Forty Niners Forever

The Jim Harbaugh era got a huge confidence boost and redemption for recent losses to the Eagles when the 49ers caught up to, and passed the Eagles in the 4th quarter of a hard-fought game. Down 23-2 early in the 3rd quarter, the 49ers scored 21 unanswered points for the win. The Niners, even more impressively, were able to run the ball down Philly’s throat with 2:06 left in the 4th quarter by getting 2 rushing first downs to keep the ball out of Vick’s hands. Frank Gore shook off the ankle sprain and rushed for 127 yards, and Alex Smith passed for a season-high 291 yards (and 2 TDs) by connecting 21 times to 8 different receivers after shaking off a pretty flat first half. Kendall Hunter added 38 yards on the ground as well.

The defense, which gave up 513 yards, actually played well. They constantly dogged Vick, and kept the pressure on him, even though he ran for 70, and threw for 405. The Niners should have had 3 more sacks on him, but Vick got loose for some big scrambles and dodged Brooks AND McDonald for their first TD. Rogers had a nice pick on an early drive, and the DBs made a lot of defensive plays, even though Philly connected on a lot of big passes. Vick threw 46 passes, but the Niners were able to break up 7 of his passes plus the pick. The rush defense, minus Vick’s scrambles, was fine. Justin Smith, with his strip of Maclin, iced the game for the Niners. Bowman had a huge game as well, stopping Vick on a would be scramble for a 1st down, breaking up a pass, and generally playing all over the place.

Special teams were a mess. 1 miss and 1 blocked FG for Akers (with some obvious Philly jitters), Ginn had -6 yards in punt returns, and the obligatory holding call on a kickoff return.

All in all, a big victory for this Niner team that is trying to find its identity. Alex Smith had one of, if not the best, game of his career. The much maligned offensive line did well for the most part. Anthony Davis’ huge struggles with Jason Babit (and a false start) notwithstanding.  164 on the ground was very solid. Smith’s second half won the game for the Niners. Philly wore down in the end, and the run game sealed the deal.

 So much for the dream team in Philly. The San Francisco 49ers had one of their toughest victories in quite a while with a stirring 2nd half comeback vs the Philadelphia Eagles, IN Philly. After a desultory 1st half where Smith threw for 66 yards, and gave up a fumble which resulted in 7 for Philly, the Niners were by all accounts lucky to only be down 20-3 due to an early Vick pick, and a very retarded play by Ronnie Brown when he tried to lateral the ball while getting tackled on the 2 yard line. 

Alex Smith came back in the 2nd half to play about the best football of his star-crossed career. He was 13-17 for 225 yards in the 2nd half, threw for 2 touchdowns (no picks), and ended up with a 112.5 QBR when all was said and done. The Niners outscored a suddenly pourous Philly defense 23-3 in the 2nd half, threw for 291 yards, and rushed for 164. For all the shit the O line has taken, they run-blocked very well, and pass protected well. Although Anthony Davis had quite the adventure trying to block Shooty Babbit, uh, Justin Bieber, errrrr, Jason Babin to the tune of 3 sacks.

It wasn’t the cleanest game played, with 4 missed FGs and costly fumbles on both sides, but for the 49ers to come back on the road against a legit team says worlds for how good a job Harbaugh has done with this team this young season. They sorted out the run blocking, and gave time for Smith to hit some deep passes in the 2nd half. An aspect of this team that hasn’t been apparent. They also hit on a slant (a SLANT!) for the TD to Morgan.

A game to build on. Most defintely. TB at home isn’t easy, and Deetroit on the road isn’t a cakewalk either, but they certainly can be taken care of if they keep playing this type of offensive game. Strong running and a passing attack that takes advantage of matchup issues when they are there. Still would like to see a little more of VD deeep, but there’s little to complain about when Smith hits 8 different guys for 291 in the air. Winning these close games is light-years above all those mioral victories of the last two regimes. The Niners were losing these types of games for the past 4 years.

Don’t see much of a chance against Philly, unless there is constant pressure from the get-go, the 49ers force some early turnovers, and the are-we-not-so-sucky O line can figure out how to pass protect. And run block. These two teams have had some interesting games over the years. I read a wonderful thing in the paper in that before last week’s loss to the Giants, the Iggles hadn’t given up 4 TDs in the air since Joe Montana dropped 5 TDs on Philly in 1989. 4 of those TDs of course came in the 4th quarter. Then there was the beat-down that Philly laid on SF in 1994 (40-8?), where Young went ballistic when George Seifert pulled him out of the game. The players themselves said it was the turning point of the season, and the Niners won 10 in a row, and closed the season 13-1 and went on to win the Super Bowl.

Recent history hasn’t been so kind. In 2005, Tim Rattay was chased and harassed to the tune of a 42-3 beat-down. In 2006, the Eagles ruined one of Alex Smith’s best days when he went 27 for 46, 293 yards, and one TD en route to a 38-24 loss. The 2008 debacle was the death knell for Mike Nolan. Going into the 4th quarter with a 9 point lead, Gore at 98 yards on the ground, and possession of the ball, the Niners (and JT O’Fuckmeagain) fumbled and pick-sixed their way to a demoralizing 40-26 loss. Gore had 6 yards rushing on 3 attempts, with the LEAD. This prompted the Nolan firing a week later, and the throttling of the pass-happy Mike Martz by Mike Singletary. 2009? Well, a 3 pick day by Alex sealed that game, a 27-13 ho-hum loss. Last year’s game was another close-but-not-quite loss. Alex had his only 300 yard game in his career, going 25 for 39, and 309 yards. However, he skipped a screen pass off Gore for a pick, and gave Philly 6 points on a misguided attempt to salvage a broken play. He instead fumbled and Philly took it to the house. Another close comeback thwarted by the misfortunes of the Singletary-led 49ers.  

I’m not expecting miracles. I am hoping for better line play, continued improvement by the secondary, and some consistent drives. If the Niners can keep it low-scoring, thaey have a chance. A track meet doesn’t bode well.

A few interesting tidbits came out of 49ers Central this morning. One is that Frank Gore will see limited action this weekend in Philly. Limited meaning none. That turf in Philly is not very forgiving, and healthy guys roll their ankles on that fake grass shit all the time. Frank would be well-served to sit this one out. The other story was Joe Staley’s remarks about the offensive offensive line. Here’s what Joe said:

 “Contrary to everyone’s belief, we don’t suck,” Staley said. “We’re good players and we play well. It comes down to everybody executing. It takes all 11 guys. It doesn’t take five offensive linemen to make a running play go. It takes fullbacks. It takes tight ends. It takes quarterbacks carrying out the fakes, wide receivers blocking downfield. It takes all 11 guys and we all do our job and we all have to do our part.”

Yes, Joe, it takes a village to block for a run up the middle. The problem with your argument is that Gore is usually met by a defender 2 yards behind the line of scrimmage. The WRs and TEs aren’t blocking DEs an NTs. You are. The front five is getting no penetration at the point of attack. Better fakes would sell the runs? How do you fake a running play, by the way? Yes, there’s a learning curve this whole unit is going through. but we fans sure don’t feel that confident when Gore is met consistently behind the line of scrimmage, and Smith is constantly hit while he throws, or is sacked.

Anyhow, with Gore and Norris out, we get to see the future in Hunter and Miller as the FB and RB. Will THEY make the blocking look better? Hard to say, but Norriss sure has his share of whiffs in trying to block. Other teams have run on Philly, so we should get our shots. Give Gore the rest. Maybe bring him in for a few screen plays. He’s better suited to grass anyway. Miller can hopefully play Norriss to the bench for the rest of the season.

Still no word on how long Braylon Edwards will take to recover from his torn meniscus. Please at least activate Kyle Williams. He deserves more of a look than he’s gotten.

Well, so far in the young season, the Niners have gotten their first win under Jim Harbaugh, their first road win in Cincinnati, and a near-miss against a quality team vs Dallas. Say what you will about Dallas, but they could very well be 0-3, while SF could be 3-0. As it is, they are both 2-1. AZ and Seattle are 1-2, and the Lambs are 0-3. As good as it all seems, the Niners are about to face a tough few weeks coming up. Games against Philly (road), Tampa, and Detroit (road) lead to the bye week in week 7. The only patsy in the immediate future is Cleveland after the bye week. And you know how much the Yorks want to win the battle of Ohio (having recently won the first leg). 

Philly and Deeetroit look to be the hardest games in the near future. Tampa? Haven’t seen them this year, but they’ve scraped past Atlanta and Minnesota, and lost to Deeetroit. Philly matches up offensively very well against what the Niners struggle with. And that’s the short passing game/WCO type passes to the flat, TEs underneath, and delayed screens. Dallas shredded the Niners in the 4th quarter by going underneath, and featuring Witten to no end. Celek was kept quiet by the Giants, but Philly’s WRs had good numbers across the board. 13 catches for 160 yards. Although Maclin is questionable for the Niner game. Philly aslo runs pretty well, and this will be a test for Sopoaga to clog the middle, and the LBs to stay at home. Overpursuing on screen plays is death, and Bowman especially needs to not get caught out of position on screens and delays. 

Tampa is more of a ball control offense. They don’t do anything particularly great, but they move the chains and grind out drives.  Freeman is fair to good, but 2 TDs and 4 picks  isn’t all that. And their run game is fair to middling as well. This should be a winnable game.

Deeetroit on the other hand, is pass, pass, pass. Stafford is close to 1,000 yards passing already, and they are 4th in the league in passing yards. They have a very good young secondary as well. However, teams run on them pretty well, so our O line will hopefully start to gel and be able to open up holes for Gore and Hunter.  

So, these next three games are a challenge to this young team trying to find its way. 0-3 wouldn’t be the end of the season, but depending on how these games go, it’ll tell how much they have learned. The Niners need to take care of their home game vs Tampa. That is the best chance of winning their next few. A win in either Deeetroit or Philly would be pretty large, and would garner this team some cred and some confidence.

3-3 is the likely outcome at the break. We’ll see what the deal is after that. Then the schedule gets pretty dicey with the likes of Baltimore, the Giants, Washington, and Pittsburgh around the usual suspects of the NFC West. One would think 8-8 is in reach. They’d have to beat some good teams to improve on that.

Those are for Rob! Well, a highly herky-jerky offensive performance was rewarded with a road win for young coach Harbaugh. Harbaugh went to the air a lot more that the first two games (30 passes to 29 runs), and the results were all over the place. Smith ended up 20-30 for 201, but, as usual, he was sacked (5 times), hurried, and pressured all day. This is a recurring problem. He had at least 4 dropped passes. Crabs drop on a 3rd down was plain unnacceptable. The overturned TD looked like a bad call. Harbaugh should have challenged that. Crabs had a couple more drops. VD dropped a nice 20 yard out on the 9 yard line, plus he fumbled, but ended up with 114 yards on 8 catches. The drops are maddening. Smith was errant on a few passes, but Harbaugh must be really working with Smith on his tendency of throwing high balls, because most of his passes were low. Still and all, the Niners barely drove the ball past the 50, and the run game was again nowhere to be found. 68 yards is pretty bad. Gore had a costly fumble (lost) deep in Niner territory, Miller as well, although the Niners recovered that one. Miller looked good catching the ball out of the backfield, though. Without the fumble, he could have displaced Norriss. It still may happen. VD put the ball on the ground too. The highlight of the run game was Hunter’s 7 yard TD run in the 4th quarter to give the Niners the lead.

Defensively, the Niners started this game just like the Dallas game, where the opponent marched straight down the field to inside the 10, and forced a field goal (Dallas missed theirs).  The base pass rush continues to be very solid. Only one sack, though it was a jarring hit by Ahmad Brooks. Aldon Smith was in early, but did not see a lot of action However, Ginger shredded the defense on that 1st drive. The run defense was again solid, but some of that is a by-product of the Niner defense giving up a lot through the air. The DBs, though, did well for the most part. Rogers undercut the out route for a nice pick, and R Smith made a very nice diving pick on the errant deep ball by Dalton late in the game.

All in all, a decent effort. The main thing is, it is a win on the road. Those are hard to come by in the NFL. Especially for a rookie coach. Just ask Tony Romo. Harbaugh is still trying to find an identity for his offense, and the struggles were apparent yesterday. False start penalties, unneccesary time outs, and missed blocking assignments were many and varied. Mainly because the Niners were trying to throw more than they had in the previous two games. Yes, this looks a lot like last year, and the year before that, but the reality is, this coaching staff has had little time to install this new offense. They started out with the run and are now moving on to the pass. Kind of an extended training camp. The hope is that they get more cohesive and right the little mistakes before they become a bigger problem down the line. Strangely, Gore was pretty passive blocking yesterday. He’s usually solid at picking up blitzes, but yesterday not so much. Gore had a bad day yesterday, and he may be in danger of getting spelled more often by Hunter.

Philly is next, on the road, and they were embarrassed by the New York football Giants yesterday. E Manning torched the vaunted Philly secondary for 4 TDs in the air, and Bradshaw gained 86 yards on the ground. Philly is a bit demoralized, but a win in Philly would be very hard to come by. The Niners would need to bring the pressure even more, and slow down Philly’s WCO. They throw underneath a ton, and with Vick likely out, this would be even more likely with Franz Kafka in there. A metamorphosis into a punishing defense that can stop short passes is needed.

So, Harbaugh did in game one what it took Singletary 6 weeks to do last year, and that was win game one. Next on Harbaugh’s bucket list is to win on the road. Since last year’s Denver gasme was technically a home game (London? Right), Singletary didn’t win a road game til week 12 in AZ. Yes, Cincinnati is a bottom-feeder in the NFL, but home field is a pretty big equalizer. Just ask Dallas. They barely escaped an 0-2 start, while the Niners would have been included in the list of surprising 2-0 teams (Washington, Detroit, Buffalo, and Texas).  Anyhow, 1-1 is fine for now. However, if this team is going to be thought of as making progress, they need to beat the crappier teams in the league. And Cincinnati certainly falls into that realm. Gingerbread man Andy Dalton notwithstanding.

Raggedy Andy has put up decent numbers (37/56, 413  yds, 3 TDs 0 picks, 105 QBR) against a couple of bad defenses in Cleveland and Denver. He’s hitting a lot of underneath stuff (7.4 yds/completion), so this may not bode well for the 49ers. Dallas killed the Niners in the 4th quarter with underneath stuff after harassing Romo most of the day. Their pass pro is decent enough (5 sacks in 2 games) but one can hope we bring the pressure more than Cleve and Denver.

As far as our offense goes? I can’t even hazard a guess. The Niners played as good a 1st half as they could have offensively. They followed it up in the 2nd half with a strategy that let Dallas right back into the game.  one hopes that they’ll keep the offensive flow going throughoout the entire game on Sunday, and not try to force the run at all costs.

Well, here we sit, atop the NFC West, tied with AZ. A team that has given up 932 yards in 2 games. It makes the Niners 691 given up look paltry by comparison.  The Rams are being crushed by a tough early schedule, and they could very well be 1-7 at the mid-point of the season. Seattle is in full rebuild mode, and isn’t going to win many games this year. Which I think is why Jim Harbaugh is taking the slow and steady approach to build this team. As we all apparently realize, he isn’t going to change shit up much from what we have seen in recent memory. He wants to establish the run in order to, well, I don’t know, throw dump-off passes?  Seriously, though, I’m of a mind that he’s going to slowly move the offense into something a little more passer-friendly as the season marches on. This year will end up a lot like last year. No one is going to run away with the division. It is really possible that the Niners, the Rams, or the Cards win it. It will come down to the division games. Get the best division record, and any tiebrerakers go to you.

Is this the prudent approach? The feeling here is, long-term this is the right way to do it. Try to run the offense you want to develop, and see who is worthy of it. The problem is, you will have growing pains, and guys like VD, who may very well be relegated to blocking duties again, will get pissed off at the direction of the team. Still and all, they CAN win the division this year. So, that has to be in the back of Harbaugh’s mind. Although, I’d think they have to change their offensive philosophy (short-term) to do it. As we saw in the 2nd half, the offense went into a stupor. Dallas didn’t seem to be doing anything differently, but the O line was getting progressively worse as the day wore on. Everyone seems to be clamoring for smaller WCO-type linemen, but it sure looked like the line was overpowered by a big dominating Dallas D line.

Alex Smith was 4-8, 48 yards in the 2nd half, with the pick, but he went back to pass 12 times. 3 sacks, and 3 scrambles. The 1st half netted 3 sacks for Dallas, but Smith went back to pass 19 times, and was 12-16, 131 yards, and 2 TDs in the 1st half.

Why the switch in philosophy? Was Harbaugh trying to protect Smith from getting hit? Was he protecting his linemen? Was he trying to slow the game down? Was he trying to show his ground-pound approach? I didn’t understand what he was trying to accomplish, but it pretty much gave the game to Dallas. The Niners had a huge TOP edge in the 1st half, even after Dallas’ 7:30 1st quarter drive that netted them nothing on the missed FG. The Niners gave it back, and more, in the 2nd half.

Regardless of the defensive shift (no more blitzing in the 4th quarter even though Romo was in the ‘gun all the time), I didn’t like how the 2nd half killed any progress that the team had made offensively in the 1st half. Growing pains? Conservative play-it-safe approach with the lead? Say it ain’t so. The last 2 coaches were scared shitless of getting a lead.  They only opened up the offense when they were down by 3 scores. I don;t think Harbaugh will follow this path, but the result looked all too familiar.

On a different note, has anyone out there been to a game this year? After the raider debacle? I want to know if the tailgating situation has changed at all.  I went to a game last year, and it was hunky-dory out there. Grilled some burgers with my son, threw the ball around, and had a couple beers. Has the situation changed with the new rules in place?

What started out looking like a beat-down of a demoralized Cowboys team, and Tony Romo in particluar, turned out instead to be a gutty victory by Romo and the dreaded Cowboys. the game hinged on a couple plays. As the 1ast half was winding down, Dallas faced a 3rd and 9. romo missed on a deep ball, and apparently forced a punt. However, Brooks was lined up in the neutral zone for a penalty. On the subsequent 3rd and 4, Romo hit Austin on a short slant that Whitner just flat missed. So, after outplaying Dallas through the first 28:10 of the 1st half, the Niners caved in at the wrong time, and gave Dallas 7 to close the half. To make matters worse, the Niners got the ball with 1:48, but had no timeouts. Thus, the clock ran out on them.

The 2nd half seemed to devolve into a field possession battle for Harbaugh. After Kitna killed a Dallas drive by throwing a pick into the end zone, Smith returned the favor, and Kitna then drove Dallas downfield for the tying TD. The niners inexplicably then left DeMarcus Ware unblocked for a 7 yard sack on the ensuing possession. Punt. Kitna was again picked off on a tipped pass that Brock caught. Smith made a great read on singl;e coverage on Walker split out to the right, and hit him for a 30 yard score. The Niner D stiffened , and forced another Dallas punt on Romo’s return. After the punt and the penalty, the Niners had excellent field position. So, naturally, the Niners run up the middle a couple times, and Smith scrambled for 12. On the enuing 55 yard FG, Dallas was assessed a 15 yard penalty for leverage. Harbaugh said he trusted his defense with a 2 score lead at that point. Unfortunately, there were 11 mintues left . . .

The aggravating thing is, with the game in hand, the defense gave up a ton of short passes to Austin and Witten. The TD to Austin was a very good play, but the whole drive was pitch and catch. The pressure that was there all day evaporated. At that point, the D should have been fairly fresh, but after the subsequent 4 and out (they threw a slant!), the D was gassed. At least they kept Dallas out of the end zone.

The OT was more of the same. 7 yard run. 8 yard sack. 10 yard pass on 3rd and 11. It got overturned anyway after Harbaugh called a timeout, thus allowing the replay to happen in the 1st place. They should have just went ahead and gone for it. Dallas wasn’t going to challenge. Chalk that up to inexperience. These guys have to plan for contingencies like 4th and short, and how to  get a play off quick. Same thing with the illegal formation call. Harbaugh chewed the ref’s ear off while the play clock ran down and forced a time out.

Way too much Gore. Way too much Ginn. At some point soon, Harbaugh has to trust Smith and the O line with a game that is more committed to passing. After everyone screamed for more passing than the Seattle game, the Niners threw the ball 4 more times. Not exactly the offensive juggernaut most envisioned. Yes, it’s early. Yes, they are learning on the fly. Yes, this is the safe approach. The problem with playing it safe in the NFL is that usually bites you in the ass. Just ask Miami’s defensive coordinator, or Minnesota’s linebacker coach . . .

This game will be a very good indicator of the talent of this team. In the preseason, the Niners were easily handled by the likes of NO and Hou. This is the real thing, though, and whether taht makes a difference remains to be seen. All we have heard about so far is what the Niners have supposedly kept under wraps, not what they accomplished last week. The O was vanilla. And even blander in the red zone. The D was straight up for the most part, and didn’t do much blitzing or trying to fool anyone. In other words, this was a Singletary game. However, it was a game that Sing usually lost. So, that alone is a plus for Harbaugh.

Truth be told though, hearing what these guys will do in an upcoming  game is also a Singletary thing that I couldn’t stand. Show it. Don’t talk about it. Hearing how well practice went, or how well Smith hit deep balls on the practice field usually makes me throw up in my mouth. Show it, and shut up about it. Harbaugh, to his credit, doesn’t talk much about anything regarding practice, injuries, or anything that could even mildly be construed as something the opponents can use against them, or the writers can write about.

So, another excersize in vanilla ice cream, or will Harbaugh unleash a bit of a down field passing attack? It would be nice to see the run game go as well, but you, me, and the watercooler all know Dallas will come out and crowd the line to force Smith to beat their D with some mid-range passes. Bubble screens, smoke routes, and runs up the middle won’t work until the Niners hit a few passes longer than 5 yards. Pass blocking is essential. Somethng that was a problem in the preseason. DeMarcus WHERE? is the key for the O line. Slow him down, and let Smith hit some passes, and the line should be able to get the run game going.

Beating Dallas, a good but flawed team, would be a big feather in Harbaugh’s cap. It would give the Niners confidence, and the fans a little hope, and hopefully swing the momentum for this team going forward.