Forty Niners Forever

Yeah, I figured this would happen. Granted, it was the defending NFC champs on a short week and a cross-country-early game, but the team at least kept trying, despite falling way behind in the 3rd quarter. And yeah, Carolina looked like they were close to unraveling completely after a Cam Newton fumble led to a FG and the subsequent kickoff was muffed by Ted Ginn and led to a quick TD.

The truth is Carolina is a better deeper team, but the team looked good at times, and looked overmatched at times. 529 to 302 in yards tell you a lot, and TE Greg Olson beat Anthoine Bethea like a drum all day. Our single coverage on Kelvin Benjamin was beaten badly as this didn’t help the pass rush in any way. . Turnovers didn’t hurt Carolina early  (Niner FG off the tipped pick) but it was a killer for Hyde as Carolina got 6 off his fumble.  Gabbert looked fairly solid till he started firing picks in the end. VMcD had a great play on a deep crossing route for a 75 yard TD, but dropped a big play on the next drive when the 49ers had clawed back into the game.  Next pass was picked off and the route was on.

Carolina was able to take away our run game with their defense, and it showed. Forcing Gabbert to take charge came with fair results, at least early. The Niners even had a 10-7 lead after scoring on a nice 28 yard pass to Torrey Smith. This off a Carolina fumble. But this lasted exactly one play, as Greg Olson caught a 78 yard bomb from Newton, and Carolina added a FG to close the half.

17-10 and the end of the half seemed pretty solid especially when the Niners deferred on the kickoff to start the game. Problem is, the 3rd quarter started with 2 three-and-outs sandwiched around two long TD drives that the defense couldn’t get stops on. So a one-TD lead became a three-TD lead. After cutting it to a 34-27 deficit, the Niners once again couldn’t stop Carolina to the tune of 7-15 on 3rd downs. That needs to improve. Yeah, it was hotter than shit, and the aforementioned short week, yadda yadda yadda, but the team showed heart, if not consistency. All aspects played well at times, and all aspects failed at times. The signs of a young team.

Gabbert for some reason just flailed at the end as he tried to bring the team back from a 10 point deficit late. Throwing into double coverage was terrible, but it came at the heels of a big play that was dropped by VMcD. He had another game where he hit some nice passes, and threw some absolute bonehead passes, and missed another deep one. 17-36  for 243, 2 and 2 is another game where he didn’t throw for 50%. This cannot continue. He missed way too many open guys, and again threw check downs off no pressure.

On defense, the pass rush was nowhere to be found. O’Neill left the corners out on their own, and Newton took advantage. And as mentioned, Olson had the game of his life as he toasted Bethea with regularity. Benjamin as well. Tough game against a team that looked like the defending NFC champs.

We played like a young team coming off a short week and a cross-country flight. Sloppy and inconsistent. Thing is we get another road test in Seattle next week. The schedulers just love us. And for what it’s worth, the whole division is 1-1 right now.

1-0 and the fans are rejoicing. Sort of. Guardedly optimistic? Depends on who you talk to. To me, the team looks a lot more coherent and solid that last year’s version. The lines look a lot better as well. and, speaking of last year, this season started just like last year. A strong Monday night victory against a supposed up-and-coming team followed by an East Coast trip through 3 time zones against a very strong team on a short week and the early game to boot. Hopefully the outcome of this game will be a little better than last year’s debacle at the hands of the Pittsburgh Steelers and their 48-18 thrashing.

This time around we only get the defending NFC champs, the Carolina Panthers. They of course were a field goal away from beating their Super Bowl conquerors, the Denver Broncos. So, how does this work out for us? Well, it is very hard to say. Our offense looks fairly similar to the one trotted out by the Broncos. Short passes, misdirection runs, runs from 3 WR sets, and some read-option. Gabbert had a fair-to-middling game, one where he missed wide open guys, but he also kept drives alive with his legs, and by buying time on the run. Still and all 22-35 for 170 and 1 TD isn’t going to stop any clocks, or even get the fantasy crowd excited, but a decent enough game. Will that fly tomorrow? I don’t think so. He left too many passes in the danger zone and should have been picked off a couple times, and missed an easy TD early on. The run game, namely Carlos Hyde needs to have a big game for this to work. I like the idea of getting a lot of WRs in the patterns to unload the box.

Amazingly, the 49ers last week were 4-4 in the red zone against what was supposed to be a top-tier defense. But they pretty much laid down by the end of the 3rd quarter, and their offense was flat to say the least. Carolina? Well, Denver has the blueprint for beating Carolina down pat. Pressure pressure pressure. Get people in his grille and make him rush his throws. Contain is also important, but the biggest thing is pressure. The DBs did well last week, and in the preseason. They again will be key to slowing down the Carolina offense. Keep the ball in Newton’s hands give the pas rush a better shot of getting to him.

Still and all,  I think we lose, but we play well in the cause. 24-20 Panthers.

Well, we are getting closer to a real game I suppose. Maybe the Rams mailed it in and were shocked by our intensity. Maybe we continue our pattern of playing well at home and like high schoolers on the road. Maybe it was sunspots. Who knows?

The point being, we are flying across the country to play the defending NFC champs. Across 3 time zones. For the early game, no less. But that is how it goes in today’s NFL. You are perceived as a lower-echelon team, you get fucked right in the schedule.

Anyhow, the rumor mill has been turned on by Jed and Co once again regarding our current backup, and once and (possibly) future starting quarterback, Colin Kaepernick. The rub now is that the kneeling during the National anthem is causing a rift among the teammates. Despite the fact that Daniel Kilgore and Torrey Smith have stated that they don’t have a problem with his protest. Both were leery at first, but get where he is coming from after players-only meeting on Aug 29th to address just that.

Or you can believe Lowell Cohn’s discharge, Grant Cohn, and his second-hand accounting of a passing comment by an unnamed lineman in the locker room when passing by the knot of unchickenshit reporters gathered around CK after last week’s game. You know, the usual innuendo and obfuscation that this front office is so good at fomenting and promoting. Much like Trent Dilfer’s comments regarding CK. Funny Dilfer made his comments before the game, and  he’s surprised at the knot of reporters looking for a comment after the game about what he himself started. Kind of a self-perpetuating myth there, Trent. Dilfer of course said that a backup quarterback has no right to express his opinion. He should just sit in the back of the bus and be quiet, like a good boy. That’s one way to take it, anyway. You can take it also to mean that Kaepernick is disputing the team dynamic. Certainly this possibility exists, but this is happening at a lot of games now, and isn’t just the 49ers dealing with it. Which means SOMETHING.

Back to Dilfer, though, there are reports now that Trent Baalke wants to get rid of Kaepernick. And also that Baalke and Dilfer are good friends. In other words, Baalke uses Dilfer as his mouthpiece to float negative things about Kaepernick to get the word out. Of course neither guy is in the locker room on any regular basis, but the team is obviously once again floating innuendo and bullshit through outside sources. The hope is that Chip Kelly, who is apparently firmly on CK’s side, gets to keep CK on the team. Beyond the fact it would be a bad look to cut the backup who also happens to be generating social discourse, it would also leave us very thin at QB. Unless Mark Snachez floats your boat.

Point being, this should be a football decision, not some kind of witch hunt from the front office. Again. Baalke keeps winning these behind-the-scenes battles. Just ask Jim Harbaugh and Paraage Marathe. And Crabs, and any number of players and staff.

The Chip Kelly era starts much like the Jim Tomsula era started.  With a resounding win on Monday Night Football. Last year it was the 49ers manhandling the soon-to-almost-beat-Seattle-in-the-playoffs Minnesota Vikings. Last night it was the newly rebirthed Los Angeles Rams, as Chip and the Cookies stomped the piss out of a really bad looking Ram team 28-0. Jeff Fisher, as I’m sure you folks know, is not high on my list of good coaches, had the best defensive line in the game looking ill-prepared and slow. Their offense consisted of futile runs and sideways passes. Whether we were covering well, or they just didn’t take shots is up for debate, but as a whole, the defense played every minute and gave up little.

The offense is a bit of a different tale. The run game is a different animal with Carlos Hyde in there. He ran well behind what appears to be a vastly improved O line. The Rams may be an offensively-challenged unit, but their defense is no joke. They are rated as one of the top front 7s in the league. However, with Chipper’s faster-paced plays, and runs from 3 wide sets, the line was able to create nice holes for Hyde to run through.

Blaine Gabbert? Well, he had a fairly uneven game. 22-35 and 170 (1 TD) isn’t going to make anyone forget Joe Montana, but he hit passes that needed to be hit for the most part. The first half was going well, but the game ground to a halt in the 3rd quarter. LA changed their defense to take away the short passing, and the 49ers were skunked the entire quarter to the tune of -4 yards and no first downs. The saving grace was the defense shutting down LA the entire quarter as well. The point being, Gabbert got sloppy for no reason as he forced passes on bad reads, and nearly had 2 picks, including a near pick 6.

Just as inexplicably, Chipper got a little more creative and the offense started moving again. 14 points later the game was a blowout, and the Rams, behind Jeff Fisher (10 penalties for 102 yards) got demoralized, chippy, and stupid. Which led to Aaron Donald being ejected from the game for trying to behead Quinton Patton.

As for the D, well, pitching a shutout is hard in the NFL. Even with a challenged group like the LA Rams and Kasey Kaseum. The line held Gurley to 47 yards on 17 carries, and a grand total of 185 yards. They got nothing deep and everything was horizontal.

All in all, it looks like a good game to start the season. How this bodes for the 3-time-zone cross-country-trip-on-a-short-week-and-play-the-early-game-on-the-East-Coast (FUCK THE SCHEDULERS) remains to be seen, but we did this last year and it went south in a hurry.

Here we are, the final game of the opening week of NFL 2016. We get the east coast/west coast Monday Night double-header. Cool for us on the West Coast, but if there are any 49er fans in New York, they get a 10:40 pm start time. Kinda sucks for them, but Monday Night Football has always been a bit of a fuck-a-row for the East Coasters.

Anyhoo, this game is going to be a test for both teams. Chip kelly is for all intents and purposes seemingly done a decent job of taking a bunch of miscellaneous parts from the previous regime and a recent draft that focussed on both lines to give us a small sliver of hope that the team may have a solid base to work from. At least this is what gives me hope.

QB? Well, this is a bit of a quandary. Blaine Gabbert won the job merely by being there more than Colin Kaepernick. Nothing great, but not a lot of mistakes either. Kappy? Well, depending on how tonight goes, he could very well be the starter by next week. He will bide his time as the insurance policy. As far as routes go, I’m hoping we played it close to the vest as there was very little mid-range top deep passing.

RB? Both Carlos Hyde and Shaun Draughn played little in the preseason due to injury, but both showed a lot of solid running. Keeping Hyde healthy is vastly important to the fate of this team. Draughn is a very nice compliment to Hyde, and backups Davis and Harris even looked good.

WR? The big unknown. Adding Rod Streater and Jeremy Kerley at least gives us some experienced guys after Bruce Ellington went down again. Torrey Smith has an amazingly great attitude after basically being ignored all last season, so the hope is, as with the QBs that we can open things up tonight and get the ball downfield more than the 6 yard bites we saw in the preseason.

The O line, despite the shenanigans of Anthony Davis, looks vastly improved over last year’s version. Trent Brown has been very solid at RT so far, garnering praise at all stops, and the return of a healthy Kilgore Trout cannot be understated. Andrew Tiller replaces a reluctant AD and pushes him to backup RT. Joe Staley is still in fine form, and FA acquisition Zane Beadles has been solid as well as he has kept first round pick Josh Garnett from cracking the starting lineup.

Vance McD looks to be finally on the verge of a breakout year, and he’s decent enough as a blocker, as is Garrett Celek. Bell has shown flashes of good hands.

On D we should see a lot of improvement. The DBs are healthy and have looked nothing short of fantastic. Eric Reid had a nice pick 6 on Trevor Siemien, and the coverage was spot-on most every game with the starters.

The pass rush is another matter as no one has shown too much against us in the preseason to make a determination. Marcus Rush looked like a pretty good 3rd down option, but he’s on the PS for now. Aaron Lynch is serving his 4 game suspension, and a significantly lighter Tank Carradine steps in for him alongside Ahmad Brooks, the enigmatic on-again-off-again presence. Ray-Ray Armstrong had a very solid preseason and camp to push his way into the lineup alongside NaVorro Bowman.

The D line suffered a major blow since Ian Williams wasn’t able to make it back from his ankle injury. The entire D line hasn’t played a down yet together as NT Glenn Dorsey is also nursing nagging injuries, but we get to see the bookend Ducks Arik Armstead and DeForest Buckner hit the field tonight along with Quinton Dial. The key here will be the rotation to keep these guys fresh against Todd Gurley. Mike Purcell at NT and Tony Jerrod-Eddie will also be rotating throughout the game, I’m sure.

So, shoot me for being a little optimistic. I think this team looks a lot better than it did one year ago. The coaching staff can’t help but be better than last year’s train wreck, and that should lead to a couple more wins than last year. Better overall play on both lines is my main reason for hope.

Carolina travels to Sherpaland to open the 2016 season! The talk is over. The miasma of uncertainty  stops, and the real shit begins. Of course, the Niners are saved for the last game. Monday night vs the Rams.

To me this is a very important game. Given the tough schedule, this would appear to be the most winnable of the first 5. The. A k end isn’t as tough as the beginning, but all may be lost by then.

Well, enough talk. Play ball!

TAXI SQUAD
Maximum of 10 players

• WR           Dres Anderson
• OL             Alex Balducci
• OL             Fahn Cooper
• TE             Je’Ron Hamm
• CB            Prince Charles Iworah
• OL             Norman Price
• LB             Marcus Rush
• LB             Shayne Skov
• RB            Kelvin Taylor

I’m glad they were able to keep Skov, Rush, Hamm, Anderson, and Taylor. All of those guys showed something promising. I’m a little surprised Rush wasn’t snapped up by someone. He may be undersized and one-dimensional, but he showed a very quick burst to the QB and caused disruptions on passing downs. Hamm has nice hands, as does Taylor out of the backfield. Dres? Made a nice adjustment on the TD pass from Ponder. He must be showing something in practice. Same with Harper and the linemen. Hey’ I’m just glad to see Pears gone.

• WR           Dres Anderson
• OL            Alex Balducci
• WR           Devon Cajuste
• DL            Demetrius Cherry
• OL            Fahn Cooper
• QB            Jeff Driskel
• TE            Je’Ron Hamm
• RB            DuJuan Harris
• CB            Prince Charles Iworah
• OL            Colin Kelly
• LB            Corey Lemonier
• DL            B.J. McBryde
• OL            Norman Price
• LB            Marcus Rush
• LB            Shayne Skov
• NT            Garrison Smith
• RB            Kelvin Taylor
• WR           Bryce Treggs
• WR           Ryan Whalen
• WR           DeAndrew White

The good, Lemonier. The bad, DeAndrew White, Dres Anderson, Marcus Rush, Shayne Skov. The Ugly? The rest. The surprises to me were Rush and the young WRs. I guess they werem’t getting open, but I thought Skov would stick for special teams, and Rush would fit in as a 3rd down pass rusher.

I think Driskell,  Anderson, and Rush are headed for the taxi squad. G Smith as well. Looks like Ponder makes the grade as a hedge against the rest of the generally mediocre performances of Gabby and Kappy. Let the games begin!

The Niners won a thrilling (zzzzzzzzzzzz) contest of wills and flags in Sandy Eggo as the backups from SF beat the backups of SD 31-21. 2-2 in these meaningless games, but the takeaway from this game is that no one got hurt.

Colin Kaepernick afro’ed himself  into a middling performance that didn’t change any minds about the pecking order. Blaine Gabbert is our starter, Kaepernick is the backup. After that, Jeff Drisekll looked horrible, throwing 2 pick in 3 passes in a bad 3rd quarter stretch. Christina Ponder continues to impress against the backup brigade, throwing passes to WRs and generally looking like he should stick. Over Driskell? Yes.

Other that that, the other hot players coming out of camp are Marcus Rush and Mike Davis. But for two fumbles, Davis would be even more of a shoe-in for the back-up RB spot. That should be his.  Carlos Hyde is once again a question mark, and Shaun Draughn is battling a rib injury himself, so Davis, and possibly Kelvin Taylor, will make the squad.

WR is a big question mark as well, but Kerley made a few nice catches from CK. Beyond Torrey Smith and Kerley, we got a lot of young guys. Dres Anderson had a clutch catch on the goal line on the 1st drive, and after that? Unsure.

For the D line, Ronald Blair had another solid game, and the D line in general has played well despite losing Ian Williams, and Dorsey’s uncertain status. DBs as well. No surprises there.  I was a little surprised to see Kenneth Acker traded, but we have a soliod group of defenders.

Optimistic? Who knows? I’d like to be, but this season has been way too wacky to be realistic. Will Kappy get cut? No. Despite the hooraw, he’s better than Driskell. Ponder? Well, that’s harder to tell, but I think they carry all three at this point. Kelly can’t afford to be caught short-handed with all the weirdness circling the team. Still think this could be an 8-8 team if they can get healthier and not get too many injuries.

So far we’ve lost players, games, and the backing of the police. Think the Chipster is maybe rethinking his job choices? Hey, it’s a paying gig, and really, if he can get something out of this team resembling decent football his stock will rise pretty high. But as it stands now, the team still looks like a clusterfuck nightmare. There’s no apparent front office turmoil, and they haven’t weighed in on the Kappy deal other than to say it’s within his rights as an American to sit for the anthem, but there is still a swirling miasma of unanswered questions about the team, why the front office has been ignoring the QB position in the draft, the WR position in the draft, and basically sat on its thumbs while having scads of cash available to sign free agents. Signing a backup guard is hardly ground breaking stuff.

Whatever the anthem fallout is, Chip is saying Kappy is still part of the team, and still part of the QB race.  Granted, I think Kappy has two blown tires and is leaking oil at an alarming rate, but who the fuck knows? A bad performance against San Diego’s Walmart brigade could spell the end for Kaepernick here or anywhere. A good performance? Well, there are teams like Dallas and Denver who at this point are dealing with major uncertainty at the QB spot. So, a trade is a possibility I suppose. Jerry Jerk-off loves him some craziness so he could very well trade for him. Elway? Well, I think the water has cooled significantly on that one. Even with Denver looking like they may implode themselves.

Beyond that, the game tonight will be a picture of ugly Americans lashing out at someone going out on a limb. The mob mentality will prevail and the potential for a lot of ugliness exists. I have no problem with the military or supporting the job they do, but I also think there are systemic problems with the police in this country.