Forty Niners Forever

Chip Kelly and his lean green machine come a’calling to the friendly confines of the Great America parking lot this weekend to try and run roughshod over our leaky and suddenly ineffective defense. A defense that is a solid 6th in yards given up per game, but 17th in scoring allowed. Not good when facing a team that is pretty much pedal-to-the-metal when it comes to how the play. Foles and Co. do a very good job of no-huddle and quick-attack plays, much like Kelly did on Oregon. They run out of multi-WR formations, but it’s mainly pass pass pass. Short quick routes that are hard to defend and hard to get pressure on. Foles himself. Weirdly though the Jacksonville Jags, of all teams, sacked Foles 5 times in their first game of the year. However, Foles hasn’t been sacked since. He is, however, questionable for Sunday’s game after getting blindsided by Washington’s Chris Baker in the 4th quarter last weekend, which led to a brawl and some ejections. That being said, Foles played after the hit, and I fully expect Foles to play. For all their success passing, LeSean McCoy, last year’s rushing leader, is off to a slow start, averaging less that 60 yards per game so far. Seeing as the Niners have struggled with the run, I’m a little worried about this. Then again, their passing game worries me as well.

So, how do  the Niners stop the attack? Well, by getting back to what they used to do. I’m still not entirely clear as to why the braintrust seems to have gone from Ground Chuck to Air Coryell in a single offseason, but the 49ers are throwing a lot more than usual. It has worked at times, and failed miserably at times (see 3 picks vs Chicago). But I would hope that some of the offense is dedicated to keeping the Philly offense on the sidelines. The 49ers have had some long impressive drives, including the 2 in the 1st half of the AZ game, and they need to keep that up for 4 quarters to pull out a win. Philly’s defense is 26th in yards given up (30th in passing yards), and 20th in points, so one would think that we could get some traction there. They also are struggling to get pressure on opposing QBs as they only have 3 sacks. Certainly something the Niners should be able to exploit. But I would not like to see this turn into a shoot-out.

Beyond that, the run game should be bolstered by the return of the Davises, Anthony and Vernon. Defensively, I just don’t know. The Niner defense is struggling wildly to get pressure, even with blitzes last week, and blitzing the Eagles is not a good idea seeing how fast they get the ball out. Not sure who they will stop the Eagles, but this is a very important early game. Lose this, and they suddenly have a lot of teams to climb over just to reach a wildcard spot.

Stop me if you’ve heard this before, but the NFL is becoming a game not determined by the 22 men playing the game of football, but the 7 officials on the field enforcing the rules.  This last offseason, it was determined by the league that physical cornerback play should be modified. Apparently, we can call this the Peyton Manning rule, as his Broncos were smothered by the big physical Seahawk corners. The contact area is still 5 yards, as before, but the difference is there is absolutely no contact allowed now. A hand check as a WR runs by draws a flag,  whereas before, a certain amount of contact was allowed.

The other new fun rule being strictly enforced now is illegal use of hands. Plays in the trenches, and DBs on the line frequently get in the grill of the guy in front of them to gain leverage. It was usually ignored, unless fairly blatant, like seeing the helmet pop off.

The biggest warning sign of the flag-fest we now see came during the 2014 preseason, when there were 97 illegal contact penalties, 165 defensive holding calls, and 212 illegal use of hands penalties. Now compare those numbers to 10, 39 and 28, respectively from last year’s preseason, and you’ll see why there is a huge outcry among coaches, players and fans about the flag-fest.

This issue is even more relevant now because some teams are seemingly targeted for these penalties, while other teams don’t get called. In the Seattle/Denver game, Wes Welker was blasted to kingdom come on the late interception. He was a ‘defenseless WR’ who got blasted with a hit where the DB left his feet to hit him high. No call. In the Chicago/Jets game, the Jet WR catches the ball, takes 2 steps, and gets blasted at the goal line on a shoulder-to-shoulder hit. The ref calls it hitting a defenseless WR. Huh?

The 49ers have had countless penalties called on them. None more terrible than the illegal use of hands vs Chicago on a 3rd and 9 from Chicago’s 21 yard line. The penalty was very minor. Very ticky-tack. But it altered the course of the game. Even worse, the Niners held Chicago to another 4th down on the same drive, only to get a 5 yard illegal contact penalty.

The problem is these minor infractions result in automatic 1st downs. The Bears got 7 1st down on penalties. And this doesn’t even address the wildly inconsistent personal foul rules that the 49ers have been dinged with. Anquan Boldin’s head-butt was stupid, but is that equal to blasting a QB with your helmet? Chris Culliver’s taunting call appeared to me to be Cully standing up too fast. Stupid ticky tacky calls, but this is the new NFL. Don’t play with emotion, or heart, or have fun, or celebrate a TD, or you will be penalized and possibly fined.

Which brings me to replay. The hit by Dan Skuta on Drew Stanton was a big hit that was vicious, and brutal. But, it was legal. Stanton hadn’t reached the ground. He was just starting to slide as Skuta came in for the hit. Due to the violent nature of it, he was flagged. On the very next play, Patrick Willis comes in amid a bunch of blockers and hits Stanton as he’s releasing  the ball. Willis has his head up and does not use the crown of his helmet. A clean hit on the QB. He’s flagged for a personal foul. 2 blown calls. 30 free yards for AZ. I know we will get an apology from the league saying “Ooops. They got it wrong.” So, I suppose we will restart the game from that point in time. Right. Just like the NO game last year that ended up costing the 49ers home field. Gee, did that blown call change anything?

These egregious blown calls should be reviewable. Why? Because they alter the games and seasons. Will it drag out the length of games? Probably a little, but who gives a shit! The LEAGUE mandates 3 minute commercial breaks on every change of possession, every punt, every kickoff, and every turnover so we can get our fill of beer and boner pill commercials. Or that stupid-ass Geico lizard. Besides, if the games went on 15 miunutes longer, who would care? Not the fans. Shouldn’t it be about making the right call instead of flagging every goddamned play?

. . . there’s a bunch of them circling 4949 Centennial Blvd. In yet another game that got away from them, the 49ers squandered a first half lead and could not muster any points in the 2nd half of this season of our discontent. Yes, there’s no shame in losing in the Big Cactus, as it is a tough place to play, but it was the way the 49ers lost that was galling.

The 49ers opened the game going no-huddle. Something that utterly baffled me, as I didn’t think they knew what that was, and it baffled the Cardinals as they couldn’t shift out of their run D. Kappy was 7-7 for 61 yards, and added 19 yards rushing of his own. It worked very well, even though WE burned 2 timeouts in the process. After holding AZ to their 2nd field goal, that Niners embarked on another 80 yard TD drive where Kappy was 4-5 for 37 yards, and he got 25 yards rushing.

So at the half, the Niners are feeling pretty good. They burned a ton of clock and scored two TDs, and they opened the 2nd half with the ball. Well, something happened on the way to their 2nd victory. AZ made adjustments. The Niners? Well, what can you say? They made stops, but when they did they got flagged. They couldn’t mount a pass rush to save their lives, and AZ started going deep on our banged-up secondary at will. The AZ defense appeared to dedicate an LB to shadowing Kappy, as his runs were all of a sudden ineffective, and they started pressuring him more. The short passing game, which had worked so well in the 1st half, was smothered.  ASZ quickly scored with some deep balls as we had absolutely no pressure on John Elway, uh Drew Stanton.

Then the flags started flying. Dan Skuta was penalized for a hard but legal hit on Stanton, and Patrick Willis was flagged for trying to tackle Stanton as he threw the ball. Both plays were physical plays, but both were legal. I suppose we’ll get another apology from the league in a couple days. Ooops. Our bad. Here’s 30 yards. Carry on. AZ scores again, and the Niners are down 6. No panic time certainly, but the response now was key to the game. Kappy respondes by going 6-6 for 74 yards, getting the Niners to a 1st and goal at the 6. Uh, wait. Anquan Boldin picks this play to head butt to an AZ DB. Oooops. 1st down from the 21. Here’s where the spying on Kappy worked. He was dropped for a 2 yard loss, then held to no gain on the next play with a J Mart hold thrown in for good measure. So, a 1st and goal turns into 2rd and 23 from the 34 yard line. The kick was blocked, and there’s your blown opportunity to take the lead, or at least cut into it.

AZ milked the clock with a lengthy drive of their own, which resulted in a Larry Fitzgerald fumble as AZ was trying to salt the game away. The Niners hit a couple quick passes, but Alex Boone was late picking up a delayed blitz, and one of their DSB came clean for a sack. Thus ending the game as AZ burned the last 4 minutes off the clock and kicked a field goal.

So, what do we take from this game? Well, the crazy thing to me is Jim Harbaugh has completely shifted the emphasis of the offense to the passing game.  Kappy had a much better day than he did vs Chicago, but as the game wore on, AZ adjusted to Kappy’s runs by shadowing him, and blitzed him a lot more in the 2nd half to disrupt our short passing game.

Frank Gore was beside himself in the locker room, wondering what the identity of the team was, and what his role (or the running game in general) is. He and heir apparent Carlos Hyde had 9 rushes for 23 yards. Kappy rushed 13 times for 56. Frank’s right. The Niners passed 37 times, and rushed 24 times.  We’re Mad Mike Martz now. Throw early, throw often.

But, I also have to mention the penalties. 9 for 107 puts the total at 27 called penalties on the Niners for 225 yards these past 2 games. And these aren’t false-start or delay-of-game penalties. These are mainly illegal use of hands, Illegal contact, and most stupefyingly bad unsportsmanlike penalties. Yes, the league is cracking down on everything this year. The 49ers either didn’t get the memo, or are refusing to try and stay in the bounds of the rules. No matter how fucked up the system now is, and I can point to about 8 brutal calls that went against us that were either never called before, or were simply blown, that directly altered games.

I know you can’t whine about the officiating, but Culliver stands up real fast, and gets a 15 yard taunting penalty. Willis tackles Stanton as he’s throwing amid 4 other guys and gets a call for unsportsmanlike. Bad calls, and we seem to be under the microscope fore some reason, but the team has to adjust to the new reality.

Well, air conditioning. Looks like we are up against Drew Stanton today. Division game, the potential for 2 games out, and being passed by Seattle and the Rams all loom large  in this game.

the pass rush HAS to improve, and Kappy needs to make better decisions with the ball. As do the coaches. Read-option ain’t fooling anyone anymore.  Win and you quiet the doubters. Lose, and the naysayers will get cranky.

It’s early, but this is supposed to be the easier part of the schedule.

Another week, another DV arrest. Ho hum. Anyhow, back to the institutional and condoned mayhem. . .

Our wounded warriors (VD, VMcD, and AD) didn’t get on the practice field, and their statii remains a <strong>?</strong> for the trip to the desert. A trip fraught with implications. I’ve said for a while now that this team is teetering on the edge of catastrophe, and the recent Chicago game merely fanned the flames. Or maybe not. Was that a mere blip in the grand scheme? A hiccup by the star-in-waiting QB, or a harbinger of things to come?

Is looking off the safety something Kappy can’t master, or is the pass pro too shitty to give Kaepernick time to properly read a defense? I saw both in the Chicago game. I also saw Kappy make good reads at times. I also saw the play calling take a decisive turn toward passing in these two games. For a team that has been 60/40 run/pass, the team sits at 50/50. This strikes me as odd as the team has jumped out to big early leads, and you’d think we would burn clock by running. But we seem to be entering some sort of Mad Mike scenario where we’ve gone decidedly pass heavy.

Not that I didn’t want a change of play calling, but still and all, I didn’t think we’d shift this far the other way. Gore and Hyde look to be a strong combo at RB this year, and there are scenarios where you run more than I think we have. And then there’s the red zone . . .

Well, here we are coming up on our first divisional game, and it does carry a bit more  importance to it. What should have been a matchup of 2-0 teams, isn’t. The Niners gagged away the Chicago game (for myriad reasons), and travel to beef jerky town. The land that sunscreen forgot. The land where people wear sweaters when it’s 90º out. Arizona. The Big Weirdie. Where assault weapons are a fashion accessory.

Anyhow, if there’s anything that Jin Harbaugh does well, it is come back pretty strong after losses. Maybe it’s a product of benign scheduling, but the 49ers usually bounce back after losses. Although they did have two 2-game losing streaks last year.

The problem is, though, the 49ers suddenly have some big concerns, as far as I’m concerned. The blocking has been middling to atrocious. The O line wore down last Sunday, and the Niners did little to help Kappy out despite a constant 5-man rush in the 2nd half. The Bears on the other hand were left to play pitch and catch as we geared to stop the run game that wasn’t materializing. Curious that the Niner brain trust seemed to go with their pregame plan, and not adjust to the game as it unfolded.

So, now we face Bruce Arians. Another of the more cerebral type coaches. Granted, he doesn’t have the QB he’d love to have, but so far both Carson Palmer and Drew Stanton have delivered victories. They squeaked one out vs SanDawg, as the ‘Dawgs let yet another 10+ point lead evaporate in the 4th quarter. The Giants just flat stink, and it took a late fumble to seal that game. They have a nice shifty RB in Bruce Ellington’s older brother Andre, and of course Larry Fitzgerald.

Since we don’t seem to have much of a pass rush anymore, it galls me to see Fangio run his base defense and not dial up blitzes. It worked against Romo, but that pressure was from base. It didn’t work last week, yet we let Cutler off the hook by not pressuring him. Palmer is the same thing. Let him throw cleanly and he’ll find his mark. Pressure him and he gets rattled.

To me, this coaching staff is on notice. They failed miserably in adjusting to the Chicago game as it wore on. They did little to pressure Cutler, and they didn’t do anything to stop the pressure getting in on Kaepernick. The game is all about adjusting if things change, and they didn’t.

Here’s some early work from the Spitmen.

Wow. Just wow. I’ve heard of a Cleveland Steamer, but this game was a Chicago spewage-fest all of its own. The perfect shitstorm of penalties, turnovers, and shitty coaching. The 49ers, after stumbling and bumbling  their way to a 17-0 first half lead that could have easily been 27 points, saw their lead get cut to 10 with the help of 3 penalties and a great catch by Brandon Marshall to close the 1st half.

I was a little uneasy about that late score until we took the 2nd half kickoff and marched down the field to the Bear 5 after controlling the ball for 10 minutes. The offense was clicking all the way. Kappy connected with VMcD, and Crabs, and Stevie Wonder had a nice 20 yard catch and run. We were poised to take a 17 point lead. So what does Harbaugh do? Completely pussy out. He turtled up and kicked the field goal, thinking his defense would save the day and he could turtle his way to victory. The problem? 24-7 is a 3 score lead. 20-7 isn’t. Things happen way too fast in the NFL to sit on a 13 point lead to open the 2nd half. And it bit Harbaugh squarely in the ass.

Chicago’s next drive was once again helped immensely on two drive-extending 3rd down penalties. So, what do we do? Throw. 1st play after Chicago’s TD is a pick.  I do like opening things up, but really, Buffalo put 200 on this defense on the ground. We didn’t really try. So, Chicago scores 2 TDs and the Niners are down by 1. Score that TD to open the 2nd half, and the Niners are still up by 3. But yeah, you get that. So, still throwing, we get picked again. It takes Chicago all of 3 plays to score again. Down by 8. Time to go no-huddle and try to score quickly? Well, that ain’t in the play book. Harbaugh’s MO is to play for the one score to tie and leave no time on the clock.

Instead of possibly tieing the game, we suffer the same fate as the Super Bowl, and last year’s NFC Championship game. A closely contested pass to Michael Crabtree that falls incomplete. Crabs himself said he blew it by taking the route toward the end zone instead of staying on his crossing route. I believe him, but I also think Chicago got a huge boost by holding the Niners to a FG and thus keeping the score at 13 points.

As bad as the game was, with all the penalties and turnovers, I put this loss squarely on the coaches. Harbaugh and Fangio both went the conservative route, and let Chicago hang around. Chicago had no business getting back into this game, yet the coaches left Cutler unscathed, Fangio never dialed up the pressure, and he picked us apart. Even with Marshall and Jeffries hobbled. You had to know they’d start feeling better if they started making plays. Which they did.

Here we are at the muchly anticipated home opener at the house that Satan built, if you believe the Candlestick 49er fans that didn’t quite get the temp difference between east SF and the South Bay. Can you say 30 degrees? Thankfully, this game is in the evening so the heat (!) factor will be minimized somewhat.

Anyhow, on the the game. On paper, the Bears appear to have a pretty potent offense, what with Brandon Marshall and young phenom Alshon Jeffries to go along with their bruiser at RB in  Matt Forte. They of course are led (?) by the always entertaining Jay Cutler. A guy fairly similar to Tony Romo in that they can play very good football for small to medium stretches, and then lay some big steamers when you need a win.

Thing is, what they do does present a challenge defensively for the Forty Niners. They run well behind Forte, and they have quick-strike ability with their WRs. Their weakness, like Dallas last week, is their defense. I mean really. Giving up 200 yards on the ground to Buffalo is not good at all. Which is why I think the Niners play keep-away. We aren’t going to see that first 8 plays be passes. We are going to run. Hopefully out of our 2-3 WR sets like last week. No jumbo, please.

Beyond that, it’s the opening of the new stadium. I’d love to predict a blow out, but Jimbo doesn’t seem to have that bone in his body.

I’m thinking 28-20 in another game not as close as the score makes it seem.

Enough about the seamy underbelly of the game we love so much. Pay no attention to the owner in the bathroom taking selfies of a BJ . . .

Anyhow, game one of the 2014 season was a rousing success. The Niners came out and scored on the 2nd play of the game when Dan Stuka stripped DeMarco Murray and Chris Culliver ran it in untouched for a TD. The first running play, a 20 yard scamper by Gore, came after 5 straight passes scored 2 TDs. The Niners scoring came to an end right before the end of the 2nd quarter on a nice 10 play drive culminated in a couple really nice runs by Carlos Hyde. The rest of the game seemed to be an exercise in the refs trying to get Dallas back into it.

Sure, it was the Alice Cowboys. But for all their shitty defense, they did manage to run up the gut seemingly at will on the Niner front 7. De Marco Murray had 118 yards, even though Dallas went away from the pass in the 2nd half. Tony Romo however, seemed hell-bent on throwing into traffic, and he had 3 picks in the 1st half. The pressure was uneven, and Dallas was able to rack up 408 total yards to the Niners 328. But the game was won on turnovers. Dallas’ 4 to the Niners 0. Dallas was never even close, and the game could have very easily been 35-10 had the refs not been so intent on getting Dallas a 3rd quarter TD.

Tell ya one thing, I’m sure glad the easy part of our schedule is early. We do have some things to work on. Namely run D. Even with RayMac playing, the run defense was not good at all. Plus, we lost 2 CBs in the 1st quarter (Brock with a toe injury, and Culliver with a concussion). Jimmie Ward also left the game with a head injury, but he (not the team yet) said he’s fine and didn’t suffer a concussion. The good news on that regard was the next men up (Dontae Johnson and Perrish Cox) both played very well. Cox with a pick, and Johnson with 2 passes defended. So, all in all, a great game that will hopefully silence the writers who seem to want this team to implode among all the reports once again of ‘vet discontent’ in the locker room over the rigorous training camp. Shit, that’s so last month.

Methinks the vet in question was just released anyway. Won’t say his name but his initials are LMJ. He cleared waivers, and as of now, no takers.

UPDATE: Ray Rice was just released by the Ravens. Uh, see below. What did you think happened on the elevator?

Sorry, going on a rant here. With the release of more video of the title fight in a Las Vegas elevator  a couple months ago between the 230 lb Ray Rice and his 105 lb fiancee,  the blogosphere is abuzz with talk of revisiting and adding to the supposed punishment of Rice. While I have no idea if anything more comes of this, my question is, what the fuck did you think happened anyway? The NFL is disavowing any knowledge of the extra footage, but this matters? What do you think happened when 2 fully conscious people walk into an elevator, and moments later one is being dragged out of the elevator by her hair?  You now have people coming out and saying “gee, this makes everything different.” I say, gee, get a fucking clue.

It goes part and parcel with the recent hooraw around Ray McDonald and his scrape with his pregnant girlfriend. Just taken at face value, you have a big party with a bunch of people there. At some point near the end of the party, a woman calls the cops because she feels threatened by her boyfriend. He just happens to be a football player. The cops show up, and notice bruises around her neck and on her arms. I imagine they check out RayMac for consistent injuries, but whatever. He gets arrested for suspicion of spousal abuse.

Here’s where the stupidity starts. Jim Harbaugh, in a dig at his brother, tells anyone and everyone in hearing distance that he would NEVER tolerate a player of his being an abuser of women. Remember, brother John welcomed back Ray Rice after his deal, and said we stand behind our player and will accept the NFL’s (fucking joke of a) punishment.  When Ray McDonald gets dragged to jail, ol’ Jimmy is all of a sudden very interested in due diligence and letting the courts handle it.

How do the courts handle it? Well, look at Ray Rice. He and his (speed bag) fiancée promptly get married. And Rice has to attend some sort of anger management deal. In other words, no punishment. Was she under duress to marry him? No one knows that except for them. The NFL levies a huge 2 game suspension, and boom boom, everyone is happy. Except for the victims of domestic violence who rarely get any form of justice and usually get labeled as the cause of what they get. Will he continue to beat her? Another question we won’t get to know. Unless he’s stupid enough to get caught doing the same shit somewhere else, or worst case she eventually shoots him. Hey, just ask Steve McNair. Look, he may never do anything like this again, but if you believe the stats, most abusers don’t stop at just one. Like Lay’s potato chips.

The point being, no one seems to have trouble turning a blind eye to this. From the courts to the league to the owners, to their teammates.  Which brings me to Jed York. And to a lesser degree, Trent Baalke. These are the guys who would be in the direct position to lay down some kind of suspension, sit-down, or punishment for RayMac’s alleged abuse. What does Jed do? Absolutely nothing. He has been as quiet is a church mouse. He and Trent Baalke are hiding behind the due process bullshit Harbaugh conveniently hid behind. Not a peep.

Would it kill Jed to sit down Ray McDonald for one game as the investigation proceeds? No. Plenty of other people in similar circumstances are suspended with pay pending an investigation into whatever the deal was. Everyone gets all bend over due process and ‘innocent until proven guilty’ but that all horseshit. What of the pregnant girl who was (apparently) strangled by her very large and very strong boyfriend? What of Ray Rice cold-cocking his fiancée with a punch that very well could have killed her? Lots of people come out and justify this behavior as if it’s boys being boys or whatever.  I wonder what they’d say if they were the recipients of systematic and ongoing abuse as the rest of the world winked and laughed.