Forty Niners Forever

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.

In a game that very much resembled game one against Green Bay, the 49ers took to the air to beat the Washington Native Americans 27-6. A satisfying win, but a fairly disinterested opponent. The Washington players, especially RobertGriffinIII-VIII, seems more intent on getting his coach fired than actually playing football. He seemed to be putting himself IN harm’s way, and avoiding NOT getting sacked. Why? No idea. To show off his toughness? Could be. It just seems he isn’t nearly the QB he was last year. Yes, he likely isn’t fully recovered from his knee injury, and therein lies the rub. My thought is RGIII still harbors a grudge against Mike Shanahan for the knee injury and subsequent worsening of the injury in that playoff game last year, and he’s tanking it a little. Then you have the potshots at Daddy and Sonny Shanny, and you have the makings of a lost season. The thing is, RG holds all the cards, owns the chips, and rents the table they play on in DC. He isn’t going anywhere. Shanny is. He’s rocking-chair-bound after this debacle of a season is over for the soon-to-be-renamed-WNAs.

Anyhow, back to the game. In a very exciting (for me) turn of events, the Niners used some quick passes on their opening drive. Nice 12 yard outs to Manningham on 3-step drops got the ball out quickly and effectively. Of course, after the 1st TD drive, they stopped doing that, and the offense bogged down some. Much like the Green Bay game, DC packed the box with 8-9 guys and dared the Niners to pass. After some fits and starts, the passing game took off. Kappy threw some lasers downfield to Anquan Boldin, and VD had himself a night. Kappy also showed some nice touch on a couple sideline passes to VD, and even Norm McDonald had a real nice gain on a 25 yard crossing route. The pass blocking was sopt-on for a change, and it helped Kappy immensely.

Defensively, the team was stout and unbreakable. Ahmad Brooks continued his hellacious run as the most disruptrive LB on the team, which is pretty incredible when the Niners have Patrick Willis, NaVorro Bowman, and a resurgent Aldon Smith back there with him. RGWeeee threw a very ill-advised pass under great pressure from Aldon Smith for an easy Donte Whitner pick. Justin Smith had himself his best game in a while clogging running lanes and pushing his way into the the backfield on numerous occasions. Washington may be scuffling, but they do have the #3 rusher in the NFL, the #3 WR, and a solid offiesive line, so keeping these guys in check was a feather in their collective caps.

All in all, a solid effort on the road. Big plusses to me were the return of the pass rush, the slight adjustments in getting the ball out of Kappy’s hands quicker, and the O line play in general. The Niners couldn’t get Gore going, but the 9 man fronts Washington showed pretty much dictated the Niners going to the passing game. It worked today. Kappy hit some very tight windows, and Boldin continued his excellent play. Breing on the Rams . . .

Weather is 33º at game time, with winds out of the SW at 8-10 MPH.
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A strange season is getting progressively stranger as the weeks go on. The 6-4 49ers are currently on the outside of the playoff picture looking in. Mainly due to the fact that the Indianapolis Colts feasted upon the ‘elite’ NFC West teams (Seattle and SF) and got blasted to kingdom come by the ‘also-rans’ of the West (AZ and StL) to the tune of 78-19.

Carolina showed its guts by squeaking out a win in Fin-land behind the legs of Cam Newton. He was beaten, battered, and bettered all day, but scored late TD to win it. Much like Tennessee over the Raiders. Oaktown had a chance to insert themselves into the playoff picture (!), but couldn’t finish off the woeful Titans and Ryan Fitzpatrick (and his friend Patrick Fitzmichael), giving up a TD with 18 seconds left.

Green Bay’s playoff hopes were dented by a tie in frigid Wisconsin, as the Packers inexplicably kept trying to ride the Scott Tolzein Experience to a victory. After his debacle last week, why they put him in over Flynn yesterday has to be seriously qiestioned. I thought they’d put Flynn in at the easdrliest opportunity. Ooops. As it was, he led the Pack to a late tie, but that was it. GB and Minn traded FGs in OT and that was it.

Which brings us to tonight’s game. Win, and we are back in the 6th spot due to our previous win over AZ. Lose, and the team may not recover from the fallout. Lose, and we are effectively 2 games behind AZ, as they own the tiebreaker with SF due to their wins over Indy and Carol. Although if the last game of the year comes down to AZ vs SF for the last playoff spot, even if SF is a game behind, we would win the tiebreaker should the Niners in that game, due to sweeping them. Of course the flip side is true. We come into that last game one up on AZ and lose, SF is out. All those other teams (Chi, GB, Det, Philly, StL) will be beating each other up, so the likeliest of scenarios is the 6th seed comes out of the West. No one said this would be easy, but I certainly didn’t think it would be this hard.

In some good news, Michael Crabtree is a game-time decision. I thought the activation of Mario Manningham would help the offense, but he’s been slowed by knee issues and general shitty play calling. Frankly, I wouldn’t play Crabtree tonight. It’s going to be cold and miserable so it isn’t a good scenario to get his first taste of action.

Ahhh, the heady days of the bye week. Manningham was coming back, the defense was shoring up with needed D line help from the rookies, and Eric Wright was on his way. Well, a funny thing happened on the way to the playoffs. Not to rehash the obvious, but the offense went into hibernation, and the blogwaves erupted with the millions of problems plauging the Niners, and thousands of solutions to fix those problems. Far be it (Roman) from me to (Roman) point fingers at the (Roman) sudden ineptitide of an offense that (Roman) never recovers from 2nd half(Roman) adjustments by our opponents, but the play calling appears to be the leading indicator. Wichi is under the purview of Greg Roman.

I don’t have the stats handy, but most every game, the offense completely fall apart by the 4th quarter, and cannot get a 1st down to save their lives. I know that in all the losses, the defense was forced to stay on the field at somewhere like a 2:1 ratio, as the offense goes 3 and out 2 or 3 or 4 consecutive times. I know in the Indy and Seattle games, while the score was still close, Roman gave up on the run at the cost of re-establishing control of the line. He’d pass too much. SInce the blocking is shakey, and the WRs invisible, this often didn’t work. This leads to the whole mentality of every player overthinking their role and trying to do too much. As in Kassim Osgood tackling a fair catching punt returner, or LMJ returning a KO 8 yards deep in the end zone, only to get tackled on the 9 yard line. The college football mentality. Throw in a borderline hit on Drew Brees, and there you have our second 2-game losing streak.

Beyond that clusterf**k, we have an extra day .5 to talk, bloggolisciously of course. At this point of the season we are pretty much at DEFCON 5. Lose on Monday Night, and we coould be passed by the Cards and the Bears and tied with the Iggles. In the grand scheme of things, it’s good to be fighting for a playoff spot, as opposed to playing out the string like preseason hopefulls like Atlanta Washington. The reality though, is that the Niners were poised to make a strong push to the #1 seed but fell flat on their faces.

Speaking of face-plants, our next opponents, the Washington Redskins are performing their own death-spiral. I thought Shanny rushed his star QB back into games way too fast, and RG III-VII started out pretty slugglishly by losing his first 3 games. It hasn’t gotten much better for them. RG III has recently come to taking potshots at his defense, various players, and his head coach and OC.

In reality, though, the Skins are the 6th best offense in the league, and cannot be taken lightly, even with the infighting. They have the 11th best passing attack and the best run game. For all their losses, RG III is in the top ten QBs, Alfred Morris is 3rd in the league with 918 yards rushing, and Pierre Garcon is 3rd in the league with 67 catches. Take these guys lightly, and they can light up the scoreboard in a hurry.

Defense is a different story. Washington is 30th in points allowed, and 28th in total defense. They are in the minus in turnovers (-2), and in the bottom third in sacks with 25. If the Niners can get on top of these guys early, it should be smooth sailing. Keep this one close, as we’ve done in all our losses, and we just may play ourselves right out of the playoff hunt. This losing streak has shown a glaring problem in that these guys can’t close out a game very well. Regardless the hit last week, we are not pressuring the QB near enough. 21 sacks isn’t getting it done.

Has Aldon Smith lost his fire? Is he merely getting back into game shape? I don’t know, but Brees, and Cam before him faced little sustained pressure. A sure-fire way to lose in the NFL.

Drew Brees after the hit:

In the woulda, coulda, shoulda game, the Niners barely pulled this one out over the mighty Saints in N’Awlins. If Frank Gore woulda caught the swing pass with 40 yards of shiny plastic turf in front of him, the Niners woulda scored and salted the game away. If the Niners coulda managed the clock and the red flag situation a tad better they coulda scored going into halftime. And, finally, the ref shoulda eaten his flag on the Ahmad Brooks sack of Drew Brees and subsequent fumble recovery by Patrick Willis in the closing moments of the 4th quarter.

As it was, Gore dropped the pass, Mangina, Kappy, Harbaugh and co. wasted all their TOs in the 1st half on a) the 1st series, and b-c) two challenges that were patently obvious to be nowhere near being overturned, and the ref threw the flag on the sack/fumble.

(Insert rant here: At what point do we just declare all sacks penalties? Or make it 2 hand touch on the QB? Brooks did not go for Brees’s’s’ head. He hit Brees across the chest and his arm slid up to Brees’ neck. Savage hit? Undoubtedly. Penalty-worthy? If so, then what do defensive players aim for? Below the waist is off-limits. The head is off limits. You can’t extend your arms to tackle the QB. If the upper chest is off limits, then you basically have an area of 12″ below the armpits and above the waist. You’re better off letting the QB run in circles, I suppose. These defenders have enough to worry about trying just to get to the QB. Now they have to stop and figure out the correct way to properly tackle the QB? Thanks for ruining the game Goodie Goodell. Goodell is all about safety, except where it comes in direct violation of slowing the money train. Can you say Thursday Night Football? Football in England for no particluar reason?)

Anyhow, this game will get dissected, like the last one, as to who f*cked up harder to lose the game. There were some positives around the loss. The play-calling was a little better. When the Niners put 4 WRs in a formation, 3 were actually WRs! An improvement (the downside was seeing Osgood on special teams make a special bus play to give the Saints 15 free yards on their final drive). The Niners took advantage of the NO mistakes. They scored a TD on the muffed punt, a TD on the Brooks pick, and got a FG on the forced fumble on the pick by Kappy. The situation they didn’t quite capitalize on was when NO went for it and failed on 4th and 4 on the SF 40, a play that would have been dissed heavily had NO lost, giving the Niners great field position. As it was they kicked a FG.

After that, it was 3 and out city. The offense did no favors to the defense by going 3 and out their last 2 drives to close out the game. Gore’s drop came after the Saints had closed the gap to 20-17, and he had a good 20-30 yards of clear sailing ahead of him. As I said. Woulda Coulda Shoulda. This is getting eerily rem,inidcent of the Nolan days where we played well eough to lose close games. This used to be a different story. Seattle, for all thier struggles in these recent games, figured out a way to win. Not to lose. Hence their 9-1 record.

My biggest peeve is not only do opposing DBs not honor our non-exisetent deep passing game, OUR OWN WRs don’t honor it at all as well. Jon Baldwin didn’t even bother looking for the deep ball thrown his way late in the game. He half-assed the route and was startled by the UFO that floated past his head.

The good news? Well, seeing as this is our 2nd 2-game losing streak, this team has the wherewithall to rip off 3 or 4 wins at the expense of some upcoming shitty teams. THese guys should be able to win 5 of the last 6 games. 11-5 should get them in.

These are the times that try men’s souls. Or some shit. The season comes down to these two upcoming road games. The Big Easy and the Big Sleazy. Come out of this with a split, and there’s a possibility that we are still hanging on to that 6th playoff spot. N’Alwins has never been an easy team to play with their firepower and all, and its even more daunting playing them in their dome. Offensively, they are pretty damn good. Their offense is scoring better than anyone not named Denver. Drew Brees is lighting things up per usual, but the new wrinkle is the running game behind 29 year old journeyman Pierre Thomas and young Mark Ingram. NO Dropped a 245 yard rushing performance on the Cowboys last week. They have weathered the Gregg Williams/Sean Payton deal and are now thriving under Rob Ryan’s newly installed 3-4 defense.

The Niners? Well, we’ve (and everyone under the sun) has dissected, detailed, and debated the current failings of this offense. No need to flog the equine any more than previously done.

This is a huge game for the morale of this team and this young QB. A win would right the ship and hopefully propel them into the playoffs as the WC team no one wants to play. Lose this game, and it may start a slide right out of the playoffs.

In a season that is suddenly getting a bit shakey, your San Francisco 49ers travel to the big easy for a fairly important game. The division is pretty much out of site as Seattle is coasting to the west title. So that leaves the wildcard. In a revolting occurrence, the Niners were just passed by the team they just lost to, the Panthers.

Seattle has the NFC West in the bag, and there are too many scenarios out there to keep the 49ers out or let them in, so the first order of business is to beat the high flying Saints. Unfortunately they are the number 3 offense, and the number 5 defense. The good news, I suppose, is that Nawlins has the third best pass defense, and we have major problems passing. They are 23rd against the run, which would play into our strength. It also plays into the one good way to beat the Saints, and that’s by controlling the ball and keeping Drew and Co off the field.

Is it possible? Sure. Probable? Well, I’m not buying it. This team struggles against good teams, and the Saits fit the bill. For a team that was supposedly getting healthy, they got beat up last weekend. Mike Iupati, VD, Eric Reid, Ray McDonald, and Garrett Celek all are questionable for the NO game. Celek normally wouldn’t be a concern, but when VD went down, we were down to VM as the only TE. This apparently played a part in the Niners not going for it on 4th and goal on the 1 in the 2nd quarter.

Can the Niners control the clock and win the game? Maybe, but I sure don’t like the odds if we get in a shoot out with these guys.

Wow. What a difference a day makes. The Niners, coming off a 5 game winning streak, a bye week, and some fresh players activated for the game were expected to make a statement against the upstart Carolina Panthers. Well the statement is wait til next year? A team that was fighting for the NFC West crown is now the 6th seed in the playoff hunt, having been passed by these very Panthers. They now face the Saints and the ‘Skins on the road, followed by the somewhat surprising Rams and (gulp) Seahawks. Based on how this team looks now, 2-2 would be possible. Is that enough to hold on to that 6 spot? Probably, but of the teams lurking behind them (GB, Chicago, AZ, and Philly at 5-5), AZ is the strongest. Philly and Foles are coming on.

Regardless of playoff scenarios, how do the coaches fix this passing ‘attack?’ I’ve heard until I’m blue in the face how bad these WRs are. I’m beginning to doubt this. Ginn looks like fucking Jerry Rice compared to anyone not named Anquan Boldin. The team was hurt when VD went down yesterday, but these is NO downfield game. These problems were the same problems that plagues the Nolan/Hostler Niners and the Singletary/Jimmy-Hat Niners. If the Niners can run, they can work in some passes. Stop the run, and the passing game sputters. Or they go away from the run, as in yesterday after the Hunter fumble. Carolina teed off and the Niners couldn’t pass protect to save their lives.

Do we slow down the relentless pressure by going to quick counts? No huddle? Slants? Nope. We are going to run our slow-developing 5-step drop pass plays that we always run. This team continually has to use every second of the play clock to get plays off. Which means the defenses can adjust to what formations the Niners show. We did do some shifting later in the game, but the Panthers looked like they knew what was coming about 80% of the time.

Frankly, I’m sick and tired of this offense. There’s no imagination. There’s no adjustments. It’s a lot like the Singletary mentality of ‘here’s what we do. Stop it.’ When opposing defenses stop the run, this team struggles. So what does this mean going forward? I really don’t know, but I do know that Greg Roman has to go. Jim Harbaugh needs to get someone with a much more progressive offense. If we’ve proven anything so far this year, it’s that this team can beat the fair to middling teams, but struggles mightily with good ones. Winning the N’awlins game, which, after looking at last night’s game, appears to be a daunting task, puts the Niners at 6-4 and in dire playoff straits should they lose. Washington Seattle would be a loss, and the others wins. So it looks to me as if the best case scenario is 11-5, and the 6th seed. 10-6 and they are likely out.