Forty Niners Forever

From a preseason that started with a raft of injuries has continued on to be a maddening trent with this team. 4 games into 2025 and we are at the top of this list. The preseason saw

• 2024: #1 most injured
• 2023: #29 most injured
• 2022: #9 most injured
• 2021: #3 most injured
• 2020: #1 most injured
• 2019: #6 most injured
• 2018: #4 most injured

The outlier of course was 2023 when we went to the Super Bowl and yeah, you know. So, what looks like a pretty solid start to the season has devolved into a giant clusterfuck of injuries and replacement guys. Our once-full WR room is down to Scantling, Robinson, Moore, and Kendrick fucking Bourne, whose drop led to the punt return TD.

The TEs are doing OK, minus the fumble last week. Derp.

The defense of course lost Nick Bosa for the season. So, our pass rush, while not spectacular, WAS getting a lot of pressures and hurries. Last week, not so much. Saleh has his work cut out for him to get Stafford off his marks and to keep LA off the scoreboard.

Yeah, I don’t know. The offensive line isn’t blocking well, the pass pro is iffy at best, and LA’s pass rush is one of the best, the pass defense is not getting ANY turnovers, pass coverage is spotty at best, and the run defense is shakey.

But every time I think this team is gonna smoke a shitty team like the Jags, they suck. When I think they will suck, they pull out a satisfying win.

Hah! 31-27 Niners.

This crack medical staff has yet again done wonders. Purdy got through the game but his toe is hurt again, so all signs point to Mac Jones gets the start. At this point it might be a good thing.

But, due to their ineptitude, Purdy likely sits for another game or two as he re-heals his re-aggravated toe. A fairly strong case can be made for giving Jones the start last Sunday as it was a non-division non-conference game, and isn’t nearly as important as the Thursday night Rams game, but alas, here we sit, broken QBed.

The following are questionable:

• Jennings
• Pearsall
• Purdy (out)
• West
• Green
• Winters
• M Williams
• Gross-Matos
• Beal

Sweet. We are losing the battle on both sides of the line. No run blocking to speak of and no pressure on defense. How this shakes out vs the Rams looks to be scary at best. Shanny has a way of fucking with McVay, but with this many guys out, it’ll be hard. No idea when these guys will be healthy. As Shannon Sharpe said, you don’t get healthier as the season goes on.

So, Kittle, Purdy, Jennings, and T Williams, all the guys that got their big paydays are either hurting or out. We are counting on rookies and 2nd-3rd stringers to win going forward.

I guess our offensive genius, who’s 29th in red zone effectiveness, will have to do something about this moribund offense. And who knows? Maybe we get a quarterback controversy out of this if Mac can pull out a road win.

Wow. Well, without Nick Bosa, our defense sure looks like last year’s version of not being able to stop the run or the pass. Our special teams looked like last year’s, giving up a punt return for a touchdown. And the offense looked like last year’s stalling on the goal line twice, shitty run blocking, forcing passes, and turning the ball over 4 times. All this led to a loss to the nearly-as-inept-as-we-were Jacksonville Jaguars. Fuck me.

Both teams have numerous foot injuries from shooting themselves repeatedly in the feet. Our WR corps is wiped out. Our defense got NO pressures on Lawrence. Zero. Game 11 without an interception. 0-4 in the turnover category, and we were still in the game because of a tone of holding calls on Jax, dumb play calls, Lawrence running OB on his own while trying to run the clock out, and a bunch of other things.

And in one of the weirdest things I’ve ever seen, the refs gave Jacksonville an extra down when Shanahan (he says) declined a 2nd down holding call on Jax near their goal line. Instead of 3rd and 12, it was 2nd and 16. Despite calling a time out and discussing it with the refs, they said sorry, Jax gets their extra play despite declining it.

The play got 0 yards, but 3rd down and 16 of course they converted. Mainly because there was absolutely no pressure on Lawrence. We didn’t show much in the way of blitzes or anything, and Jax’s O line ran roughshod over our defense to the tune of 151 on the ground.

Purdy looked terrible overthrowing shit and forcing the ball to CMC. 3 turnovers for the future of the franchise as he looked rusty and out of sync. Guess they should have waited till Thursday to give him the green light. I don’t think Mac Jones would have done this badly.

Not sure what to make of this game other than to hope they just all had a bad day. This loss, while not a division or even conference loss, sure make the Thursday night game hugely important.

In the immortal words of the Angels, my boyfriend’s back and there’s gonna be trouble.

Brock Purdy is officially off the injured list! Glad there’s no travel this weekend, so that isn’t an issue. And even the Rams game is only a quick jaunt to Levi’s south. here’s to hoping that we have enough weapons at our disposal to take care of Jacksonville.

Say what you will about them, and I don’t know much about their defense, but they are up near the top in points allowed at 17 per game. But the 2 teams they’ve beaten are winless Houston and 1-win Carolina. Their loss was to the Browning led Bengals. Very telling is their +5 turnover ratio. But Trev is looking pretty pedestrian these days.

We on the other hand are playing down to the level of our opponents so far at -1. Purdy of course owns 2 of those turnovers in that Seattle game. Mac Jones has done a very good job keeping the course of Good Ship Niner pointed in the right direction, but man we need to throttle someone and get the starters out early for the Rams game. We cannot have another nail-biter game. It just leads to more problems.

More good news is Demarcus Robinson is returning after serving his DUI suspension. He looked in sync in the preseason, and we need him out there with Jennings still questionable. And I’d love to get the workload off of CMC’s shoulders for fear of him hitting the hurt list. Give Robinson more touches. And ease some work off of Ricky Pearsall’s shoulders as well. He’s questionable with a knee problem, but I’m pretty sure he’s gonna go.

Unreal how bad this season ha started despite our 3-0 record. The latest hit of course is the loss of Nick Bosa for the rest of the year with a torn ACL. For good or bad, it is not the same knee that wiped out his 2020 season, but the result is another lost season for the defensive ROY in 2019 and defensive POY in 2022.

Purdy is limited in practice but he was last week as well, so there’s no certainty that he’s gonna play this Sunday. Ricky Pearsall is now on the list with a knee problem, Jennings remains limited, Kittle has at least one more week getting his hammy right, on and on.

The following guys are not practicing today:

WR Jordan Watkins (calf)
WR Ricky Pearsall (knee)
WR Jauan Jennings (ankle, shoulder)
DT CJ West (thumb)
LT Trent Williams (rest)
RB Christian McCaffrey (rest)
DE Yetur Gross-Matos (knee)
DE Nick Bosa (knee)

The silver lining at least is that this isn’t a division or even a conference game. But the more wins we stack now, the better shot we have at staying in contention while half the roster tries to get healthy.

The big thing now is, what to do about Bosa? He’s on the third year of his 5-year extension signed in 2023. Gonna be a wait-and-see thing, but he’s signed through 2027. All the talk is about replacing him, but I don;t think the front office is going to go wild. Trey Hendrickson sounds like a great fit. But as we all know, he’d be a rental. How much would we give up for a guys like him? It would be a pretty big haul for Cincy, and we would have to pick between Bosa and Hendrickson, a guy 3 years older, but with 3 missed games in his career compared to 30 for Bosa.

I could see the team hedging their bet for now as they see how Huff increases his workload, Mykell Williams does the same, and Okuayinonu/Gross-Matos rotate in and out to spell them.

The trade deadline is 11/4, after game 9 of the season. The tougher games are the Rams and Tampa, but as we know, anyone can do anything. I’d hope 6-3 to be the low water mark and maybe time to think about making a move. But if we are 7-2 I’d think they may poach a promising young player from someone’s practice squad or should they go after a guy like Carl Granderson, who played pretty well vs them in NO?

Well, Bosa was right when he gave the thumbs down on his injury status walking to the tent. He is out for the year with a torn ACL.

Mac Jones gutted out a reoccurring knee injury and led the Niners to the game-winning FG as time ran out.

He’s day-to-day.

Purdy is day-to-day with his toe.

Mykel Williams is day-to-day with a wrist injury.

Renardo Green is day-to-day with a neck injury.

CJ West had surgery for a broken thumb, but he can possible play this weekend with a cast.

Jennings is day-to-day with a his ankle and shoulder injury that kept him out of this last game.

Kittle has one more game to hopefully come off the IR for his hammy.

BA? Who knows?

Purdy may be ready to come back for the Rams game on fucking Thursday night Jacksonville game next Sunday. Right. Thank God we have a short week to deal with all these injuries. Fuck. At least we are at home.

The good news is, we’ve won more division games in 3 weeks than we did all last year. The bad news is of course injuries. After the offense has been waylaid, the D suffers a huge blow with Bosa.

Next man up and all that shit, but really, Huff and Okuayinonu (and Saleh) have to scheme our way to get pressure on opposing QBs. Especially Matthew Stafford. next guy up for the Ram game.

As far as the game went, the run D is forming up pretty well. Upton Stout had a game saving breakup of a pass. The D played OK and got the laate stops that they had to to give the offense the chance for the game-winning FG. AZ helped with some crucial drops, but we aren’t getting to the QB enough and that’s is not gonna be helped by Bosa’s absence.

The run D is also gonna have to be big in this game. Travis Etienne is averaging 90 ypg, and their O is averaging 141 per game (5th in the league) so they have to be stout against the run to take this one.

Saleh has his work cut out for him with pressure, and at least Stafford is not very mobile Trevor Lawrence has only been sacked 3 times, but his numbers pretty much suck. 4 picks and 4 TDs and a woeful 55.3% completion percentage good enough for 33rd in the league. The hope is Saleh decides to bring the pressure with blitzes, stunts, and whatever else we can come up with to force more mistakes.

And, as much shit as I give Shanahan for his play calling, he finally ran play action inside the 10. I’ve only been saying that for 5 years now, He royally fucked up the previous drive by not being able to punch it in from 2nd and goal in the 1, but the TD drive and subsequent drive to win the game was solid and he worked the clock very effectively. So, yeah you can teach an old dog new tricks.

Jim Fahnhorst, 49er linebacker for 7 seasons, and three Super Bowls (XIX, XXIII, XIV), passed away at 66. Oddly enough, his older brother Keith, mainstay on the 49ers offensive line for 14 years, and 2 Super Bowl wins (XVI, and XIX), also passed away at 66 in 2018. Cool they got to share Super Bowl victory XIX in Palo Alto. Keith of course came in during the dark days of 1974.

RIP, Jim.

In game news, the Cardinals are working through injuries to four of the defensive backs. Cornerbacks Garrett Williams, LJ Collier, Max Melton, and Will Johnson are all iffy for Sunday’s game. This would definitely give Kyle something to think about for this game.

Kyle of course is playing the Purdy thing close to the vest. Lynch has even gone on to say that Mac Jones could get the start with Purdy being the #2. Available to come is and straighten shit out of it comes to that.

That seems like a whole lot of unnecessary bullshit. If Purdy is ready, play him. But what do I know? Jennings and his ankle, Juice with his concussion are both questionable. Bartch is (surprise!) on the IR. Shame he can’t stay healthy, but Connor Colby looked good in his stead.

Week 3 is coming up already and we are already into our back up QB, TE, WR, LG, and numerous other bump and bruises. Mac Jones comported himself pretty well and hit the plays he needed to as he threw 3 TDs and led the team past the New Orleans Saints. Jones missed some opportunities, and held the ball too long, which led to the fumble and sacks, but he got the job done in the end. He was a lot more safe than Purdy, but the big chunk plays were missing for the most part. As it was, a win is a win is a road win. Always tough in the NFL.

Folks say this schedule is easy, but there ain’t nothing easy what with parity and whatnot. Look at KC for a good example. They were on the winning end of 11 close games last year. Now? 0-2 as they can’t close out those same types of games. Seattle should really be called the Phoenixes as they continually rise from the ashes to be competitive. This year is no exception as they are a tough team that likely is in a dogfight for the NFC West. Or 6-11 last year could have easily been 11-6 with just a few flipped plays.

Which brings us to week 3 and the Cardinals. They have also eeeked out a couple wins against what is considered lesser opponents in the Saints and the Panthers. Thing is, the Panthers and Bryce Young (35-55!!!) put up 330 passing yards on them. That’s a LOT of throwing. NO and the Rattler threw for 215 yards on 27-46. Both outgained AZ and lost. The runs against were low. 102 and 86. But not sure if that’s because the airways were free and clear or AZ stuffed the run games.

AZ is one of those teams though that always seems to be a thorn in our side. They WILL try to run the ball, and John Connor plays us tough. Kyler? I don;t know. He’s a mobile threat, but we’ve been pretty good at containing him. His numbers are pretty pedestrian, but if you look at QBR and rating, the numbers are way off.

QBR, Murray is 18th at 56.3. Rating, he’s 9th at 101.1
Purdy? 7th in QBR at 78.8. Rating, he’s 15th at 92.2
Jones? 11th in QBR at 66.9. Rating he’s 5th at 113.1

Add the two together and low score wins?

Jones – 11 + 5 = 16
Purdy – 7 + 15 = 22
Murray – 18 + 9 = 27

I don’t even want to throw PFF scores in here as those are even wonkier.

This ‘easy’ sched sure isn’t looking easy. But still and all, these were two very strong games played by the defense. Games that last year surely would have been losses given how soft the defense played these last 2 seasons.

And it really isn’t anything spectacular that Robert Saleh is doing. It is mainly by identifying and attacking the opponent in crucial situations. 4th and 2 late, and we brought the house. It caused a strip-sack-fumble-loss-of down that ended the Saints challenge to take the lead.

The Seattle game was even better. 2nd and 5 from the 9 as the Seahawks were poised to take the lead late, we brought pressure and Nick Bosa forced the strip-sack-game sealer.

These scenarios all came up last year. And more often than not the Niners failed. One thing about Saleh is he does very well at making in-game adjustments. Norlins did well early running, so Saleh changed the fronts and slowed down their run game. But where the defense shined was keeping Rattler in check. For the most part. Color me impressed by the game he played. Rattler hit a lot of passes in very small windows, and hit on 3 TDs, and the coverage was fairly solid. But the Saints only got 207 in the air as most of the throws were check-downs.

Also have to say, Seattle looks like they will be on our heels all year. Their team is no slouch on either side of the ball, and they pretty handily took care of Pittsburgh in their house.

Well, we go off to N’Awlins for game 2 of this injury-plagued season. No Purdy, no Kittle, a banged up O line? No prob!

Still think we can pull this off. I’m thinking 20-9 or some shit. The defense will only improve as the season goes along, and this should be shake rattle and roll.