San Francisco 49ers Forever

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.

Well, the huge strides made by the offense a couple Thursdays ago were lost in a miasma of dropped passes, interminable penalties, misguided throws, and a tepid run game featuring a suddenly dropsy Carlos Hyde, and not much else. Robbie Gould kicked 5 FGs, and the Niners were poised to win their 1st game, in OT, but the refs again made a questionable call late in OT to give AZ a 1st down and thus the game-winning TD.

Fucking Carson Palmer looked good till we started blasting him, yet he constantly went after Rashard Robinson. This resulted in at least 4 penalties called on him. They never really did roll Tartt to help him, but Tartt was for the most part the single deep guy 35 yard back on any given play. So, he was for the most part watching from the bleachers. Robinson came in to the league all piss and vinegar, but the game is humbling his ass pretty convincingly.  I like his attitude, but he came in raw and is playing that way. 2 of the 4 calls on him were borderline, but he did get his head around to make some plays on deep balls. Robinson had kept Larry Fitzgerald quiet most of the game till, well, you know.

As onerous as all the penalties on defense were, and AZ was given the right to knock our wideouts down with no calls,  the offense reverted to its erroneous ways of inopportune penalties, terrible drops, and hurried throws from our soon-to-be backup QB. I don’t know if Hoyer will make it through the season as the starter, but yet again his pass catchers didn’t. A nice early drive was thwarted by a 3rd down drop of a perfectly thrown pass down the right sideline to Logan Paulson that would have gone for about 35 yards.

Marquise Goodwin went down early with a concussion, so the onus fell on Aldrick Robinson to make plays. He didn’t. More often than not he and Hoyer were off-script and couldn’t connect despite 10-12 targets. And of course the obligatory drop of another perfectly thrown pass that would have garnered about 45 yards. Garcon was blanketed by Patrick Peterson so he was kept in check. Carlos Hyde played about half of the available plays as he was shuttled in and out with Matt Brieda. He fumbled twice, once being recovered by Staley, and the other being ruled down.

Again though, the NFL feels the overarching need of football is to give a forum for the referees. Every ticky tack penalty MUST be called regardless of the impact of the game. Hand-checking of WRs/DBs is tolerated until it isn’t. WRs can be tackled, but they can’t occupy space over the middle. Merely running by a cutting WR drew a flag for Robinson yesterday without any actual contact.

Trent Taylor, despite being a small guy, is drawing an inordinate number of penalties for things like running crossing routes that cause OPI calls. It negated our best chance for a TD, and was about a 70-30% non-call, as crossing routes are supposed to cause confusion and traffic. The pisser is Brieda was cleared the LBs and the pick didn’t help the play.

Oh well. I’m as frustrated as everyone else, but I don’t think this is the time to switch QBs or anything. As terible as our red zone offense was yesterday, the problem was penalties and drops. Not horrible QB play. Besides that, I don’t think BeatHard is ready by any stretch.

Will this be the first win? AZ is usually a tough place to play, but we’ll see about this one. I think we can win this one but this is predicated on this defense getting pressure on Ichabod Palmer. I think AZ is well past their window of viability in being a strong contender in the playoffs, but we certainly aren’t there by any stretch.

Without David Johnson, AZ’s run game is not nearly the scary thing it was. And the worry in the air is of course Larry Fitzgerald. Which brings me back to the pressure, or lack thereof. If we don;t get pressure we don’t win.

Even if it was a loss, at least the offense woke up and played after a very inauspicious start by Brian Hoyer. The defense that played so well against the Seahawks pulled a no-show against the once-lowly Rams, who seemed to have channeled the spirit of the 1981 49ers, and their GM John McVay in his grandson Sean. The Rams converted 8-12 3rd downs, and the middle of the field was seemingly wide open every time Todd Gurley came out of the backfield. Infuriating to say the least as Ray Ray Armstrong spent too much time neglecting his zone responsibilities and running around in circles and wey out of position.

But the offense, led by Pierre Garcon and his 7 catches for 142 yards kept the Niners in the game until a killer non-existent offensive pass interference call in Trent Taylor killed a promising drive to win the game late.

Good news is we get 10 days off, and the reports are out there that Reuben Foster may come back a little early from his high ankle sprain. That would be welcome news for a defense that looked tired from the Seattle effort and a short week to recover from that game.

Next up is yet another divisional game against the AZ Cardinals. A team that looks fairly lost itself with their loss to Deetroit, and a squeaker of a win over the Colts. Unless they somehow beat the Cowboys, they’ll be at 1-2 with Seattle.

Strange year so far in the NFC West.

Not much to say about this game. We either score some touchdowns or we lose. Jared Goff seems to have shed his bust tag from last year’s debacle, but that is strictly related to the Curse of Jeff Fisher. A guy who has done less with more since Aluminum Mike Singletary. Now that he is gone, Goff appears to have a clue. Granted he hasn’t faced a tough defense, and we don’t quite fit that category yet, but if we can get after the immobile Goff like we got after the mobile RW, we should create a little havoc for the Ram offense.

Other than that, our offense has been a small stagnant pond in a burning pit of doom. The bright spot is Carlos Hyde. Which is good and bad. Hyde hasn’t been exactly durable for his career, and counting on him seems to lead to disappointment. Or we become the 2010 49ers who do nothing but hand the ball off 3 times and then punt. Hoyer needs to trust his blocking and actually hit the open guys. He has left a shit ton of plays out there, but Goodwin does no favors by dropping excruciatingly important passes.

As I said, 20-13 Niners.

News on the injury front is that Eric Reid’s knee injury would require him missing a ‘few weeks.’ Not too encouraging, but it certainly looked like it could have been a season-ending injury. Reuben Foster is still on the mend as well, and we get a short week to boot, so we are in for some fun as we try to stop the resurgent Todd Gurley and the suddenly semi-effective Jared Goff, and the not-so-shitty Rams.

At least that’s how it looks now. LA did beat the hapless and Luckless Colts, and were fairly spanked by the Redskins, so their victory is a bit underwhelming. Our victories of course are as fulsome as our list of touchdowns scored.

So, what happens this week? Well, to me it depends squarely on the shoulders of our once-and-part-time quarterback Brian Hoyer. The team may all rally around Carlos Hyde and his game-altering runs last week, but we cannot simply hand the ball to him or we will fall into the pit of Mike Singletary and his “we are running Gore 30 times” despair. Hoyer NEEDS to find his touch, or we will come crashing down yet again.

Yeah, we are at home, yeah the Rams are apparently the only team we can beat in recent memory, and yeah, the Rams are channeling our ex-GM in Sean McVay’s grandfather John McVay, so I guess I have to say we actually win this one as the defense continues its stellar play.

20-13 Niners.

I ain’t buying it, but we did have the lead and nearly pulled off a pretty big upset at the hands of the not-so-scary-anymore Seahawks. They were trounced by G Bay and nearly beaten by us in their house. But for a dropped pass (fuuuuuuck dood. You fucked up the 1st game mo with an ill-timed drop!) by Marquise Goodwin, the game very well could have been ours. But 12-9 is a loss.

Burt alas, we hassle, hit, and befuddle Russell Wilson all game until crunch time until he made a signature scramble, dart, weave, and pass to the side of the end zone for the only score. The defense did an even better job this game than last as they were on the field for the entire first half minus 4 minutes and change. The offense was atrocious, except for a few nifty Carlos Hyde runs. Hoyer had time and repeatedly missed guys and threw a pass right to a linebacker for a pick.

The good news is the first-game-absent Aaron Lynch was given a start and had a solid game providing pressure. The whole D line had a solid game, and the DBs minus a few bad plays, did OK. I understand that the offense will take some time, but Hoyer just looks like shit. They stopped even trying to throw more than 8 yards as every pass was late or behind the intended receiver.

The D has come around spectacularly given the crapitude of our offense.  It is on Brian Hoyer to get his head out of his ass. I really had hope he’d be a serviceable if not decent QB. He hasn’t shown it since the Minn preseason game.

And by free-for-all I mean a low scoring affair. Pretty sure we don’t win this one.  The hope is measurable improvement. Less penalties. A touchdown or 2. Maybe continued stout run defense. And, for God’s sake a pass rush. I don’t understand why the only decent pass rusher we have, Aaron Lynch, was a scratch for the Carolina game, but he’s playing tomorrow, so the hope is we take advantage of a shitty Seattle O line that was beleaguered by a middling GB Packers defense last week, to the tune of no touchdowns.

Much like us. Yes, we need to sustain drives and keep our defense off the field. YEs, we need to score in the red zone. Yes, I’d love a win in Seattle. Much like the last 2 seasons. Thing is, we were hamstrung by bad coaching the last 2 years. The hope that Kyle Shanahan can get this offense going is the thing that is the thing.

So, 13-9?

Somehow I was hoping this game would c]happen closer to the end of the year. You know, when the team rallies around the new young coach and GM, they get their shit together, and play as if they are competent, but yet again, we get Seattle early, and we are not on top of our game. We aren’t even on the bottom of our game. Maybe it is somewhere in the side office, but this season looks like the last few. Too many penalties, too many unforced errors, too much defense on the field, and not nearly enough points.

Granted, this shit isn’t turned around overnight, or even over the course of one off-season, as much as I had hoped for anyway, but maybe we can start to see signs of incremental improvement. The run defense was markedly better. However, the pass rush was not there at all. The one blitz we ran vacated the area where the 1st touchdown went, Brian Hoyer looked a lot like his predecessors, and our run game started decent, but did nothing as Carolina got further and further ahead.

So, what now? Well, the 49ers haven’t beaten Seattle since 2013, and they haven’t beaten Seattle in Jet City since 2011, the nascent days of the Jim Harbaugh era. Tavaris Jackson was the Seahawk QB, and we were on our way to the playoffs for the first time in years.

Be that as it may, I don’t think we get out of this one alive. We actually let backup tackle John Theus go, whereas I thought we might make some changes at the guard spot. The only hope is that Seattle’s makeshift line allows us to get pressure on Russell Wilson. I’m not holding my breath that it matters though. Even if we get pressure, we usually lose RW to contain  for big runs anyway.

I do think we will improve, but it sure doesn’t feel like it starts in the rain and wind of Seattle. 24-7, Seattle.

The opening day win curse has been vanquished in a blaze of penalties, turnovers, and general ineptness by the offense. The D did all they could, and Cam Newton looked like a guy fresh off shoulder surgery, but the score should have been around 42-3. Well, 42-7 if Mr. Goodwin could have caught that deep ball when the 49ers looked pretty good. The opening drive was fairly decent till it stalled.

The rest was a shit-show around our Fusco Brothers at guard. Well, Fusco and Beadles. They spent so much time looking behind them at the carnage that they both got whiplash. Other than that, it was about how it was supposed to be. Reuben Foster is saying he’ll be out minimally but why hurry? The team isn’t turning things around overnight, and he needs to be right. Next up is Seattle on the road, so that should be fun. They of course were held TD-less by the Packers so they are looking to us to bounce back.

I just hope their O line problems are exploited by us. The way our line was trashed by Carolina.