Forty Niners Forever

So far the injury bug has hit just about every team in the NFL this year. The struggling Eagles have lost their 2 starting WRs in AJ Brown and Devonta Smith. They also lost their newly signed stud LB Devin White before he even hit the field. Fucking Dallas has lost just about half their starters to injury. Trevon Diggs, E Elliott, Micah Parsons, DeMarcus Lawrence, Brandin Cooks, Jordan Philips, Nathen Thomas, and Ryan Fiorney, among a few others are out or Doubtful.

Some other major guys are QB Tua Tagovailoa, Cheifs WR Rashee Rice and Isiah Pacheco, Rams Cooper Kupp and Puka Nacua, and even Russell Wilson, even though the Steelers are 3-1 with Justin Fields.

Some teams Like KC and Pittsburgh are doing fine dealing with their injuries. Dallas and Philly aren’t. Miami isn’t. The Rams are struggling as well. and so are we. Thing about us though, is our early injuries were to the offense, and they aren’t the issue. CMC, Kittle, and Deebo, have missed time. CMC of course may be out for the month of October. but last week’s game saw the biggest del with Fred Warner and his ankle injury. Our interior defensive loine has been wiped out, but really, Hargrave has shown little, but we also lost Givens, Elliott ,and Kalia Davis. LBs are without Dre Greenlaw of course, Winters is dinged up, as is Flannigan Fowles.

This is a very bad time to have TWO divisional games in the span of 5 days. Winning both may be a bridge too far, but really, our biggest issues this young season have been the special teams fuckups.

Those that didn’t practice include:

WR Chris Conley (oblique)
WR Jacob Cowing (shoulder)
LB Demetrius Flannigan-Fowles (calf)
DE Yetur Gross-Matos (knee)
TE George Kittle (ribs)
LB Fred Warner (ankle)

Limited were:

DT Jordan Elliott (knee)
DT Kevin Givens (triceps)
S Talanoa Hufanga (ankle)
LB Dee Winters (ankle)
CB Isaac Yiadom (thigh)

Full practice guys were:

DT Kalia Davis (knee)
FB Kyle Juszczyk (shoulder)
LT Trent Williams (not injury related – resting player)

The good news is we have another home game. The bad news? Well, AZ seems to be a huge thorn in our side. They seem to match up well against us, but maybe I’m still in shock from the game I saw in 2021 when the Cards rolled us 31-17. Thing it, the Niners are riding a 4-game winning streak and none of them were close.

AZ is 24th in yards allowed, and 28th in point given up. Glaringly, 28th in run defense. Something we just might want to stress. The one thing AZ does well is run the ball. As I saw in 2021 when James Connor ran down our throats repeatedly. He and Kyler Murray lead the way with the 5th best rushing attack.

The one thing we haven’t faced this season IS a mobile QB like Murray. Fucking Sam Darnold got the better of us on some scrambles, so the impetus will be once again to get pressure on Murray and keep him contained. And yeah, AZ is 1-3, but they’ve had a pretty tough schedule to start the season. Their losses are to Deetroit, Buffalo, and the surprising Washington Generals. Their lone win was a crushing of the Lambs.

Play clean and we should be fine. But we haven’t had anything resembling a clean game this year. Too many pre-snap penalties, too many missed assignments on the back end of the defense, and too much porous run defense.

Playing the Patsies sure makes our defensive numbers look better, but this game will be a big test to get our guys in the right places. If special teams becomes an issue again, this team will be wasting their talent to no avail. Losing our first 2 division games would be a very bad precedent to boot.

Hey, at least the Niners did it. The hapless Giants couldn’t quite seal the deal and finished up the season 80-82. Disappointing enough for Greggie Johnson to fire Farhan Zaidi, and promote Buster Posey to President of Baseball Operations. I’m a little shocked, but the real question is, will the owners let Buster spend money? Or will this be another exercise in pinching pennies while the real estate around the stadium flourishes. And whither MoTel? Will he get the axe? I’d generally say yes, but this is no ordinary organization.

But that’s baseball.

The 49ers returned to their home field yesterday, and sort of laid to rest issues with the team and its fortunes. At least we put away a shitty team. Unlike Dallas, who struggled mightily to beat the woeful New York Giants. Or Philly, who got their ass handed to them by the Bay Bucs. Weird start to the season to say the least when you see Washington, Seattle, Minnesota, and Tampa Bay as the early NFC division leaders. I would have picked none of these teams to be in 1st at the quarter pole.

But yeah, too many pre-snap penalties. 2 TDs called back. A huge special teams fuckup. A fairly stupid INT. And the obligatory additions to the injury list.

The good news? Mason continues to run like a man on fire. Purdy had a solid day (minus the pick) hitting Deebo, Aiyuk, and Jennings on deep balls, and throwing a perfect jump-ball to Kittle in the back corner of the end zone. The pass pro was a little weak, as Purdy did a lot of scrambling, but it served him well getting a couple key 3rd down conversions.

The defense put a lot of pressure on Jacoby (I’ve been everywhere, man) Brissett and we stuffed NE’s run game. But even early on, their first drive saw a lot of early 3rd down conversions until they stupidly went for it on 4th down. Add in the softy defense to close the half, this allowing a 63 yard (!!!) FG before swinging the comeback door open and fumbling the 2nd half kickoff, and the rout that was to be was not to be yet. But the play to get the whole thing going was the electrifying 45 yard pick 6 by Fred Warner.

The D did show different looks and did a nice job of stopping the Pats, but they are the Pats. Basically the Jets with a younger QB. My hope is Robert Saleh gets canned and we get him back. This team needs to healthy up. Not sure what the deal is with Warner and his ankle. Elliott as well. I’ll update as the news comes out.

Big game. Bigger than it should be. The hapless Patriots, without Brady OR Belichick fly across the country to face the injury-riddled and question-filled 49ers team reeeling from a couple really ugly losses. Yeah, it’s early, but the faster we right the ship, the faster we have to stop worrying abour WC scenarios and who needs to do what to get us where.

The Pats bring Jacoby Brissett and the 32nd ranked passing game to Levis. They can run, so there’s that, but come on. If we don’t crush these guys, there IS a problem.

Per David Lombardi, the 49ers are 26th in defensive pressures on QB dropbacks. 26th for this $ billion D line. One that was just set back by Javon Hargrave’s season-ending triceps injury. But really, what are we missing? His numbers last year were a pretty big drop from his last year with the Eagles.

And Leonard Floyd? 1 sack in 3 games? Bosa’s 2 in 3? Where are these guys? It sure looks like everyone knows that we are doing nothing to disguise our intent. We run our base 4 wide 9 defense and it isn’t fooling anyone. We are getting run on, and we are getting passed on. We don’t stop the short passing game, and we have given up a lot of big plays. Last year it was Chase Young who came in and underwhelmed.

Yeah, special teams has reared its ugly head in these losses, but the overarching problem IS the defense. This scheme put NO pressure on the QBs we’ve faced. And we haven’t even faced a mobile guy yet. Fucking Darnold had over 40 yards rushing against us. Stafford was sacked a few times, but other than that suffered little pressure.

This team gives up 3rd downs at a better than 50% (53%) clip. Good enough for 30th in the NFL. I feel like I’m pissing in the wind here regarding our defense. This scheme is soft and provides little resistance to any NFL QB.

Gone are the days of the max pressure DeMeco Ryans. Or even Robert Saleh and his sideline histrionics. We are wasting the abilities of our linebackers. They simply play 10-15 yards off the line and sit in a soft zone most of the time. When we DO blitz, it is easily snuffed out as we so rarely line up more than 4 on the line. Very little stunting.

The problem there is that our opponents seem to easily get to our 2nd level on runs and since the LBs are back, it’s usually 8 yards before any contact. Throwing in front of the zone is a simple task, and even still, guys get deep as there has been a lot of miscommunication on the back end. Odum being a big issue.

I’d hate to lump us in with Dallas but we are very close to being the most overrated defense in the NFL. The Cowboys struggled to beat the Giants, ffs. We can’t stop a thing.

Like I said, a win would go a long way to helping the cause, but really this shouldn’t even be hard. The only ones stopping us is ourselves.

The thing I really hate about football is these losses leave that bitter taste in your mouth for a week. Coming off that fucked up Minnehaha game, it’s now two weeks. But hey, last year we had a 3 game losing streak that we overcame. That streak was predicated by injuries, questionable play calling, spotty protection, and shakey defense. You know. Same-old same-old.

So, yeah they are at home this weekend. No, on one is coming back from injury. Well, at least as far as I know. And funny thing, the banged-up offense was not the problem.

So, I guess the best idea is to simply learn from this if possible. Move on. We have a good patsy in the Patriots so this shouldn’t be too hard, but on any Sunday and all that. Still, it WOULD be panic time should the 49ers lose to the Pats at home and start out 1-3.

Sick and tired of stating the obvious about this team. They need to scheme better on defense and actually get this D line involved in the games. Not sure how we turned Leonard Floyd into a paper weight but he has done little to nothing in 3 games.

Shanny needs to figure out how to score from the 2. We have kicked way too many FGs in close. Special teams? Punt every fucking ball OB. Kick every kickoff out of the end zone. Fucking pay attention to the fake punt.

Fucking Aiyuk should be benched, but that would lead to Ronnie fucking Bell. Get Cowing and Conley out there.

I’d have to go back to 1977 to come up with a game that was blown so spectacularly. Or even the 1957 Western Conference playoff game. Or those Super Bowls. Or NFC Championship games. Or worst ever. This one was special because there was only a select few ways to actually cough that one up.

And of course we did.

This should result in some major changes to the coaching staff as special teams and the defense were severely lacking today. Shanahan for his part called one of his better games. I didn’t like the run on the goal line, it should have been the Juice push, but the rest was enough to win.

And fuck Ronnie Bell. Cut his ass tomorrow. Moody is just flat not trustable. Control the game for 59 minutes and 59 seconds. And lose.

Sigh.

Well, i guess the good news is we are playing in Levi’s South but holy shit, the Niners have lost 3 of their top offensive weapons, and their 4th is still being slowed down by the bag he was waiting to get.

Kittle is the latest to hit the injury wire so on’;’y Aiyuk is gonna play out of the big 4 weapons. Jennings should be able to pick up some slack, and I really hope they get Cowing in there, and yeah Mason is doing fine.

Just got to have better defense. Bosa is knicked up as well, but we do get Hufanga back. Got to get these easier games in the Rams and Pats as we have AZ, Seattle, KC, and a very angry Cowboys team coming.

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?