San Francisco 49ers Forever

Well, the consensus was the Bears defenese was pretty good. But having just fired Everflub (whatevs), the Bears were reeling pretty bad. I was very surprised that the Bears were hell-bent on throwing the ball so much, as our run defense was as stiff as a pre-Cialis noodle. Instead, they sputtered in their passing game while we actually had an effective pass rush. Gross-Matoss had 3 sacks by himself and Leonard Floyd chipped in with 2 of his own.

Purdy on the other hand looked like Cool Hand Luke. He had a perfect rating in the 1st half and the forgotten TE had a huge day going 6 catches for 151. Our new #1 WR Jauan Jennings went 7 for 90 and 2 TDs. Pearsall and Deebo are pretty much providing nothing, but Purdy was 20-25, 325, and 2 TDs with no picks.

Unfortunately, Isaac Guerendo, who was having a great game with 78 yards on the ground and 50 in the air, sprained his foot and is day-to-day. But our 5th string guy, Patrick Taylor managed to score a TD himself in this rarity of a laugher.

There WAS a pretty important turning point in this game however. With the Niners having given up a 2nd half opening 10:00 minute drive to close the score to 24-6 (missed the 2 pt convo), the Niners promptly committed a penalty and went 3-and-out. Chicago resumed their march on our defense, going 35 yards to our 30. Caleb Williams then tried to hold on to a throw, but instead threw it backwards, and it was ruled a backward pass recovered by the Niners.

Atypical of the scared Shanny play calling, Shanny took a shot (gasp!) downfield and hit Jennings for a 40 yard strike to set up our 4th TD to make the score 31-6 instead of 24-13. He even went for it on 4th down and converted it!

The rest was garbage time, but Guerendo still managed to get hurt. Shanahan needs to learn how to protect his resources. I thought he was untill they showed Guerendo waking off the field.

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PS. Shout out to Dave Parker, Dave Stewart, and Dick Allen. Bad asses all. They all played when standing in the box took a lot courage and you were never quite sure when a guy like Stew would decide to play a little chin music. Parker was simply a tough mofo who took no prisoners and played the game right. His all-star game throw is forever etched in my memory. Dick Allen was little before my time, I do remember his last few seasons with the Phillies though, but he was as feared a hitter as there was in the league during his career.

Until otherwise noted, this team is playing out the string. Will they respond? Can they respond? I still think Shanny’s head is in the nooose should the team lay down like dogs and lose to the Bears, among others.

The team appears to be all-in still with Shanahan so that’s something, despite Kittle’s questioning why he was only targeted twice last week. Curious to say the least. Only Jennings is putting up numbers. Deebo is really disappointing as he has done nothing before or after the injuries. And wer are back to Guerrendo as our lead back.

The defense? Fuck it. They appear to be happy with simply giving up 350-400 per game and not pressuring anyone. Weeeeeeee! Why change what is broken? Maybe we’ll miss a few more FGs to boot.

I tell ya, it’s a tough time for Bay Area sports. The 49ers are a walking disaster as they trip and fall down the laundry chute to oblivion. Speaking of laundry, our injury report is a laundry list of starters. The good news is Lenoir, Hufanga, and Greenlaw are set to return, and our D line gets Okuayinou and Elliott back. Lose to the Bears though, and losing out is a real possibility. Time for Purdy to have a game.

The Giants are calmly sitting on Buster’s thumbs as nothing is happening in the free agent market for them. The Giants brass famously said that they need to cut payroll. Cut payroll from a team that has been out of the playoffs 7 of the last 8 seasons? That’s encouraging. Not.

The Warriors, who came out of the gate looking like a well-balanced team that was realy to hit the upper echelon of the NBA again, was waylaid by the injury to De’Anthony Menton, nagging injuries to Steph and Dray, and a suddenly inconsistent bench. Buddy Hield was looking outstanding early, but lost his shot, and Brandin Podziemski has totally lost his 3 point touch. Wiggs and Kuminga are the picture of on-again/off-again players.

If we could transplant GP IIs heart into those guys, we’d be World Champs 3 more times.

Then again, if the Niner defense had GP II’s heart, THEY’D be World Champs 3 more times.

So, there you have it. The Bay Area sports blues.

Well, we are going out, not with a bang, but barely a whimper. Everyone is hurt, and those that are playing are mailing it in. Yeah, the conditions were tough, but the Niners were the opposite of tough. Soft defensively and inept offensively will get you nowhere in today’s NFL. And we are the embodiment of soft now.

Our two ‘must win’ games against two of our toughest foes ended up 73-20. This of course after blowing 3 division games with AZ, Seattle, and LA. Had we won, well, we’d be 8-4 and in decent shape for winning the division.

But we didn’t and we aren’t. We are dog meat. Cannon fodder. It is a thin line between the elite teams and the also-rans. And we are miles from that line now. Don’t know what is wrong with our offense as Kittle got the 1st pass of the game and dropped off the map, not even being targeted the rest of the game. Deebo had his usual output of 4 catches for 20 yards.

Only Jauan Jennings is getting WR numbers in the offense.

Where is our offensive genius? Designing plays for guys that aren’t playing? Speaking of not playing, CMC went out with (surprise) a season-ending knee injury. Hmmm, I wonder if playing a guy who is barely out from his injury status in a freezing snowstorm may have warranted sitting him, or maybe giving him rest?

I guess we’ll never know, but CMC was doing well before the injury. To top that bummer off, Jordan Mason went out with a high ankle sprain later in the game, and will miss the next 4 games, if not the season, with the dreaded high ankle sprain.

Mason was running well as well, Buffalo’s defense doesn’t seem to be too concerned with stopping the run. They just cause turnovers on the 1 yard line (oh, Juice) as the 49ers were close to at least making the game close at 21-10 after halftime. instead, we got the usual plethora of turnovers and sloppiness as the team wanted to get back into their cozy warm jet and fly home.

At this point the only thing I am waiting for is the complaining. I’m at the point that I really don’t want Shanahan and co to come back on a lame-duck contract to see if he can somehow rekindle his earlier magic. Mainly because our problems ALL YEAR have been obvious and glaring and he has done NOTHING to change their strategy. Special teams and defense have been awful. Now the offense is following suit and we have NO chance to win games with all three sectors failing.

We have a pretty good chance of losing out (MAYBE we can beat the Bears) but 6-11 would warrant wholesale changes in the coaching staff, if not the front office.

I know Shanahan hired John Lynch, and, at least in my head, Lynch is nothing more than a figurehead for Shanny’s machinations, but I wonder what Lynch’s status would be if the coaching staff goes. Shit, Lynch has a standing multi-million dollar announcing gig waiting for him should he go.

Then again, Young Sir Jed isn’t likely to do anything drastic.

Fuck that. Onward and downward.

Time to hit Tommy’s Joint for a bowl of Buffalo stew and watch the carnage tonight. Even the Chronicle scribes are bemoaning this epic collapse as being an all-encompassing failure that may cost Shaany and Co their jobs, and be a blight on Young Sir Jed Flopperson.

I still think, even with the offensive failures, the bigger problem is the defense. Hopefully Dre Greenlaw will bring back the pursuit, but one guy cannot revive this moribund scheme and lackluster effort. It has been a downward spiral all year.

Win or miss the playoffs.

This season is distilling in my head the problems I’ve seen with Kyle Shanahan. The lack of changing schemes in a given game, his stubbornness in rotating players, his ‘I’m the smartest guy in the room’ approach to coaching, and his complete inability to close out games.

Yeah, I’ve gone over this a thousand times, but this season alone has shown this stubborn approach and how it has failed numerous times. Even in 3 of our 5 wins this year, Dallas, Seattle, and Tampa nearly came back and won those games. Our 2 ‘great’ wins came over the hapless Jets, and the horrible Patriots.

9 of these games saw us with the ball and the lead in the 4th quarter. We lost 4 of them. We could very easily be 2-9. And we could just as easily be 8-3. Such are the vagaries of the NFL. 9 of these games came down to a few plays. A blocked punt. A missed FG. A punt return for 60 yards. a KO return for a TD. And the hundreds of inopportune penalties.

Pre-snap penalties, false start penalties, special teams penalties, and our shit O line and their holding penalties.

Shanny doesn’t know how to change shit up. This is the same problem Harbaugh has. And the Chargers are starting to crack already despite their 7-4 record. Looking at their games, they are routinely out-schemed in the 2nd half due to the inability to make in-game changes to affect the outcome. Too many 3 and outs late. No taking shots on 4th down. No downfield passing. Abandoning the run. On and on.

Say the team goes 1-5 down the stretch. I mean, really, even the Bears are a stretch. That would put us at 6-11. This team has a shot at losing out based on what I’ve seen. 5-12 would be an unmitigated disaster, and SHOULD be the impetus to can Shanahan.

I’m sure the wimp that is Jed will do nothing but let Shanny ride out his last year as the lame fuck HC, but this team, despite it’s aging, is still among the best in the league.

We need a fucking head coach that understand that you cannot ignore the O line and expect your young newly minted billionaire QB to simply dodge pass rushers his whole career. Same goes with the defense. We have decimated the interior line with pushovers and run a terrible scheme.

What a shame that such a talented team is absolutely playing uninspired and bad football. No spark, no fire, no urgency. To me this is about 80% on the coaching staff, and 20% on the injuries.

I didn’t even have the stomach to watch the 2nd half after watching the penalties and the missed tackles stack up in the 1st half. One good drive that closed the score to 17-7 led to the usual completely devastating penalty on the Deebo’s 87 yard kickoff return. A penalty that was pretty much bullshit as Saubert had his hands inside the shoulder pads, and he shoved the guy to the ground.

But that is us.

After that, the game was over. Some teams overcome their mistakes. We don’t. Not even sure I have the wherewithal to watch the 2nd half after the nearly helpful KO return.

Still and all we are still one game out of 1st place. The Rams are down 20-7 to the Eagles, so this still has to happen, but even if they win, everyone would be 6-5 but us.

No grumbling out of the locker room yet, but when does this train completely derail? After another humiliating loss on the road to a strong team? Losing at home to a woeful Bears team?

I just don’t see the coaching doing anything to change the trajectory of the team. Bring in Mason as a change of pace? 3 carries. Guerendo? CMC got some ineffectual touches as GB knew we would try to lean on him. Quick passes to the flat? Nope. Blitz more? Well, a couple worked, but the defense was not interested in doing much hitting or tackling today and we helped by turning the ball over 3x in the 2nd half.

77 yards in penalties, 44 yards rushing. This team looks tired and disinterested.

Ouch.

Here we go into the abyss.

I have no expectations that this coaching staff will make any kind of meaningful adjustments to their offense or defense to affect significant change, but I guess we will see regardless. Brandon Allen gets the start, and our weak O line is weaker. Can we interchange CMC and Mason? Is that a bridge too far, seeing as CMC himself says he isn’t all the way back? Dial up pressure defensively since Bosa is out and we were inconsistent anyway.

Everyone is hurt, and we have two tough road games, then the Bears and Rams. Coming out of these next 4 games with a winning record will be a challenge, and likely our only path to the playoffs. Even 2-2, depending on the rest of the division, could be enough to hang around, but it looks like a hard road to 10 wins. Which is what I think it’ll take to win the West.

. . . as the season fades away. Well, I guess we are adding injury to this insulting season. Word out of Santa Clara is that Brock Purdy and Nick Bosa are both out for the Packers game. Which means we are even less likely to win than we were anyway.

George Kittle and Trent Williams still could play, but I guess we will really get to see what this team can do without their offensive and defensive stars. I think Josh Dobbs should be starting but it ain’t my call.

Defensively? Gee, I hope we keep up with the base 4 man pass rush. Green bay is one of the top pass protecting teams, so we look to give up about 400 yards through the air.

Hey, how about we try to keep the ball away from Green Bay by running the ball with our 3 headed rushing attack?

Oh yeah, we have Mr. Softy and Mr. Stubborn running the offense and defense.

I don’t think I’ve been more upset about the fate of this team in my 56 years of watching them.

We are pissing away a year of a hugely talented team. Things will be much different once Purdy signs his deal, and the other chips fall as they will.

But as constructed with this coaching staff, I think this team will never get as close as they were these last few seasons. The front office needs to make wholesale changes after this hairdo of a season.

. . . Tried to Win But Only Sharted.

I just don’t know anymore. Sooooo many things piss me off about this team and it mostly has to do with the coaching staff.

Offensively, Jordan Mason was tearing up the league his first few games while CMC got back onto the field. Naturally, the offensive genius head coach eased him into games, and let him get acclimated while the stud replacement kept on ticking.

I kid of course. Since CMC has returned, Mason has 9 carries. 3 in the last 2 games.

Defensively, our vanilla defense that is giving up 3rd downs like Girl Scouts give out cookies was naturally revamped to get more pressure on the QB, especially with Nick Bosa hurting.

I kid of course. We run our base 4 man defense no matter what the situation is. 3rd and 20 from their 15? Oooh, let’;’s give up a 23 yard screen pass. The ONE TIME we blitz was the complete wrong time to do it, with Geno Smith scoring from 12 yards out with time running out.

With the special teams unit being the worst in the league in FG kicking, punting, kick coverage, punt coverage, and forcing our kickers to tackle, losing us a couple games in the process, naturally we fired our ST coach and promptly got a new on 4 weeks into the season.

I kid of course. We still have the same guy and the same problems.

Sure, we have injuries, but as these games go on, nothing changes. The 49ers have been out-schemed and out-played just about every 2nd half. 3 more blown plays and this team is 2-8. Sure, you could say we are a few unblown plays from 8-2, but the fact remains, this team is cratering in these 2nd halfs as Shanahan tries to no avail to finish a fucking game. He goes into panic mode/run the clock/throw too much/what the fuck do I do?

He plays to not lose and isn’t winning.

Beyond that, the coaching staff is asleep at the controls.