Forty Niners Forever

Great thing is, this is a short work week. And countdown to kickoff has begun. In exactly 118 hours, the 2012 fotball season will start for your San Francisco 49ers.

Granted, this has been a bit of a curious preseason. All we heard about were the amazingly crisp passes from Young Sir Alex to all the new weapons on the team, from LaMichael James to AJ Jenkins to Super Mario to Randy (traffic cop) Moss to Michael (Softshell) Crabtree. Come (practice) game time, little to nothing was shown to the opponents, or worse yet, the fans. Sure, there are reasons for this, but still and all throwing 4 yard outs to Crabs has pretty much been established. Running on 1st and 20 has been shown. Playing it safe in the red zone. Been there done that. The run game looked goosd in a couple games (Minn, SD), and bad in a couple (Hou, Indy).  The defense pretty much followed suit. A couple good games, a couple ehh ones. Indy being the worst. Although they were hampered by injury and the blandness of the schemes Fangio was running.

Still and all, these games are tune-ups and there is little to take from these. Lest we forget the stellar 4-0 record Singletary amassed in 2010. He wasn’t about moral victories. Just meaningless ones.

Anyhow, buckle your seatbelts. It’s going to be a bumpy ride . . .

Alex Smith made a token appearance in game 4 of the preseason (handing the ball off 5 times), but the afternoon belonged to Colin Kaepernick. He was 12/18 for 158 yards, and 2 TDs. But, more than that he looked smooth and confident behind center. He made short passes, mid-range passes, and a couple deep balls that he connected on. A J Jenkins (4 catches, 59 yards, 1 TD) got playing time vs SD’s 1st and 2nd units and did well, even running Ted Ginn’s patented flanker sweep for a 9 yard gain.

The 1st team (pretty much) defense gave up yards, but did create turnovers against Philip Rivers and co (who played a lot longer than I sure thought they would). Ex-punter Bruce McCann (McBath?) came in and picked off a ball on the 5 yard line to thwart a drive, and an earlier drive was killed by a nice strip by CJ Spillman on Antonio Gates. So, the nominal starters put up a 21-0 spot on the Bolts.

The rest of the game was backup city as Tolzein took a step back in his securing the #3 spot. Tolzein played nervous and unsettled while JJ played loose and easy. He was helped by a swing pass to Palmer that Palmer took 50 yards to the end zone.

In cut-down news, Rock Cartwright has been cut (thus sparing Anthony Dixon), and Colin Jones has been traded to Carolina for their 7th round pick.

Well, the regular season inches its way closer to the present. There’s just the formality of getting the most useless of the preseason games, game #4, out of the way. The usual way to play this is to have most of your starters sit this one out so you can evaluate the 2nd/3rd stringers that are fighting for their football futures to make one last push. Anthony Dixon, due to injuries to Brandon Jacobs and LaMichael James, has risen up the charts and looks like he’s made the team. At the expense of Rock Cartwright? Probably. Tremaine Brock on the other hand, was seemingly dealt a death-blow by the constant darts that  Peyton Manning threw his way that he coulsn’t stop. Perrish Cox made a nice pick after Manning left to garner praise. Praise that Vic Fangio has foisted upon him a lot lately. So, it’s not really useless, but if you are looking for some new wrinkles to the offense or some new blitzing schemes, I wouldn’t start here.

Of course there’s no word from Jimbo who is actually IS going to be the starting QB, but most would think Cappy Capperson gets the nod. I mean, how many more 6 yard passes can Smith and Crabs practice? I would like to see Manningham get on the field, but he is still out for his granfather’s funeral. Moss hopefully gets more than the one target last week. For all the press garnered by these new WR additions, they’ve caught what, 3 passes for 24 yards? Manningham hasn’t even caught a pass or played a down, but I guess he makes his debut in Green Bay. There’s playing it close to the vest, and then there’s playing it inside your chest cavity. then again, Alex’s favorite target, Vernon Davis only has one catch, albeit a 44 yard wheel route for a TD. One of 2 passing TDs in this preseason.

The defense has looked especially flat, but hey, I’m not one to worry about preseason. Really. Aldon Smith has been nursing a sore hip since the Viking game,  Bowman hasn’t played much, Culliver has missed games, and our deep LB corps have sustained a lot of injuries. The good news is the Niners get 10 days to healthy up and unveil their new-found offense, and their defense won’t skip a beat from last year’s domination. Hey, it could happen . . .

Well, all I can say is thank God that one didn’t count. Even if the Niners did win the battle of the scrubs. They won the battle but lost the war. In a game that looked eerily reminiscent of the old regime, the 49ers laid a pretty big egg in the high altitude of Denver, Colorado. Peyton Manning got little pressure put upon him, and Willis McGehee ran untouched through the line, and thus shredded the Niner defense like it was a block of swiss cheese. Manning hit a couple of long passes, and lots of short ones on the way to his first 2 scores of the preseason. Still and all, the Niners were not stunting or blitzing. They were as vanilla as can be. It was base defense all first half. Plus, they were missing their biggest weapon. One Aldon Smith.

Offenseively, well, not much good to say there as well. Crabs caught a couple passes. A slant, for God’s sake, and Crabs did work his was back toward Alex on a play where Smith broke contain, and Smith hit Crabs for a 1st down. See what a little preseason can do? Of course that was followed by a botched center/QB exchange that seemingly everyone on the offense couldn’t gather in, which resulted in a quick Denver score. Smith did throw a perfect wheel route pass to Randy Moss, oh yeah, I’m sorry, Vernon Davis, for a score, but the rest was fairly forgettable. The O line did little to nothing. The play calling was bland, and the WRs were once again pretty much ignored by the first team offense. Smith did throw a pass for Randy Moss. However, he was triple covered. If that’s how the teams play him in the regular season, well, I guess he’s worth it. But he ain’t going to like being a decoy 4/5ths of the time.

All and all, this WAS a preseason game. It was disconcerting to me to see Denver march up and down the field early on. But, again, the defense was vanilla. A Smith wasn’t playing. This one didn’t count. I think a steady diet of blitzes will get to Manning over the course of a game, and a season. Some folks are ready to annoint Manning the league MVP based on one preseason game. If that was the case, then Ryan Leaf would share that award with him. In  other words, I’m not going to truly worry until it is truly warranted. Could this be a wake-up call to the defense? Are they merely riding their accolades to a big letdown? I don’t think so. But the importance of a healthy Aldon Smith in the lineup cannot be understated. Offensively? Well, that is to be determined. The Niners were awfully bland in their play calling yesterday. But I think they still have to work in their new weapons. This may take the better part of September (or more) to accomplish. For all the glowing accolades regarding practices, I have yet to see anything resembling consistency on the field. Worrisome? Sure. But, when the real bullets fly, we’ll see what we got.

Get out of Denver without any injuries, and I’ll be pleased. Also, let’s see if Peyton Manning can survive our pass rush, which may or may not include Aldon Smith and Ahmad Brooks.

Sure it’s preseason, but this should give us a little sense of where the offense is.

Coming into the regluar season this year, there were a few certainties. Alex Smith was going to be the starter in SF. Sam Bradford was going to be the starter in StL. Seattle signed Matt Flynn as the heir apparent to complement the drafting of Russell Wilson. AZ was going to let Red Skelton and Krusty Kolb fight it out for the starting spot. Then the Peyton Manning sweepstakes roared through town. Say what you will about the 49ers, they got their QB controversy over and done with in March when Jim Harbaugh and Trent Baalke went on a ‘perusing’ (or ‘pursuing’) mission to watch Peyton Manning throw. Funny thing is, they were hiding in the bushes cloaked in their hoodies like a couple of pervs at the girls swim team tryouts. Manning never came to Sf and there were no negotiations between the parties involved, but that didn’t stop the rumor mill from cranking up to hypersonic levels.

In the end, SF was denied, saying they were never serious anyway, AZ was jilted, and Seattle figured they were set with Flynn. As it is now, well, shit is muddy. Alex is still the starter in SF. The coaches are singing his praises as having a full grasp of the offense. When this shows on the field is anyone’s guess. Sept 9th? One would hope. Bradford is the starter in StL. He’s being given the Alex Smith crash course in how to relearn a new offensive system every year for the past 3, and he’s struggling.  AZ? Sheesh. No matter who they put back there, they’d better get the ball out fast. Their tackles were utterly dominated in game 3 of their preseason (and every other moment of games I saw). Skelton got off a couple nice passes, a pick, and a lot of grounders amid tremendous pressure from Tennessee’s base defense. Kolb fared much the same. Hard ro evaluate your guys when they are running for their lives. Neither had any time to throw, and were pounded mercilessly. Ha ha.

Seattle? Well, they are so impressed with their $26 million man that they stated this week that a strong showing by rookie 3rd round pick Russell Wilson could very well land the starting spot if he does well. The game isn’t on TV (live anyway) but it will be shown at Saturday at midnight vs KC (taping that one). You have to wonder how this works out. Cam Newton came in and impressed. But he certainly bucked the odds of the usual struggles by rookie signal callers in the NFL.  Wilson? We’ll see. Flynn isn’t doing terribly, but Wilson seems to be providing bigger plays and getting more yards. If Wilson struggles early, then they will start the QB merry-go-round that works so well in the NFL.

So, if I’m a Seattle fan, I have to be a little worried about things as of now. If I’m a Card fan, well, I’d be in a bad mood as my team can’t block for our QBs and any team with a decent D line (say most of the NFC west among the rest of their opponents) will surely shut down their passing game. If I’m a StL fan, I just have to hope that Jeff Fisher can pull off a Jim Harbaugh and install a successful system in a short amount of time. Bradford’s a goodf QB, but you have to question his supporting cast.

All in all, it looks pretty good for the men in red and gold.

In what I’ll call the What-Could-Have-Been Bowl, the 49ers are facing off in their most meaningful meaningless preseason game against the Denver Broncos. You know, the team that signed some QB whose name I can’t remember. Under the shadow of darkness, the Broncos wrangled some guy named Manning, who hasn’t played in a while, to the mile high shitty from the depths of free agency in a move that was undetected by the media. Much like Bob Irsay moving the Baltimore Colts to Indy in the heat of the night.

Um, well, except for the fact that ESPN had 24/7 coverage of Peyton’s every waking moment, his plane rides all over the country, news of Jim Harbaugh and Trent Baalke hiding in the bushes in their camo hoodies watching Manning throw at Rutgers, Miami owner Stephen Ross  offering him everything under the sun plus a baby’s arm holding an apple, and Arizona offering Manning all the sand he could crap in.

Anyhow, the Niners didn’t get him. To me, this was a non-issue, because their best opportunity to win now is with Smith. Mainly because, as we saw last week, Smith can take a hit. Manning would have been dead had he absorbed the hits Alex took last Friday. So, what do we take out of this game? Well, I guess we have to wait and see how Harbaugh plays it. Last year, Harbaugh bucked convention and didn’t play the starters very long for the 2nd-to-last preseason game. This time around, with a full camp and preseason, we should see Smith play at least the whole 1st half. Although you have to wonder, since the Niners dodged what could have been 2 devastating injuries to two of their running backs in Brandon Jacobs and LaMichael James.

What am I looking to see? Well, Aldon Smith and Ahmad Brooks both returned to practice on Monday, and they may get some playing time, but I wouldn’t hold my breath. They are much more valuable  if they are fully ready for the Green Bay game, not for this meaningless tilt.  The offense? Well you know.

Well, it’s only preseason, and I know I’m not supposed to be concerned, but (stop me if you’ve heard this before) I’m a little concerned with the mid-range to deep passing game. 4-5 series, and we’ve barely thrown anything besides 4 yard outs to the WRs. The only deep pass Smtih completed was the pass to Ginn when Smith broke contain. Moss was open for a TD on a pass to VD that he dropped. And Moss himself dropped a pass from Cappy that would have been a 1st and goal. Beyond that, the pass blocking was pretty bad, and Smith was under pressure. Which is why I think Smith rarely gets to his 2nd/3rd reads. As in the play where he didn’t see Moss.

I guess I’m making too much out of this, but I get a little nauseous when I hear how crisp and awesome our practices are, and how well Smith is hooking up with Moss/Crabs downfield. Is this where they leave it? I’ve heard this for the last 3 camps. Smith finally has a grasp, blah blah blah. The game starts, and wwe get the goddamn everloving 4 yard out. A route that I want to see retired. Just like Bill Walsh went to the well too often with the Roger Craig sweep, this play has seen better days. I am STILL waiting for the Niners to throw slants, crossing routes, and the occasional deep ball.

I mean, there’s saving this for the regular season, but if you don’t practice this stuff in games, how do you truly know if it’s going to work? The overarching point to all this is, if Moss gets overlooked on plays like the one in the 2nd quarter where Moss had the entire left side of the field to himslef, and Smith doesn’t see him, Moss will likely become very disillusioned about how he’s expected to produce here. Manningham was targeted once. Crabs got his 4 yard out. Moss got a 6 yard out. Hou meanwhile threw the ball all over the field to numerous different WRs. Where’s the beef? I know we are going to be a ball control offense, but really, you HAVE to throw passes downfield. Otherwise we’ll be in the same boat as last year. Lots of FGs, and leaning on the defense.

Frankly I think this is a recipe for backsliding. The D, no matter how well it plays, will not likely get 38 turnovers again. The offense needs to do a better job of pressuring the opponents defense rather than just trying to burn clock and keep the other team from scoring. Push for a 17 point lead, and THEN go heavy run.

Preseason preseason. The Niners travel east to Texas for a game with the Houstons. Alex Smith may get 2 series this game. The reports coming out of camp are that Smith has really taken to the offense, and it is clicking along at a feverish pace. Good to hear, but then again, we’ve heard this before. Be that as it may, I believe this crop of coaches a little more than the last batch. Beyond that, Josh Johnson, Harbaugh’s QB back in the heady days of the USD Toreros, willl get a chance to improve his position in the battle for the 3rd (and most likely last) QB on the Niners.

The other concern is of course injuries. As the Raiders showed last night, you can get dinged up pretty badly when there are jobs to be had, and defensive players try to prove their worth.  Aldon Smith is walking around comfortably, and is apparently just about right. He will not likely see any more action this preseason. Brooks is also out with a knee injury that will keep him sidelined most of the preseason. As well as P Cox and a few others. It’ll be interesting to see how the pass rush fares with without Aldon and Brooks at LB. Kortnei Brown and Eric Bahktari in their place. I think they may try and protect Haralson by playing him little since they have enough dinged up LBs. Juston Smith will likely get a little playing time as well tonight. It’lll be nice to see him out there. Even if only for a short time.

Other than that? Offense. I want to see some evidence of these amazing workouts I jeep hearing about. Sure they don’t want to show too much. But really. a down field passing game isn’t a great unsolved mystery that other defenses haven’t seen before. Most all teams use their WRs a lot more than we do, so let’s at least give it the old college try. For a little bit.

Or, brother can you spare a QB? In what is shaping up to be a strange and exhilarating development, the 49ers seem to have a veritable plethora of QBs in their stable. Yes, Smith is the #1. This is not the debate. The debate is which of the QBs currently on the roster will back up young Sir Alex. According to Jim Harbaugh, Cappy Kaepernick is ’emerging’ as the backup to Smith, so we’ll pencil him in as the #2. Which leaves Scott Tolzein (the guy the Niners stole from SanDiego’s practice squad after playing them in the preseason last year), and recently acquired Josh Johnson, granite-jaw’s protege at USD, and more recently the backup in Tampa Bay. Scotty looked very good in mop-up duty vs Minn last week, but who wouldn’t? Tolzein made all the throws and did as well as can be expected. Unfortunately, he’s performing against the Walmart stockers, UPS guys, and the otherwise soon-to-be-unemployed football players. Not his fault, but there you go.

Josh Jonhson on the other hand saw little action last week vs Minn. The word from Harbaugh though is that JJ will get the 2nd half of the Houstron game to strut his stuff. I haven’t seen too much of JJ, so I  don’t really know what to expect from the guy. His numbers in TB aren’t very impressive, but Harbaugh and other have good things to say about the kid. Is he a keeper? We’ll see.

If JJ somehow takes the #3 spot, then the Niners could stash Tolzein onto the taxi squad. The problem there is, as he was in SD, he can be snatched away by a QB desperate team (hello AZ). And he has looked more than good enough to be snagged in a hurry. If Tolzein wins the #3 spot, what then? The likely outcome is they cut JJ, mainly because he isn’t eligible to go to the PS. Harbaugh leave the possibility that hey could very well carry 4 QBs into the season. Frankly, I think this is a very good idea. Keep all 4, and wait for a team to become desperate. If, say, Matt Flynn or Andrew Luck goes down to injury, then try to fleece a team in need of a decent QB.

I mean, really. All four of these guys could start for AZ  and be their #1. They are in a world of hurt with Kolb sucking wind, and Skelton getting a taste of reality. So, try to pry loose a nugget from any of the number of QB-desperate teams.