Happy New Year – Bowlarama

Some bowl games to watch today, including St Jim vs the Alligators, and Stanford/Iowa in the Rose Bowl.

As far as the draft goes, Jared Goff did himself a solid by tearing up Air Force for 25/37 for 467 yards and 6 TDs, and Paxton Lynch took a pretty big dump by going 16/37 for 108 yards and a pick. Not sure why Lynch gets the hype, but there you have it. Granted, there’s a disparity in the level of competition, but that’s college football.

Much like the 2005 draft, you have a QB from a spread offense and a QB from a pro style offense looking to go 1-2. Once again, the 49ers are in the mix for one of them. Let’s hope they get the guy from Cal. At this point they need a QB and Goff looks like he’s pretty solid. Gabby can keep his spot warm while we build around Goff. The rest? Draft O linemen, CBs, and ILBs. We have a ton of picks but we have to start using them better.

Posted in Uncategorized | 22 Comments

Game Day-Detroit Rock City

Well, it’s the penultimate game of this list campaign. Surprisingly Detroit looks like s much better team than us despite their 5-9 record.

That being said I don’t think we do very well today. Our road woes continue, and we secure a top 5 pick. 4-12 with a bullet.

Posted in Uncategorized | 57 Comments

Merry Christmas . . .

. . . and happy new year, or happy solstice, Hannukah, Kwanzaa, or whatever ritualistic pagan celebration you choose to follow. Gonna be varyingly shades of not posting much these next couple weeks, so have a safe and merry time, folks.

Back to football, these last two games are probably losses, and one would think one of two will be a full-blown debacle. Looking at Detroit the other day, it looks to me like it’ll be them killing us as we are on the road and they can play much better than us, despite their 5-9 record.

The Rams are their own tossed salad, so we’ll see how that goes. Entering that last game 4-11 with an ass-whipping on their taste buds, I don’t see a recovery by the Niners, despite the Rams lowly 6-8 record. Just another desultory loss to finish this lost season. Then I guess we will see how Young Sir Jed spins this shit into garbage as this season concludes.

I’ve made it pretty clear that I think this whole thing should be torn asunder and rebuilt from the ground up, as doing anything else just extends the crapitude. Otherwise, it’ll be a continued battle at the bottom of the league. Ho hum. I guess we get Super Bowl 50 to look forward to. As long as it ain’t Seattle . . .

Posted in Uncategorized | 31 Comments

Another Home Game, Another Banner

Yes, the fans are angry, and they are not showing up in droves to the gleaming new stadium. Yes, they lost another desultory game to the Ginger-less Cincinnati Bengals. The difference with this one was Blaine Gabbert showed his shitty side this time around. he had trouble hitting his pass catchers in stride, and this resulted in a couple tipped passes that were picked off. 3 in total. Throw in an untimely fumble in our territory, and there you have it. The defense did a good job of stopping Cincy’s run game, and AJ McCarron had a low-impact 15/21 game. In fact, the Niners offense actually outgained Cincy 318 to 242. the run game was dealt yet another blow as Shaun Draughn went down early with a knee injury after a decent start.

 

crowd-banner

San Francisco 49ers fans show their displeasure with team CEO Jed York before the 49ers NFL game against the Cincinnati Bengals.

The word was this game would determine the fate of this coaching staff. Well, meh. The fact that we are 4-10 and how we have lost some of these games, and most particularly, the way we lost last week amid the talk of overconfidence and looking past Cleveland, this coaching staff does not deserve a 2nd pass. This game determined little in my head other than we are outmatched in a lot of areas. Sure, this team has been once again decimated by injuries, and we’ve got 3rd and 4th stringers all over the roster. My main point is the coaching staff decision shouldn’t even matter at this point. The coaching staff decision should be made by our new GM. Trent Baalke should not be the GM of this team anymore. If the new GM thinks Tomsula should get another shot, well, I guess I could swallow that, as unlikely as that may be.

The biggest problem is the fact that Trent Baalke appears to be free from the criticism he so richly deserves. Baalke inherited a team loaded with talent. A team built by Scotty McLaughan (he was jettisoned amid rumors around a drinking problem. He immediately paid huge dividends in Seattle, and has since taken his wares to The Redskins. A team that looks to be improving). 6 years later, the team has lost most of the talent from the Scotty days, and little has replaced it.

Granted, I’ll give him a pass on the Borland retirement. No one saw that. And no one saw Anthony Davis’ retirement late in the offseason, but still, this last draft baffled me beyond reason. As I’ve said, Baalke missed on the huge holes he needed to fill last year and instead drafted for the future. The Niners needed CB help, O line help, ILB help, and WR help. We get a D lineman, a safety, and OLB, and a TE.

Armstead is a work in progress. Tartt I really like, Harold? Another work in progress, and Bell is fair to middling. The rest are non-entities. All those draft picks lead to nothing. the 2014 draft sees a fair to middling CB in Jimmy Ward, Hyde looks good if he can ever get through a season, Martin is a washout at C and struggling at RG, Borland came and went, Brandon Thomas isn’t able to crack this shitty line, nor is Trenton Brown for that matter. Dontae Johnson and Aaron Lynch are surprises, but the rest are backups and STers. Meh.

My biggest problem with this season is the fact that they KNEW they needed offensive line help going in to the draft. They KNEW that Mike Iupati was leaving, they KNEW Marcus Martin was untested, they KNEW Daniel Kilgore was injured, they KNEW they had little to no depth. Yet they did little to nothing about it. The fact that Eric Pears is still starting is a GIGANTIC indictment of the job Trent Baalke is doing. Evan Mathis was available the entire offseason, yet we passed on him.

Posted in Uncategorized | 26 Comments

Game Day — Train Wrecks R Us

Well, Little to look forward to but the carnage. Word is, THIS game will decide the fate of our coaching staff. Funny, it isn’t the turd they laid last week in Cleveland.

Apparently, Tomsula and Co were slated to return after the decent performance in Chicago, but after talk of overconfidence and their shit play, they are not committed.

My Only hope is this extends to Trent Baalke as well. So, what do I want to happen? Who cares? This is just like that car crash you don’t want to look at, but do.

Posted in Uncategorized | 96 Comments

Dream On . . .

Well, so much for wild-ass speculation. Wishful thinking on my part. Guess we’re stuck with (Al) Guido and the boys for the foreseeable future. Happy days indeed.This team cannot be seen as anything but a disaster right now. I’m not changing course in my head. Jed needs to clean house.

Dr. Dork may have been counting water bottles while the ship sank. Now we have young Jed moving deck chairs around behind the scenes while we scrape against a shitload of icebergs. Young Jed Tweetsnomore said to a local scribe (Matt Maiocco) recently that he will talk to the press “in the future” and that it’s not his place to talk about the team during the season. Hey, lesson learned, eh?

Anyhow, since the “future” is up for grabs,  I guess the present remains cloudy with a chance of anger and rebellion. Be curious to see how many empty seats there will be this weekend.

yorks

Posted in Uncategorized | 28 Comments

Be Still My Beating Heart

Sure, this is speculation, but regardless of whether this story is true or not, there are drastic changes ahead for the 49ers. Scott Ostler, resident Chronicle sports writer and smarm-master extraordinaire, is putting out there that the Yorks have reached their limit in taking shit for running the San Francisco 49ers badly, and are quietly looking to sell the team. He points to the fact that chief negotiator Paraag Marathe has been moved out of the VP of football operations role to focus solely on selling the team (yay!).

Of course theres no way to know if this is true or not, but there have been some big-name suitors looking to buy, including Larry Ellison, and a group headed by Brent Jones/Steve Young. Shit, you can’t swing a dead cat around these parts without hitting a billionaire or three. Ellison though is desperate to get into the owners club, having been thwarted in his attempt to buy the Golden State Warriors, Memphis Grizzlies, and the New Orleans Pelicans a few years ago. He also tried to start a new NFL franchise in LA. All for naught. The Oracle of Redwood Shores  also took potshots at the Yorks back in 2004 for their building of a 1-11 team.

“That victory spoiled what could have been a perfect season,” Ellison said sarcastically. “Clearly, it’s the worst team in football. Unfortunately, it’s not a publicly held company, so you can’t vote (the Yorks) out of there.”

Here we are 11 years later, and maybe Scott is right. The Yorks are tired of hiding from everyone, and catching a ton of heat for ruining a once-proud franchise as they stumble and bumble their way to another lost season.

It is but to dream.

I posted the article below. It is behind the subscription firewall.

Posted in Uncategorized | 9 Comments

Bowling For Columb . . . uh Bowl Games

Tis the season to witness more college bowl games than there are actual college teams. By my count there are 356 bowl games coming up, including the Raycom Media Camellia BowlZaxby’s Heart of Dallas Bowl, and the Belk Bowl. That last one is the sound you make after watching 41 bowl games in 3 weeks.

I don’t have much of a vested interest in these games. Although I will take a gander at the Pac-12 North teams.  Stanford was a play away from reaching the Final 4, but is instead relegated to the Rose Bowl vs. Iowa. Cal is playing Air Force in the Armed Forces Bowl. Oregon plays TCU in the Valero Alamo bowl.

Shit, 5-7 San Jose State is in a bowl game. The Cure Bowl, vs 6-6 Georgia St. Ewwww. Plenty of penicillin going around for that one.

New Mexico Dec. 19 2 p.m. Albuquerque, N.M. Arizona vs. New Mexico
Las Vegas Dec. 19 3:30 p.m. Las Vegas, Nev. BYU vs. Utah
Camellia Dec. 19 5:30 p.m. Montgomery, Ala. Ohio vs. Appalachian State
Cure Dec. 19 7 p.m. Orlando, Fla. San Jose State vs. Georgia State
New Orleans Dec. 19 9 p.m. New Orleans, La. Arkansas State vs. Louisiana Tech
Miami Beach Dec. 21 2:30 p.m. Miami, Fla. South Florida vs. Western Kentucky
Potato Dec. 22 3:30 p.m. Boise, Idaho Akron vs. Utah State
Boca Raton Dec. 22 7 p.m. Boca Raton, Fla. Toledo vs. Temple
Poinsettia Dec. 23 4:30 p.m. San Diego, Calif. Boise State vs. Northern Illinois
GoDaddy Dec. 23 8 p.m. Mobile, Ala. Bowling Green vs. Georgia Southern
Bahamas Dec. 24 Noon Nassau, Bahamas MTSU vs. Western Michigan
Hawaii Dec. 24 8 p.m. Honolulu, Hawaii Cincinnati vs. San Diego State
St. Petersburg Dec. 26 11 a.m. St. Petersburg, Fla. Connecticut vs. Marshall
Sun Dec. 26 2 p.m. El Paso, Texas Miami (Fla.) vs. Washington State
Heart of Dallas Dec. 26 2:20 p.m. Dallas, Texas Washington vs. Southern Miss
Pinstripe Dec. 26 3:30 p.m. Bronx, N.Y. Indiana vs. Duke
Independence Dec. 26 5:45 p.m. Shreveport, La. Virginia Tech vs. Tulsa
Foster Farms Dec. 26 9:15 p.m. Santa Clara, Calif. UCLA vs. Nebraska
Military Dec. 28 2:30 p.m. Annapolis, Md. Pittsburgh vs. Navy
Quick Lane Dec. 28 5 p.m. Detroit, Mich. Central Michigan vs. Minnesota
Armed Forces Dec. 29 2 p.m. Ft. Worth, Texas Air Force vs. California
Russell Athletic Dec. 29 5:30 p.m. Orlando, Fla. North Carolina vs. Baylor
Arizona Dec. 29 7:30 p.m. Tucson, Ariz. Nevada vs. Colorado State
Texas Dec. 29 9 p.m. Houston, Texas Texas Tech vs. LSU
Birmingham Dec. 30 Noon Birmingham, Ala. Memphis vs. Auburn
Belk Dec. 30 3:30 p.m. Charlotte, N.C. Mississippi State vs. NC State
Music City ( Dec. 30 7 p.m. Nashville, Tenn. Louisville vs. Texas A&M
Holiday Dec. 30 10:30 pm San Diego, Calif. Wisconsin vs. Southern California
Peach Dec. 31 Noon Atlanta, Ga. Houston vs. Florida State
Orange Dec. 31 4 p.m. Miami Gardens, Fla. Clemson vs. Oklahoma
Cotton Dec. 31 8 p.m. Arlington, Texas Alabama vs. Michigan State
Outback Jan. 1 Noon Tampa, Fla. Northwestern vs. Tennessee
Fiesta Jan. 1 1 p.m. Glendale, Ariz. Notre Dame vs. Ohio State
Citrus Jan. 1 1 p.m. Orlando, Fla. Michigan vs. Florida
Rose Jan. 1 5 p.m. Pasadena, Calif. Stanford vs. Iowa
Sugar Jan. 1 8:30 p.m. New Orleans, La. Oklahoma State vs. Ole Miss
TaxSlayer Jan. 2 Noon Jacksonville, Fla. Penn State vs. Georgia
Liberty Jan. 2 3:20 p.m. Memphis, Tenn. Kansas State vs. Arkansas
Alamo Jan. 2 6:45 p.m. San Antonio, Texas Oregon vs. TCU
Cactus Jan. 2 10:15 pm Phoenix, Ariz. West Virginia vs. Arizona State
CFP National Championship Jan. 11 8:30 p.m. Glendale, Ariz. Orange Bowl winner
vs. Cotton Bowl winner
Posted in Uncategorized | 17 Comments

The Completion Backwards Principle

Great Tubes album, and great strategy by the 49ers. The 49ers were very crafty yesterday. By letting Cleveland dance all over their heads, they gave Cleveland management the false hope that Johnny Football is their answer at QB. Thus allowing the 49ers to draft Jared Goff in the 2016 draft, and not having to worry about the Browns drafting him ahead of them.

Or, we suck balls. I’m more than willing to go there. What is hysterical is hearing shit like ‘overconfidence’ come out of the post-game locker room. Who, for fuck’s sake, is overconfident on this team? The coaching staff? Did they sit in meetings all week and laugh at the film? The players? How can a 4-8 team be overconfident? Especially after these road games where the defense usually comes out flat, and the O goes nowhere for a quarter or 3.

Shit, Cleveland may pass us up in the standings anyway. If any team has squandered more picks that Cleveland in recent memory (cough cough Rams, cough cough) let me know. Not that I’m enamored with Trent Baaaaaaalke, speaking of rams.

He of the stockpiled picks that have gone nowhere. Once again we have a ton of picks and a lot of immediate needs. I’m tired of all the injured picks and the 3 years out guys that don’t work out. This team needs a fresh infusion of talent at ALL levels. Jed may be young and meddling, but he isn’t stupid. I guess. Fuck, I don’t know.  If this last loss, which I heard was done on front of a whole shitload of Youngstown Yorks, doesn’t foment change from top to bottom,  I’ll be very disappointed. This team is not moving in the right direction.

All I can hold on to is the hope that this year was seen as a placeholder by Young Jed Tweetsalot, and he was looking to blow shit up and start over for 2016. Won’t know until we get there.

Posted in Uncategorized | 10 Comments

Medic! Game Dayzzzzzz……

Another game, another set of injured players. Tomorrow’s game sees last week’s star Torrey Smith questionable with back and toe injuries, VMcD out with a concussion, Michael Wilhoite out with a high ankle sprain, and  both Tremaine Brock and Aaron Lynch questionable awaiting concussion protocols among the usual raft of dings and doinks on the rest of the team.

This leaves one healthy TE in Blake Bell, and likely a PS call-up for TE Brian Leonhardt. Still and all we better beat these ass-clown Browns. The chips and the draft slots will sort themselves out in the end. This season’s a wash anyway. Might as well see what we got. I’d like to see more of the young WRs . . .

Posted in Uncategorized | 121 Comments