San Francisco 49ers Forever

Back to 49er football. Here we at week 10 of the 2011 football season, and the 49ers are 7-1, ranked as high as #2 in some of these semi-meaningless ‘power’ rankings, and they are now the #1 game coming up this Sunday. Man, it reminds me of the heady days when the 49ers and whoever they played were the national game of the week. Madden and Summerall would be lounging in the press box, and the Pow, Boom, Bam’s could be heard all across town.

As it is now, this is not necessarily a do-or-die game. They can certaibnly lose this and not really lose momentum in their playoff drive. Play it tough, and the country will see that this really is an improved team that might be a force to be reckoned with come playoff time. Win, and that becomes even more relevant. A big loss however would undo a lot of what has already happened this season. The 49er schedule is pretty easy from here on out, but the 3 tough opponents coming up, the Giants, Baltimore , and Pittsburgh, are all nationally televised games. Losing all those games would be a blow to the progress the team has gained. At least perception-wise. Not that it really matters, but being greedy, I’d like to see them win 2 of those. That being said, if they go 4-4 down the stretch, they’ll be 11-5. WAY beyond most people’s expectations. And certainly in the playoffs. After that, who knows?

We interrupt the 49er talk for news out of University Park, PA. The NY Times is reporting that Joe Pa’s tenure is over at Penn St. Whether that means immediately or after the season remains to be seen. This is in response to allegations of sexual misconduct by Jerry Sandusky, Joe Paterno’s DC (among other things), and used Penn State’s locker room and showers for a playground of sexual misconduct with minor boys that he ‘recruited’ from his foundation that he started to help at-risk kids called 2nd Mile. He also had ‘sleep-overs’ at his house with some of these boys, where they would stay in his basement.

Matt Millen was pretty emotional talking about this. He went to Penn St. and Sandusky was his first position coach. He’s known the guy for 35 years, and he said that Sandusky is your next door neighbor. Nice guy. Salt of the earth. Millen’s on the 2nd Mile board, and said he had no inkling in all the years he’s known him that Sandusky was a sexual predator or pedophile.

Millen stopped short of saying that he wanted to strangle Sandusky, and he stopped to gather his emotions a couple times, but he did say it’s time like this you “want to take care of things yourself.” Anyone with children certainly understands where he’s coming from. Millen also stressed that they have to wait for the shit to go through it’s course and not to crucify anyone before the facts come out, take the emotion out of it, let due process take its course, etc. But the fact that a guy who is in charge of a foundation to help at-risk children instead uses it as a hunting ground for his own sexual perversions is beyond the pale.

What a nightmare. The board of trustees certainly seems to have made their feellings known. How much did they know? How much did Joe Pa know? Well, there were 2 spearate allegations raised against Sandusky. Once in 1998, and again in 2002. Joe Pa heard of the 2nd allegation but only reported it to the AD. No one ever went to the police even after a student-assistant said he witnessed Sandusky in the middle of a sex act with a 10 year old boy in the showers on campus.

Just this morning, a 9th person has come forward alleging being sexually molested by Sandusky as a child. So, as it stands, one of the greatest and most legendary college football coaches will go down as complicit in a disgusting and heinous scandal that he did nothing to stop.

Well, the 49ers followed their ho-hum victory over Cleveland with a very similar effort against the Washington Redskins. A physical bashing of the Redskins. Lots of trah talking, and scuffles. Got to like the attitude on this team. The run game was solid, with Gore going over 100 yards for the 5th straight time. A 49er record. He now sits 149 yards behind Joe the Jet for the all-time 49er rushing leader. The passing game was spot-on again, as young Sir Alex completed 17/24 passes for 200 yards, a touchdown, and no picks for a 109.7 QBR on the day.  As it stands, Gore is the 3rd leading rusher, and Smith is the 6th leading passer in the NFL for our 8th ranked (in pts scored) offense. The defense has 2 of the top 11 tacklers in Bowman and Willis, is #1 in points allowed, and #1 against the run. And, the Niners are 7-1 at the halfway mark. 

And, here come the 6-2 Giants. They get to be the ones travelling across 3 time zones for a Sunday skirmish next weekend. Might have to hit Stub Hub for a couple tix. The Giants are 6th in passing yards, and 29th in rushing yards. Eli Manning is having a great season so far. One spot ahead of Smith with 2377 yards and 15 TDs against 6 picks. NY throws a lot, so expect to see some blitzes and a big day for Aldon Smith. NY’s defense is middle of the pack. 17th against the pass and 29th against the run. They do bring the pressure. Jason Pierre-Paul has 9.5 sacks, and Umenyiora has 6, and their wideouts Cruz and Nicks have been solid.

Again though, to me the Giants aren’t really all that spectacular. They’ve lost to Washington and Seattle. They barely squeaked by Miami at home last week, but won a tough game on the road vs NE, and they beat the resurgent Buffalo Bills. Their other wins? StL, Philly, and AZ. Yawwwwwn. They don’t travel nearly as much as the Niners, and they look to be sluggish to start off. The 49ers just need to keep following the script of getting ahead early, and letting the defense dictate the course of events. Force turnovers, and protect the football. I’d like to see a little more consistency in the offense, but the truth is, Cleveland and Washington are among the better defenses in the league, and there’s no shame in beating those teams. The 49ers have made their bones so far this year in beating some good teams, so I think they continue their winning ways.

At least I hope so. Busy weekend, so I’m getting this up early. Anyhow, I think this game will be the unveiling of the deep passing game. One that hasn’t clicked with Crabby Crabs. The NFL Network guys had a laugh at the expense of young Sir Alex by saying he can’t hit the deep ball, but he should continue to throw to the wide bodies (Staley and Ice, whose name no one seems to know how to pronounce) and forget going deep. Ha ha. Whatever. All this kind of shit works in the Niners favor, as it fuels the disrespect angle that coaches like to use as a motivating tool.

Game at hand? Well, the one thing Washington has going for them is decent pass coverage. This game will be (I think) one where the Niners come out running to bring up the safeties, and THEN go deep. The Washington offense is a definite work in progress. They’ve been decimated by injuries up front, and they gave up 10 sacks to the Bills last week. This does not bode well for Washington. They benched Gross Rexman in favor of Beck, but look for the return of Grossie if things don’t go well. I’d imagine they are going to try quicker passes to get the ball out of Beck’s hands faster than our rush, but we’ll see. Their run game is middling, but with Hightower out, it’s even worse. Matt Millen was gushing over our front 7, calling it the best in the league and they all felt the Niners take it. I of course feel the same way, and I think Braylon Edwards has a big day. The 1st 100 yard game by a Niner WR since when, the Garcia days?

Loaded up and truckin’. Or flying, as the case may be. The 49ers are once again heading east for a game. This one somewhere near our nation’s capitol. Hope these guys are saving their frequent flier miles. We drove by a sign that said RFK Stadium, but we never saw it. I think it’s in VA, or MD . . . 

Anyhow, Washington is a team in desperate straits right about now. They are tied for 2nd, 3rd, or 4th in the NFC East at 3-4. No one knows where the Cowboys are going, but the Iggles look to be getting their shit together. Wa? No. They have lost 3 in a row, and 4 of 5 games. Gross Rexman was a total flameout, and Shanny’s decent start has been followed up with a couple monumental (hyuk) floaters. After starting out 2-0, and (like us) almost beating Dallas, the Native Americans stood at 3-1, looking to beat the Iggles. Rexman threw 4 picks in the game, and was replaced by Jeff’s long lost brother John Beck. He staged a valiant but failed comeback, and then went into a death spiral of his own, losing to the Panthers and getting shut out by the Bills. A first for Shanny at any level in the pros. He didn’t even get shut out in his disastrous stint with the Raiders. Somewhere in hell, Al Davis is laughing maniacally.

So, where does that leave the 49ers? Well, they are coming off a solid yet flavorless victory over the Cleveland Browns. What has in the past been a daunting task, winning in the eastern time zone, has become something of a breeze this year. 3-0 on the east, with all the wins being the comeback variety. I don’t think we’ll even need to come back this game. Washington has a pretty decent pass defense, even without recent defector, Carlos Rogers, but teams are running on them pretty well. I foresee more of the same. With Braylon Edwards rounding back into form, I’d like to see the 49ers try to hit Braylon on a couple deep passes. The deep game is about the last thing to install on the menu of upgrades from the previous regime. And they really haven’t had the weapons to try and go deep. The Smith/Crabtree connection isn’t one, and VD isn’t really much of a deep threat due to his blocking ability, and the fact that there’s no one behind him who blocks as well.  That deep seam route used to be the ONLY deep pass in the 49er arsenal. Still and all, Edwards becomes the de facto deep threat due to no one else being up for it.

Barring a complete and utter meltdown, the 49ers are going to the playoffs. Even though they’re in the dreadful NFC West, and are still not taken very seriously, they’ve beaten Cincy (5-2), Tampa (4-3), Detroit (6-2), Philly (3-4), and Cleveland (now 3-4). Their wins are against teams that are collectively 21-15. Well that, and Seattle (2-5). It’s not like we’re beating cream puffs. If they coast home and go 5-4, they’ll be 11-5. I don’t think they’ll coast, so 6-3 (or better) is doable with all the division games they have left. I’d think that would get them the 2nd seed, seeing as all the other teams have tougher intradivision games left to play. 

At this point in the season, the ‘no respect’ card carries a lot of weight. Most of the talking heads out there don’t think this team is much more than a fluke at this point. Mainly because of the QB currently under center. The national media laughs at (and mangles the names of) guys like Ice Sopoaga, completely ignores guys like Ahmad Brooks, Aldon Smith, and the improvememnt of our defense, and yells things out like, “Can Alex Smith win the Super Bowl? NO!!! As usual, the media will catch on next year.

The funny thing is, this team is fairly similar to the Steelers of the 70s, or baltimore for one shining season. Throw for 180, run for 200, and let the defense shut down the other team. It really is the team that Singletary envisioned but couldn’t bring to bear. If Sing had shut the fuck up about “Not gonna fool anyone” and just played, he might have gotten better results. Instead, his mantra was Gore is the focal point of our offense. We are gonna run Gore all the time. Kinda like what we are doing NOW. 31 carries is the most of Gore’s career. It’s like playing Texas Hold ’em with only your cards face-up. Sing was not shy about telling people how to stop our offense. Harbaugh isn’t playing his cards face-up. He’s mixing in enough passes to keep defenses from packing the line. He doesn’t say shit like we are running the ball up the middle 20 times a game. Say wha you will about the QB,  but Alex Smith played another solid, error-free game, got 174 yards passing, and a TD pass, and the 49ers won going away. Yes, they aren’t perfect by any means, but there’s a lot of season left to work out the kinks, and send Soap on some deep seam routes (!). Winning ugly at this point is more than fine, and a hell of a lot better than what’s gone on in recent memory.

Yesterday’s game was one that we haven’t seen in a while. One that was almost put away early, and still was pretty much a coast to the end. Sure, there were some problems. Not scoring on the goal line in the 2nd quarter, and the 2nd half offensive struggles in general, but when it came down to putting the game away, they did. The last drive was improbably sealed by a 3rd and 3 pass to Ice Sopoaga. A guy who hasn’t caught a pass since high school. Weird? Yes. They even ran a play for Joe Staley earlier in the game. If he drops it, how bad does everyone look? Don’t matter since it worked, but this is yet another similarity of Harbaugh and the Zen master of football that was Bill Walsh. Walsh came up with using Guy McIntyre as a lead blocker in the jumbo package. Ditka stole it for the Fridge. I saw Walsh run  a single-wing in a game vs the Giants. It got like 4 yards. Walsh was like, what the hell? I’ll try anything if it’ll give me an edge. Walsh wasn’t one to use a lot of trick plays, but he still tried to gain mismatches whenever he could.

Back to the game, Cleveland did a very good job of adjusting after the half. Better than Harbaugh did. Cleve shut down Gore for most of the 2nd half, and their offense did better as well. Not enough to really put the fear into anyone, but like I said, they could have put this game away earlier, but didn’t. Aldon Smith got another sack, and McCoy was rattled/off target most of the day, and Cleve had no running game to speak of. Alex Smith and Crabtree continue to have issues getting on the same page. Smith had him open a couple times, and missed badly. Smith was right on target in his passes to Braylon Edwards (the slants especially), and the 1st half was crisp passes and sharp drives. 174 yards passing and 174 yards rushing is the balance Harbaugh preaches about, and it doesn’t get any more balanced than that.

All in all, though a solid game. The D caused 4 fumbles (they only recovered the sack/fumble by McCoy onm the opening drive), and Goldson had a nice pick in the end zone in the 3rd quarter.  0 turnovers for the Niners, so +2 for that. The Niners have 16 turnovers (2 behind Detroit) and 6 giveaways, for +10. 2nd in the NFL. 2 picks in 7 games for Smith has to be kudoed. He is doing a very good job of minimizing mistakes. This can actually be traced back to Jimmy-Hat leaving. Since his departure, Smith’s TD / Int numbers are 21 / 7. . . .   9-2 so far this year.  Not bad for a coach killer.  Gore continues his resurgence as the go-to guy. I was close to writing him off as a blown signing, but his run off the goal line was key on their long FG drive, and he gets through the hole as fast as anyone. Kudoes to him as well for passing Roger Craig for 2nd on the all-time Niners rushing list. Next stop Joe the Jet.

For you Jefferson Starship fans: fuck you, we do what we want . . . On paper this should be a fairly easy go of things. On the field as well. Although these things rarely go as planned. Still a bit amazed how fast expectations have changed for this team. The demoralizing come from ahead loss to Dallas was followed by an eked out win on the road in Cincy. Week 4 was supposed to be the reality check for this team. Keep close, play tough, but in the end, get overwhelmed by the superior talent in Philly. Then Tampa, the west coast killers, and on to undefeated Detroit. These were all supposed to be teams that were better, stronger, and more prepared than the 49ers. Guaranteed lock wins when their fans looked at their respective schedules. Well, things didn’t work out that way for those guys.

Cleveland? Don’t know jack about them, other than Mike Holmgren is their GM. A job he failed at miserably in Seattle. Their biggest threat, Peyton Hillis is out, and Colt McCoy is a decent enough QB, I guess.Again, haven’t seen him at all. Their defense is ranked pretty high. But 2 of their 3 wins came at the hands of 2 winless teams, mail it Indy, and the Dullfins. So, this probably won’t be a blowout, but I don’t think it’ll be that close in the end.  Somewhere like 24-10.

Beyond that, we’ll have the Philly/Cowboy game on Sunday night.  Lots of interesting stories there. Dog killer vs Promo. America’s team vs the Broad St bullies. The Dream Team vs the scream team. Maybe Romo chokes under the bright lights on prime time football again. Vick has put up astounding numbers in his 4 losses. Should be another fun game. These guys usually have some crazy shit go on. Joe Pisarchik anyone?

There seems to be a lot of talk about Cleveland and their 3-3 record. Yeah, their defense is pretty good numbers-wise (9th in points, 4th in yards allowed), but it comes on the back of wins over 0-6 Miami, 0-7 Indy, and 2-4 Seattle. A whopping 2-17 in their 3 wins. The Niners? 15-11 in their wins. Their 3-3 record comes against teams that are 13-25 collectively. The Niners 5-1? 18-14. There was talk of our schedule being pretty easy, but so far a couple opponents have surprised. Cincy being one of them.

The Niners seems pretty much of a mind to get the lead early, and wear down Cleveland in the 2nd half. Sounds like the old familiar Walsh days that have been gone so long. Colt McCoy isn’t exactly tearing up the league, and their running game took a hit as Peyton Hillis reaggravated his hammy in practice on Wednesday, and is a scratch for Sunday’s game.

Barring complete weirdness, this game should be a fairly easy 24-10 shut down of a not-very-good offense, and enough from our O to coast to victory. Something like 105 from Hunter, and 120 from Gore. I’m sure Harbaugh has designed some new schemes that Cleveland wono’t be ready for, and that the Niners should get on top early.

Jim Harbaugh has a sworn enemy. I mean besides Pete Carroll and Jim Schwartz. His name is Frederick P. Soft. He’s apparently a 4″ tall guy that is waiting to derail progress, sideline successful seasons, and cajole players into a false sense of security. He stands on the players shoulder pads and whispers into their ears how great they are, and how the teams coming up on the schedule will crumble and fall by the wayside just by seeing their greatness. Complacency. Self-satisfaction. Smug arrogance.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it now. The 2 previous regimes fell into this trap over and over. A tough win, or even a close loss to a good team often resulted in the coaches filling the players up with false confidence. Nolan would give the players a day off after a win. Sing would profess their greatness to the world. Only to come out the next week and play flat, awful games. They consistently rested on their laurels. Nolan was the darling of the NFL in 2007. The Niners were poised for greatness. An 8 game losing streak derailed that season. Flash forward to 2010. The Niners were once again poised for greatness. The darlings of the NFL, and predicted to easily win the west. 5 straight losses later, and you have rats bailing on a sinking ship, anarchy, and Singletary pointing fingers at everyone.

Jim Harbaugh seems to have a grasp of how to deal with this phenomenon. The tough win over Philly was followed by a trouncing of Tampa. That was the mark of a guy who has his players prepared. Not reading their glowing press clippings, or standing pat while the next opponent schemes for them. This Cleveland game is another game that can easily be a pitfall game. Their last game was the Deetroit win. A BIG road win. Then the bye week. Now they play at home on front of what will be a crowd now EXPECTING great things. A blowout of lowly Cleveland. Shit changes fast. The perception is now that the 49ers are one of the top teams in the NFC.  I’m sure Harbaugh has used Handshake-gate to build a perception of how the league doesn’t like or respect the 49ers. Early on, he was saying things like “the media ignores us” “ESPN doesn’t show our highlights” and the like. Now it’s this. Corny, manipulative, or whatever, the team is buying it. It leads back to Bill Walsh and the ‘us-vs-the-world’ mentality he cultivated. Us vs the other team, us vs the press, us vs the media, even us vs the front office of his own team. It was all about the guys in the locker room being united in the common goal. Walsh was no rah-rah type guy, but he instilled intense loyalty in his players, and they knew he had their back. Everything stayed in the locker room. If Harbaugh learned anything from his talks with Walsh, this appears to be high on the list.

As far as TO goes, no go. He’s got at least a month of conditioning just to GET into game shape. He ran what, 15 routes without pads, and no defenders around, and he was gassed. His shuttles were fine, but he’s got a long way to go to prove he’s ready for a real game.  I’d say the Raiders or Tennessee may take a flier on him. Maybe even the Rams. But the last thing the 49ers need is a divisive presence like TO in the locker room.