Forty Niners Forever

Game 2 of the pretty rough 5 game start to this season is coming to you (like a lot of Niner games this year) in prime time, Sunday Night. I guess this means I need to tape Breaking Bad. Anyhow, Seattle escaped from the steaming cauldron that is Carolina in September with a fugly win punctuated by the Panthers beating the Seahawks all over the field. Marshawn Lynch had an uncharacteristically quiet day. Gaining only 43 yards. The Seattle run game was shut down. Russell Wilson passed for 320, but only scored once as he fumbled on the Carolina 18 right before the close of the 1st half to kill their drive and close the half down 7-3. The killer turnover however goes to DeAngelo Williams, who had a sweet 16 yard run down to the Seahawk 8 yard line ruined by a fumble. This was with 5+ minutes left, and would have put Carolina up 14-12, and could have provided the margin of victory.

Anyhow, Seattle looked like a team tired from travel, and playing in a hostile, hot, sweaty, and humid environment. Much like the last time these two teams met. The 49ers were coming off a hugely emotional win near Rhode Island on a Monday night, one where the Niners squandered a 31-10 lead, only to regain the lead in the closing minutes for a 41-34 win. Lost in the amazing come-from-ahead victory was the fact that the defense was on the field for 65 plays in the 2nd half! The Niners offense stalled out for nearly all the 2nd half as NE closed the gap. Justin Smith also suffered a torn triceps early in the 2nd half to slow down the defense even more. So, they travel to Seattle on a short week, battered bruised, and spent. And proceed to get slaughtered like the proverbial lamb to the uh, slaughter.

I think we can throw the results from both these games out. One can easily imagine that the Seahawks overlooked Carolina in their zeal to avenge whatever Pete the cheat is spewing in his locker room to his players. Lots of bulletin board fodder during the offseason for this game as well. Pete’s team getting busted for PED use, St. Jimmy’s reaction to that. Seattle’s reaction to THAT. Talk of strangling, cheating, drinking, fighting and the usual banter. Fortunately, the game is nigh, and the talk seems to be down to barely a whisper as I’m sure both coaches put a gag order on players talking to the media. Well, the only talk recently is the bet between Russell Wilson and Colin Kaepernick regarding their eyebrows. As in, the loser shaves one of their eyebrows off. Weird? Sure. Kappy did say this regarding the wipeout last year: “We’re going up there to prove that’s not who we are.” So, which is it? Seattle’s run offense is suddenly kaput? The Niners run offense? Neither did much of anything their 1st games. the Niner defense didn’t give very much pressure to Aaron Rodgers, and he isn’t reminding anyone of Michael Vick. Although he does move well (pretty fly for a white guy). Wilson? He threw the ball all over the place but didn’t score near enough. Kappy merely had the best game of his life. 400+, 3 TDs, 0 picks. Things not seen since, *ahem* Joe Montana roamed the loam of the Stick.

Hard to make anything of these teams as they are so close to the preseason, and both looked inept in certain phases. You have to think, though, that both coaches have this game as a marker. Both these teams are seen as bona fide Super Bowl contenders. Both want to make the early statement. Both want to win the NFC West. The good news for the 49ers is that the early game is in Seattle, the December 8th game is in SF. My thought is these guys merely cancel each other out. Seattle wins a squeaker 21-20, and we return the favor by beating the shit out of them at home. I rarely pick agaisnt the Niners, but this time around, I think the fact that the 49ers didn’t play their starters much in the preseason comes back to haunt them with false starts, delay-of-game penalties, and a costly turnover.

From the look of it, the Green Bay Packers played this game is if it was their Super Bowl. Kinda Like NASCAR in that Daytona is the first, and the biggest, race of the year. Well, sorry Green Bay, you lost 34-28. To prepare for this matchup, their first game since the last beat-down handed to them by the 49ers, Green Bay sent their coaching staff to Texas A&M to learn how to stop the read-option, they consulted with the coach of the Hawaii Warriors, who beat Kappy at UNR in 2010, and Clay Matthews had Kappy on his mind all offseason, yapping to anyone that would listen that he would “hit Kaepernic early and hit him often.”

Well, a funny thing happened to the game plan. Green Bay did an awesome job stopping the run. Well, they gave up 90 yards on the ground. A far cry from the 323 yard rushing the Niners laid on them in the playoffs last year (181 from Kappy, 119 from Gore for a tidy 3 hundy). Unfortunately for the Packers, they negelected to stop Kaepernick and newly acquired Anquan Boldin. Kaepernick put up 412 yards through the air, and Boldin had 208 of those on 13 catches. VD also pitched in with 98 on 6 catches, and 2 TDs. There’s a lot of whining from the Packers fans that it would have been different without 2 of their DBs Casey Heyward and Morgan Burnett in there. There’s also a lot of whining about the comments Kaepernick made after the game regarding intimidation. “I’m not worried about what people are saying. If intimidation is your game plan, I hope you have a better one.” I love it. Matthews yapped all offseason about how he would hit Kaepernick. Well, he had to resort to a cheap shot to do it. When Joe Staley grabbed sister golden hair, he threw 2 punches at Staley. This resulted in (!) offsetting penalties. Which the refs later said should have led to the play standing, and as a result lead to a 4th down.

In my interpretation of the rules, the original hit by cheese-dick was not a dead-ball foul, but a continuation play. That immediately should have given the 49ers 1st and goal. The skirmish afterwards is where the offsetting aspect comes into play. If the rules are interpreted as they (wrongly) said yesterday, then it is OK to head hunt the opposition QB as long as you get a retaliation fight. Then the penalties offset, instead of protecting the QB against unwarranted cheap shots.

Anyhow, back to the game. Worrying to me was the lack of pass rush that the defense generated. The 2 sacks were pretty weak ass tumbles by Rodgers, and he had way too much time to sit back was wait for Jordy Nelson to come free. It’s hard to fault the DBs for their efforts too much because of the lack of pressure, and Eric Reid looked like a very solid safety in his debut, but the tackling by the group as a whole was terrible. Cox missed what should have been a minimal gain and let it go for a 12 yard score, and Asomugha looked overmatched at various points in the game, but did make a nice play to close it out. The run game was pretty much shut down, but then again, that was Green Bay’s prime directive. Stop the run. They did, but they couldn’t stop the pass. All in all, a good day for the home team. Even if they looked at times like they were still in preseason mode.

The quest for 6 starts today in the final opening day at the venerable crumbledone, AKA Candlestick Park. Funny, I remember the opening season at the Stick back in 1971. It was an astroturf monstrosity back then, which was akin to playing on the concrete in the parking lot. Players routinely broke legs and separated shoulders on that field, and I seem to remember Jim Lash shattering both his elbows in his short and ill-fated time with the 49ers. The Joe Thomas legacy, shitty as it is can only praised for putting the natural grass back into the Stick. To supposedly ease the stress on a fading OJ Simpsons knees. Simpson did little as a Niner, but at least he got the carpet out . . .

Anyhow, will the 2013 season be the lucky one for these Niners? Lots of people think so, but the word out of Vegas is that the Broncos are the odds-on favorites to win it all. At least that’s what the numbers were a couple days ago. Crazy. I think if the Niners had faced Denver last year instead of Balt it wouldn’t have been close. Sour grapes? Maybe, but the future is now. The Niners play 4 playoff teams in their first 5 games, and the 5th team is one they couldn’t quite figure out in the Rams. The early sledding is rough, and game one is against a team that was embarrassed badly by the Niners in the playoffs. The Packers. I hate to be overconfident, but I think we should win this one fairly handily. The Pack has geeked and overgeeked themselves silly for months over the read-option. Green Bay head coach Mike McCarthy sent his entire staff to visit with Kevin Sumlin’s staff at Texas A&M to learn the read-option. I think we may use it, but not much at all. I think Roman and Harbaugh expect the Packers to overreact to the read-option, and will shadow Kappy. Either with an LB or a safety. Maybe they’ll even switch them up. The Niners can exploit this throwing behind the linebackers and getting behind the shadow over the middle. A good spot for VD and VM.

Hey, this’ll cause to brain usage. I think.

Anyhow, couple things here, since Dennis jumped the gun. As usual. Who do you guys pick to win their respective divisions (and I promise not to pick the Raiders in the AFC West), and what do you think the 49ers record will be this year?

Dennis I think has said 9-7. With fans like this. . . .

I may or may not get a game day thread up on Sunday, so this may have to do . . .

The 2013 football season is finally upon us. After months of dreary baseball to keep us somewhat busy, and the occasional murder or drug/dui/ arrest, or the fun task of opening a beer by using someone else’s head as a bottle opener, the bullets start (figuratively) flying for real tomorrow night. Week 1 is a real burn burner what with the Broncos facing the Baltimores after the Broncos completely blew their shot to advance in the playoffs last year by forgetting how to cover deep. Manning gets his shot at revenge and gets his last gasp at reaching the Super Bowl.

Bengals/Bears looks like fun, as does the hype-fest of the NY Giants facing the re-un-invented Dallas Cowboys. Falcons/Saints looks to be a thriller, as does the Titans/Steelers matchup. But the game of all games for week 1 is the Packers vs the 49ers. The Pack isn’t used to getting beat 2 times in a row by anyone, let alone the resurgent 49ers. They Pack had been something like 18-1 vs the Red and Gold in recent history, and they didn’t expect this type of resistance. Aaron Rodgers had a few daemons involved in his playoff game here last year, as it marked the first time he had stepped onto the Candlestick turf as the starting QB for the Packers, his being snubbed all those years ago by the organization he grew up idolizing, and the fact the Niners had beaten them at home pretty easily to start the season.

Frankly, I’m not that worried about Green Bay. I think we can do what we’ve done these last couple games, and that’s to pressure Rodgers, force mistakes, and get the 3-and-outs. I also think, since we got into their heads so badly in the playoffs last year, we go away from the read-option offense. I think GB will overreact to how we beat them last year. To further this thought, I think we go away from the read-option almost completely this season. Sure, we may use it, but sparingly. That diamond formation I think will also be a thing of the past. Teams will be keying on that, and shadowing Kappy, so it basically takes a player out of the defenses we face. This can be used to our advantage. And, as apparently we were ‘predictable’ in our formations and play calling (per Craig Dahl), Eric Mangini, defensive guru, was brought in to unscheme us from predictability. To this end, I think we’ll look different offensively. This doesn’t mean suddenly we’re the Daryl Lamonica mad-bomber team of the 60s. Just that the trickeration comes out of formations, not read-option. We’ll run a little pistol, and the usual shotgun and Kappy behind center, but I foresee a more straighforward offense of short to mid-range passes, full use of the tight ends, and the usual power running game. As in the past, 3rd down efficiency plays a large part in how this offense moves. Key to this are the wide receivers. If the WRs can get separation, and consistently get open (and Kappy finds them), then this increases the chance of VD being able to exploit the middle of the field. If our WRs are ineffective, then VD can (and has been in the past) neutralized with double coverage. This is especially telling in the red zone, where VD had little success last year.

Defensively, the team to me looks a little bit stronger. Justin Smith is back to full health, and we have a little more depth than before. I think the defensive backfield is a big question heading into the season, but I think Eric Reid already has a leg up on Dashon Goldson. Reid has (yeah, it’s preseason) been in the proper place and made all the plays he’s supposed to make. He’s not the highlight reel hitter that Goldson is, but he’s a solid tackler who covers well. He didn’t get tested too much deep, but the times they tried, he was there step for step with the WR. Glenn Dorsey should provide some needed depth, but the D line is younger, healthier, and stronger with Ian Williams taking Soap’s place, and Dorsey providing back up. . My only caveat in that regard is to the status of the draft picks Tank Carradine and Quintin Dial. Both are on the Reserve/Non-football injury list. This means both are eligible to come off the list in 6 weeks and play. Reading between the lines of Harbaugh’s infrequesnt references to those guys, it looks like Tank stands a pretty good chance of being ready by week 7. He may just get the extra couple games off to take advantage of the bye week in week 9, and hit the field week 10 at home against the Panthers. Dial’s turf toe? No idea, but since they didn’t stash him on the IR I’d think they expect him to play this year.

Game on!

AKA Saturday bloody Saturday. Cut down day has just begun, and Tim Terrific has been cut from the Patriots, and Matt Hot Tub Leinart has been axed from the Bills. Oh, yeah, Travis Johnson, LB for the Niners has been cut as well. And I think we can safely assume Seneca Wallace is not going to make the cut.

Stay tuned for more bloodletting. It’ll be interesting to see if we pick up a player or 2 from the discard pile.

Yes, here we are down to the last preseason game, AKA the Walmart Bowl. Kappy and Co. will get barely a whiff of the field come tomorrow night in the land down under California. Throw another surfboard on the barbie, mate. This make or break time for bubble players. Literally break time. Years ago I met Doug DuBose, Carl Monroe, and Keith Henderson (kick returners and fringe guys in the 80s) at a party, and DuBose said, pay attention to every special teams play in the preseason. Fringe guys (like Henderson and DuBose) will try to get injured so the team will have to pay them for the year and cut them, or keep them on IR. So, they will go after the biggest dude on the other side of the field and try to get mangled. Interesting strategy at best. Crazy to say the least. But that is the life of a gunner, or any other of the cannon fodder guys thrown out for special teams play in the final preseason game of the season. The Walmart Brigade.

Yes, there will be fierce battles the remaining couple WR spots. Chad Hall, Austin Collie, Lavelle Hawkins, and Kassim Osgood are fighting for the final couple spots behind, Anquan Bouldin, Marlin Moore, Kyle Williams, General Patton, and the injured Crabs and Manningham. Carswell and Chuck Jacobs, both UDFAs, hope to hit the practice squad, with Jacobs leading the way. Back up RB is up for grabs (although Jewell Hampton is doing pretty well so far). Anthony Dixon has shown enough in his role as ST guy and short yardage runner. Seneca Wallace is probably gone, and Scott Tolzein IS gone, thus cementing the emergence of BJ Daniels as the surprise of this camp, and putting Colt McCoy right behind Cappy Kaepernick as the #2 QB. But guys like Jason Shepler, MarQuis Gray, and Alex Debniac look to be playing their final downs in NFL unis tomorrow.

Some of the new additions have done well for themselves. Anquan Bouldin turned out to be insurance for what led to a boatload of injuries to the WR corps. He replaced Crabs, and looked solid in his time out there, Nnamdi Asomugha cemented his spot as 3rd CB, Jon Baldwin looked good last week in his limited reps at WR, Eric Reid locked down Dashon Goldson’s old FS job with authority, and Vance McDonald has proved to be (for all appearances) a capable replacement for Delanie Walker. He even dropped a couple his first time out for old times’ sake.Corey Lemonyay has made Parys Haralson expendable. Glen Dorsey is a wash at this point. He could go either way. The aforementioned Seneca Wallace is most likely gone. The other draft picks (Tank, Lattimore, and Quintin Dial) are nursing various injuries and likely will miss the season.

So, given the hope that the hurt players come back at full strength, it looks as if the Niners already have some insurance in place for next year. As Justin Smith and Frank Gore wind down their illustrious careers over the next couple years, the Niners have Lattimore, Nunter, and LMJ ready to pick up the slack. The D line has newly added Tank, Dial, and Cam Johnson to plug in. They look to cut some solid players out of the 21 that need to be jettisoned August 31st at 3:00 pm PDT, but we’ll get into that after the game tomorrow. Let’s enjoy the spectacle of big men fighting for the right to play a game. Speaking of the Sandy Eggo game, I will be watching mainly to see how the newly anointed backup Colt McCoy does, how the WR battle shakes out, and yeah, maybe look for some extra loud collisions on the special teams plays.

This is the first of the blood-letting days in Santa Clara. The Niners need to get to 75 players by 1:00 pm today.  With the 5 cuts yesterday (RB D.J. Harper, LB Joe Holland, OG Al Netter, P Colton Schmidt, and QB Scott Tolzien), and the Haralson trade, the Niners are down to 77 players (not including PUP/IR/non-football-injury lists). Per the Niners website, there are 84 guys.  I think we need to get rid of 9 guys.  Of the 10 WRs, Jacobs would seem destined for the practice squad. Hawkins’ antics may have cost him a spot as well, but his TD was nice. But 30 yards of penalties on 2 plays? You ain’t a rook Lavelle. Adios. Cut guard Patrick Omameh, PS tackle Kenny Wiggins. PS safety Michael Thomas, Stupar, and FB Schepler. Okoye? Sorry. Same with Marquardt. There you have it. 75. Easy peazy.  For now. Actually, you can throw in Seneca Wallace as well.

The next cut-down day looks to be pretty brutal though. August 31, 3:00 pm PT, clubs must reduce rosters to a maximum of 53 players on the Active/Inactive List. 22 players on a list that isn’t very loaded with fluff. Guys like Crabs will take a PUP spot until he’s ready to go. Same with Manningham. So they will bump a couple guys down the road. Although there will be injuries to swap out guys, certainly. Fringe guys like Darcel McBath will live another year on the IR.

NOTE: Simultaneously with the cut-down to 53, clubs that have players in the categories of Active/Physically Unable to Perform or Active/Non-Football Injury or Illness must select one of the following options: place player on Reserve/Physically Unable to Perform or Reserve/Non-Football Injury or Illness, whichever is applicable; request waivers; terminate contract; trade contract; or continue to count the player on the Active List.

Well, in the normal scheme of things, game 3 is the game that you see usually a good solid chunk of playing time for the starters.  Last year, Jim Harbaugh didn’t do that. He played Smith and co. Sparingly. So far this preseason, Kappy has been on the field for 8 plays, netting 2 field goals. I get the fact you don’t want to risk injury to your star QB, and you also don’t want to show youme enemy too much, but the Niner schedule starts out with Green Bay and Seattle. Not exactly teams you want to be ramping up your offense against. As of now it’s impossible to know what new wrinkles Harbaugh may unveil. We’ve seen the same struggles on 3rd down with the rest of the 1st team offense. And we creating haven’t seen much of the WRs At hey are trying to figure out.

So, where do we go from here? Onward and upward I suppose. However, its’s a little scary to me that Kappy has so little time on the field with the other starters. Maybe game 4 will see more playing time as well.

Word out of 4949 Centennial Blvd is that Tarell Brown and his (new) agent are working on a new deal that will hopefully (for Tarell) recoup some of the $2 million he left on the table by not attending the team’s voluntary work out program. He says he doesn’t want to be a distraction, but in the same breath says he ‘hasn’t moved on’ from it. I guess that WOULD be hard to move on from, but in the end he should have been paying attention to his contract, or gotten word from his agent about it.

What makes this more interesting is that this is Brown’s contract year. His 3 year-$7 million extension he signed in 2009 is set to expire after this season. Seeing as he’s the best CB currently on the team, it would be in the Niners best interest to get this figured out fairly quickly. Tarell wants this resolved by game 1, and I think they should figure something out as well. Leaving him hanging after the money snafu would pretty much be his one-way ticket out of town.

Brown is saying the right things and insists he doesn’t want this to be a distraction. He says he’s letting his new agent handle things while he goes about his business, but the “I haven’t moved on’ remark is telling. This is a difficult time for the team where the defensive backfield is concerned. One where they had the opportunity to draft for more secondary help. But for a team with an untested Eric Wright taking over for Dashon Goldson, Donte Whitner and Carlos Rodgers slipping, an unknown in Nnamdi Asomugha, and 2nd stringers like Tre Brock, Perrish Cox, and Eric Wright waiting in the wings, you’d think the Niners would want to figure out something as well. And that was before Chris Culliver went down with a season ending knee injury.

Signing Brown should be priority #1 at this point.