Forty Niners Forever

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.

Here we go with the 2017 season. A new regime,  a team that has very few holdovers from the last season, a new coaching staff, and a surprisingly quiet front office. A front office I sure hope has learned their lesson in how to run a team and stay in the background and let the coaches coach and the players play while they shut the fuck up and write the checks.

Anyhow, our 6 game opening day win streak is on the line against the Carolina Panthers. A team Colin Kaepernick beat in their house in the distant past of of the 2013 season. 23-10 on our way to a disappointing loss to Seattle.  Eons ago. Cam Newton after that loss, fell out of the playoffs before their 15-1 season and subsequent Super Bowl L loss. Last year of course they cratered again and Newton seems to be at a crossroads yet again in his career. Their defense went south, even with Luke Kuechly. Without him, they got worse.

Now? Shit, I don’t know. I’m fairly optimistic and I’m thinking we keep the streak alive. And I think we go 9-7. Expectations are small and I think if we stay relatively healthy, we could make a playoff run.

27-17 Niners.

For you fantasy football types, you have your roster locked down, and are hoping your TE that will carry you through the season (Gronk) doesn’t get injured and waylay your shot at the $600.00 prize at the end of the year.

Anyhow, this is a pretty interesting game tonight between the defending champ Patriots and the perennial bridesmaid KC Chiefs. They of the omnipresent floating orb of the walrus, and his wizened charge, Young Sir Alex Smith.  The Pats of course magically won the last Super Bowl amid an epic 2nd half collapse by the Falcons that was likely as painful to witness as a fan as the 49ers near-comeback and coming up 5 yards short in 2012.

But I digress. Smith is finally hearing father time, and a bona-fide challenger to his throne in Patrick Mahomes, a guy KC and the Sunshine Band traded up for. The Pats however decided to stick with Jimmy G as their backup amid reports of trading him for gross amounts of swag. PRetty much based on nothing but being a Pat. NE was in a win-win situation, and I guarantee you they grab a higher-round QB than they have reached for in recent memory. They don’t even have a Taxi Squad QB at this point.

Anyhow, in my fantasy league I have Gronk and the Pats defense. Let the games begin.

. . . broken hearted. Tried to hope, but looked retarded.

My Breakdown . . .

The Vegas oddsmakers notwithstanding (4.5 wins), the feeling about this team from the prognosticators ranges from wildcard possibility at 10-6 to abject failure at 2-14.  Of course most of the talk has been of the negative kind. I don’t really understand this as I can’t count on both hands and feet the teams that have come from obscurity to relevance overnight (or over the course of a season).

The salient points being:

1. Horrible defensive coaching last year. Jim McNeill was over his head, and lost as DC. The scheme appeared to be hold the line with the D line, and drop the LBs into coverage. This opened up numerous holes in the run game. Even with NaVorro Bowman, the team was terrible on defense. Without him, they were awful.
2. Misguided offensive coaching. Chip Kelly’s offense solved one problem plaguing the 49ers. Getting plays off on time. The rest however was a disaster. Neither Gaine Blabbert or Colin Kaepernick ever got any kind of consistency in an offense that was bereft of talent at WR and TE. Most routes consisted of the WRs running to a CB and sitting. Kaepernick had no patience despite decent numbers, and Gabbert had little accuracy despite decent protection. The run game was nil as the team was usually down quickly and forced to pass all the time.
3. Lack of talent. Our no 1 receiver was a no-show most of the year, mainly because we never threw deep. Our no 1 TE is known more for dropping passes than catching them. Our no 1 RB was constantly stacked up behind a fair to middling line.
4. Lack of pass rush. The order of the day appeared to be playing guys out of position. There were times, usually about 1.5 quarters a game, where the team looked decent defensively. However, a big play would usually ensue, or an inopportune penalty.
5. Front office ineptitude. We’ve beaten this horse into the ground so many times since the Jethros took over the team in 2003 that the dead horse is now  in China. But it bears repeating that the front office meddled, whispered, and painted themselves into a corner with the Jimmy Bag-o-Donuts, and the Go-Go-(nowhere) Kelly offense. Both sets of coaching searches and hires were beset with stupidity, arrogance, and in the end, hilarity. Hello Adam Gase, the Jimmy T fart-a-rama, and the Chip Kelly debacle. He made the worst offense in the league even worser.
6. Trent Baalke.  ‘Nuff said.

Now? Well, they hired a coach with no experience and they hired a GM who’s latest job was as a TV analyst. This sounds stupid, but I have to give Jed props for hiring guys who seem to have a grasp of the game of football. The good news?

1. John Lynch, the Stanford safety who was an overachieving pain in the ass to every WR he played against, and a hard-hitter to boot, brings a  large amount of cred along with his football smarts.
2. Kyle Shanahan directed and (almost) won the Super Bowl last year amid a career of being an offensive guru, and son of the last OC to with a Super Bowl with the 49ers.
3. The latest draft. The 49ers managed to draft two top-five talents in the draft by getting Salomon Thomas with the 3rd pick, and Reuben Foster with the 31st on a trade up. The Bears were fleeced by Lynch to trade up one spot and garner more picks.
4. The WRs. Garcon and Goodwin are the best pair of WRs in a long while. The backups are an intriguing batch of speedsters, including Trent Taylor and Victor Bolden.
5. The run game. It hasn’t shown much yet, but Shanahan seems to be good at this, and hopefully Carlos Hyde will do a better job of waiting on his blocks, but the addition of FB Jevzvxvksfjdhjl should help immensely in bailout plays and bocking help.
6. DC George Saleh. So far, and yeah, it’s preseason, and without showing our hand, the defense is much more active and attacking. If the pass rush comes around, I feel this team can really be a force on defense. I’m worried about the corners, and I hope Jimmie Ward hits the ground running, but overall I see a vast improvement defensively. Reuben Foster has been the 2nd coming of Patrick Willis so far.
7. The Jedster. He APPEARS to be learning something about how to make his moves and shut the fuck up. Not a peep out of him, and that’s how I like it.

I think this team does have an outside shot of reaching the playoffs. the NFC West is not near as strong as it was, and I think we can at least pass the Rams and the Cards. Seaettle is still the #1 team in the West but the gap is closing.