Forty Niners Forever

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.

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.