Forty Niners Forever

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.

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.