Forty Niners Forever

Well, we are going out, not with a bang, but barely a whimper. Everyone is hurt, and those that are playing are mailing it in. Yeah, the conditions were tough, but the Niners were the opposite of tough. Soft defensively and inept offensively will get you nowhere in today’s NFL. And we are the embodiment of soft now.

Our two ‘must win’ games against two of our toughest foes ended up 73-20. This of course after blowing 3 division games with AZ, Seattle, and LA. Had we won, well, we’d be 8-4 and in decent shape for winning the division.

But we didn’t and we aren’t. We are dog meat. Cannon fodder. It is a thin line between the elite teams and the also-rans. And we are miles from that line now. Don’t know what is wrong with our offense as Kittle got the 1st pass of the game and dropped off the map, not even being targeted the rest of the game. Deebo had his usual output of 4 catches for 20 yards.

Only Jauan Jennings is getting WR numbers in the offense.

Where is our offensive genius? Designing plays for guys that aren’t playing? Speaking of not playing, CMC went out with (surprise) a season-ending knee injury. Hmmm, I wonder if playing a guy who is barely out from his injury status in a freezing snowstorm may have warranted sitting him, or maybe giving him rest?

I guess we’ll never know, but CMC was doing well before the injury. To top that bummer off, Jordan Mason went out with a high ankle sprain later in the game, and will miss the next 4 games, if not the season, with the dreaded high ankle sprain.

Mason was running well as well, Buffalo’s defense doesn’t seem to be too concerned with stopping the run. They just cause turnovers on the 1 yard line (oh, Juice) as the 49ers were close to at least making the game close at 21-10 after halftime. instead, we got the usual plethora of turnovers and sloppiness as the team wanted to get back into their cozy warm jet and fly home.

At this point the only thing I am waiting for is the complaining. I’m at the point that I really don’t want Shanahan and co to come back on a lame-duck contract to see if he can somehow rekindle his earlier magic. Mainly because our problems ALL YEAR have been obvious and glaring and he has done NOTHING to change their strategy. Special teams and defense have been awful. Now the offense is following suit and we have NO chance to win games with all three sectors failing.

We have a pretty good chance of losing out (MAYBE we can beat the Bears) but 6-11 would warrant wholesale changes in the coaching staff, if not the front office.

I know Shanahan hired John Lynch, and, at least in my head, Lynch is nothing more than a figurehead for Shanny’s machinations, but I wonder what Lynch’s status would be if the coaching staff goes. Shit, Lynch has a standing multi-million dollar announcing gig waiting for him should he go.

Then again, Young Sir Jed isn’t likely to do anything drastic.

Fuck that. Onward and downward.

Time to hit Tommy’s Joint for a bowl of Buffalo stew and watch the carnage tonight. Even the Chronicle scribes are bemoaning this epic collapse as being an all-encompassing failure that may cost Shaany and Co their jobs, and be a blight on Young Sir Jed Flopperson.

I still think, even with the offensive failures, the bigger problem is the defense. Hopefully Dre Greenlaw will bring back the pursuit, but one guy cannot revive this moribund scheme and lackluster effort. It has been a downward spiral all year.

Win or miss the playoffs.

This season is distilling in my head the problems I’ve seen with Kyle Shanahan. The lack of changing schemes in a given game, his stubbornness in rotating players, his ‘I’m the smartest guy in the room’ approach to coaching, and his complete inability to close out games.

Yeah, I’ve gone over this a thousand times, but this season alone has shown this stubborn approach and how it has failed numerous times. Even in 3 of our 5 wins this year, Dallas, Seattle, and Tampa nearly came back and won those games. Our 2 ‘great’ wins came over the hapless Jets, and the horrible Patriots.

9 of these games saw us with the ball and the lead in the 4th quarter. We lost 4 of them. We could very easily be 2-9. And we could just as easily be 8-3. Such are the vagaries of the NFL. 9 of these games came down to a few plays. A blocked punt. A missed FG. A punt return for 60 yards. a KO return for a TD. And the hundreds of inopportune penalties.

Pre-snap penalties, false start penalties, special teams penalties, and our shit O line and their holding penalties.

Shanny doesn’t know how to change shit up. This is the same problem Harbaugh has. And the Chargers are starting to crack already despite their 7-4 record. Looking at their games, they are routinely out-schemed in the 2nd half due to the inability to make in-game changes to affect the outcome. Too many 3 and outs late. No taking shots on 4th down. No downfield passing. Abandoning the run. On and on.

Say the team goes 1-5 down the stretch. I mean, really, even the Bears are a stretch. That would put us at 6-11. This team has a shot at losing out based on what I’ve seen. 5-12 would be an unmitigated disaster, and SHOULD be the impetus to can Shanahan.

I’m sure the wimp that is Jed will do nothing but let Shanny ride out his last year as the lame fuck HC, but this team, despite it’s aging, is still among the best in the league.

We need a fucking head coach that understand that you cannot ignore the O line and expect your young newly minted billionaire QB to simply dodge pass rushers his whole career. Same goes with the defense. We have decimated the interior line with pushovers and run a terrible scheme.

What a shame that such a talented team is absolutely playing uninspired and bad football. No spark, no fire, no urgency. To me this is about 80% on the coaching staff, and 20% on the injuries.

I didn’t even have the stomach to watch the 2nd half after watching the penalties and the missed tackles stack up in the 1st half. One good drive that closed the score to 17-7 led to the usual completely devastating penalty on the Deebo’s 87 yard kickoff return. A penalty that was pretty much bullshit as Saubert had his hands inside the shoulder pads, and he shoved the guy to the ground.

But that is us.

After that, the game was over. Some teams overcome their mistakes. We don’t. Not even sure I have the wherewithal to watch the 2nd half after the nearly helpful KO return.

Still and all we are still one game out of 1st place. The Rams are down 20-7 to the Eagles, so this still has to happen, but even if they win, everyone would be 6-5 but us.

No grumbling out of the locker room yet, but when does this train completely derail? After another humiliating loss on the road to a strong team? Losing at home to a woeful Bears team?

I just don’t see the coaching doing anything to change the trajectory of the team. Bring in Mason as a change of pace? 3 carries. Guerendo? CMC got some ineffectual touches as GB knew we would try to lean on him. Quick passes to the flat? Nope. Blitz more? Well, a couple worked, but the defense was not interested in doing much hitting or tackling today and we helped by turning the ball over 3x in the 2nd half.

77 yards in penalties, 44 yards rushing. This team looks tired and disinterested.

Ouch.

Here we go into the abyss.

I have no expectations that this coaching staff will make any kind of meaningful adjustments to their offense or defense to affect significant change, but I guess we will see regardless. Brandon Allen gets the start, and our weak O line is weaker. Can we interchange CMC and Mason? Is that a bridge too far, seeing as CMC himself says he isn’t all the way back? Dial up pressure defensively since Bosa is out and we were inconsistent anyway.

Everyone is hurt, and we have two tough road games, then the Bears and Rams. Coming out of these next 4 games with a winning record will be a challenge, and likely our only path to the playoffs. Even 2-2, depending on the rest of the division, could be enough to hang around, but it looks like a hard road to 10 wins. Which is what I think it’ll take to win the West.

. . . as the season fades away. Well, I guess we are adding injury to this insulting season. Word out of Santa Clara is that Brock Purdy and Nick Bosa are both out for the Packers game. Which means we are even less likely to win than we were anyway.

George Kittle and Trent Williams still could play, but I guess we will really get to see what this team can do without their offensive and defensive stars. I think Josh Dobbs should be starting but it ain’t my call.

Defensively? Gee, I hope we keep up with the base 4 man pass rush. Green bay is one of the top pass protecting teams, so we look to give up about 400 yards through the air.

Hey, how about we try to keep the ball away from Green Bay by running the ball with our 3 headed rushing attack?

Oh yeah, we have Mr. Softy and Mr. Stubborn running the offense and defense.

I don’t think I’ve been more upset about the fate of this team in my 56 years of watching them.

We are pissing away a year of a hugely talented team. Things will be much different once Purdy signs his deal, and the other chips fall as they will.

But as constructed with this coaching staff, I think this team will never get as close as they were these last few seasons. The front office needs to make wholesale changes after this hairdo of a season.

. . . Tried to Win But Only Sharted.

I just don’t know anymore. Sooooo many things piss me off about this team and it mostly has to do with the coaching staff.

Offensively, Jordan Mason was tearing up the league his first few games while CMC got back onto the field. Naturally, the offensive genius head coach eased him into games, and let him get acclimated while the stud replacement kept on ticking.

I kid of course. Since CMC has returned, Mason has 9 carries. 3 in the last 2 games.

Defensively, our vanilla defense that is giving up 3rd downs like Girl Scouts give out cookies was naturally revamped to get more pressure on the QB, especially with Nick Bosa hurting.

I kid of course. We run our base 4 man defense no matter what the situation is. 3rd and 20 from their 15? Oooh, let’;’s give up a 23 yard screen pass. The ONE TIME we blitz was the complete wrong time to do it, with Geno Smith scoring from 12 yards out with time running out.

With the special teams unit being the worst in the league in FG kicking, punting, kick coverage, punt coverage, and forcing our kickers to tackle, losing us a couple games in the process, naturally we fired our ST coach and promptly got a new on 4 weeks into the season.

I kid of course. We still have the same guy and the same problems.

Sure, we have injuries, but as these games go on, nothing changes. The 49ers have been out-schemed and out-played just about every 2nd half. 3 more blown plays and this team is 2-8. Sure, you could say we are a few unblown plays from 8-2, but the fact remains, this team is cratering in these 2nd halfs as Shanahan tries to no avail to finish a fucking game. He goes into panic mode/run the clock/throw too much/what the fuck do I do?

He plays to not lose and isn’t winning.

Beyond that, the coaching staff is asleep at the controls.

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.