Forty Niners Forever

Well, it’s a new day, a new year, and a new vacancy. Jimmy (bag-of-donuts) T got the heave-ho yesterday. The Jimmy T era started with a solid win over a good team, and ended with a ‘thrilling’ OT win over a division rival. That’s the good news. The bad? Well, they were 3-10 in those other pesky games.

But this isn’t about Jimmy the fall guy. This is about the recent announcement that Trent Baalke, the architect behind the talent drain and likely the biggest source of Jim Harbaugh’s disgruntlement, was just given the green light to lead the search for our head coach.

Ahhh, well. Welcome to my nightmare.

Jed York: Trent Baalke remains 49ers’ G.M., will hire next coach

I mean, yes, lets let the guy whose draft record is fair to awful pick the next head coach.

I don’t even want to get in to the problems we had last year when Jed York apparently put the kibosh on the Adam Gase hiring because of Jed’s insistence that Gase accepts Jimmy Donuts as his DC, and not Vic Fangio.

Granted, ol’ Adam is likely thanking his lucky charms he’s not here, but he didn’t fare very well in Chicago either. Losing to the Niners isn’t a crowning achievement. Neither is going 6-10 for a team that was gunning to improve their offense. One with Matt Forte and  Alshon Jeffrey in the stable. 23rd in scoring? Ouch.

Man, I dont know.  I hope beyond hope we can pry Sean Payton away from N’Orleans. Worst case scenario? Chip Kelly. Naturally, this will be what happens. If so, there will be riots in Santa Clara.

Even still, a tiny part of my brain wants to see what Chip and Kappy could come up with in a crazy-ass no-huddle pistol offense. Probably we go 3 and out faster than any team in history (20 punts per game), but hey, at least it would be more exciting than this last year of BORING mundane plodding offense that was torture to watch.

Well, the season that started with a bang ends with barely a whimper. A team that beat the playoff-bound Minnesota Vikings fairly easily quickly went into a tailspin that they couldn’t get out of. 1-0 to 4-12. Injuries, inconsistency, bad coaching, bad play, terrible offense, terrible defense, a quarterback benching, on and on.

A season that started with a ton of question marks and uncertainty after the mass exodus of players, and the gutting of a coaching staff ends with likely another purging of coaches at the least. The team that was terrible offensively last year sunk even lower. The team took a huge hit in talent on defense, and it showed in a number of blowouts, but that was due to the many turds the offense laid. Sort of a self-generating shit show of 3-and-outs followed by quick scores by the opponents.

The finger of blame can be pointed at just about anyone on the team and in the front office, but to me the biggest problem with this team is that the talent that was abundant 3 short years ago has gotten old, moved on, and has not been replaced. The galling thing to me is that Trent Baalke is under NO pressure from the local media regarding his status as the GM, and his problems replenishing the team with playmakers.

Sure, Jimmy Bag-of-Doughnuts is an easy target to pigeon-hole as the source of the team’s woes (anyone who farts in a presser WILL catch shit), but he was given a very bad hand to start with. The machinations around the coaching hires started with Adam Gase nearly being signed only to (apparently) flee the ship after Jed York mandated that Tomsula, not Vic Fangio, be the DC.  This scenario supposedly played out, but I can’t for the life of me figure out WHY Tomsula plays such a huge role on this team. It should have been a no-brainer to get Gase and keep the defensive coaching staff together. Beyond that, Tomsula is no offensive genius, and the rest of his coaching staff did little to alleviate the worries around the moribund offense.

Rightfully so it turned out, as they are the worst offense in the league. The thing is, there are rumblings that Jed won’t even get rid of Tomsula, let alone his GM. This team was riddled with injuries last year, and managed to crawl to 8-8. This year saw another shitload of injuries, but with the talent drain, they staggered to 4-12. Keeping Tomsula and shit-canning Chryst and the rest does little to change the prevailing suck. Status quo will likely bring about a mediocre season, even if they don’t get ravaged by injuries. I know Jed likes to float things around through social media using his underlings to get the lay of the land from the fan base, but he HAS to know that there will be black-outs and sponsor defections in the near future should this same coaching staff/front office returns next season.

Sigh.

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.

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.

. . . 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 . . .

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 Bowl, Zaxby’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.