Forty Niners Forever

Week 13 turned out to be the lucky one for the San Francisco 49ers as they sealed their 1st Western Division title since the 2002 season. The 49ers are the first team to clinch their division (yes, Green Bay did clinch a playoff berth with their 12th win), and they did it in dominating style, shutting out the St Louis Rams 26-0. Kudos are deserved all around for the organization. From Jed on top, down to the practice squad players. Flash back to January, and this was one of the more dysfunctional franchises in the league. With the’nationwide’ search for the guy inside the building, the debacle that was the Singletary/Jimmy-Hat dynamic dud-o (and the Nolan/Hostler turd-fest), to the maddeningly inconsistent play in many different areas of the team (esp QB), the team seemed poised on another fruitless effort to improve. Jed York has to be given major props for going out and getting Harbaugh. Miami was hell-bent on signing Harbaugh, and while Harbaugh has Bay Area ties, had work with Bill Walsh, and picked his brain on many occasions, Young York got it done. Whether this really was the spot Harbaugh wanted to be plays into it, but Jed closed the deal. Miami is looking like a big mess front-office-wise as well, but what a difference a year makes.

Trent Baalke, although he was the recipient of the so-called nationwide search for a GM, has done admirably so far without the albatross of Mike Singletary hangning around his neck. He looks as though he stocked the team with this 2011 draft. He picked a winner in Aldon Smith. His 2 sacks yesterday pushed his team-leading total to 9,5. He’ll be the first Niner to go over the 10 sack mark since Andre Carter in 2002. Not coincidentally their last playoff run, with the likes of Jeff Garcia, TO, and Steve Mariucci. The rest of the draft looks very solid. Kappy is developing (looks like he’s behind Smith for a bit longer), Culliver is looking strong at CB (1 pick, 7 passes defensed, 24 tackles in limited duty), Kendall Hunter is a great change of pace from Frank Gore, Kilgore Trout and David Person-to-be-named-later are developing for O line depth (they looked good in preseason action), FB Bruce Miller is now an integral part of the offense as a blocking back, and catching the ball out of the backfield (hello Tom Rathman). Only Ronald Johnson (who was cut) isn’t in the future plans for the team. Curtis Holcomb, a FS from Fla A&M, suffered a ruptured Achilles. His status will be determined once he’s healthy. The 2010 draft under Baalke was solid as well, netting Anthony Davis, Mike Iupati, Navorro Bawman, Anthony Dixon, and Kyle Williams. Only Taylor Mays (a Singletary must-have), and Phillip Adams (injuries, on and off NE 3x) haven’t made the grade.

The lynchpin in the vast improvement sqaurely lies at the feet on one James Joseph Harbaugh. He and Fangio, and the rest of his coaching staff turned a group of underachieving players, browbeaten and yanked back and forth from starters to bench guys and back week to week, into the #1 defense in points allowed, and the #10 offense in points scored, and the #7 QB in Alex Smith. Special teams are vastly inproved as well. There is no element of the team that isn’t markedly better than last year. Harbaugh has gotten all the players to buy into his system. One that on the surface appears a lot like the previous versions. One that Singletary, and Nolan before him, strived to have. And that’s and offense built around a strong running game, and a punishing defense that doesn’t give up points easily. Harbaugh has done this, with little fanfare, preseason, or time. The result of the lockout may have forced Alex Smith to stay (as I think he would have left in a New York minute given the chance in a regular offseason), and for Harbaugh to work with him (this beaing said, the FA QB market wasn’t very good last offseason), but the results cannot be argued. Smith is 20 points up in his QBR from his previous career average of 74.1. 15 TDs and 5 picks is very solid, and when you look at the drops by VD and Crabs (seemingly 2 a game each), and the numbers could be even better. Gore’s running has opened up the passing game, and conversely the run has set up the passing game.  Harbaugh has gone heavy pass and heavy run at different times during the season. Not as a knee-jerk reaction like the previous regimes would do, but as  WEAPON to beat the opponent. Strategy. What a concept. Dumb as that sounds, it eluded the last 2 head coaches.

In other words, how much better will the team be when they get the privilege of a full training camp with Harbaugh and company running things? Even if the 49ers are one-and-done in the playoffs this year, the future certainly looks 100x brighter than it did at the beginning of the year. My thought is that the 1st order of business is to sign Alex Smith to a 3 year deal after the season ends.

Another busy weekend. Off to all over the place. Back tomorrw at some point.

Clinch or die.  Or face a lot of questions . . .

Go Niners . . .

Here we are, in the midst of our mini-bye week, preparing for what would be a playoff clinching win for the San Francisco 49ers. A situation the 49ers haven’t been in since the Jeff Garcia/Steve Mariucci days of 2002. Pretty much the last gasp of the Eddie DeBartolo era. Hard to believe that the Niners can clinch this early. I certainly thought the Niners could win the division this year, just not so dramatically. As I said before the season started, 8-8 was a legit shot to win the NFC West. As it is now, the Niners could crash and burn, yet still win handily.

The first and foremost task at hand is to beat the St Louis Rams. The team who was touted as the division winners has staggered through a disaster of a season around a tough schedule, myriad injuries, and a coaching staff that is struggling for any kind of consistency. Sam Bradford, the up-and-coming QB of their future, is getting beaten and battered behind a makeshift line, and fans there are worried about his state of mind. He’s coming off a lingering ankle injury, but it looks like he’ll play. Josh McDaniels seems hell-bent on not utilizing Bradford’s skill-set, and is laying to waste a program that was supposedly poised for great things. The Rams are now the lowest scoring team in the league, and McDaniels is catching most of the heat for it. After last week’s 24-7 loss to Seattle, and their measly 185 yards of offense, Bradford sat alone at his locker for 20 minutes, in full uni, collecting his thoughts on what was another dismal offensive performance.

Well, tough shit, guys. There’s a game to play and a division to clinch. The season marches on, and you guys were waylaid outof the gate much like last year’s 49ers. What a difference a year makes. The hope is the Niners can beat their shakey line like a drum and shut down their anemic offense one more time. Let’s get this division sewn up, get the regulars out, and healthy up for the playoffs.

Except for the Pittsburgh game, all we have left are division games, and these games all mean something to ensure a bye week to open the playoffs. NO is a game behind San Francisco, so we need to keep them there. Winning conference games is the way to keep NO behind the 49ers should they end up tied in the standings.

I see 3-2 as our worst-case scenario. This would put us at 12-4. NO would have to win out their string (to get to 13-3) to get the bye. Frankly, this is good news for SF. It’s better to be playing games that have some sort of meaning instead of coasting into the playoffs starting now. Granted, by the time the last game vs the Rams comes up, guys like Gore, Edwards, and even Alex should get, if not the day off, then get some rest.

Busy morning around the NFL today. The LA Times reported Ndumkong Suh was suspended for 2 games for stomping on Evan Dietrich-Smith’s arm during the Packer game last Thursday. Which means he misses the Saints game, and the Vikings game. For all the greatness of his play, he’s really screwing up big time here. That penalty came in the 3rd quarter, on a 3rd down that Detroit had stopped GB. With Detroit only down by 7, the penalty gave GB a fresh set of downs, and the next play resulted in a TD.

Detroit has gone from their gaudy 5-0 start to 2-4 in their last 6. Losing Suh for the Saints game is very big.  Detroit is already on the wrong side of the playoff chase, and have games against NO, GB, and the Raydurs among the last 5. He’s not he only cause for their struggles down the stretch, but his penalties, and now his suspension, isn’t helping matters. Suh, who is pretty much the most well-known D lineman in football as evidenced by his endorsement deals, has to figure out how to control himself. He’s a phenomenal talent, and any team would love him as a teammate, but his damage-control talks to Goodie Goodell (2 so far) aren’t fooling anyone, or getting him out of trouble.

Meanwhile, down in Jacksonville, The Suit #2, Jack Del Rio, was fired as head coach of the Jaguars. 3-8 as of now, and 69-73 overall, the Jags owner said make the playoffs or get fired. Since the Jags were pretty much eliminated last Sunday, he’s gone. Replaced by DC Mel Tucker.

By-the-River’s firing should be the 1st of many to come in the next few weeks. Teams that wanted to make changes, and didn’t because of the lockout uncertainty will surely pull the trigger as their teams fall by the wayside in the next couple weeks. Tom Coughlin being the guy I think is next. The Giants laid another egg last night in getting thoroughly spanked by the Saints. They have GB next week, and 2 games with Dallas, and they looked like a team that has tuned out their coach. Stupid penalties, dropped passes, and no energy from the players has killed a season that looked promising after the Giants beat the Pats in Foxborough.

Tony Sparano is certainly close to the edge as well. Miami’s owner, Steve Ross had his ill-fated dance with Jim Harbaugh early this year, and was pretty much forced to give Sparano a 2 year deal after that fell through. After 7 losses to open the season, Miami went on a nice little 3 game winning streak, and almost knocked off Dallas for a 4th win in a row. You also have to wonder how much longer San Diego will continue to Norv themselves. Turner has underwhelmed, (and that ill-fated int/fumbled) their way out of serious playoff contention year after year. Poor Takeo Spikes. Another year missing the playoffs. For good or worse, I think Indy’s coach survives this season. Jim Caldwell will get a shot to draft and groom Luck while Peyton Heals up for next year. That defense certainly doesn’t look very good without Manning putting up all those points.

Which leads to the playoffs. The Niners have a one game lead on the Saints. They also own the tiebreaker should the teams tie, because the Niners conference recors is better that NO’s (as of now the Niners are 7-1, NO is 6-3). The Niners have 2 games that look tough. Well, one, and that is Pittsburgh. Seattle on the road could be a challenge, but Seattle is floundering pretty badly at this point. That being said, Seattle would like nothing more than to hurt/affect our playoff situation. Pete Carroll would circle this as Seattle’s Super Bowl. NO has games against (Suh-less) Detroit, Atlanta, and the high-flying Panthers and Cam Newton. NO would need to pass SF to get the bye. Not likely, but possible. If we do end up playing a WC team, that looks to be the Lions or Beaers, and we’d get the worst WC team. Given the bye? The best hope is a home game against the Saints. Playing them in NO is a near-impossibility. They are fast and Brees is on fire. Get through that, and we’d more than likely get Green Bay in the NFC championship game. In Green Bay. Hopefully with lots of snow. The Niners certainly can run better than GB, and a nice snowstorm would negate their passing game some.

The AFC? Well, there’s Balt, Pitts, and NE. One of those 3 is in the Super Bowl.

Well, the Niners, in their race to secure a bye week for the upcoming playoff soiree, are looking for the New York Football Giants to slow down and beat the high flying New Orleans Saints. If NO wins, they’ll be one game behind the Niners in that pursuit of that coveted bye. The Saints have by no means an easy time of it the rest of the year. They still have this game tonight, Detroit, Atlanta, and a schitzophrenic Panther team to contend with.

If the Giants win, however, the Niners would have a 2 game lead on all the pursuers in the playoff chase. There would also be an astounding 6 teams with 7-4 records. The Cowboys, Giants, Lions, Bears, Saints, and Falcons would all be tied. Chicago owns the WC spot if tied with Detroit because of better winning %age of common teams. Atl also wins the WC spot over Detroit because of Atl beat Detroit. After that, it’s clear as mud. There are too many games left to really sift through the implications of all those teams. Well, at least it ain’t in my pay grade.

Go Giants!

Well, that’s what one ESPN wonk articulated after the game. Don’t know which, but the 49ers were suddenly lumped in with Detroit, Cincy, and KC as pretenders in the grand scheme of the NFL hierarchy. I (and many other wonks) called bullshit on that. To go 4-1 on the east coast is a pretty big accomplishment, keeping the game remotely close was pretty good in itself. As it was, Flacco played one of his better games of his career, and our O line, already shorthanded without Bruce Miller, lost Adam Snyder to a hammy injury early in the 1st quarter. Chilo Rachal filled in miserably, as he whiffed on his 1st play, and was the guilty party on the chop block (albiet, it wasn’t really a hit than a stumble) on the 75 yard TD pass to Ted Ginn. The rest was a defensive battle all the way. The Niners had a decent 2 minute drive to close the 1st half negated by a pick. Edwards didn’t do much to get to the ball, or even break up the pick, but it was underthrown besides.

The 49ers tied it on the 1st drive of the 2nd half with a nice drive that used up half the 3rd quarter. Balt responded with a drive that ate up the rest of the 3rd and resulted in a TD. Balt stayed underneath the whole time, and hit on too many 3rd down plays. Whitner missed a stop on 3rd down, and the Niners didn’t get ANY pressure on Flacco as he dinked and dunked, and ran for 6 yard chunks to score the game’s only TD. After that, it was jail-break time as Smith and the Niners couldn’t get any offense going. Until a small drive near the end was killed by a terrible drop by Ginn to end the game.

As the Niners stand now, they are a bit beaten up. Snyder needs to get healthy. That much is obvious. Same with Bruce Miller. The line play was shoddy at best, and it can be attributed to their absense. Our wideouts are hurting as well. Edwards just doesn’t have the speed he showed in the preseason or vs Seattle even. Crabs is doing decent, but Walker was a no-show in Balt. VD? He made a brain-dead mistake in the closing minute by not going OB after getting the 1st down on a swing pass. Stupid stupid stupid. Game awareness, skippy. He proves himself to be clueless by not knowing the situational aspect of where he is and what he should do. For all his talk of beinf great, he’ll never get there with plays like that, or the one last week when he didn’t try to get his feet down before he went out of bounds.

 Anyhow, this game was going to be tough, even without the fact the Niners had a 6 hour plane ride, and a very short week to prepare for the game. The interesting thing to see is the next game vs the Rams. How the Niners bounce back from this game is going to tell a lot about the spine of this team. I think they are fine, and this’ll be a blip on the radar.

Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours. Have a great day. Bring on the food and libations . . .

Here we are, the 49ers have finally reached the Harbaugh Challenge Turkey shoot mano-a-mano raven-pluck extravaganza. What the NFL schedulers viewed as a cute idea when thay sat down at the scheduling table in February suddenly becomes must-see football.  Older brother John gets to host younger brother Jim in what is being touted as the Harbowl. I prefer a Raven Thanksgiving dinner but whatever. Baltimore is a very well-coached team, and minus a couple major faux paus’s’s’s, namely losses  to Jax and Seattle, they’ve been playing pretty well. Cincy was a battle for them, but they closed it out in the end with a lot of pressure on Dalton.

Ray Lewis is a game-time decision for Thursday’s game. He has been limited in practice, as has Anthony Davis and Crabman. I keep hearing that Bruce Miller is fine, but I haven’t heard if he’s been cleared to play. I’d be surprised, but we’ll see Moran (whiff) Norriss if Miller doesn’t go.

Baltimore’s defense is very stingy in giving up either rushing or passing yards, and is 3th in points allowed. The Niners are 8th in yards given up per game,  Balt is 4th. Their offense is simlar to the Niners in the fact they have a strong runner in Ray Rice, much like our Frank. They have a tough WR corps in Ray Rice, Torrey Smith, and Anquan Bouldin. Smith is averaging over 20 yard per catch, so the Ravens will look to go deep early and often.  

Like the Giants before them, I’m not truly sold on how good Baltimore is. They’ve beaten Pittsburgh 2x (are they as bad as the 1st beating?), but how good is Pissburgh? AZ almost beat Balt in their own house. Yes, wins are wins, but what about the losses to JAX and Seattle? The Jax game was uuuuuuuuuuugly. Flaccid Flacco was dogshit that night. He’s thrown 12 TDs and 8 picks for a pedestrian 77.8 QBR. The Niners need to dial up the pressure against Flacco. Their offensive numbers pretty much line up. In fact they both average 25.6 points/game. The thing is, Flacco has a big arm, and Balt has hit a lot of deep passes, so I think the Niners may break out some blitzes if the coverage works early. Deep passes take time to develop, and the Niners should send a corner or LB when given the opportunity.

These teams really are pretty much mirror images of one another. Well coached, and quality players on both sides. The offenses and defenses give and take just about the same points. Balt has the advantage when it comes to not having to travel for 6 hours. The 49er advantage? Well, turnovers. Balt’s defense has 21 total takeaways. The Niners D? 26 takeaways. Giveaways? 18 for Balt, compared to 9 for the Niners. The 49ers take care of the ball better, and they create more turnovers. As in last Sunday’s game, the Niners didn’t get the sack numbers I’d like to see, but the consistent pressure caused the interceptions. So, this looks to be a defensive battle. Watch it turn out 35-31 . . .

Niners win a close one. 20-17.

5 games out with 6 to go . . .  The 49ers pretty much had their way with the AZ Diamondba, uh Cardinals yesterday. It was close, even when it was in the 1st half. The Niners were pretty inept in the red zone for a change yesterday. Something of a problem these last few games. In the end, though, the Niners won easliy and convincingly 23-7. The game should have been 41-0, but hey, the best laid plans and all that.

ST was ugly early as Akers missed a 49 yard FG, and had 2 FGs blocked. And the Niners STILL got 3 FGs in the 1st half. That’s a total of 6 tries in the 1st half! Weird. The Niners moved the ball into the red zone with ease, yet had some problems once there. Much of the trouble can be attirbuted to Bruce Miller’s concussion. He got hit pretty much  helmet-to-helmet (no flag) by Adrian Wilson trying to stretch for a touchdown. He trotted off the field, but didn’t return. The protections and the run blocking suffered after Miller left because the Niners didn’t have Norriss dressed for the game. Peelle (the 3rd string TE) came is as the FB and made due the best he could. But it wasn’t up to the capabilities of Miller. I highly doubt Miller gets cleared with this short week upon us.

Anyhow, the 1st half was littered with missed opportunities, dropped passes (Edwards had 3), and one weird wildcat play which killed a drive on a false start penalty. However, the Niners opened up the 2nd half with a 7+ minute drive that ended in a Kyle Williams TD that pretty much sealed the victory. TOP for this game was an unprecedented 44:30 to 15:30 in favor of the Niners. Crab Man had one of his best games as a Niner, as well as kyle Williams. I’m glad to see him getting a shot here, because Edwards still appears to not be right with his knee, and doesn’t seem to have any speed as this point. The drops didn’t help either. We all know Ginn is a dropped pass waiting to happen, and Smith said he had trouble finding Williams due to his lack of height, but trusted Williams on the route for the TD, and he was there for the catch. Williams has a knack for making the catch AND getting his feet down. Something that VD forgot about yesterday. As well as going for passes that aren’t perfectly in place.

The D? Well, they padded their lead in turnovers with 3 picks and 2 fumbles recovered, held AZ to 229 yards, and 7 points, 11 first downs, and 48 plays (to the 49ers 439, 23, 25 first downs, and 87 plays). The only blemish was the ejection of Dashon Goldson for retaliating after getting coldcocked by Early Doucet. No word if he’ll get suspended, but he should be able to at least appeal it, as Doucet hit him while he was a) on the ground, and b) not looking.  I’m glad the TV cameras caught what really happened. The point being, if Goldson gets suspended for fighting, Doucet should get suspended for instigating.

So, barring a semi-miraculous recovery, we’ll get Moran Norriss at FB this Thursday.

The Blues Brothers happens to be one of my favorite movies. The scene in the beginning with the penguin beating Jake and Elwood with the yardstick, the door magically opening and closing, and her generally sinister countenance is pretty much what I was raised on as a Catholic. The New Age folkie, singy Christianity is all new to me, and I’ve pretty much given up on organized religion because of the institutional hypocracy. Thankfully my mom respected my decision when I was 14 to stop going to church. Didn’t keep me out of Catholic school however.

What does this have to do with football? I don’t know. Just that my favorite line in the movie is when Jake and Elwood are trying to track down the old band members. The landlady asks them: “Are you men with the Police?” And Elwood says: “No ma’am. We’re musicians. We’re on a mission from God.” All this talk of Tebow and religion just made me think of that movie.

Today’s game? Well, we are playing the Cardinals. Not the Bishops or the Popes. The Cardinals. Let’s hope we put the fear of God into ’em.

24-7 Niners.