San Francisco 49ers Forever

I think the Shanahan era is about to come crashing down to an ignominious end. This team has yet again tripped, fell, penalized, and schemed themselves to another disheartening loss in a season filled with disheartening losses.

No idea what is going in inside the building, but Shanny cannot be looking very good to his players right now. My mantra all year of doing something about the plain-ass vanilla defense came to an obvious head with the Nick Bosa injury. Without him what was our adjustment? What was our move to generate pressure?

Nothing.

And herein lies the rub. This defense relies on EVERYONE played perfectly and hold their coverages for 5 seconds, covering the backs/TEs with our short zone, and getting pressure from our base 4 man rush. Something we never seem to deviate from. We rarely stunt, we even more rarely blitz, we don’t show 5 man fronts, no pre-snap movement, and we simply do the same thing every play regardless of down and distance or situation.

Our studly defense full of pro-bowlers is 25th in 3rd down conversion stoppage at 43.41% this season.

This is how you give up games.

Same with the offense. Without Kittle and Aiyuk, only Jennings seemed to be getting open. Deebo is a ghost, Pearsall was overwhelmed I guess, whoever the backup TE was made no impact, and CMC was not spelled at all but for the first TD drive where Mason ran for 16 yards on 2 carries. Gee. Why not show a DIFFERENT FUCKING LOOK NOW AND THEN with Mason running the ball? Give teams a different look?

Yeah, we are injured. So is Kansas City. But they’ve played through it pretty well. We on the other hand can’t do anything unless every player is in top form and hitting all their marks. Shanahan is an abject failure in the red zone now. Even with CMC back. We had ONE nice misdirection play with Jennings on the goal line.

Yeah, we need Kittle back. And we desperately need Bosa back. But what this team needs is a fundamental change in offensive and defensive philosophy. I have been beside myself in anger at the awful defensive scheme this team runs, and it has gotten us here. The bottom tier of the NFL.

If Shanahan wants to stick around next year, he needs to throw his DC and his ST coach under the bus NOW. Or he will be tossed at the end of the year as well.

The NFL has caught up to Shanahan and he has not made the correct adjustments. We have had a 4th quarter lead and possession of the ball in 9 of our 10 games. We have lost 5 of them.

This is beyond the pale in sucking. We are looking at 5-7 with the Green Bay/Buffalo road games coming up. Yeah, we own GB but I’m sure they are hell-bent on smacking the shit out of us. Buffalo? No prayer.

Or respectability. 1.5 games separate the last place Seahawks from the 1st place Cards, so these division wins are very very important. Seattle isn’t anything resembling their old bad-ass selves, so the Niners need to take care of biz and stomp these guys. Beyond that, we are 2 wind behind the last WC spot held by the WashComs so winning the west would be our best path.

This seems to be the year of the injury, and we aren’t out of the woods on that count yet, as George Kittle has been battling a hamstring injury and is a game-time decision. He’s having his best season so far, and he usually gets himself out there. People are already calling him out, but we will see.

Seeing as Seattle sucks against the run, Shanny will likely come out throwing. Let’s hope this ins’t the case. Play both Mason and CMC. Mix shit up. Everything is too vanilla. I’m getting really pissed off as Shanahan’s lack of ability to score in the red zone, and his play calling in general. I do not understand the going away from misdirection plays and play action. These things work well but aren’t used enough.

No more Deebo up the middle.

And we all know about the defense. We should be showing a lot more 5 man fronts and causing more confusion up front. Nick Bosa is banged up, and the pressure is inconsistent at best. We don;t poressure enough so we aren’t getting the interceptions we should be. Deommodore Lenoir will be responsible for DK Metcalf, so that is the matchup to look at. They can’t run for shit, so force Geno to throw and blitz his ass.

In what is shaping to be the weirdest season in 49er history, we have blown through 3 placekickers in our search for Mr. Moody and his Cloven Hoof to now losing our punter Mitch Wishnowsky to, no NOT being forced to make a tackle on our shitty coverage team, but to a back injury somehow suffered in the TB win.

I think he was just scared shitless of being on the receiving end of a Deebo Samuel bitch-down for his non-hang-time punts lately.

Who knows? but we did sign punter Pat O’Donnell, he of the famous Irish O’Donnell brothers soccer playing family of County Cork. Sure. Yeah. That’s the ticket.

Anyhow, next up are the squalking Seahawks. A team that is all over the place.They started out 3-0 against the Cream Puffs, but have gone 1-5 since then. Their O line is atrocious, having given up 28 sacks. They give up points in bunches, 31 to Buff, and 42 to Deetroit, and DJ Metcalf is hurt and may or may not play.

Bad as our pass pro is, we’ve given up 18 sacks. They are still sticking with Geno (don’t call me Alex) Smith, who is #1 in passing yards per game, but has a less than pedestrian 11 TDs against 10 picks. Brock, who is #2 in passing yards, is a bit better at 12/7.

But we have a run game. Seattle doesn’t. 27th place vs 5th. So there’s that.

Which brings me to the usual fucking rant of BLITZ, YOU MOTHERFUCKERS!!!!!!!!!!!! Geno’s Pizza Throws is gonna be passing early, often, and all through the day. Put some goddamn pressure on him! Bosa is banged up and he needs help.

What we have seen repeatedly ad nauseum every day all the time all the goddamn motherfucking livelong day is teams converting 3rd downs against our passive defense. Seattle last time we played them was right there at 50% in their 3rd/4th down conversions. This passiveness will not stand, man!

Beat these guys, and we put ourselves in a decent position to win this middling wiggling division. Lose and we are pretty fucked as we would drop to last and our sched isn’t gonna get any easier after this game.

Hey, it was a tough road win. Those are always good, but as usual, we made the game much harder than we should have. We outgained them 415 to 213, won the TOP battle, and nearly doubled the yards per play at 6.8 to 3.7. But we were behind late and had to fight and scratch to eke this one out.

It was a gritty comeback, yes, but the fuckups were what would be fatal to a better team. 3 missed FGs. Terrible red zone play calls. Indecisive moves by Shanny in not going for the 4th down late in the 2nd quarter, the punt fuckup, the 4 penalties on TB’s last drive, Purdy being weirdly soft on a lot of throws, and a defense that looked gassed as the game wore on. The killer was the 4th quarter drive where TB ran the ball down our throats for a 17-13 lead.

And this is coming off the bye. Still and all, Slick Rick Pearsall got his first NFL TD on a sweet deep crosser that he took to the house for a 46 yard TD. CMC came back with some decent runs and a huge 35 yard completion late in the game. Purdy, for his slight tentativeness went 25-36 for 356 yards and 2 TDs.

Still concerning to me is the lack of consistent pressure. WIthout any blitzing or pressure, we do not get any interceptions, despite facing a lot of passes. Baker was pretty bad, going 18/29 for a buck 16 and 2 sacks, but he did get a TD and the weirdest non-sack/4th down conversion in history, and of course we kept them close by going 1-3 in the red zone. and 3-6 for the FGs.

Good news is CMC and Jennings are back. Bad news? Nick Bosa got hurt in practice, was ‘extremely limited’ in practice, and is listed as questionable for the game. So, another week in Ninerland. Getting hrut during the bye week. Glad we got the bye, glad we got kinda healthy, glad to get back out there, and this team has hopefully gotten their shit together.

We will see.

Tampa Bay? The Baker Mayfield Experience? Say what you will, Tampa has a tough defense that brings the heat. They’ve beaten 2 of the hotter teams in Deetroit and Washington, but lost to Denver and Atlanta and are 4-5. They played KC tough for their Monday night loss. But htye can give up a shit ton of points.

So, they get a short week, we come off the bye. Think we are gonna win, but this team desperately needs to play a clean game.

Hey! Some good new on the injury front. Not only did running back Christian McCaffrey return to the practice field for the first time since September 7, wide receiver Jauan Jennings, kicker Jake Moody and offensive lineman Jon Feliciano were all practicing as well. Moody wasn’t terribly missed, but the botched extra point played into the Niners loss to KC, and the short kickoffs bit them as well.

Getting Jennings back is pretty big what with BA going out for the season. And CMC? Well, his return (and health) is pretty goddamn essential as we all have seen with the red zone struggles, and the ineptitude on 2nd (and 3rd, and 4th) and short.

Still a few hours left in the trade deadline and I’m fairly surprised we haven’t made a move to shore up the WR spot or the interior line. DeAndre Hopkins had himself a nice little game yesterday as a newly minted KC Chief with 8 catches, 86 yards, and 2 TDs.

De Fo Bu? Do it!

Good news for the 49ers at least is that CMC looks to have his practice window open tomorrow and for him to be ready for the Tampa game. Jauan Jennings as well. Will that help the red zone difficulties? Yeah, it should.

Will it help this team close a fucking game? One would hope. The galling thing about this team IS its inability to close games out. Seattle and Dallas, our last 2 wins, saw a 20 point AND 17 lead nearly vanish after the earlier leads blown against the Rams and Cards. Something that has been a thorn in Shanny’s side since that Falcon Super Bowl years back.

But shit, Philly had a 22 point halftime lead against the awful, now 2-7, Jags and were on the hook to lose after screwing the pooch the entire 2nd half, but for a really stupid throw by Trevor (amIoverrated?) Lawrence. The 6-2 Texans couldn’t handle the 2-6 Jets. The Ravens look like the best team in the NFL, but lose to the Raiders and Browns? Come on, man!

I mean, it looks like the best team in the NFL, and to me it looks like a landslide, it the Deetroit Lions. KC is solid, if not very consistent offensively. Balt can just lay a turd at any moment. Minnesota? Shit, I just watched Darnold throw a terrible pick and see one dropped earlier as they struggle with the 4-4 Colts and the geriatric Joe Flucco.

All I seem to see this year is too many games with a fucking shit ton of pre-snap flags, false starts, illegal formations, wildly inconsistent play, and awful coaching. Going for it on 4th down is now the stupid idea of the season. Sure, there’s a time and place. But coaches don’t seem toi understand that if you THINK you are in a position where you are gonna go for it, that should dictate your decisions on 2nd and 3rd down not just think, hey, I’ll run it up the middle! That’ll fool them!

If you think you can run for it, ONE of those 3 plays should be a pass. Better 2nd than 3rd, the obvious passing down. Too many times I see 3 runs up the middle for nothing. Or the obligatory 3rd down pass that ends up with a throw-away or a blitz sack. Then the 4th and 1 stuff.

Man, I guess I need to lower my standards. Glad the Niners won, but what looked like a cakewalk once the offense decided to get going after 30 minutes of frustration turned into a nail-biter as the offense sputtered its way for 3 quarters, and the defense decided the game was over after the conclusion of the 3rd quarter.

Par usual, every phase was good and bad. Well, special teams gets a solid B as they didn’t allow any big returns, despite Carlson not being able to reach the end zone. Carlson hit all his FG and XP attempts, but Wishnowski is not on his game. The guy we had in preseason should be looked at. He was booming kicks.

Purdy looked very skittish to start another game. Missing guys all over the place, and basically not hitting guys in stride. He settled down in the 3rd quarter and engineered 3 solid TD drives in the 3rd quarter, with the help of George Kittle. Deebo played and had a phenomenal 65 yrds TD called back due to offensive holding, and then got hurt.

Then Yertle the Turtle showed up and the offense went back into its shell. And Mr. Softy defense decided that we should go back to prevent and let Cee Dee Lamb simply catch everything thrown his way. Very key, and this reared up in the LA NFCCG game a few years back. 2nd and 1 from our own 30 and Kyle gets too conservative with the offense. Run up the middle stuffed, and the ubiquitous roll out that NEVER works as we still can’t figure out how to block a DE on a rollout to the right. Bell was guarded by 2 guys like Dallas knew it was coming and, punt.

From that point on, Shanny fucked up the play calling till near the end of the game, and the defense was just atrocious. Sorensen’s fear of blitzing is patently obvious, and colors the way these guys get burned in these obvious passing downs.

Yeah, we are 4-4 and gonna get healthier soon. And this bye week is desperately needed, but come on, guys. Pressure is the name of the game, and a better team would have completed this comeback.

Shanahan’s abject inability to put teams away is simply a problem that won’t go away. After scoring 3 TDs and forcing a punt, Guerendo gets 9 yards. 2nd and 1? Go with the QB sneak. No one has stopped that play, except for Shanahan. Later in the game, after the defense had given up 2 touchdowns (the 2nd one took all of 0:58 seconds) to close the game to a 6 point lead, on 2nd and 3, with Guerendo running amok and the Niners on the edge of FG range, Shanny calls some kind of rollout pass play that results in a 7 yard loss and of course on the next play, we get 5 yards back and punt.

Fucking STUPID! You are trying to run out the clock and you call for a pass play. This is shades of how Shanahan fucked up the Super Bowl with NE all those years ago. Shanny needs to pull his head out of his ass.

The beginning of the end, or the end of the beginning? We will have a pretty good idea in 24.5 hours.

I don’t know what t think about any of this. The 49ers remind me of the Steve DeBerg Niners. Playing good enough to lose. Iffy play calls, taking turns fucking up, bad special teams, too many 3rd down conversions, Purdy’s bad day . . .

On and on. Can they figger this out? Dallas is not KC. And we did pull off a win vs Seattle. So there’s that. Purdy looked very skittish last game. And early on he wasn’t under a lot of pressure. But he threw into triple coverage on the first pick. The 2nd one was off-page, and the 3rd was awful but Purdy got hit.

Dallas? They are as big a mess or possibly bigger. No clue about this game. Just hope we stop shooting ourselves in the feet.

The latest in the warm bodies joining the team are DL Evan Anderson, OL Dieter Eiselen, and WR Malik Turner. These guys have been bouncing around he league and playing some, so there’s that, but at this point they are just bodies to ensure we have enough guys to support the roster.

This game will be a real test of our mettle as we are pretty banged up. So was Kansas City, but look how they did. If the offense had done anything they should have won that game. But that’s old news.

Dallas is also dealing with a boatload of injuries, and they are certainly WAY down on the list of confident teams, so therein lies the rub. Dallas is not very good against the run. Even when healthy. So we should REALLY pound the ball down their throats and keep them in that not-so-good-feeling zone. You know, what we should have done to AZ.

The line is fine, Mason is good to go, and Guerendo should be getting some outside runs, so Shanny needs to take advantage of what our strengths are. Running the fucking rock. And if it works well, throw in some play-action.

Don’t know where that went, along with screen passes and sweeps, but that is a question that ony Shanahan can answer.