San Francisco 49ers Forever

To paraphrase WC Fields. . . . Not much to report this week, other than this looks like another spanking at the hands of a superior team. The Iggles are flying high under the steady hand of Carson Wentz. A guy I thought Philly hugely overreached for by taking him with the 2nd pick overall and giving the Browns a boatload of picks. Wentz has the Eagles at 6-1 and is under serious MVP consideration so far this season. The Browns? Well, uh, 0-7 ring any bells? They, along with us, are the remaining winless teams. And I thought the Jets were tanking their season. They are an astounding 3-4 and a horrible call from being 4-3.

But these are the vagaries of the NFL. Surprise teams, disappointing teams, rebuilding teams, and shit teams. We appear to be somewhere between shit and rebuilding. I like how we have played with the talent level we have been saddled with, but last week’s loss was disheartening after seeing us play fairly well the previous 5 games. So, on to Philly. A game that should be somewhere between a 12 to 24 point loss. Not much hope to hold out for, other than, like Dallas, Philly’s defense isn’t scaring anyone. But that didn’t get us anywhere vs Dallas.

Onward and downward . . .

Hopes for the first victory of the season seemed to have been a bit premature as the 49ers went down flailing to a meh Dallas team by the galling score of 40-10. As usual, the game started out with a big mistake. This one courtesy of Trent Taylor’s muffing of a punt after the Niners defense made a nice 3-and-out stand on Dallas’ first possession.

This led to a quick TD. The offense never got on track, and there were the usual penalties (hello Rashard Robinson) and mistakes, Brieda fumbled, but recovered, and CJ fumbled on the Dallas 8 yard line to thwart a promising drive before the half. Another drive to start 3rd quarter ended in a 4th down fail. It took a while but the defense wore down and the 49ers lost going away. The good news? No drops! Anyhow, the is was a baptism by fire for BeatHard as he was rattled, hit, and flummoxed for most of the game. The line was insanely inconsistent, and Staley, the bright spot, still whiffed completely on the CJ fumble. Tomlinson had a terrible game at guard, and Brown did his share of whiffing as well.

Overall, a bad game from a young team. The schedule doesn’t get any easier with the high flying Eagles next, on the road, and then the Cards & Giants here. Both are struggling but both are better than us.

PS.  The tribute to Dwight Clark was an awesome move by Eddie Debartolo. He flew in all the players he could from that 1981 team that was so shocking in their ascendancy. He has also been  flying Clark around the world to find the best treatment available for him.  It was also very painful to see such someone who very recently was an outgoing, energetic healthy man become so debilitated so fast.

Maybe it’s coming home, or maybe Dallas is overrated, or likely I’m dreaming, but this team has to win eventually. They have been in 6 of their 7 games, and have an amazing ability to get a bad call at the wrong time, or given up a big play to fuck up a good effort, but if anything this shows how close this team is to being at least a middling team. Sure, that ain’t no great shakes, but it sure beats the Chip/Tom/Trent era of getting blown out midway through the 2nd quarter.

So, there’s that. Anyhow, bring on the Cowboys.

And his name is CJ. CJ BeatHard. He gets his homecoming as a starter for the 49ers this weekend against Dallas. Of course there’s a long history between these teams, but these days, that’s all about the fans, not the players. Still and all, the Brian Hoyer Experience is over, for now, and maybe till the end of the season, and we get to see what the new guy has.  He did look good in directing the comeback, scoring 17 unanswered points among a fumble recovery that gave the Niners a 1st and goal at the 2.

CJ was a little erratic, and not spectacular, but for his first NFL action, he did well. The sledding doesn’t get any easier as we face two solid teams in Dallas and Philly, but the biggest shortcoming so far this year is the slow starts. I’m sure this had a lot to do with the decision to switch QBs as weh never get the jump on anyone, and are constantly fighting to come back. Beyond that, Philly and Dallas are 20th and 21 respectively on yards given up per game, and Dallas is 29th in points allowed, so we should be able to do something against this team.

BeatHard FTW! 27-19 Niners.

Well, another weekend, another close-but-not-quite loss. The good part about this one was really the benching of Brian Hoyer. CJ BeatHard came in and generally didn’t suck, and actually played well as he led the Niners to 3 touchdown drives after Brian Hoyer pitched a shutout.

Again, there were too many penalties, too many drops, and too many pre-snap mistakes, and there was yet again a bullshit offensive pass interference call to kill a potential game-winning FG drive. And again, the pass rush was lacking, and the hits Cousins did take, the 49ers were quick to help Cousins up and offer words of encouragement (please come here!).

The defense was again on the field a lot early, and had their usual propensity to give up and early score (or 3), which prompted the QB change in the first place.  The secondary actually played fairly well, and they caused a fumble and got a pick and were flying around and attacking well. But again, the pass rush is not there. Salomon Thomas had some decent plays, and Arik Armstead had a good game going till he got hurt, but for the 2,500th time, we let short passes to backs/TEs/WRs underneath the coverage go for way too many yards. I hate to put this all on Ray Ray, but he bears a lot of blame. Thomas was embarrassed on the read-option TD for Cousins, and there were a few mental mistakes along the way, but again, young team, mental errors come with the territory.

Still and all, they need to generate a pass rush from the base defense, and it isn;t there. DeForest Buckner is a beast, but Armstead on the other side isn’t generating anything, and Thomas simply looks lost and slow. So, without Bowman (who would have helped), we looked bad on a ton of the short passes over the middle. If I was any opposing coach, I would exploit that on every 3rd down. And Washington did just that.

So, all in all, another great effort for a severely undermanned and young  team in a hostile environment. A game that was yet again decided in large part by the refs on a ticky tack call late.

I’ll say one thing. For a team that is very thin talent-wise, the fact that they have been in these games makes me think that they are close. And yes this is about parity. To see the effects of this, simply look across the Bay. The darlings of the NFL this year, a team picked by a lot of pundits to win it all, the Raiders, are in the shitter at 2-4, and stand to fall completely out of the playoff race with a loss to the Chiefs this Thursday night.  As of now, the Raiders are 15th in the conference. One spot ahead of the lowly Cleveland Browns.

Love the 3rd down calls here. 3rd and 10? 4 yard pass. 3rd and 6? 2 yard pass.

And Foster isn’t playing. I thought the thought was to have Foster take Bowman’s place.

Wow. This is a shock. I just recently found out we were shopping him around, but with Rueben Foster coming back I guess the brain trust feels they can do without him. I don’t like this move short-term as I don;t have the faith in Ray Ray Armstrong that the coaches seem to. But in reality, Bowman was a liability in coverage, and Ray Ray is all over the place. Having Foster in the middle will hopefully lessen the responsibility on Ray Ray to cover the backs over the middle that seem to gain 20 yards at a clip.

I get it but I don’t like it. He’s been the heart and soul, with Patrick Willis, of this linebacking corps. They could have been the most dynamic pair of 3-4 linebackers in NFL history if not for the injuries. And this does fall under the Bill Walsh philosophy of ‘get rid of ’em a year early rather than a year late.’

Again, I get it but I don’t like it. This is at his request, and I’m glad they honored it, but there was an obvious problem between him and the coaches regarding his playing time. This moment at the last game at the Stick is one of many memories . . . Happy trainls, NaVorro.

Well, these games are entertaining at least. As I have been saying though, once again the 49ers couldn’t seal the deal on a game within their grasp, and let it slip away like a touchdown pass early in the game through George Kittle’s hands. Kittle did redeem himself in spades late in the game with some clutch TD catches and a key catch in traffic on a 4th and 1, but again there were too many penalties, too many mistakes, too many drops, and a few bad (and non-) calls thrown in for good measure.

Once again, the pressure on the opposing quarterback was not good enough, and the defense played well at times, and terribly on others. Ray Ray Armstrong is a loose cannon of the wildest variety. He forgets to stay at home on run plays and gets WAY out of position too much and losing the edge, but his game-saving (at the time anyway) interception in the end zone was a great play. Similar to the one he made early in the game against Arizona.

The future? Well, Dallas, Washington, and Philly certainly don’t look good. AZ and the New York football Giants are possibles. 2-8 here we come! Then we run the table to 8-8.

It could happen.

If we can’t win this, we may run the table to 0-16. It’s the Luckless Colts for God’s sake. I doubt it happens, but this one should be relatively easy.

23-13 Niners . . .

In a season bereft of victories, it is funny how close we have come to that elusive first win.

The Seattle game saw a possible TD pass (or at least a 1st and goal from the 6) dropped by Marquise Goodwin.

The Ram game saw a bullshit OPI call in Trent Taylor that would have resulted in a 1st down, and the ability  take a shot at a game-winning FG.

The AZ game saw numerous a touchdown reversed on a ticky tacky OPI call on (yet again) Trent Taylor.

As I said before the season started, there is very little difference between a 3-1 team and an 0-4 one. Many many games come down to a play here and a play there. Thing is, ALL these games have had WAY too many penalties and dropped passes to be able to win games. Up to and including the Carolina loss, which started with a terrible drop from Goodwin (setting the tone?) on a perfectly thrown ball from hot-and-cold-running Hoyer.

Thing is, this is the sign of a young team. Offensively anyway. A lot of the penalties are of the false-start/illegal motion/delay of game variety. Mental errors. Then again, Rashard Robinson seems to draw 4 a game himself. His are usually mental as well. turn your head, look for the ball, don’t randomly grab the WR when you don’t know where the ball is, etc.

And, as is typical of the NFL, bad teams don’t get breaks from the refs. Taylor was tackled on a deep route last week and it didn’t draw a flag. Robinson runs by a WR breaking his route, and misses him, yet gets a PI call. Stupid shit like that seems to become a bigger deal when the score is close and the game is on the line.

So, clean up a couple things, and the team should be able to still reel off 6-7 wins. The back end of the schedule is relatively easy, and we should be able to start making plays and actually winning games. I don’t think the play here is to tank the season. Shit. Look at the 2-2 Jets. Or the 0-4 Giants. Crazy shit.