Forty Niners Forever

Yeah, I’m stumped. I guess we are just too hurt to play any kind of consistent football. Against Atlanta we controlled the lines and win fairly easily. Yesterday we were dominated ginormously on both sides of the line and lost pretty badly to a 2-5 Texans team.

Yeah, they have a good defense, but our defense decided to go back to the tried and true soft zone with a 4 man rush. All that resulted in was a bunch of long-ass drives that led to scores.

Still and all, if the offense could have done anything fucking right, they could have put up a fight. I don’t know. Purdy and Pearsall may never play football again based on “they’re getting closer” but I guess they are crawling out of the trainer’s room. Jones is getting tired of getting slammed on just about every drop-back and isn’t hitting his spots. The run game vanished again.

Can’t really understand how the Texans are sucking so bad with that defense. Seattle made them look silly with pressure and spotted Houston 4 turnovers and still won handily.

As good as Shanny and Saleh coached the Rams and Falcons games this year, they equally sucked balls in this game and the Tampa Bay game. Not sure where we go from here. Other than New York. Another sub-.500 team. Another east coast game. That seems to be a challenge for us.

. . . seems to be receding. Are we going backwards? Or are we in the math conundrum where the train never gets out of the tunnel? The theory is, when the train is half way through, you cut that amount in half. Then when it gets halfway through that, you cut it in half again. And again, and again. If numbers are infinite, the train never gets out.

Just like Brock Purdy and Ricky Pearsall never get out of the trainer’s room. They are halfway to the door, then another half, and ano . . . you get it. Both are scratches from the (WEEK 8!) Houston game. The good news is that Kittle came back and had the wherewithal to bring the run game with him on his return. And we have new injurries to Renardo Green, Jake Brendel, and Bryce Huff.

That being said, this game coming up should be a cakewalk. At least that is what you would think for a 2-4 team that is going nowhere offensively. But as we have shown, we can play down to the worst of them level-wise. They have a fairly stout defense under our previous DC DeMeco Ryans. 4th in YPG, and 1st in points/game. They defend the pass well, but that should play into our suddenly successful run game.

Their offense on the other hand is a bit of a mess. We should be able to shut them down better than they can shut us down.

But as usual turnovers and special teams go a long way to determining winners in these days of parity.

24-10 Niners

Well, add Bryce Huff and Jake Brendel to the injury woodpile. In a season where no good game goes unpunished, both Huff and Brendel suffered hamstring injuries and both will miss ‘a couple weeks’ per Shanahan. Didn’t see when Huff went down, but Matt Hennessey did pretty well in Brendel’s absence.

In other news, Purdy likely misses another game with his bad toe. No word on Pearsall but Kittle made it through the game OK.

Star of the game was Tatum Bethune. He being a 7th round (almost Mr Irrelevant himself) pick last year who replaced the irreplaceable Fred Warner had 10 solo tackles and called a great game as the defense shut down the #1 rush offense. Bethune of course is the reason that 3rd round pick Nick Martin has been relegated to healthy scratch.

This misbegotten trainwreck of a season seems to be somehow managing to stay on the tracks despite a slew of injuries that are noticeably worse than last year’s 6-11 debacle. Yet here we are at 5-2 after winning another game against an opponent that was riding high. Atl was flush with a crushing win over the Buffaloes as Bijan Robinson ran and received for 238 yards. The Niners were licking their wounds with the loss of the heart and soul of the defense, Fred Warner, and the stumbling fumbling loss to the Tampa Bay Bucs.

So, naturally the defense stood very tall and limited BRob to 50 on the ground and 92 total yards as the 49ers clamped down on the Atlanta offense and held then to 10 points. They even got a couple sacks, including a stripsack by Bryce Huff (thanks Philly), and the recovery by rookie soon-to-be sensation Alfred Collins. He of the game-saving forced fumble/recovery against the Rams.

The offense was powered by the return of the run game, as CMC ran for 129 and caught for 72 for a huge 201 yard day. This of course was helped immensely by the return of George Kittle. He caught no passes but his blocking was key. That being said, I did see a lot of odd motions from Juice as he would veer back into the run lanes pre-snap and create some holes. Shanny actually changing looks up and getting much better push up front. This seemed to happen after Brendel went down and Hennessey took over but I need to watch the game again.

All told though, this was a game that they can hopefully hold on to as they keep going. The proof is in the turnover battle. Yesterday was even (1 each). Our 2 losses we are 0-6. So, stop fucking up . . .

Out of town this weekend so I’m putting this up now.

Not sure how important this game is, but we need all the wins we can get when we can get them. At some point we’ll get our players back. I guess. Will they be able to win? Can we win now?

PS – Fuck the Dodgers

Sez Shanahan. Happy happy joy joy.

This is what our season has come to. Which QB is less injured. Jones will get more reps at this point, but what it all means is still undetermined. Just wondering when we get the word Adrian Martinez was injured in the shower after practice and is on the IR for the next month.

Good news is that George Kittle is back. Will he be blocking all the time? I guess it should help the run game some. But the DNP list is still way too long.

For all the kudos Shanahan got for gutting out the Ram win, it was oppositely as awful for the Tampa game.

Not sure where we go from here. It sure don’t look up, dogs.

Yeah, we shoulda had 11 guys on the field for that fateful play. Woulda Warner got hurt had there been enough guys? Shoulda been otherwise. Who knows? Here we are teetering on another lost season full of injuries and what coulda been.

Is Purdy gonna play? Kittle? BA? Pearsall? Jennings? Shanahan says words that amount to nothing.

Will the line learn how to block this week? Can the defense overcome the loss of both Bosa and Warner? I don’t know, but that easy schedule of patsies certainly doesn’t look like patsies anymore. The Falcons just rocked and rolled the Buffalo Bills using a strong run game and pressure on Josh Allen.

What do we have to show? Not a hell of a lot. Robert Saleh seems reluctant to blitz as our coverage is soft and leaky, but this is simply how we lost last year. Never giving up big plays, but giving up 16 small ones.

As of now I’m seriously bummed that we are pissing away another season full of hope as Kittle, Warner, Bosa, and even young guys like Pearsall and Jennings, cool their asses on the sidelines and we hope against hope they somehow figure how to overcome the decimation.

Well, we are witnessing the downfall of yet another season due to injury. The Kyle Shanahan era is one that has been ravaged by injury during 5 of his 8 seasons.

This season? Well, despite our 4-2 record, we’ve lost our starting QB, TE, WR1, WR2, WR3, DE, MLB, LG, FS, and a shit-ton of backups. So, I don’t think this team is in the fix-it-now mode. They shouldn’t be throwing draft picks to patch up the holes in Good Ship Niner. They need to save all their picks top fix the O line.

Yesterday’s game was flat atrocious as TB, a team with 10 sacks in 5 games, got 6 sacks, 12 hurries, and 2 picks. The O line play is beyond abysmal, and whatever good feelings were there after the Rams game were quickly squashed on the very 1st play from offense when Kendrick Bourne turned right, and Jones threw left, and TB was gifted a TD.

Then Fred Warner went down with a very nasty ankle injury as the braintrust forgot to get an RDE into the game and the running play went right at the gap. After this I thought we would struggle. But Saleh went into Sorensen mode and simply didn’t want to risk blitzing.

Despite that, the game was in reach until Baker Mayfield somehow managed to avoid the entire 49ers defense on a 3rd and 14 scramble. After that I told my buddies, next play is a TD bomb. Baker’s gonna take a shot. Sure enough, it came to pass.

Yeah, we got a supposedly easy schedule, but until they fucking throw anyone out there besides Coby, who was just non-existent, Puni, who is having a gigantic sophomore slump, Brendel, who is just mediocre at best, Trent Williams, who is routinely getting pushed backwards into Jones’ lap, and McKivitz, who is the stalwart as the 28th best RT, this line can’t block a box of kleenex.

Maybe we regroup to beat some shitty teams, but really, this team cannot survive in the playoffs unless Purdy somehow comes back and fixes the immense red zone issues also plaguing this team.

AGAIN.

8 FGs and 3 TDs these last 2 games.

East coast trip, banged up backup QB, two more defensive players down, but only given 3.5? TB’s pretty banged up themselves, but I’d put our IR list against anyone’s. I have a bad feeling about this game, but then again I had a bad feeling vs the Rams. Mayfield is playing well, and they are putting up points

Shanahan does deserve credit for rallying the troops for that game, and for designing a solid game plan. He even threw on 1st down on 1st and goal, and a play action pass on 2nd and goal for touchdowns.

Course the next time in the red zone Shanny went his usual conservative route and he nearly killed Jones. Kyle has to figure out that if we can’r run between the 20s, it ain’t gonna work on the goal line.

28-20 Niners. If Jones survives. If it’s Adrian Martinez, then all bets are off.

Whither the pass rush? With Nick Bosa gone, there’s talk of us trading for guys like Trey Hendrickson for Mac Jones, or even (I don’t) Chase (running backs) Young. Sorry no. We would have to trade the farm for Hendrickson, and then we’d have to try and sign him AND deal with Bosa and his upcoming deal. And we already got a good dose of the Chase Young experience.

I’d much rather go the mid-level route. Saint Curtis Granderson should be a guy that wouldn’t cost and arm and a leg. Cam Jordan of the Saints would also be a solid get. Jaelan Phillips of the Dolphins (sell sell sell!) wouldn’t cost too much either. We don’t need a world-beater at this point. Just someone who can do the job fairly well. They SHOULD do something.

As for the game? I don’t know. I’ve got a bad feeling about this Buccaneers game. They are an explosive offense what with the resurgence of Baker Mayfield. A little bit like the solid job Jones is doing.

They are a bit bacnged up as well, with 3 CBs and a safety all on the questionable list. If we can protect Jones, we need to beat them through the air. They are a great run defense, and we are LAST in rushing average per attempt.

All about the turnovers. We are among the bottom-feeders with our -3. Amazingly, we are on 12 games without an interception, but have caused 5 recovered fumbles. TB is +3 which is a long way from where we are.

Funny thing is, Brock is responsible for 5 of the 8 turnovers in his 2 games. So with him gone we are at +2.

What I just can’t fathom is we are bottom-feeders in turnovers, sacks, red zone efficiency, 1st and goal efficiency, and rushing average. Yet we are 4-1. and we are riddled with injuries.

But we kick ass at getting yards between the 20s. We are the #1 passing attack in the NFL.