Forty Niners Forever

Home opener. Detroit Lions. Hopefully a non-eventful win. Then again you have to look at Detroit’s home opener last week for a game that got away. And if this was the previous regime, this is a game that the team would usually fall well short of expectations. Are we that team anymore?

I’d like to be sure we aren’t but that’s why the play the game, as they so oftenly say.  We are getting dinged up pretty decently so far what with Goodwin out, 2 guards out, Coyle out, and Jimmy G coming off a shit game. It’ll at least be interesting to see how he reacts to his less-than-stellar performance last week and if he gets a little less dangerous with his passes.

Any given Sunday and all that, but it looks like Patricia is already in over-his-head mode. All I know is Deetroit really pushed to upgrade their running attack, and the Jets, 24th in the league vs the run, shut them down completely.

I think we have one intrepid blogger, 12th man, going to the home opener, so I’d love to get some in-game reactions from where the action is. And this game should be one of the easier ones. Detroit spent a shit-ton to improve their run game by getting LeGarrette Blount, drafting left guard Frank Rag in the 1st round, and RB Kenyon Johnson in the 2nd round. That addition of talent netted them 33 yards in total rushing.

Without their perennially missing run game, the Jets picked off Matt Stafford 5 times. I think we can stuff their run as good as anyone. It remains to be seen if we can stop their passing game. Kirk Cousins wasn’t spectacular, but he did hit a lot of dinking and dunking to move the chains. However, Cousins was 0-6 ion 3rd downs in the 4th quarter, and the D kept the game within reach despite the pick 6 from Jimmy G. The pass rush was fair to good, but most of the passes were short and therefore not too easy to get at. Minus Tartt’s no-cigar moment on a near pick 6 of his own.

That being said, the offense is what lost the Minn game. 2 end zone picks, a dropped 60 yard bomb, a fumble on the 1, and the pick 6 that came after the dropped bomb means that 2 of the picks wouldn’t have happened had balls not been dropped. 14 point swing on those 2 plays, 14 points on the end zone drops, and the fumble means we left 35 points out there. minus the 3 FGs.

Sure the game would have been played differently had we scored all those points, but the point is, the 49ers are struggling to score in the red zone, Jimmy G did much better than the previous collective clown show at QB last year, but this team needs to show that last week was an aberration, not the norm.

Detroit. A team that just got shellacked 48-17 by the newly minted QB Sam Darnold of the New York Jets. He of USC fame and fortune. Detroit was an above .500 team last year led by Matthew Stafford. He was his usual good to decent self with 4400 yards, 29 TDs and 10 picks and a 99.3 QBR. Solid across the board. Their problem was their defense. They had a lot of losses of the 52-38 and 44-20 variety.

Stafford came out for the 2018 season by throwing 4 picks amid the slaughter at home. The Jets didn’t roll an enormous amount of yards up on them, but they didn’t have to what with the 5 turnovers (hot tub Matt Cassel chipped in with a late pick as well) and their 20 yard drives, but Darnold threw for 198 with 2 TDs and Isaiah Crowell (?) ran for 102 and a couple scores of his own.

I don’t really know what Detroit’s  offseason consisted of, other than the hooraw around new head coach Matt Patricia, and I don’t really care, but this is a game that we have to win. Home opener, high expectations, our own newly minted savior quarterback in Jimmy Garoppolo, the time is nigh to put together a game to show the fans this team is ready.

Jimmy G had his own baffling day last week, but it came against a Super Bowl favorite and the drops, yadda yadda yada. He can assure the fans he’s worth the coin delivered to him by the truckload by putting together a strong effort. Then again, we have to stop dropping the ball. Goodwin will likely be a game time decision, and he’s not gonna be full speed as it is, so Dante Pettis, who looked a little starry-eyed early but settled in nicely, needs to get his separation and catch some big passes. And fucking Albert Morris can’t fumble twice on the 1!!!

17 years ago today . . .

I haven’t been to New York since 1973, and when we were there, they were just finishing the South tower of the WTC. Flew around NYC in a helicopter and was amazed at the sheer size of the buildings.

Flash forward to 2001, and I got a phone call from a friend to tun on the TV just in time to see the 2nd plane hit that south tower. It was surreal. After watching the news for about an hour completely freaked out, I drove to work in Mountain View right next to Moffet Field and will never forget seeing a UAL jumbo jet being escorted by 2 F-16s flying really low over the Bay.

Everyone in the office was watching whatever TVs were available and crowded around them. The company I worked for then, VeriSign, had an office in tower 2 somewhere around the 60th floor (8 people), so some people were trying to get a hold of them. After a couple hours, we found out they all had gotten out safe. We all went home to just try and grasp what was going on.

I used to eat my lunches out in the parking lot for the Shoreline Pavilion and watch the planes fly in and out of Moffet. It wasn’t a lot, but it was so bizarre to see completely empty skies for the next 3 weeks, or whatever it was.

. . . of history. Well, we all saw what we saw. A young team make enough mistakes to blow a game they very well should have won. The problem is, the biggest mistakes were by a couple of vets. namely Alfred Morris and Pierre Garćon. Morris actually fumbled on two consecutive plays on the 2 yard line. He of course lost the 2nd one. Garćon dropped a touchdown pass in the end zone a couple drives later to end another drive.

Add to that a drop by Dante Pettis in the end zone that he should have fought for, and a perfectly thrown ball to George Kittle that he misjudged and dropped for a would-be 80 yard score. That mistake was followed by a bigger mistake when Kendrick Bourne ran a hitch instead of an under route, and the ball went inside instead of out for an easy pick 6, and Garoppolo missing a wide open Kittle in the end zone late to settle for another red zone field goal.

The defense played well enough to win this game, but the offense didn’t. Still and all, after the mistakes and fuckups, they still had a shot late to tie. Jimmy ended that thought with a throw into triple coverage.

The good news is the pass rush was solid early, and the defense did its job for the most part.We held their run game in check, and stopped their dink-and-dunk offense well enough to win this one. Minnesota is no offensive juggernaut, but the offense left them hanging more than a few times with the turnovers and missed opportunities. Kittle and Pettis, but for their drops, still both had solid games as Pettis caught a prefect pass from Garoppolo in the back of the end zone for the only 49er TD in the 3rd quarter, and Kittle had 5 catches for 90 yards. 6 for 170 would have been a lot nicer though.

The hope here is that this will be a learning experience. The team HAS to execute much better in the red zone. And they have to stop with the mental errors. Solly Thomas’ jumping offsides on 4th down was beyond stupid.

We come home next weekend for a battle with the Detroit Lions. Hoping for a much better result. Go Raiders! It would be something to see every NFC West team lose in the first week.

Well, good bad or indifferent, the 2018 San Francisco 49er season starts! Expectations are all over the place. All the way from 7-9 also-rans to 11-5 playoff participants. I’m wavering around 9-7 and 10-6. Even with McKinnon gone, and a couple LBs hurt (and one suspended), I think we can hang with the Vikings on the road tomorrow.

Win? Well, that’s a different story. Much depends, in my mind, on our pass rush. I think as a whole, the team ha more depth on the lines, better defensive backs, more offensive weapons, and solid specials teams play. The big but is the pass rush. The good news is Arik Armstead is back, and he takes up a lot of the offensive line’s time. Enough so to give Solly Thomas and DF Buckner room to push upfield and the LBs time to fill.

Fred Warner will be starting for Reuben Foster, and Malcolm Smith is still searching for his first play as a 49er, so we get Dekoda Wat – nope- out with a bad hammy. Uh I guess we get Elijah Lee. That may spell trouble for our short passing game defense as the weak side LB usually handles coverage duties, and Cousins throws a lot of short shit.

Again, I’m not too worried about the offense. I think we can score. Even against this defense. And they are banged up as well. I just know if we can rattle Cousins early, we should be able to win going away. Mistakes and a couple picks kill Minn’s chances.

Niners 21 – Minn 13.

And we go 10-6 . . .

So close, yet so far. the season can’t get started soon enough, but the scheduling Gods gave us a toughie as the 49ers face the NFC Championship game losing Minnesota Vikings on the road. This is the same Vikings team that stole their previous playoff game with an improbable 60 yard TD with time expiring on the clock to beat the Saints. They were so thrilled about the state of things at QB that they let Sam Bradford go, declined Teddy Bridgewater’s 5th year option, and let playoff hero Case Keenum walk to Denver so they could throw a 3 year/$84 million deal to our once and future savior, Kirk Cousins.

The NFL makes strange bedfellows, and we were gifted (maybe) our own savior in Jimmy Garoppolo in a mid-season trade while Shanny’s choice to lead us out of the wilderness is now a Vike. Certainly a storyline that will be followed by many around the league. Cousins certainly has a much better team around him, what with that defense, but we have added some weapons ourselves. Sure, we lost Jarick McKinnon, but we lost something we haven’t had, so there isn’t anything to really miss. He would be great as a pass catcher out of the backfield, but hopefully they’ve been working with Matt Brieda to pick up some of that work.

For this team, it is all about the pass rush. Our defense will go as far as Salomon Thomas, Arik Armstead, and DeForest Buckner can put pressure on the opposing QBs in the base defense. They’ve shown glimpses here and there this preseason, but Thomas looks worlds better than he did last year, and a healthy AA is imperative.

The defensive secondary has improved by a lot on paper, but we will see what happen on the field from the get-go. They face Cousins, Stafford, Mahomes, Rivers, Bradford (or Rosen), Rodgers, and Goff to start the season. Quite the who’s who of NFL QBs.

Two teams get an early kickoff to the season tomorrow as the 2017 divisional playoff game is revisited by the Atlanta Falcons and the Super Bowl Champion Philly Eagles. Should be a fun one. Foles gets the start while Wentz gets fully healthy. Atl will once again ride Matty Ice into the season.

Scrub-fest tonight in Santa Clara. The Walmart Brigade, whatever you want to call it, but of the current 86 players on the roster, 33 o them will be out of jobs, or a few young guys will be sent to the taxi squad. I suppose I’ll watch some of it mainly to see if CJ can get out of his mini-doldrums. He’s been kinda spotty this preseason, as has just about every other aspect of the team. Too many drops, too many penalties, too little pass rush, too little run game. Way too little red zone success.

But that’s why they call it preseason. Aluminum Mike Singletary used to say a win is a win is a win, whether preseason or regular season. You need to practice winning whatever the meaning. Which is why Aluminum Mike is out of coaching.  Unless you call the Alliance of American Football a thing.

But I digress. If anything, I’d just like to see a clean game. Greg Kittle, Matt Brieda, and Jerick McKinnon haven’t played at all, and won’t be tonight, so how they integrate in Minnesota in 10 days remains a mystery. As is our pass rush. Salomon Thomas sure looked solid with Armstead in there with him to take the blocking load off his side, and they’ve shown flashes of greatness, but I’m not getting the vibe that this team is completely on the same page.

Then again, they haven’t really been at full strength and played more than a few series together. Again, though, if they get out of their own way and nix the drops, I feel like this team will surprise people.

10 more days!

I’m glad this one didn’t count, as there were a lot of problems with this one. most of all being the red zone offense. We all (I guess) saw the offense move up and down the field with little resistance but fail time and time again to get into the end zone. The biggest issues were drops and penalties. Again, though, the penalties were clustered pretty much toward the end of the game when the Walmart brigade was in there.

The drops though were from guys who should know better. Celek dropped two. Both of them killing drives deep in Indy territory. Hikutini dropped a TD that was thrown perfectly, Mostert dropped a 3rd down pass that would have yielded a 1st down,  and Pettis dropped a contested pass in the end zone. Pettis’s was the easiest to forgive, but still, he needs to make those tough catches in the end zone.

That being said, the first team pass rush with Armstead and Thomas out there was great. Attaochu looks like he is going to help a lot as well. He got solid pressure all game, so I feel a little better going forward about the rush. We did give up too many yards to Luck on scrambles, but that should be fixable. Attaochu vacated the middle on a play and was blocked out of it on one scramble, but he just has to stay home.

The run game, dormant all preseason, was hitting on all cylinders with the newly signed Alfred Morris leading the way. He looks like a great alternative to the smaller guys as Morris just hits the hole with speed and power as opposed to waiting for the blocks and stutter-stepping to nowhere. He may be the steal of the preseason.

Richard Sherman had a nice breakup, Witherspoon had some nice plays, and a huge whiff on a 3rd down swing pass, and the refs got too involved again, but this is pretty much the last test as the team goes into full Minnesota prep mode.

13 days till kickoff!

Of all the preseason games, this one is at least mildly interesting. The Niners will likely play the starters for the whole 1st half, and they will also do a little game planning. Something absent from the first 2 games, and definitely missing from the last (scrubbini) game.

Beyond that, we will get out first sighting of Richard Sherman, our newly minted player-coach-mentor to the young secondary.  I hope he plays slow and easy and saves himself for the real thing in Minnesota. As it is, the secondary, along with the defense as a whole has not been very exceptional. It has been fairly flat. Run D is decent, but we are getting little to no pressure on the opposing quarterbacks. Granted Salomon Thomas, the guy poised for a breakout year, and Arik Armstead, another guy who has been injured a little too much, bot are on the shelf for the remaining preseason. Hard to know what we have there. Jeremy Attochu looked good last week, and I hope he gets first team reps this weekend.

Of course Eli Harold and his bad angles and blown coverages has finally been jettisoned, but we have a couple unknowns in Mark Nzeocha, and Pita Taumoepenu to fill his spot. Guys who, before I started writing this, I’d never heard of or seen on the field. What they’ll likely do is move Dekoda Watson from DE to the strong side. I guess. Like I said I know nothing about Eli’s backups, and really, if they couldn’t out-play Eli, how good are they?  At least they have three weeks to figure it out. As it is, Nzeocha gets the start on Saturday.

Frankly, I think the offense looks really good at this point, despite the run struggles. I think that will come around as the season progresses. My big concern is was and will be our pass rush.  Good secondary play can only last so long, but a strong pass rush makes a middling secondary look great. Fred Warner looks solid in his limited play, and the LBs in general seem fine. Even the line play up the middle has been decent. Jones and Buckner have  looked solid. As a whole though, the defense isn’t thrilling me. Yet.

I’m sure the regular season will be different, but again, pass rush is king.