Forty Niners Forever

Hey, it was a tough road win. Those are always good, but as usual, we made the game much harder than we should have. We outgained them 415 to 213, won the TOP battle, and nearly doubled the yards per play at 6.8 to 3.7. But we were behind late and had to fight and scratch to eke this one out.

It was a gritty comeback, yes, but the fuckups were what would be fatal to a better team. 3 missed FGs. Terrible red zone play calls. Indecisive moves by Shanny in not going for the 4th down late in the 2nd quarter, the punt fuckup, the 4 penalties on TB’s last drive, Purdy being weirdly soft on a lot of throws, and a defense that looked gassed as the game wore on. The killer was the 4th quarter drive where TB ran the ball down our throats for a 17-13 lead.

And this is coming off the bye. Still and all, Slick Rick Pearsall got his first NFL TD on a sweet deep crosser that he took to the house for a 46 yard TD. CMC came back with some decent runs and a huge 35 yard completion late in the game. Purdy, for his slight tentativeness went 25-36 for 356 yards and 2 TDs.

Still concerning to me is the lack of consistent pressure. WIthout any blitzing or pressure, we do not get any interceptions, despite facing a lot of passes. Baker was pretty bad, going 18/29 for a buck 16 and 2 sacks, but he did get a TD and the weirdest non-sack/4th down conversion in history, and of course we kept them close by going 1-3 in the red zone. and 3-6 for the FGs.

Good news is CMC and Jennings are back. Bad news? Nick Bosa got hurt in practice, was ‘extremely limited’ in practice, and is listed as questionable for the game. So, another week in Ninerland. Getting hrut during the bye week. Glad we got the bye, glad we got kinda healthy, glad to get back out there, and this team has hopefully gotten their shit together.

We will see.

Tampa Bay? The Baker Mayfield Experience? Say what you will, Tampa has a tough defense that brings the heat. They’ve beaten 2 of the hotter teams in Deetroit and Washington, but lost to Denver and Atlanta and are 4-5. They played KC tough for their Monday night loss. But htye can give up a shit ton of points.

So, they get a short week, we come off the bye. Think we are gonna win, but this team desperately needs to play a clean game.

Hey! Some good new on the injury front. Not only did running back Christian McCaffrey return to the practice field for the first time since September 7, wide receiver Jauan Jennings, kicker Jake Moody and offensive lineman Jon Feliciano were all practicing as well. Moody wasn’t terribly missed, but the botched extra point played into the Niners loss to KC, and the short kickoffs bit them as well.

Getting Jennings back is pretty big what with BA going out for the season. And CMC? Well, his return (and health) is pretty goddamn essential as we all have seen with the red zone struggles, and the ineptitude on 2nd (and 3rd, and 4th) and short.

Still a few hours left in the trade deadline and I’m fairly surprised we haven’t made a move to shore up the WR spot or the interior line. DeAndre Hopkins had himself a nice little game yesterday as a newly minted KC Chief with 8 catches, 86 yards, and 2 TDs.

De Fo Bu? Do it!

Good news for the 49ers at least is that CMC looks to have his practice window open tomorrow and for him to be ready for the Tampa game. Jauan Jennings as well. Will that help the red zone difficulties? Yeah, it should.

Will it help this team close a fucking game? One would hope. The galling thing about this team IS its inability to close games out. Seattle and Dallas, our last 2 wins, saw a 20 point AND 17 lead nearly vanish after the earlier leads blown against the Rams and Cards. Something that has been a thorn in Shanny’s side since that Falcon Super Bowl years back.

But shit, Philly had a 22 point halftime lead against the awful, now 2-7, Jags and were on the hook to lose after screwing the pooch the entire 2nd half, but for a really stupid throw by Trevor (amIoverrated?) Lawrence. The 6-2 Texans couldn’t handle the 2-6 Jets. The Ravens look like the best team in the NFL, but lose to the Raiders and Browns? Come on, man!

I mean, it looks like the best team in the NFL, and to me it looks like a landslide, it the Deetroit Lions. KC is solid, if not very consistent offensively. Balt can just lay a turd at any moment. Minnesota? Shit, I just watched Darnold throw a terrible pick and see one dropped earlier as they struggle with the 4-4 Colts and the geriatric Joe Flucco.

All I seem to see this year is too many games with a fucking shit ton of pre-snap flags, false starts, illegal formations, wildly inconsistent play, and awful coaching. Going for it on 4th down is now the stupid idea of the season. Sure, there’s a time and place. But coaches don’t seem toi understand that if you THINK you are in a position where you are gonna go for it, that should dictate your decisions on 2nd and 3rd down not just think, hey, I’ll run it up the middle! That’ll fool them!

If you think you can run for it, ONE of those 3 plays should be a pass. Better 2nd than 3rd, the obvious passing down. Too many times I see 3 runs up the middle for nothing. Or the obligatory 3rd down pass that ends up with a throw-away or a blitz sack. Then the 4th and 1 stuff.

Man, I guess I need to lower my standards. Glad the Niners won, but what looked like a cakewalk once the offense decided to get going after 30 minutes of frustration turned into a nail-biter as the offense sputtered its way for 3 quarters, and the defense decided the game was over after the conclusion of the 3rd quarter.

Par usual, every phase was good and bad. Well, special teams gets a solid B as they didn’t allow any big returns, despite Carlson not being able to reach the end zone. Carlson hit all his FG and XP attempts, but Wishnowski is not on his game. The guy we had in preseason should be looked at. He was booming kicks.

Purdy looked very skittish to start another game. Missing guys all over the place, and basically not hitting guys in stride. He settled down in the 3rd quarter and engineered 3 solid TD drives in the 3rd quarter, with the help of George Kittle. Deebo played and had a phenomenal 65 yrds TD called back due to offensive holding, and then got hurt.

Then Yertle the Turtle showed up and the offense went back into its shell. And Mr. Softy defense decided that we should go back to prevent and let Cee Dee Lamb simply catch everything thrown his way. Very key, and this reared up in the LA NFCCG game a few years back. 2nd and 1 from our own 30 and Kyle gets too conservative with the offense. Run up the middle stuffed, and the ubiquitous roll out that NEVER works as we still can’t figure out how to block a DE on a rollout to the right. Bell was guarded by 2 guys like Dallas knew it was coming and, punt.

From that point on, Shanny fucked up the play calling till near the end of the game, and the defense was just atrocious. Sorensen’s fear of blitzing is patently obvious, and colors the way these guys get burned in these obvious passing downs.

Yeah, we are 4-4 and gonna get healthier soon. And this bye week is desperately needed, but come on, guys. Pressure is the name of the game, and a better team would have completed this comeback.

Shanahan’s abject inability to put teams away is simply a problem that won’t go away. After scoring 3 TDs and forcing a punt, Guerendo gets 9 yards. 2nd and 1? Go with the QB sneak. No one has stopped that play, except for Shanahan. Later in the game, after the defense had given up 2 touchdowns (the 2nd one took all of 0:58 seconds) to close the game to a 6 point lead, on 2nd and 3, with Guerendo running amok and the Niners on the edge of FG range, Shanny calls some kind of rollout pass play that results in a 7 yard loss and of course on the next play, we get 5 yards back and punt.

Fucking STUPID! You are trying to run out the clock and you call for a pass play. This is shades of how Shanahan fucked up the Super Bowl with NE all those years ago. Shanny needs to pull his head out of his ass.

The beginning of the end, or the end of the beginning? We will have a pretty good idea in 24.5 hours.

I don’t know what t think about any of this. The 49ers remind me of the Steve DeBerg Niners. Playing good enough to lose. Iffy play calls, taking turns fucking up, bad special teams, too many 3rd down conversions, Purdy’s bad day . . .

On and on. Can they figger this out? Dallas is not KC. And we did pull off a win vs Seattle. So there’s that. Purdy looked very skittish last game. And early on he wasn’t under a lot of pressure. But he threw into triple coverage on the first pick. The 2nd one was off-page, and the 3rd was awful but Purdy got hit.

Dallas? They are as big a mess or possibly bigger. No clue about this game. Just hope we stop shooting ourselves in the feet.

The latest in the warm bodies joining the team are DL Evan Anderson, OL Dieter Eiselen, and WR Malik Turner. These guys have been bouncing around he league and playing some, so there’s that, but at this point they are just bodies to ensure we have enough guys to support the roster.

This game will be a real test of our mettle as we are pretty banged up. So was Kansas City, but look how they did. If the offense had done anything they should have won that game. But that’s old news.

Dallas is also dealing with a boatload of injuries, and they are certainly WAY down on the list of confident teams, so therein lies the rub. Dallas is not very good against the run. Even when healthy. So we should REALLY pound the ball down their throats and keep them in that not-so-good-feeling zone. You know, what we should have done to AZ.

The line is fine, Mason is good to go, and Guerendo should be getting some outside runs, so Shanny needs to take advantage of what our strengths are. Running the fucking rock. And if it works well, throw in some play-action.

Don’t know where that went, along with screen passes and sweeps, but that is a question that ony Shanahan can answer.

As bad as the season has gone, I don’t think Seattle is gonna run away with the division. Our only hope at this point is to try and beat the Cowboys, get to the bye week, and lick our wounds.

CMC and Greenlaw are still complete unknowns at this point and likely out till late November/early December, BA is gone, Deebo has pneumonia, Jennings is day-to-day, Hargrave is gone, Hufanga and Gross-Matos are on IR for a couple more weeks, and both Conley and Kittle are questionable with ankle sprains.

So yeah, things are looking up. Dallas is also beat to shit, but man, our offense was completely lost during that KC game. Granted, KC’s defense is worlds better than Dallas’s so there’s hope we can actually score. If MNason can run, we should be fine.

I don’t know. A loss to the Cowboys and we are likely down in Panther territory as one of the worst teams in the NFC.

How the mighty have fallen. This has all the makings of a bad penny year.

. . . turn out out the lights.

This season looks like it will fade into oblivion amid injuries, blunders, and overall indifferent playing.

Yeah, the Niners are fairly notorious for starting seasons with turmoil, drama, injuries, QB issues, and the occasional hold outs, and hold-ins, but we are in serious trouble now.

The fresh turd to hit the wire is that hold-in Brandon Aiyuk is done for the year with a torn ACL. Looked pretty bad live, and I didn’t think there was much hope for him, but it is confirmed. Teh crowd sure got quiet when they showed the replay.

But, hey. It’s the NFC West. It’s our turn to be the shitty division, so there’s at least some hope that we can stagger down the stretch with the other stragglers and win the thing at 9-8. This of course is predicated on Dallas crapping out next Sunday night.

Both these teams are ravaged by injuries, so we will see how this pans out but the Sunday Night Halloween Special will be the walking wounded meet the walking dead.

Here we go. Time to right the ship against the Chiefs. The Niners of course ore 0-4 in the last 4 meetings, including . . . Fuck that. The last time the 49ers beat KC, they had Travis Kelce. And Alex Smith at QB. We had Colin Kaepernick and the 2014 season had yet to crater. KC of course had Mahomes those 4 wins.

Maybe if they finally give Bosa his due and make a couple holding calls, the balance of the game could shift like it should have earlier. Shanahan went as far as complaining about the Super Bowl crew not calloing anything on them, the most penalized line in the NFL. They were supposed to work tomorrrow’s game, but were shifted to Seattle for their tilt against the Falcons.

I guess that’s a good thing. I mean, both Super Bowls had some huge misses on Bosa. But let’s do it tomorrow. Just make the right calls on the field. At least this isn’t in KC.

The surprise of the week is the emergence of Ricky Pearsall getting the start as Jauan Jennings nurses a hip pointer. He had great practices and impressed everyone involved, so that should be exciting.

Hoping against hope this team can start fast and do the job defensively. Still majorly worried about special teams as we audition kicker #3 for the week. Gonna be there, so it would be nice to come home with a win.

Come on, boys, 30-20 Niners. Make it so.