Forty Niners Forever

Ooops, there goes gravity . . .

Jesus. The overhyped game of the week turned into a monumental stinking pile of shit. The Niners were beaten soundly in every aspect of the game by a Giants team that did what the Niners did to Green Bay and Deetroit. Turn them one-dimensional and take advantage of the mistakes.  Confusing to me was the Cappy shit. The Niners were cruising along on their opening drive to the tune of 10 plays and 60 yards. In comes Cappy to hand the ball off to Gore on 3rd and 4 for 0 yards. Brilliant. David (not-so-green) Akers misses the FG, and there you go. The D forces a 3-and-out. The Niners go an another long drive, with a token Cappy handoff to Gore (WTF?), and this drive stalls as well. Akers makes this FG, and the Niners have over 11:00 of possession, 24 offensive plays, 120 yards of offense,  and 3 points. Say what you will about it, but the Cappy plays didn’t work. They got more and more random as the game went on.

Beyond that, the Niners vaunted offensive line was stymied all day, and Smith was harassed into bad decisions. The first pick was a pass to Delanie Walker. The guy who seems to be a magnet for crap plays. That pick ignited the Giants offense, and Eli picked apart the Niners secondary with deep passes against Culliver that was way too easy. The next drive was punctuated by a false start with Cappy in there. 3 and out.  The ensuing drive led to a FG. 10-3. The next drive was hampered by a holding penalty on A Davis, but Smith nearly connected on a deep ball to Manningham, and the Niners block NY’s FG attempt. Cappy throws a nice 35 yard pass to Manningham to set up a FG, but Akers misses again.

This to me was when the team lost their mojo. The ensuing kickoff was returned by NY 66 yards, and the Niners couldn’t stop Bradshaw from running up the gut for a 17-3 lead. The rest was a comedy of errors and stupid decisions. After a couple of picks and FGs, Smith hits Moss on a beautiful 55 yard pass. Naturally, Cappy comes in and gets sacked for an 11 yard loss. Smith comes back in facing 4th and 15, yet checks down immediately to Vernon Davis for a 7 yard pass.

The point being, Smith was pulled out at the completely wrong times. Cappy is a good option down close to the end zone, where he can do the run/read option, but not during the middle of drives where the Niners are moving the ball. Harbaugh is moving into Pete Carroll clown-ball territory with this shit. If he doesn’t have faith in Alex, then why is he in there? Even after all the picks, Smith hit Moss on the deep pass, and the Niners were still within 3 TDs with a quarter and a half left of football, and the ball on NY’s 34 yard line.

As bad as this got from the players side of things (and this was a ST disaster. The Niners are neaer last in k/p coverage now [Costanza?!?]), the coaching staff bears the brunt of this loss. Much like the Minnesota game, the coaches think their tricky little jumbo packages, and L Davis at TE (false start) shit, along with the Cappy drive-kill show, are going to befuddle NFL defenses. They didn’t at all. This gimmick shit doesn’t last in the NFL. Harbaugh needs to get back to basics and stop playing college football. Carroll learned his lesson. Will Jim?

After a pretty quiet week, Kevin (punch me in the throat) Gilbride decided to whine about Justin Smith’s apparent murderous holding infractions while playing defensive tackle. Disregarding the obvious notion that DTs are usually the ones behing held, Jim Harbaugh fired back his own incendiary comments, calling the claims, well incendiary. Thing is, DTs hold. They all do it. Smith will hold 2 guys if it’ll give Willis a clean path to a ball carrier. Since this is something that is never called, or even looked for, you have to wonder what the fuck Gilbride is squalking about. Although you have to take into accoun\t Tom Coughlin’s comments that he’s curious as to why his team comes in as the underdog.

Really, Tom? You are on the road against a team with a better record than you? And you are going to play the ‘poor us’ card? Maybe if you had beaten the Iggles, people would take you more seriously. If anything the Giants have to be one of the most whining teams in the history of football. And it starts with Coughlin. He’s constantly whining to the refs, the media, his coaches, his players, his grandma, and anyone else within earshot. Time for a beat-down. As crappy as the Giants have looked, I don’t think they play as shitty as they did against the Browns or Cowboys. This will be a tough game, one that means a lot more to NY than the Niners, but in the end, the Niners prevail, 28-20.

SHout out to the SF Giants and their quest for the World Series title.

Kyle Williams gets a chance to face the team that he had his worst moment as a pro on Sunday as the 49ers play host to the New York Giants. Williams had some adventurous times to say the least returning punts in the NFC Championship game earlier this year. He had a fumble on the end-around for a 9 yard loss, he ran and dove to catch a punt needlessly and recklessly, and then there was the one that skipped into him, and the fumble in OT to pretty much seal the fate of the Niners.

Now? Well, KW really seems to have settled down very well as a kickoff returner. With Ginn back returning punts, KW won’t have to worry about it. His WR job is going well as the 3rd option. His back-shoulder catch and run last week was run to perfection, and he was able to score on the play for his 1st TD. So, he’s not really going to be a huge part of the game plan, but with the deeper passing game making strides, he will get some looks.

As far as the football world goes, Tom Coughlin is playing the Rodney Dangerfield card for this one. Pretty laughable as they are the defending Super Bowl champions, but hey, I guess if you want to give it a try, WTF? Vegas? The Niners are getting 4.5 points. Which means they think this game is an even matchup. The over/under is 44.5. So, they think this will be a close defensive battle that comes down to the wire. For all the talk about this game, it won;t be a killer to lose. Early game against a non-division foe? It won;t really determins the winner of the NFC West, but it could later determine the home-field advantage in the playoff seedings. Not too big a worry at this pont.

I think it’ll end up 28-20 Niners. That being said, the Giants though defintely have a lot more to lose than the Giants do. All the teams in the NFC East are within one game of each other, and they can ill afford to fall behind Philly with their loss to them already. The Niners have all their games with AZ and Sea still to play, and they can lose this one without too much ill affect.

Here we are. Moving toward 10/14/12. A date that must have been circled on a lot of 49er calendars. The NFC Championship rematch. The next test on a 49er schedule that is getting toward some tough games, including their first 2 division games after the Giants roll through town. The last time these 2 teams played, we had the tragedy of Kyle Williams and the 2 muffed punts altering what very well could have been the 49ers Super Bowl run and ring #6 for this storied franchise.

Knowing how hard it is to REACH the Super Bowl, and how close this team was last year, makes this season even more important.  There are perennial tough teams, like, say the Falcons and Iggles in recent memory, who have been at the doorstep numerous times, only to be jilted and denied. The Niners as they are comprised right now, have a solid nucleus of starters, backups, and coaches who are all on the mission. The window is wide open, for at least the next couple of years, before they have to make some big decisions regarding how to keep the core of coaches and players relatively intact.

So, as of now, this team has as good a chance as any other to with the whole thing. Validating this thought would mean a victory over Eli Manning and the New York Giants. The 49ers are coming off 2 resounding victories over the other New York teams to the tune of 79-3. Granted, these games were merely tune-ups for the real thing this weekend, but you had to like the deep passing game that emerged from the Bills game. This has been a priority for Harbaugh to develop this aspect of the offense, and is a welcome sight. The run game is clicking on all cylinders.

The Giants? Well, they appear to be coasting already. They’ve lost a couple awful games to the Cowboys and Eagles, and struggled to beat the Bucs. Even Cleveland posed a bit of a struggle for them. Manning is doing pretty well (10 TDs, and 5 INTs and a 96 QBR), and their offense is going pretty well. Not surprisingly, they get their yards through the air. Which has led to turnovers.  That being said, their defense isn’t what it used to be. They are 14th in points allowed, and 23rd in yards allowed (22nd vs pass; 16th vs run).

But (there’s always a big but), this means nothing for the game this weekend. The Giants also have this game circled on their calendar as a way to get back to respectability. The Niners are considered a top team, but seeing as they are geographically challenged, they get little to no national press. The Niners are the first team in history to gain 300 yards in the air and on the ground, yet all you hear about from ESPN is how the 2-3 jets should be involving Timmy Tebow in the offense more.

As usual, it takes games like this to gain national recognition (and you know that Jim Harbaugh uses this kind of back-handed dissing as fodder during the meetings) for a team like the 49ers. If they win, it’s the fact that they beat the vaunted Giants that gets them some national press. Lose, and they are the cute back story about the team the used-to-be relevant. I mean, look at all the angst that swirled around ESPN and the sports world in general when the Niners flattened the Jets, and how Carlos Rogers comments of the Jets quitting was a call to arms of sorts for the Jets. Every hour had at least 15 minutes of hand-wriniging over what the Jets should do going forward, and how they can address the mean comments of Rogers.

Steve Young had a great line after last night’s game where the Jets played a pretty good game vs Houston but lost. All the commentators talked strictly about was the Jets. Hou goes 5-0, and it was all about how ‘respectably’ the Jets lost. Young’s comment was “2-3 gets you all this?”

According to NFL historians, no team has rushed for 300 yards and passed for 300 yards in the same game. Until yesterday. The SF 49ers completely obliterated the Buffalo Bills of Buffalo. To the tune of 621 yards of total offense. 310 through the air, and 311 on the ground. Alex Smith accounted for 303 of the 310 yards on 18 of 24 passsing, 3 TDs, a healthy 12.6 yards per completion, and a near-perfect 156.2 QBR (99.2 if you prefer the ESPN version). Some other numbers:

• Crabtree 6 catches for 113 yards (1 TD)
• VD 5 – 106 (1 TD)
• KW 2 – 50
• Manningham 4 – 26 (1 TD)
• Gore 14 rushes for 106 yards
• Hunter 11 – 81
• Smith 3 – 49
• Cappy 4 – 39
• Dixon 4 – 21

Crazier still is the Niners left about 21 points and 150 yards on the field due to early penalties and Cappy’s fumble on the 12 yard line. What should have been a 34-3 halftime lead was merely a 17-3 lead. Still, the offense came out better in the 2nd half and went through the Bills ‘defense’ like a hot knife through butter.

Plain and simple, this was the best this team has looked since the Steve Young era. Gone were the overthrows of the Jet and Minnesota games. Pass protection was flawless, as Smith had time to hit open recievers downfield for big gains. The run game was effortless as the line opened up big holes again and again.  Defensively, the Niners only got one sack (a great blindside hit on Fitzpatrick by Ahmad Brooks), but Fitz was never comfortable in the pocket all day, and CJ Spiller was rendered pointless as he had nowhere to go. Culliver showed again how fast he’s become a damn good corner by picking off an underthrown pass by Fitz on the 5 yard line. Patrick Willis and the LBs  played another flawless game, and Willis got a nice strip on a completion to Bill TE Scott Chandler.

Bring on the next NY team!!

Buffalo vs the 49ers. This used to be a very popular Super Bowl pick back in the day. It never happened, but one of these two teams WAS in the Super Bowl for 8 of 11 Super Bowls from 1984 to 1994, even if they never did play each other. Not much history between these 2 teams. Historically they are 5-5 vs each other dating back to 1972, when Dennis Shaw (8-20, 105 yds) outdueled Steve Spurrier (10-25, 171 yds) 27-20.  Oh, yeah. O.J.SImpsonm had 138 yards rushing. The last time they met was 2008, an epic 10-3 Niner win when Shaun Hill beat out the two-headed QB of JP Lohsman and Trent Edwards.

Sunday? Well, on paper this is one of those games that you’d think the Niners would crush Buffalo. Buffalo lost to a Jets team that dropped 48 points on them. The same Jets that never got into the red zone vs SF. And Buffalo’s so-called revamped defense gave up 45 points to NE. In the 2nd HALF. They did manage to beat the Chefs and the Browns, 2 teams hardly mistaken for anything resembling competent, but as the Niners showed against Minnesota, bad schemes can lead to bad games. Still and all, I think this is another tune-up game that shouldn’t be too difficult. Buffalo doesn’t defend the run or pass particlularly well, and thier offense goes through CJ Spiller. A little guy who uis dinnged up, and shouldn’t be too hard to stop. If they go with Minnesota’s strategy of short passes and WRs going deep, the Niners NEED to bring the pressure. The 49ers let Ponder off the hook by not pressuring him enough, and he picked the Niners apart with the underneath stuff. Pressure Fitzpatrick, and he’ll throw picks. He’s got 7 already.

I’m thinking 28-10, Niners.

The 49ers finally get their 2nd game in the muddy confines with the Buffalo Gals, uh Bills. This is week 2 of the let’s play-all-the-NY-(NJ)- teams-in-the-league-in-three-weeks deal. Not sure if this is some kind of NFL record or something but I ain’t looking it up. The NY round-up got off to a rousing start with the shellacking of the J-E-T-S 34-zip. The D pitched a shutout, and the offense racked up nearly 250 yards on the ground. Fodder for Alex to take another load of shit for his performance, but whatevs, as my kids are wont to say. The Niners won convincingly and, at least to me, seemed to stress throwing longer passes to stretch the defense and open up the running game. If that was the plan, it worked. Smith didn’t connect as much as I would have hoped, but he didn’t make any mistakes, and had a good day. The mid-range passing game is a work in progress. This is Crabs’s 1st year in camp, and Manningham/Moss are still getting up to speed with Alex, so this would be a good game to keep this work up. The Minnesota game plan failed as all the underneath passing clogged the running lanes, there were few yards after the catch, and the Niners appeared out of synch. Can’t say enough about the D, so I won’t say anything. Other than they stifled the Jets. A team that laid 48 on these same Bills.

Buffalo spent the offseason retooling their defense. To the tune of $100 million on Not-So-Super Mario Williams. He of the 1.5 sacks 4 games into the season. So much for that. In their two losses to their AFC East rival Jets and Pats, they’ve given up 100 points. Does that mean we walk all over them? One would think. But then again, we should have beaten the Vikings.  Could this be a trap game for the Niners seeing as the New York Football Giants wait on the horizon? Possibly. but even then I don’t think this team will come out flat at home. I don’t see Spiller being that big a factor either. Ryan Fitzpatrick leads the league in TD passes, yet he leads the league in interceptions with 7. Seeing what happened with Minnesota, the Niners need to Shake up Fitz early and often. Something they didn’t do to Ponder and the Vikes. I’d throw some early blitzes in and really work on rattling Ryan. The Niners should prevail easily, 28-10.

Well, there you go. A shutout on the road, no matter who you snuff, is pretty good. The Niners came into Joisey and played very well. 200+ rushing, no picks, and a stifling defense demoralized and obliterated a very weak New York Jets team. 34-0 wasn’t even a true indication of what the score should have been. David (Wade Richey) Akers missed 2 FGs, and Cappy Capperson took a knee on the 2 yard line to close out the game (classy move BTW. No needless KO or additional plays to run. Just kill the clock). So, it could have been 50.

Encouraging to me was the fact that Manningham had a very good day. Smith and Crabs didn’t connect as much as I would have liked, but the game plan worked. Sending WRs on deeper routes opened up the running lanes. Even if they didn’t connect as much as they would have liked, the strategy was sound, and it spread the Jets defense out for Gore and co to run rampant. The pisser in the Minn game is how everything was too close to the LOS to open up the underneath passing routes, or to open up the run game. Lesson learned. The D came off one of it’s worst performances in the recent past to pitch a shutout. The Jets 1st drive was their best all day, and it netted them 24 yards.

Buffalo is next. At the muddy confines. If the Jets can plant 48 on these guys, and 0 on us, does that mean we score 96?

For real or not? Riding the accolades of last year, or living up to the preseason hype?

These questions, and more will be answered today, on As the Harbaugh Churns . . .

This SHOULD be a not-very-difficult game, but as we know, on any given Sunday.