San Francisco 49ers Forever

Fuck the SI jinx. The madden curse is a real thing. CMC’s calf strain has of course gone from just the preseason to a couple games to achilles tendonitis and an IR stint for 4 more to now possibly longer. After slowly ratcheting up his practices, CMC had a ‘bad day’ Thursday and had a set-back in his rehab. Now they are saying it could be longer off the field for CMC.

https://www.fanduel.com/research/theduel/madden-curse-full-timeline-and-history-01drf5shp877/

Throw in Deebo’s seeming yearly 2-game stint on the injury list and we are in nearly as bad shape as the Rams.

The Rams of course lost their top 2 WRs, Puka Nacua and Kupper Coop. 0-2 LA got off to a rocky start as well, getting trucked by the Cards and losing a tough opener in Deetroit. Their O line was hit by injuries as LT Noteboom and McDermott are out.

So, the hope is we can actually get some sustained pressure on Stafford. Otherwise we will see the same old pitch and catch we got from Darnold and his 2nd string guys.

Hate this shit. Wallowing through the week after such a demoralizing loss is a bitch. I really have no idea what is wrong with this team. This far into the Shanahan era and we are stumbling and bumbling through a game where nothing worked on offense for large stretches, the special teams were a disaster yet again, the O line couldn’t keep Purdy upright, and the defense gave up over 400 yards to a team that is pegged to be mediocre.

Granted, in today’s NFL, any team can take the express elevator to new heights. The flip side of course is teams can come crashing down at any given moment.

Is that us? Has Shanny’s magic run come to an end? I’m not so sure, but what a disheartening loss. Shanny’s play calling issues came to the forefront yet again as Shanny faced Brian Flores, a guy KNOWN to blitz early and often, did just that. Shanny’s answer of course was to pass against that 5 of the first 7 plays. This resulted in a 3 and out and a blocked punt.

The third drive saw Shanny finally mix in the run to much success. Until the fateful 4th and 2 quick pass that was tipped at the line. Like Nick Sirianni last night, kind of a questionable call given the situation and what was working. The prevailing sentiment for about 90 years in the NFL is to take the points on the road. But maybe it’s the Brandon Staley effect. You know the effect that got him fired in San Diego. To even be stupider, Shanny did ANOTHER stupid pass on 3rd down on the goal line. That one netted a 9 yard loss.

Next drive? 4th and 2 from the Minn 43? Pass play where Purdy can’t escape the rush. Turnover on downs.

44% in the red zone. Not good.

So, even though we rushed well and killed it on TOP, we should have lost this game by 37-17 if not for the individual effort of Fred Warner and his 2 caused turnovers.

And that’s my beef with this defense. They way we play makes it IMPERATIVE that the base defense gets in on EVERY pass play, the coverage is tight for 4-5 seconds, and the underneath dump-off guy is covered. Given the rules regarding PI, illegal use of hands, and defensive holding, this is nearly impossible.

Are they simply still trying to figure things out? Shit shouldn’t take this long. We made Sam Darnold look like Patrick Mahomes with his 32 yards rushing. Aaron Rodgers was barely pressured. And we monumentally struggled to stop the run later in the game.

So, soft D, special teams issues, O line issues, and coverage problems. Sound familiar?

Well, called this one. I didn’t think we’d be this stupid though. This team went through what was one of the worst coached games I’ve seen a 49er team play. Minnesota didn’t stop the run. Shanahan did. Throw in the soft-serve defense and the usual major fuckup on special teams, and there you go.

On offense, the 49ers seemed surprised that Brian Flores likes to blitz, I said it 2 days ago. So naturally we came out throwing. Derp! The offense didn’t get going until late in the 2nd quarter with some strong running from Mason and a weird inside screen to Kittle and closed the gap to 10-7. So wonder of wonders we let Minnesota march down the field with 1:50 left and kick a field goal as time ran out.

Purdy had a shit game, but he was under pressure nearly every play as Minnesota was rushing 5 just about every play. He routinely threw into coverage, got a pick on a tipped pass, and he should have had another pick when he fumbled the ball out of his hand and it was caught out of the air. Mason was only averaging 5 yard a carry so why go there? So, did we adjust our coverage or line play? Nope. 6 sacks. But yeah, why improve the pass pro in the offseason?

Another amazing play call was 3rd and goal from the 1, and since the Minnesota defense is getting in EVERY goddamn pass play, we try a 1-step drop sideways pass that Van Ginkel tipped into the air that Deebo caught for a 9 yard loss. I mean, yeah, the 4th and 1 pass was SO successful, they did an even dumber play. So that’s 11 points given away as we did kick the FG.

On defense, if it wasn’t for Fred Warner, the 49ers would have lost 37-17. He picked a ball off in the red zone, and forced a fumble on the goal line. Still and all, the fucking Vikes gained 400+ yards on us. Mainly because we run the softest defense in the NFL. We stunted once that I saw, and it netted a 17 yard run on 3rd and 7. Blitz? 2nd and 9 from the 2? No, let’s go soft and watch at the DBs cross each other up and give up a 97 yard pass.

Later in the game, the DBs again both covered the under guy and let the slot guy go clear for an easy score.

Special teams? Well, we forgot to block a rusher and a punt was blocked (only led to 3), and rookie Jacob Cowing muffed a punt that was batted around until Isaac Yiadom recovered it. He also recovered the fumble by Aaron Jones on the 2 yard line. So, we weren’t the only ones playing stupid.

Funny, we had a 10 minute TOP advantage but all those trips to the red zone got us nowhere. We were behind the whole game and did nothing to adjust of offense and defense.

Still and all, short week, east coast flight, early start, blah blah blah. Minnesota would have had a lot to answer for had they blown this game, but alas, they won.

Not ready to read too much into this, but the alarming thing is what I’ve been saying since the beginning of the preseason. Our defense is ludicrous. We CANNOT win playing this style of soft cover zone. Darnold’s numbers weren’t spectacular, but they kept our defense off-balance most of the game and we couldn’t stop them on 3rd down (7-12). 146 rushing, 258 passing. 4 sacks, but we let Darnold sit in the pocket and hit passes all game.

Not dogs or cats. Purple people. Worried about this one. Minnesota is certainly much more talented than the Jets and they have legit playmakers. Short week. East coast flight. Early start time. Road game. Madden curse. CMC on the IR.

A game like this should be fairly easy, but I think we struggle. A positive last week was we didn’t commit the usual boatload of penalties. No turnovers. As ever these are key.

Then again I really don’t know much about the Vikes defense other than DC Brian Flores likes to mix up coverages and he blitzes a lot. They lost Hunter and got Van Ginkel?

In other news, trade Brandon Allen to Miami for RT Austin Jackson. I don’t think Tua is gonna play anymore.

. . . on the road. And I just found out Ricky Watters was a rookie the last time the 49ers won in Minnehaha, and Roger Craig WAS a Viking. 1992 to be exact.

But whatevs. Here we are and now we are.

Don’t like the short week / east coast flight / early kickoff as well. But this is the Jolly Rogers NFL. Fuck you and your safety. Thursday games? You get TWO. Games in the southern hemisphere on a slippery nightmare field? Check. Games in Antarctica coming soon! No turns unstoned.

The Vikings? Sure they dispatched one of the two shitty New Jersey teams as we did. Hard to say who or what they are as they shify from Kurt Cousins to his younger doppelganger Sourdough Sam Darnold.

Thing is, they have actual weapons in Justin Jefferson and Aaron Jones. They did lose WR #2 Jordan Addison. So, as usual, the pass rush is essential. Even Sudden Sam can look good given time. I’ll lay off the defense for the near future if they can hold up against a better team that has a solid line and a decent RB. I still don’t like the bend-not-break aspect of this but hey. Maybe we can just beat ’em with our base defense and never do anything risky. Like a stunt. Or a blitz.

Hate to call this a trap game, but this game worries much more than the Jets game did. I think Minnesota has a good young team that could ver well cause us problems on the short week.

We of course aren’t gonna play CMC as turf and Achilles are not a good mix. The injury report:

Limited Participation: S Talanoa Hufanga (knee), LB Dee Winters (ankle) Full Participation: G Aaron Banks (finger, calf), DE Yetur Gross-Matos (knee), WR Jauan Jennings (ankle).

Nice to see Hufanga back. We can ease him in slowly. BA needs to get with the deal and stop dropping shit.

Talk out of the HQ is that CMC is already a ‘longshot’ to play vs the Vikies. Fine. Leave him out the next 2 games at least. Don’t want him on turf. In fact, I’d keep him off any game played on fake grass the remainder of the season. Regular that is. And that is the next two games vs Minn and LA Lambs.

Don’t get me started on ‘fieldturf’. Fucking Seattle can’t grow grass? LA? Fuck them. Fuck all of them. TB plays on grass. The Bills don’t. Green Bay plays on some sort of abomination of real grass and synthetic fiber called hybrid grass. Better than all-fake I guess. Dolphins and Cards play on grass as well. And the fucking Cards play indoors! Like the Raiders, they roll the field outside to catch the sun. My perfect job. Driving the field around.

The NFL preaches ‘player safety’ and lets the owners cheap out on the surface they play on. Get with it!

Anyhow. The Vikies. They are another middling to poor team looking to enhance their present by taking a flyer on a vet QB that hasn’t had a ton of success, a la 1/3 of the NFL teams this year. That QB of course is Sourdough Sam Darnold. A guy who comported himself pretty well here playing backup to Brock Purdy, and parlayed that into a $10,000,000.00 one-shot one-year deal with Minnehaha.

Granted, they have some nice weapons in Justin Jefferson, ex-Packer Aaron Jones, WR Jordan Addison, and, well, that’s about it. Even Addison missed practice today and is the big Q for this weekend. Their defense? Fairly unheralded, but they are full of young vets that are a solid unit. ANd they added CB Stephone Gilmore. Not a group to take too lightly.

But, again, like the Jets, we should be able to run the ball down their throat. Thought we would have used Kittle more last week, but the game plan was solid, if not for the problems getting the ball across the goal line. Not a huge worry. Yet.

All inal, this isn’t a defense to look past. The Niners were great at not turning the ball over, and getting a couple themselves. This, and pass protection, is the key to winning games. We did give up 3 sacks to the lowly Jets, but they have a pretty strong pass rush with Quinnen Williams.

Us? One lowly sack against the least mobile guy in the league and a makeshift line.

I’ll say it again, we need to do more than simply run our base defense all game and expect to walk away with a win.

Given all the adversity and bullshit this offseason and preseason, plus the scary thought of losing CMC for an extended time, the 49ers comported themselves very well. They shut down the mediocre Jets offense and rad roughshod through the vaunted Jets defense to the tune of a 38:00 to 22:00 TOP win. 8 straight scoring drives after the initial 3-and-out led the way.

Yeah there was rust, as BA did his best to show that he’s got a little contract hangover with his 2 drops. One of course costing the team a TD right before the half. But overall a solid win after a summer of weirdness. Jordan mason had an outstanding day as the replacement for CMC. But stalling in the red zone 6 times is a fairly wasted effort despite Nick Moody going 6 for 6.

And yeah, the defense shut down the vaunted Aaron Rodgers. But please, the Jets have a makeshift line, no run game, and little in the way of weapons for Rodgers. For all the passing, and Rodgers playing from behind, the pass rush got one sack and a few pressures.

What startled me the most is our defense last year was called to task late in the season (by me and millions of others) for being too soft on the run, gave up too many screen passes, failed on a lot of 3rd and longs, and didn’t bitz enough. Well, I saw the same thing yesterday. The LBs were 7 yards back in a soft zone. The one good drive by Rodgers saw them convert three 3rd and long situations with NONE of them having Rodgers face a blitz.

Yeah, great win. Season opener. But I thought Nick Sorensen/Brandon Staley would be ratcheting up the pressure on the opposing QBs with stunts, disguised blitzes and schemes to throw the opposition off balance. Instead I saw nothing but the base defense rushing 4 and dropping the LBs into soft coverage all game. Little to no stunting, and maybe 2 blitzes. Aikman even commented on that during the Jets only meaningful drive for a TD that we were in a soft zone.

Sure, it was enough for the woeful Jets. But even a guy like Sudden Sam Darnold, especially with a guy like Justin Jefferson to throw to can do well playing against what looks to me like a very vanilla defense.

Color me optimistic. After a huge turd of an offseason of dithering with contracts, and yet another draft of not addressing the RT position, let alone LT, we are poised on the brink of the 2024 season. Against of course the guy who would be the Niners QB at least a couple of times. Once in 2005 with the draft (where we picked Young Sir Alex), and again in 2021 when Not-So-Jolly Rodgers was cranked about his contract in Green Bay, we stuck with Jimmy G and drafted Trey Lance.

Funny we had Mike McCarthy in-house as our OC way back then, and very well could have had Rodgers. My thought around 2007 (IIRC) was we should have kicked Nolan upstairs to be GM and have elevated McCarthy to head coach. But who knows? Even the 2021 deal could have netted up a championship. I’ll never figure out the reluctance to pull the trigger, even on the se old QBs.

Same thing happened with Brady FFS. But digress.

Now? Now we are fully immersed in the Brock Purdy era. The offense is a well-oiled machine, and the defense is full of talent, but we have a new DC in Nick Sorensen, and his sidekick Brandon Staley. The preseason offered little to determine how these guys are playing together, but I sure didn’t like the defensive formations we were using. These looked a lot like last year’s bend-and-break defense.

I’ll reserve judgement until this shit goes for real. Meaning tonight.

• 6-3 is Rodgers’ record in the reg season

• 0-4 in the playoffs

So, despite the hold-ins, hold-outs, random shootings of 1st round picks, and even CMC’s possible achilles injury, I think this team has already overcome a ton of adversity. I think we will come out hard and fast. The Jets are a talented team, but I think we can out-man them in just about every spot.

We overwhelm the Jets, 31 – 17.

Entertaining game last night as the fucking Chiefs, who seem to have Baltimore’s number as well as ours, won their game by half a toenail as Isaiah Likely had the unlikely fate of stepping OB on the game-tying (or possibly game-winning) TD as time ran out. Balt was lining up to go for 2 as the replay wonks got a look at Likely’s big toe being over the line. One toe over the line, sweet jesus, one toe over the line.

In even more important news, Taylor Swift refused to sit with Brittney Mahomes as apparently she is a Trump supporter, and The Big Swifty isn’t. Oh what strange bedfellows and all that . . .

And, there’s a football game in Brazil tonight? There’s no turn unstoned for Jolly Roger and the greed machine that NFL Football is. But, hey, there’s football tonight! 5:15 even, on the west coast, as the Green Bay Packers face off against the Philadelphia Eagles. Should be another great game. I think the Eagles are overrated as fuck. This is a good test of their reality. Nick Sirianni is very much in line with Jim Harbaugh in that he’s a whole lot of bluster and bravado without a lot of football smarts.

But that’s why they play the game! Should be fun.

The 2025 season kicks off with a resounding start as the AFC championship game foes meet once again as the always-close-but-not-quite Baltimore Ravens try (again) to knock off the Kansas City Chiefs. You know, the team we seem to have a few issues with ourselves.

Anyhow, should be a great matchup and a fun kickoff (what’s up with the kickoffs anyway?) to the new season. We got the band back together and for now everyone is healthy.

Bring it!