San Francisco 49ers Forever

I’m always confused that the word ecstacy does not have an X in it. Anyhow, this season sure isn’t what I imagined it to be. Yeah, I thought we’d beat up on the underlings like Tennessee and Arizona, but I didn’t think we’d get waylaid by the likes of Indy, Carolina, and especially New Orleans. Game 1 was a shining example of what turned out to be false expectations as we quickly fell to 1-2 and hit scramble mode. 5 wins later, and we’re feeling fine.

Boom, another little rough patch as the Niners lost 2 close games to 2 good teams. At least we tightened up the losses. Fast forward to now, and we’re rolling on a 4 game winning streak. Which of course includes the stirring victory over the Seahawks. So here we sit, with the 5th seed in our grasp. Yes, we could possibly get the 1 seed should the earth open up and swallow Seattle, but that probably won’t happen. Ans yes, we could lose out and miss the playoffs entirely I suppose, but that’s another far-fetched deal.

So, if things go according to the path of most likely, we win out and get the 5 seed. Which means we get the winner of the NFC Norris Division. Which most likely means Da Bearsss. GB could sneak in and ride the wild hope that Aaron Rodgers makes it back, but ewither way, we are playing in the elements. Not too big a worry to me as we have a strong run game, but if it’s a blizzard like we saw a couple weeks ago, all bets are off. Still, running and defense travel well in shitty weather.

Green Bay has Pitts, and a huge showdown with Chicago, which likely determines the playoff team. Lose and you are out. Deetroit, in the inimitable words of Steeve Young last night, “threw up on themselves” in a fairly ghastly loss to the Ravens, who did nothing more than get into field goal range 6 times yesterday. So, it would have been nice to play in the warm confines of the Bankrupt Dome, or wherever Deetroit plays, but Deetroit can’t get out of their own way, amid the penalties and stupid play calling. So it looks like the Niners are packing their longies for the trip to the frozen midwest.

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, in the case of the San Fracisco 49ers and the Dallas Cowboys. Let’s take a look at a couple of football games from yesterday. The 49ers/Bucs game (of course), and the Dallas/GB game. Both featured teams that were expected to do very well and reach the playoffs with ease. Well, in both cases, each team has run into some roadblocks along the way. But as of yesterday, both had their fate in their own hands.

The Niners faced a tough road game against a team that, while 4-9, was on a roll, having won 4 of their last 5.The Niners of course have gone through their share of ugly losses, and a recent huge victory over the Seahawks. Dallas on the other hand, has yoyoed themselves through wins over the also-rans, and Philly before they got hot, and took a couple big losses in the shootout with Denver (51-48), and Chicago (45-28).

So, come yesterday, both teams had build up leads at the half. The Niners however, screwed the pup by going prevent late in the 2nd quarter to allow TB to march down the field and score a TD. Dalls, had build a seemingly insurmoutable 265-3 lead on the back of some strong DeMarco Murray running, and some big pass plays from Romo to Dez Bryant and Jason Witten. Throw in 4 field goals, and there’s your 23 point lead.

While the 49ers had dominated their half, they were only up by 10, and that lead quickly shrunk to 6 points after the Niners drove for a 43 yard FG, and Tampa swithced things up by going no-huddle, and scoring very easily to mae the score 20-14. Dallas meanwhile, started their 2nd half by instantly giving GB life by giving up a 60 yard run to Edddie Lacy, and letting GB score in less than 2 minutes after the kickoff. Still, Dallas was able to drive down the field and answer with a FG of their own on a 6+ minute drive, mixing runs and passes fairly well. GB then marches down the field 80 yards in 12 plays, making the score 29-17. Closer, but no need to panic yet.

Here’s where the coaching comes in to play. Both games were now entering the 4th quarter, and both teams faced momentum shifts that had gone the other way. The Niners were only up by 6, but at this point they started pounding the ball on runs. They engineered an 18 play (10 of which were runs), 75 yard drive that burned 10 minutes of the 4th quarter. That it only resulted in a FG is of little import as the Niners had a 2-score lead, and there was little time. Dallas, who had run the ball very well all game, suddenly and inexplicably gave up on the run. So their momentum-defining drive was 2 dropped passes, and a sack. Burning less than 1 minute of clock. So they were punting from their 2. A decent punt return, and boom. 29-24, and panic starts to creep in.

The Niners were then able to salt the game away on a very high risk reverse on the ensuing kickoff, thus allowing Kendall Hunter an easy touchdown on the blown excxhange. Dallas on the other hand, was in pass-only mode. To stem the fact that Their defense was turning very sieve-like, Dallas didn’t run. They did manage a tpouchdown midway through the 4th quarter, thus extending their lead to 36-24. Certainly a big enough lead, even though their derfense was starting to gag.

Sure enough, Dallas’ defense gives up a TD-scoring drive as GB marches 80 yards in 3 minutes. 36-31 Dallas. So, instead of trying to give their defense a rest, and take time off the clock, Dallas keeps passing. Incomplete pass, sack, then the killer INT. GB by this point is doing anything they want offensively. The Dallas defense is gassed and tiring, and they give up yet another scoring drive. 50 yards in 1:30. GB up 37-36 (2 pt conversion failed). At this point it still isn’t desperation time, but it’s close. Still and all, they just need to get into FG range to kick the game-winning FG. Unfortunately (hah!!), Romo throws yet another pick to ice the game for GB.

What do we gain from this? Well, as much crap as I’ve given Greg Roman over the course of this season, he called a masterful game yesterday. He did NOT go away from the run as he had in some earlier games when the momentum was slipping away. Namely, Seattle and Indy. He stuck with the run, and was rewarded with some tough Gore runs up the middle, and some surprisingly effective sweeps from Hunter. Kaepernick had, to me, one of his best games ever, as he effectively bought time and made some huge throws under big pressure, into some very tight windows. He also ran with reckless (and effective) abandon that kept drives alive.

Dallas on the other hand, is once again looking at a statistaical marvel of a game that sdomehow slipped away amid the HC blaming his QB for calling into the pick, and the prima donna WR walking off the field with 1:30 left in the game. In other words, just another day in Pleasant Valley.

Conventional wisdom seems to be that this game is ripe for the Niners to have some kind of let down. After the physically and emotionally draining victory over the Seahawks, the prevailing thought is that the Niners will have problems handling the Buccaneers. If so, at least it isn’t a division game.

Anyway, for all the travel, the spend emotions, and the early start, the Niners should be able to handle these guys. TB doesn’t have that much offensively, and despite their defensive turnovers, the Niners offense should be able to do more against their defense than they can against ours.

So, that means we win, right?

Haven’t had any easy ones for a while. Let’s hope the rain isn’t bad, and this one is over quickly.

Playoff scenarios aplenty these days as the jockeying for position heats up these last couple weeks of regaluar season football. The Niners could fall anywhere from the #1 seed (unlikely) to not making the playoffs (again, unlikely). I tell ya, though, if Seattle loses (always possible for them on the road), and the Niners win, they will be feeling the heat a little more in the great white (trash) northwest. If the 2 teams somehow end up tied, the Niners would win the West based on a better NFC West record. Thankfully, point differential in their 2 games isn’t the deciding factor.

Strange thing is, though, the Niners could very well end up 12-4 and still remain the 6 seed. They could go 10-6 and remain the 6. Carol has the Jets, NO at home and Atl on the road. Doesn’t look like they’ll drop any of those, so the 5 is out. The Niners? This should be their last remaining tough game. Atl and AZ? we’d better handle that. AZ would have to pass us to take the 6 seed, and that seems unlikely as well. We have a better division record and have split as well. So, worst case scenario is 11-5. But that could make the last game of the year vs. AZ a possible play-in game IF Arizona catches fire and beats Seattle. Again, not likely. The Niners are in the drivers seat, and Chi still has Philly and GB. They only get in as the NFC North winner, not the WC. Dallass? Please. They are playing themselves right out of contention. Their defense rests . . . all game.

Surprising to me is the resurgence of the left-for-dead Eagles. They staggered their way to a 3-5 record behind the inconsistent and injured Mike Vick. Matt Barkley played a little as I guess Foles got hurt, but once Foles regained the job, he hasn’t looked back. Chip Kelley’s much maligned offense is now paying off in spades as Philly has gone from last to first, and the 3 seed as of now. 5 wins in a row, with the limp biscuit Vikings next up.

So, as of right now the #6 seeded 49ers would travel to the #3 Iggles, and the #4 Lions would host the Panthers. Will this change? Probably.

No, not a family reunion, but the next game on the quest for the 49ers to reach the playoffs. Tampa Bay may be 4-9, but ever since their near (dammit) victory over the dreaded and recently vanquished Seahawks, Tampa is on a bit of a roll. They are 4-1 since that game, with their lone loss coming at the hands of the Carolina Panthers. Gone is Josh Freeman and new quarterback Mike Glennon has quietly led TB to a certain amount of respectability in recent games.

Tampa made the switch to Glennon after Freeman led the leam to an 0-3 record. Glennon has gone 4-6 in his stead, but as you know, he’s 4-1 in the last 5, and almost engineered a shocking upset of Seattle in their house. No mean feat. Tampa may be full of holes on offense and defense, but they do have an elite cover CB in ex-Jet Island Darelle Revis, a stud DT in Gerald McCoy, and their pass-rushing OLB Lavontae David, an emerging leader on the team. He of the 6 sacks and team-leading 81 tackles. And of course the oft-fined FS Dashon Goldson. He of the one pick, and a one-game suspension. This of course is among the 3 penalties and one more near-suspension he’s incurred for head hunting.

All in all it should be a fun day at the beach. Hopefully Jim Harbaugh will re-introduce the team to one Frederick P. Softie on the plane ride to sunny Florida. You know, the guy who likes to show up when the boys get a little full of themselves. This seemed to happen every 3 weeks last year, but we’ll see what happens going forward. No road game is easy. Well, Tennessee and St. Louie were cakewalks, but Tampa is playing pretty well. They managed to beat Detroit despite losing the yardage battle 229 to 390. Maybe the 4 Stafford picks had something to do with that. Kappy had better be careful.

For the Niners, I sure would like to see Frank Gore get a rest. I know he’s 69 yards shy of 1,000 yards for the year, and 230 yards shy of 10,000 yards for his career, so there’s impetus to get him some touches. I mean, Seattle put up 198 on them, Atl 163, and Carolina put up 152, so the opportunity is there to get him some chunks. Get the passing game rolling. just stay away from Revis. Burn Goldson with some double moves. He ALWAYS bites on those.

In a huge game with mainly psychological implications, the San Francisco 49ers put their stamp on one of the last games they will play at the venerable shit-hole, Candlestick Park. A place, in the famous words of Jerry Garcia talking about his band, “like bad architecture, or an old hooker, eventually you gain respect.”

Did the Niners gain respect? In the grand scheme of the NFL, sure. If only til the next game. Respect is fleeting and elusive in the NFL. The 49ers earned their respect when the game came down to a final drive with 6:20 left, and the Niners trailing 17-16. The high point for me was actually seeing the Niners convert on 3rd and 1 with a run by Bruce Miller. Important because this same play failed on the goal line early in the game. It kept the drive alive. It was then followed by Frank Gore’s 51 yard run off the left tackle. Gore very smartly went down in bounds to keep the clock running. This forced Seattle to burn a timeout, as the Niners kept running. The biggest play of the game turned out to be the 3rd and 7 from the Seattle 15. Kappy drifted left on a designed sweep that was blocked perfectly, and Kappy was able to gain 8 yards, get the 1st down, and allow the Niners to run down the clock to give Seattle little chance at the end.

Kappy threw one pass on the drive, a short out to Crabs for 6 yards. The other 68 came on the ground. Something this tame has been known to abandon at times. Is this an indictment of Kaepernick? No, not really. Seattle does much the same. They rely pretty heavilly on their run game as well. That the 49ers held them in check is a testament to how well the defense played overall. Seattle was able to get some traction underneath, but never hit anything deep. Seattle’s 2 best plays were crossing routes to Luke Willson that Patrick Willis looked very slow and late on. Other than that, and a couple Golden Tate catches where coverage was blown due to Wilson buying time, the Niners did a good job of limiting damage.

The Niners on the other hand spent a lot of the game stopping their own progress with some questionable penalties and early conservative play calls in the red zone, and an awful throw by Kappy that was picked off. The 2 FG lead was quickly wiped out by a Seattle TD, and the Niners were able to regain the lead with a 52 yard FG and the VD touchdown to close the 1st half.

The 2nd half saw a menagerie of ridiculous penalties called on both sides of the ball as the refs seemed to want to put their stamp on this game. There were 8 penalties called in the 2nd half, and only one was an inocuous false-start penalty. The rest were various tauntings, unsportsmanlikes, facemasks, and holding calls, which to me mostly looked ticky tacky. The refs often cite calling games close like this to create order out of the highly charged emotions, yet all this seemed to do was kill the flow of the game and piss off everyone involved. Richard Sherman says the refs won it for SF, but Seattle got a lot of favorable calls their way. I call it evenly terrible.

In the end, it was as tough a game as we’ve played all year. The difference being the Niners closed this one out. Something they failed to do against Carol, and Nawlins.

Revenge is a dish best served in the cold mud of Candlestick Park . . .

Will this be lucky 13 for the Niners? Will Kappy get his first win over the Seahawks? Will Harbaugh reverse the recent trend of getting spanked by Pete Carroll and Co? We will fond out soon enough as the hyperbole turns. . .

Beyond the fact this would hurt their playoff chances should they lose, this game has bragging rights, team psyche, and the determination of contender or pretender written all over it. It would further cement the fact that the mantle of best in the west has been shifted north to Seattle after a brief stay in the city by the Bay.

Other than that, just another game.

Depending on who you talk to, this is just another game, a big game for the playoff run, the most important game in recent history, or this game determines the fate of these two franchises for the next 10 years. The Seahawks haven’t won here since the 2008 season. The infamous game where Mike Singletary threw Vernon Davis out of the game, dropped his drawers in the locker room, and went on his ‘I want winners’ rant to the media aftetr the game. Strange days, indeed.

Seattle has won the last two games in convincing fashion. 42-13 and 29-3. Both those games of course were played in the home of Soundgarden, Nirvana, Jimi Hendrix, and Alice in Chains. The Thunderdome, the Clamshell, or whatever you want to call the acoustic nightmare that is whatever they call the Seattle Seahawks stadium. I guess they like loud up there, because that stadium is akin to standing next to a jet engine. Maybe they all work for Boeing and can’t get enough of that shit. Whatever it is, the home team has a pretty big advantage in that place. Their last loss at home was way back in the 2011 season at the hands of the 49ers. A 19-17 thriller that was won by a David Akers FG with 3 minutes left off of a 41 yard pass from Alex Smith to Michael Crabtree. Speaking of Young Sir Alex, he’s the last 49er QB to beat Seattle. That came last year in week 7, the 2nd to last game Smith would finish as a 49er. The 13-6 defensive struggle where Frank Gore had a huge game, rushing for 131 yards, and Delanie Walker scored the only TD. That game of course was at the Stick.

But, and its a little but, this game is in San Francisco as well. The Niner brass thought is would be a good time to remind the fans that they should yell and scream and try to be a nuisance, so they sent flyers to them saying as much. Uh, yeah. Wonderful. I’m sure the fans in Seattle are getting a kick out of that. But still and all, the truth is Seattle isn’t as tough on the road as they are at home. But, and here’s a big but, they are winning on the road. Something they didn’t do last year. And it cost them the bye and the division last year. Now, they are the prohibitive #1 seed, have clinched as playoff spot, and can sew up the division by beating the Niners.

So, where does that leave us? Well, this game is a big deal to me. Seattle is now the cream of the NFL. They haven’t done shit in the playoffs yet, but they have pretty much beaten all comers this year, save the hiccup in Indianapolis. They destroyed Nawlins last Monday night, and are at the point where if they beat us in our house, the prohibitive Super Bowl pick from the NFC, then they have wrested the bragging rights for the NFC West, AND the NFC as the best team in the conference. It would severely hamper our quest to reach the playoffs as well.

So, how do we win this? Well, I figger Seattle will play the Niners to stop Gore and crowd the WRs and VD at the line. Which it is my hope they at least activate Jon Baldwin for the game. Quintin Patton is apparently healthy but I’ll be dipped in shit if he even sees the field for the rest of the season. But the point is, the only way to get Seattle to back off of packing the box and stuffing everything underneath is to go downfield, and to do it with multiple WR sets. One way to keep the pass rush at bay is to spread the field and run delays and draws with Gore. I won’t even mention screens as they likely won’t work with everybody playing close to the line. The good news is Michael Crabtree seems to be his old self after going through the Achilles tear and recovery. He played over 40 downs last week and showed no ill effects after the stop and go that netter him 60 yards. We finally have all our offensive weapons here and ready, line injuries notwithstanding.

Defensively the Niners are pretty much at the top of their game. Even in the past couple losses, they haven’t been the problem. Albeit the pressure has been a bit spotty at times. However, Aldon Smith seems to be regaining his form after his rehab/layoff, and Justin Smith has found his inner cowboy and has begun pushing offensive linemen around like tackling dummies. Ahmad Brooks has made everyone forget the names of our pro bowl linebackers Patrick Willis and NaVorro Bowman. The DBs are solid as a unit, and they are being led to battle by safeties Eric Reid and Donte Whitner. That being said, Seattle is even better than the Niners in total defense and they are a very aggressive defense up front and in the defensive backfield. If they are weak in one area, it’s at LB. Something I’d like to see the 49ers exploit with Vernon Davis and Vance McDonald. Line these guys (one at a time of course) in the slot, and hopefully get some favorable matchups.

So, here we go. A game that very well determines the balance of power in the NFC for the next 5-10 years.

20-16 Niners on a defensive battle in the electric mud of Candlestick.

In a game that wasn’t nearly as close as the score indicated, the 49ers beat the stuffing out of the St Louis Rams yesterday in one of those beautiful fall days that make Niner games all that much more enjoyable than the good old days of Giants games at the venerable, and nearly defunct, Stick. A game that started with a pre-game shoving match picked that theme right up with a lot of chippiness on both sides of the ball. Pushing and shoving, late hits, and a really terrible violation of Vernon Davis’s giblets was the theme of the day.

The Rams were coming off 2 big wins against what were thought of as bona-fide contenders in Indy and Chicago, but the 49ers made Kellen Clemens look like, well, Kellen Clemens. The Niners kept breakout rookies Zac Stacy and Tevon Austin completely in check. Stacy had 72 yards, and Austin had 4 catches for 25 yards, and was a non-factor returning kicks. The starting defense pitched another shutout, giving up only 2 FGs in the game, and were hitting everything in sight. WRs started getting alligator arms, which led to drops, and a Carlos Rogers pick.

The only real black mark was the fumble by Gore as the Niners were driving to put the game away. However, Jeff Fisher did us a solid and inexplicably tried a 4th quarter fake punt deep in his own territory. The Niners stopped it easily and salted the game away on the next play with the TD to VD. This was after recovering from being tackled by his (ahem) leg. The rest of the game was backups and garbage time.

All in all a good win against a decent team. As they have shown this season, the Niners can beat fair to middling teams. AZ did us a solid as well by losing to Philly, but then again, Philly suddenly is a contender for that last playoff spot on the back of Nick Foles’ golden arm. Philly has Deetroit coming to town while we of course have our big showdown with Seattle. After that, Philly has Chicago and Dallass (and the Vikes). The Niners have it pretty easy with Tampa, Atlanta and AZ.

There’s plenty of time to talk about Seattle, but let’s just see how they do against Nawlins tonight. I tell ya one thing, the Niner passing game was immediately better with Crabs in there yesterday.

Week 12 is upon us and your San Francisco 49ers are in the drivers seat for that last coveted playoff spot. Expectations have changed dramatically during this tumultuous season. The 49ers defense has pretty much stayed true to course. The offense on the other hand has regressed badly among questionable play calling, fair to poor quarterback play, and injuries to Kappy’s wide receiving corps. Which at times have resembled corpses out there. Win all their games with teams not named Seattle, and they are in. Lose this next one, and with an AZ win, the Niners would be back out in the cold. As of now, the Niners own the 6th spot over AZ because of their better divisional record. Which makes this Ram game all the more important.

The good news for the Niners is they are currently 2-1 in division games while AZ is 0-3. Beat the Rams and they could lose to AZ in that last game, tie with AZ, and still get the 6th spot, providing Seattle does us the favor of beating AZ. Which brings us to the Rams. A team that has had a schizophrenic run this year. They’ve had 2 two=game winning streaks, and 3 two-game losing streaks. Along the way, they’ve played awful (after Sam Bradford went down to injury), and some great performances as Kellen Clemens has settled in as the QB. Most recently, speedster Tavon Austin had a coming out party in the beat-down of Indy in their house and, last week, a trouncing of the Chicago Bears and their once-highly-touted defense.

For sure this is a different team than the one the Niners trounced in their house way back in September, but defensively, they haven’t changed too much. Gore ran wild, over 150 yards rushing, and I’d think we would start out trying this strategy. Michael Crabtree should make his return to the field in this game, so we will finally have out complete set of WRs. Something that should also loosen up the running lanes. The Niners were missing Patrick Willis and Aldon Smith in the previous game with these guys and handled them easily, even with their starting QB in there. The biggest difference between this game and last is the emergence of 1st round WR Tavon Austin. He of the slow start and instant sensation these past couple games.

I’m hoping we handle these guys fairly easily, but I haven’t been very right this year. Except for game 1. Besides, we have out secret weapon, safety Chad Hall.