San Francisco 49ers Forever

This is gonna be a battle of the backups as neither the Rams or 49ers are playing for anything. Sourdough Sam Darnold gets the start, alongside Kit Carson Wentz (to extend that wild west theme). We can’t rest everyone, and the only certains appear to be Purdy and CMC. I would hate to see Tent Williams out there. As well as Bosa, Gravedigger, Aiyuk, Deebo, and Chase Young, but we have to field a team.

Some spots left to fight for playoff-wise. Mainly Seattle trying to knock Green Bay out, and a bunch of teams trying to knock Indy out of the 7th spot.

Which makes our first playoff game on the 21st likely a bottom-feeder like TB or GB.

What’s funny is I can easily see both Dallas and Philly losing their opening round wildcard games. Philly’s run defense is absolutely garbage, and they are struggling mightily to score in the red zone.

Dallas will have a home game for their opener, so they may advance past the WC round. Glad we are getting the rest we need.

Things worked out completely in our favor as the niners took care of the Washington Commies and the struggling Eagles (uggling Streagles?) got the beaks handed to them by the tougher-than-4-12 Cardinals. An amazing side-note is that 2 of the Cards wins were at the hands of the Cowboys and the Eagles. They LOST to the Giants and Commies. Weird.

But for the calf cramp to CMC, the game was what we needed. A fairly easy game that Purdy played well and the defense did enough to make it stress-free late.

So, we finally get to hit the playoffs as the top dog. Not the WC struggling to get through the first round. So our Rams game next week has no meaning. Funny thing is, the Rams won’t really be playing for much either as they are the 6 seed and can’t go any higher. Green Bay could knock them to 7th but it will still be a roadie for them regardless of their seeding.

And they are scorching hot right now. They are 6-1 in their last 7 and their lone blemish was a loss to the big bad Ravens on a punt return TD in OT.

So, give the starters the first 20 minutes, and rest as many guys as possible. I do not want to see CMC out there next weekend.

So, be careful out there. Don’t do anything too crazy. Went to the Jerry Harrison/Adrian Belew Remain in Light show last night, and it was a blast, but I’m tired and my ears are still ringing. Gonna crash early.

Definitely been a fun season. Thanks for hanging out here.

12/31/23 – Happy New Years Eve!

Two games left and we have a one game lead. I think we need this bye week as we are the walking dead. AA, Jennings, Moore, and Brown are out. Burks, Williams, Purdy, and Deebo all were full participants so we should be fine on offense.

Unless this was Purdy’s comeuppance. Very curious to see how he does after that debacle last Monday. The Niners moved the ball well for the most part, but there were a lot of bad breaks.

Washington is in full rebuild mode after trading their stud DE bookends Chase Young and Montez Swett. Jacoby Brissett got the start at QB for 5 hours as he promptly pulled a hammy after being named the starter so Sudden Sam Howell will get the start.

Dallas did us yet another favor in beating the Lions yesterday, so a win today would really get the 1 seed that much closer.

And I think AZ can really give Philly a run as their run defense is not very good.

Man, we are the walking wounded as of now. Crawling into the new year like one of my favorite movies, and the last movie I saw at the Redwood City Drive-In, Down of the Dead.

Logan Ryan is next man up at safety as Ji’Ayir Brown is out for an undetermined time, and Hufanga is still down.

Don’t have Friday’s report but I will post it when it comes through. And we all know it is pretty extensive.

The Commies are benching Sudden Sam Howell in favor of the more mobile Jacoby Brissett as Riverboat Ron tries to exploit our struggles with mobile quarterbacks. That all sounds good, but the hope is the pass rush will negate any offensive outburst for Washington.

I mean, come on. Short-handed or not, the Niners pass rush should be able to squash the Commies. If not, our back end is hurting and can be exploited. Trent Williams looks to be progressing to play, so we should be OK in the run game, and the Commies have already started dismantling their defense, so, no hiccups.

Stomp these Commies.

Too much stuffing? Too many mimosas? Too many passes?

Whatever it was, the 49ers fell flat on their faces Christmas day. A promising start led to a late pass picked off in the end zone, and the weirdness ensued. The back judge caused a safety on Lamar Jackson, we got a couple 3-and-outs, and what could have been a 14 point early lead was instead 5-0.

Despite the 3 first half picks (the 2nd one was unlucky, the third was stupid, but it did hit Kittle in the hands), the 49ers were still only down 4 at the half 16-12. Purdy got hit throwing short pass in the 3rd quarter and the rout was on.

For all intents and purposes the defense played as well as they could, given the turnover situation and Wishnowski turning into an Aussie Rules football player and getting a personal foul on a long punt return. We didn’t seem to have issues moving the ball, we just had too many bad tips and bounces. The defense did well for the most part keeping Balt out of the end zone until the picks stacked up like cordwood.

Field position and turnovers killed us, as did the plethora of penalties. Oh well. Still the #1 seed. Just win the last two and we are fine. It’s likely better to play with an edge rather than have everything sewn up early.

Like I said, it’s good to get this game out of the way, but hopefully this is it. Due to the vagaries of the NFL scheduling assholes, we get an early east coast game after a Monday night home game.

Assholes.

Here we go!!! Merry Christmas all!! Hope you are having a happy one.

Dallas did their job snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. Limp Dick Nick threw for 411 yards, but also threw 4 picks to blow their game against Deetroit.

We will see what happens with the Iggles today, but they have to be a little bit worried about their level of play. A loss to the Giants would be catastrophic, so let’s hope.

Us? We need to get on top and stay on top. The thing about Baltimore is they are not a big come-from-behind team. Force them to be one-dimensional and keep to your rushing lanes. Contain Lamar and you can beat the Ravens.

Here’s to a Merry Christmas and happy holidays to you all! Thanks for being a part of this.

Two 11-3 teams poised to take the #1 seeds in their respective conferences makes for an exciting game. I guess. I should be more worked up about this game, but I just don’t think it is as important as it is being made out to be. At least to me. I’d hate to depend on having to win the last two, but Philly is gagging and Dallas has a tough schedule. Deetroit is the paper lions they appear to be, so they’ll fade. So, even with a loss I don’t think it’ll hurt us bad.

It may even help.

My only concern is the #1 seed. We can skate through this and save our shit for the playoffs. We are down 3 interior linemen, AND Clelin Ferrel. So the run defense looks to be soft. AZ put up 234 on us, and I fear we may not have enough time with the ball to score enough. Kinlaw was a ghost as he was pushed around all over the field all game. Getting help from outside the organization doesn’t appear to be a concern for the braintrust, so why should I worry about this?

But who knows? Maybe we will do to Baltimore what we did to our other supposed big challenges in Philly and Dallas. Even Jacksonville. I just think we will get burned by their run game.

The one good thing (well, two) about Monday night is that we will know what has happened with all the teams chasing us. And we get an extra day of rest.

Games are:

Lions @ Vikings – 10:00 am Sunday – Lions suck on the road – Vikings win
Cowboys @ Dolphins – 1:25 pm Sunday – Cowboys get run over by Mostert and Co
Giants @ Eagles – 1:30 pm – Monday – Eagles blow this one, they are a cooked goose

Ravens @ 49ers – 5:15 – Monday – We are beat-up on the D line. Gonna be tough

My kingdom for a defensive lineman! I think the 49ers need to call Ndamukong Suh NOW to bolster this defensive line. AA and Gravedigger are likely out, and backup Kalia Davis is also out with a high ankle sprain. As the AZ game wore on last week, Givens and Kinlaw were worn down and not effective at stopping the run. To the tune of 234 yards.

Sure, Baltimore’s leading rusher is also their QB, but still, they need a big body in the middle to slow their run game. Which is #1 in the NFL. I think we can slow them down but we need a couple bodies for the rotations. Suh would fit the bill. Always liked his intensity.

It’ll probably happen by Friday.

Hey, if no one wants to talk Giants, I get it. And since the Flap is on hiatus, here we go. But I just have to say I’m really disappointed by Buster Posey’s sentiment that lends creedence to the statement that the Giants cannot sign free agents because of the negative image of San Francisco.

BULLSHIT!!!

Ever since the Stonehams dismantled the great teams of my youth, the great teams of the late 60s and early 70s, they have been crying about not being able to sign free agents because of:

The weather
The taxes
The lifestyle
The politics
The freaks and hairies
The dykes and fairies
The ballpark (the Stick AND Oracle)
The wind
The parking
The housing prices
The rent
The poop

Now we have Buster saying “crime” like LA is a bastion of civility. Philly is candy-land. NY is utopia. Houston and St Louis aren’t the most crime-ridden cities in the country.

Yay, we signed a prayer type guy in Jung-Hoo Lee, a Korean ball player who is solid defensively in CF and pretty much a doubles hitter. Will he hit ML pitching? This is a big unknown, but the kid is young and we NEED young fast defenders. So I like the signing even though the consensus is Korean ball is somewhere around the AA-AAA level.

But they NEED to go after Yamamoto or Bellinger or Montgomery or Strohman or Bader or Hader or Chapman or Hoskins or any number of guys who can help this team NOW. Otherwise we have another season of praying the pitching somehow holds up through having 2 great starters and a back end of middling relievers.