan backed up my theory by stripping down his offense for Lance and running him 16 times.
I think Shanahan wanted Jones. I think it’s hard for him to stop thinking about the initial plan when he came here with Lynch, which was to wait a season and then sign pocket-passer Kirk Cousins. I think Garoppolo, at this point, still fits Shanahan’s picture of what he wants his offense to be. But I don’t think Shanahan is purposely tanking Lance’s season; he just doesn’t want Lance to play right now. Shanahan maybe needs more time to adapt to a multidimensional QB in his system. Or to adjust his system.
By the way, I think Lance’s ability to run the ball and throw deep down field would give the 49ers a threat they could really use, even in part-time play; but it does not seem like Shanahan is ready to deploy this option any time soon.
So it’s Garoppolo, who can be good (as he was Sunday) or less than good (as he was two weekends ago in the loss to the Colts). We all know what Garoppolo is. He can win games, but he needs help. More than anything, Garoppolo needs a powerful running game, then he can work in the short-passing game from there. And it’s now clear that Shanahan wants it that way in 2021.
Jimmy also doesn’t do to well in pressure situations. I don’t know if it’s because he can’t see most of the field or what but that’s when he starts forcing balls into coverage which just doesn’t work for us.
And let’s not forget though I’m trying to,the 2019 3rd round pick #67 WR Jaylin Hurd who still has never played a regular season game!! 3 freaking years!
And to think Terry McLaurin was taken after him along with 2RB’s Darrel Henderson and David Montgomery while the 49ers threw wasted money at Jerick McKinnon instead , yeah another bust..
Kawakami must have read my shit beffore writing his article cuz I wrote it 5 days ago. The draft is the draft. Kawakami can ridicule it as much as he wants, but they have done fantastic in the later rounds. So he can blow it out his ass. Yeah, it sucks they have missed on a ton of guys, but they have found a lot of solid players overall. Not thrilled with it, but it isn’t terrible overall.
We don’t have 2019’s defense because we are down to 4th string LBs, 3rd string CBs, and 2nd string D linemen. And Arik Armstead is invisible again. The NFL is a game of attrition now. Just ask the TItans, who lost Derrick Henry. Or the Seahawks who lost RW. And AZ now that they are without Murray for 3 weeks.
Shanahan needs to stick with what workks for Jjimmy G and is crossing routes, and rollouts. He actually hit a deep pass. We’re going against Colt McCoy so the hope is we can beat that stifff.
Texans CB Vernon Hargreaves has been released.
Former #1 pick (11th) still only 26 !
Bring him in since we’re in need of cornerbacks?
Anyone is better than what we got.
Kyle Murray should be good to go for Sunday according to the latest reports.
Well, we got to chase his ass down. Wish Greenlaw was back.
I remember that by the last part of the season defenses were playing Murray pretty good. I guess they adjusted some things because he’s tearing up the league once again.
The Rams are really scary now adding Von Miller to go along with Darnold and Ramsey to an already stout Defense and a potent offense..
Great quote by Von Miller : “I went to sleep 4-4 and woke up 7-1”
And that 4-4 was a mirage.
New thread is up.