Well, this improbable season got even more improbable as the out-manned 49ers overcame a tough Philly defense, Saquan running all over us, Kittle being lost for what looks like a long time, and two flat awful picks by Purdy.
CMC had proved his worth 2x his weight in gold as he caught 2 passes, one an absolute stud play on the Jennings flea flicker that stunned the Philly crowd. The run game wasn’t there, but they did enough late to keep the chains moving.
Purdy? Well, losing all your weapons, and not having Kittle for most of it, proved to be tough. His picks were simply poor throws. The line actually played fairly well, and gave him time. But in the end he made the throws, Robinson had his best game as a Niner, Jennings had his one big 45 yard play, and an absolute dime thrown to CMC, and the offense started out on fire with a couple huge gainers to take the early lead.
It was a little hard for me to enjoy this as the 1st half went on seeing the soft zone give up 3rd downs. Yet another 3rd and 15 was given up. Well 14 yards and a tush push, but Saleh adjusted, putting 5 on the line in the 3rd and slowed the run game. Nick Sirianni obliged by trying to run against our adjustment and we slowed them down through most of the 2nd half, outscoring them 13-6.
Stick a feather in Shanahan’s cap for overcoming a 1st half deficit, and overcoming a 16-10 Philly lead in the 4th quarter.
Back we go to Seattle. Gonna be a dogfight.
San Francisco 49ers Forever 
Fuck Harbaugh, but I’m still rooting for the Chargers!
What an all around amazing and gritty win. Some key tackles by our linebackers and db’s were nice to see. I didn’t think we had much of a chance when Kittle went down but this team just stepped up everywhere. Definitely a memorable game.
Kendrick and the LBs had a much better game when Saleh put 5 on the line and brought the LBs closer.
Sirianni got schooled.
Amazing game. Frankly, I am quite surprised that we beat last year’s SB winners at their home. Niners can savor this win and use it as motivation against the Seahawks.
New England is absolutely beating the fuck out of Herbert.
This is awesome if it’s not some AI shit, looks real though:
https://www.facebook.com/reel/1403250234799500/?mibextid=9drbnH&s=yWDuG2&fs=e
Who’s got it better than the Chargers?
The Patriots! and Herbert knows it,he can file assault charges for bodily harm..
Complain all you want about Saleh, but he coached these scrubs to be winners, doesn’t matter what game plan he put together, the players have to get the job done. Does not matter who got hurt, next man up showed he could play. They seemed to always make the play when needed, with Al that has happened to the defense it is quite surprising to see the Niners in contention for going to the SB. So far it is “what a long strange trip it’s been”
He finally made adjustments in the 2nd half.
He brought 5 to the line and brought the LBs up to stop the Philly run game. it worked.
Saleh is the guy that wants to play “all gas, no brakes”.
He can’t, he doesn’t have the horses. He has had to play schemes that in the big picture give the team the best chance to win.
Its not pretty, it’s not exciting, it’s not sexy, but it is as effective as it can be given the circumstances.
If you pay attention, even when he puts 5 or 6 on the line he very rarely brings them, the extra player drops back at the snap. If he is really blitzing he does it mostly with a safety.
Just by bringing 5 up slowed Barkley to a crawl. They did a MUCH better job on 3rd down in the 2nd half by showing blitz and actually doing it a few times.
All I want from Saleh, and we didn’t do it vs Seattle, was SHOW blitz. Put 5 on the line. Bring pressure on 3rd down. Show different looks.
And yeah, we gave up ANOTHER 3rd and 15 on cover 2 soft zone.
Firdt time I’ve really watched NE and they have a fucking dangerous defense.
Fuck the schedulers. We play Saturday.
Tig Brown got hurt and they were forced to play the rookie Sigle again. Sigle tied for the most tackles at 7, in very limited playing time, and he had zero missed tackles.
Wtf, maybe they can let the kid play?
The team has Stout and Sigle in the backfield and Williams, Collins and West on the D line all as starters moving forward.
Martin, Watkins and James are relatively unknown but have raw talent, James has so far earned the coaches trust.
Rourke and Colby are developmental pieces and only Bergen has not made the grade so far.
Its still too early to grade but what a home run draft so far. Saved the Niners bacon this year.
It seems like when Collins and West are in the game, we are much better against the run. Collins will even get a little pressure on the QB now and then.
I think that’s why Miami wants to talk to 3 of our top scouting guys.
Colin Cowherd said Saleh kept the defense together with Bondo and duct tape.
If D Robinson has a game against Seattle like the the Eagles he will replace Pearsall! That is my prediction, especially if Pearsall does not play in at least 15 games next year.
Robinson is 31. He’s not a long-term guy.
A lot of sports analysts think Kyle should be considered for coach of the year.
Respectfully disagree with them. I think Shanahan still has a lot to prove. Specifically, as AK pointed out over a week ago, Shanahan was 1-38 going into the 4th quarter trailing. Now, he is 2-39 . . . Meh.
In my mind, he is a brilliant coach, but ONLY if his “scripted” game plan works out. Throw a little bit of chaos into the game, particularly late in the game and he has few answers. Okay, that’s looking backwards – I hope what I wrote is not “his future” and he can bring us a Superbowl win 9 seasons at the helm.
*after 9 seasons at the helm.
My guess is Vrable(sp). What he has done with the Pats is phenomenal. And that will be guaranteed if they win the SB.play calling this year
Shanny has done a way better job of play calling this year. But he didn’t call the play where Jennings tossed the TD Kubiac did. And pretty much everyone knows that without Saleh we wouldn’t be here.
Salen had me very angry in the 1st half when the defense yet again gave up a 3rd and 15 (well, 14 yards and a tush push) playing soft zone and dropping the LBs.
Saleh gets a LOT of kudos though for changing up the defense to start the 2nd half. Barkley went 15 carries for 81 yards on the ground after the 1st drive of the 2nd half, and only had 10 carries for 25 the rest of the way. Saleh showed a lot more 5 man fronts, threw in a couple zero blitzes, and he showed a lot of 6-7 man fronts. Not really sure why the Eagles stopped attacking us deep. If not for the drops, the game would have been different. And shit was working pretty well. That’s on Sirianni and whoever calls their plays.
Shanahan’s biggest adjustment was getting Juice involved a lot more for checkdowns. And Demarcus Robinson finally had a big game. Maybe Shanny got in Purdy’s ear after that Seattle debacle, but those checkdowns to CMC and Juice got a lot of yards. Coach of the year? Pretty sure Shanny couldn’t give a fuck.
Maybe Saleh finally trusts his LBs to make the right reads and is giving them more responsibility. They sure did move closer to the line in the 2nd half. And they really played well down the stretch. Wallow had 11 tackles and Kendricks 10.
A vast improvement over the Seattle game.
Getting Wallow from the Broncos may be the biggest steal of the season.
Patulo (sp) is the soon to be fired OC for Eagles making the calls cause Sirianni is incapable to do that..Both Shanahan &Saleh COMPLETELY out schooled Sirianni &the supposed DC genius Vic Fangio starting with the 1st opening drive fantastic play calling that atleast at the moment showed the 49ers came into play and not fold!
Btw…An extra STICK IT UP YOUR ASS to the “MOST THUG CLASSLESS FANBASE “in football, the Eagles Fans were cheering “GOODBYE “ when Kittle was carted off with his Achilles tendon injury, guessing they figured the game was in the bag now.Niners had other ideas about that ,and yes extra props to the unsung players like Wallow(who?)Kendrick both coming in only a few weeks back and were different makers even Shanny acknowledged in his team celebration speech!
No love lost for Rodgers but it would be pretty funny if he won a playoff game.
Been 8 years since Pitts won one?
Damn. 10 years.
So much for Rodgers. He goes out not with a bang but with a whimper. If he goes out. He got them to the playoffs I guess.
Wonder if Pittsburgh moves on from Tomlin. 0-7 in the playoffs in the last 10 years. That’s a lot of playoff failure.
In his last game, a strip-sack-TD and a pick 6 for the last throw in his career!
He may play another season just to avoid that ignominy.
It’s painful watching any Steelers game FOREVER unless you like 12-9 games every week, they are the most boring team in football and watching an old grumpy Rodgers blaming anyone but himself makes it even worse as he kept suckering money over dumb teams for to long now!Please just retire and don’t forget to blame your receiver on your last NFL throw that it wasn’t my fault it got picked off it was yours!
I think for Saleh and Shanahan it’s less about what you would like to do and more about what your players are capable of doing. Saleh I think has a group of guys he is pleasantly surprised about including Sigle Kendricks and others. They kept philly out of the end zone entire 2nd half and limited damage done by Barkley. I think cbs guys are right, and Saleh getting this group of no names and fill ins this far makes him look pretty good as head coach candidate
Similarly Shanny and purdy got in the end zone when they needed to at the end despite issues on TOP and problems running ball for 23. Only thing that matters in the end is scoreboard, not style points.
Mike Tomlin stepping down after 19 seasons with the Steelers..
I’ve been hard on juice this year as I generally think he’s not been an impact player. Having said that, he deserves major props for his play in that game.
CMC is not the same RB he was in 23 and it’s not close. He no longer has the burst and power to break tackles the way he once did. He is still an amazing player, but those between the tackles runs are largely ineffective. He has great value in the passing game and in blitz pickup, but his pure running needs to be split with Robinson who has been more effective statistically than CMC per yard. Shanahan isn’t going to do that, but he should.
Purdy is such an interesting QB. He does amazing things over and over and has ice in his veins, but every game he does something that give his haters fuel.
The NFL schedulers somehow gave the Rams and Bears 8 days between games and the 49ers 6 days for the 3rd time in 4 games, what’s up?
Saleh is in a damned if you do, damned if you don’t position, but is doing well enough to give the team a shot at winning. Im a big fan and he deserves his second shot as a HC, but it will be his last so choose wisely.
I’m on Ricky Pearsall watch and running out of empathy fast. If the knee hurts, shoot it up, put on your big girl panties and go play, your team needs you. If you need an example looks at Williams, Trent, who risked making that hammy way worse for his team.
Shanahan has no choice choice now but to play Tonges because Farrell just isn’t very good and didn’t play well last game, again. Tonges looks like the equal to Kittle in the pass catching department, which is a huge compliment. His blocking is not close.
CJ West doesn’t go backwards on run plays and always gets push on passing plays. Collins is similar but pad level means he gets stood up too easily. Both are playing way beyond what’s expected of rookies. I keep waiting to see what Valdez (hulk) can do on 3rd down but it doesn’t appear we will see it barring more D line injuries.
I give the Niners more than a punchers chance on Saturday, but at some point all these devastating injuries will make a big enough difference. If they win the turnover battle and get an extra possession or two I can see a 49ers win.
Well, you get that Saleh changed his fronts, right? We were running 4 man fronts all through the 1st half (and the most of the Seattle game), and changed to a 5 man front in the 2nd half. He also brought the LBs in closer to the line in the 2nd half. It slowed Barkley down.
I wonder if Kendricks just somehow gained Saleh’s trust, or if Wallow really makes that big a difference. Because with Robinson and Bethune out there in the Seattle game, they were a lot less effective as a group.
Looked to me as though he could afford to risk a little more with how Wallow,Kendricks played.
In other news, Jim Harbaugh finally fired his OC Greg Roman, he of the junior high school game plans.
LOL!!! Man, he’s running a version of the Dick Nolan 1970 49ers offesne of 3 yards and a cloud of dust.
9 yes count them 9 H/C jobs are now available, more then a quarter of the 32 teams looking for their next fearless leader(has to be a record of openings right?).Sure glad the Niners have Shanahan in place as he moves up the ladder in the longest tenure coach I guess now?
I assume Harbaugh ,Tomlin&Stefanski will be on speed dial for 3 of them?
Speaking of speed dial , I know the dumbshit Raiders have the 1st pick and should take Quarterback Mendoza, would they atleast call his Indiana coach Cigiani and offer him the moon to coach him with the Raiders and young talent like RB Jeanty ( just draft OL heavy( hmm sounds like the Niners)DL help and WR’s help for sure..
Yeah it’s sounds crazy and he now runs a powerhouse program with plenty of alums/sponsors/TV etc money like a ton of college teams now but in these crazy times and I believe salary caps are not included in a NFLcoaches salary why not??
U of Indy spent something like $750 million over the past couple years to upgrade their football program. Apparently is paid off. College hoops is a cash cow for the NCAA and colleges, but football is the white whale. I mean, look at all the goddamn meaningless bowl games ESPN trots out there. And the attendance for 75% of them is below 8,000 folks.
I guess Notre Dame gets props for saying “Fuck your Tidy Man Toilet Bowl. We ain’t fucking playing that shit, homie.”
The Raiders have done plenty of dumb things. That wouldn’t be too dumb.
And yeah, Mendoza is 100% a Raider.
New thread is up.