Let’s hope Brock shows out for his family and friends as he grew up about 20 miles fromGlendale and the giant cactus the Cards play in.
Get healthy and stay there. that is the name of the game. Got to keep stacking up the wins as we are in the driver’s seat.
Last I heard, Mooney AND Gravedigger have a chance to play. I’s keep their reps way down and try to get them healthy for the stretch run and playoffs.
In my head this would be a great game to start Sam Darnold. Get him some live-action experience. But luckily I don’t run the team. That being said, this is an easy game to overlook as the 49ers have the big bad Ravens scheduled for our Monday night Christmas skirmish after this one in Phoenix.
Yeah, they are 3-10. But they flat stomped the Cowboys, beat the Steelers, and squeaked by the Vikings. Three probable playoff teams. Weird. They rode the Josh Dobbs train till he took a different track to Minnesota. Kyler is back, and they always seem to be a bitch and a half for the 49ers to figure out, but hey. Those days are long gone. Hopefully. Stop Conner and you;ve slowed them down enough to beat them.
We are on a roll so the impetus is to keep it going. Build up an early lead and get the backups in. It’s rarely that easy, but hey, we’ll see. Stay clean and keep rolling.
Other games of note? Cowboys / Bills Super Bowl rematch. And Seattle / Philly on Monday night. Be nice to put a couple games between us and our chasers. The Bills and Seattle are fighting for their playoff lives and they are better than the teams currently above them.
Everything pretty much fell into place yesterday as the resurgent Cowboys took care of bidness against a suddenly vulnerable Philadelphia Eagles team that has crumbled badly under the white light and white heat of crunch time. In consecutive weeks, Philly’s defense gave up 42 and 33 points while their offense put up 4 field goals and one TD (their D did score on a pick 6 and a strip-sack-TD).
Even the lowly Bears got into the act by beating the Deetroit Lions badly.
So, we hold our destiny in our hands. 4 games left, and the only real doozer is the Baltimore game. The 49ers own all the tie breakers, so that’s like a 0.5 game advantage there as well. But as we saw earlier this year, we can sometimes lose focus. And yesterday was a little wobbly, but Purdy and company unleashed some beautiful deep passes to put Seattle away. The strike to Deebo on 3rd and 11 was an absolut dart. As were the two deep balls to Aiyuk, and the dart to Kittle to put the game away.
Purdy really seems to be growing into his role as team leader despite more than a few mistimed throws and a few miscommunicated routes. One which led to the early pick.
The defense was inconsistent early, but that was due to us getting banged up in this game. Mooney Ward left early and Ambry Thomas was immediately burned for a 30 yard Metcalf TD despite solid coverage. Dre Greenlaw left for a couple series, and we were immediately burned by a play we run all the time, the TE drag route over the middle for a TD, and Javon Hargrave went out with a hamstring.
Thankfully, Greenlaw returned, as he is the heartbeat of this defense. I have no idea the severity of Mooney and Gravedigger, but giving them a break for the AZ game seems like the thing to do.
Still and all, the defense got 4 sacks and 2 picks. The last one a hysterical comedy of errors and ejections as Fred Warner pitched the pick to Greenlaw and was cheap-shotted by Metcalf. Warner responded by shoving Metcalf to the ground and walking away. Metcalf grabbed Warner’s facemask with both hands while Warner laughed at him with his arms outstretched. The skirmish ensued all around them. Deommodore Lenoir gave Metcalf a nice shove (and that was it) and was ejected along with Metcalf.
So, the 49ers have the distinction of having players thrown out of two games in a row.
I guess they an’t call us a finesse team!!!
Well, here we are poised to make the final push to the playpoffs. I think we really gave Dallas a big head’s up on how to beat Philly. Attack the LBs. Short passes tore them up all day and through the night. Quick runs up the middle gashed them as well. Philly’s offense was stifled by solid CB play.
Us? We just need to keep the pedal down. No slip-ups. No backsliding. We’ve proven we can win on the road, but I sure don’t want to go to Philly in January.
Gonna be an interesting day regarding the playoffs. Philly could go from 1 to 5. We could be #1. Dallas #3. Deetroit #2. Funny I’m not even really paying attention to Deetroit, but they are in the mix. With their weak-ass schedule.
As of now the 49ers own all the tiebreakers between Dallas, Philly, and Deetroit.
Dallas and Philly because of the ass-whippings, and Deetroit because of our Conference record of 7-1 over their 6-2 record.
Deetroit has 2 games vs the wildly inconsistent Vikings, and the Cowboys, but the rest are patsies.
Dallas has by far the hardest path with Philly, Buffalo, Miami, and Deetroit on their schedule.
Our remaining toughie is Baltimore. A team I have not really seen all year. And Seattle/LA /Wash/AZ should hopefully be gimmies as well.
The remaining games for all of us are as follows.
| Deetroit | Dallas | Philly | SF |
| Chicago | Philly | Dallas | Seattle |
| Denver | Buffalo | Seattle | AZ |
| Minn | Miami | NYG | Balt |
| Dallas | Deetroit | AZ | Commies |
| Minn | Commies | NYG | Rams |
So, if we can somehow win out (with one Philly loss), we’d be the 1. Even if we lose to Balt, we’d still own the Conference tiebreaker over Deetroit and Dallas should they all lose 1. Philly of course would have to lose 2 for us to get the #1 seed.
This weekend will determine a lot as far as seeding goes. If Philly goes down, they would fall from 1 to 5 should we win. The 49ers have played pretty well on the road, but I sure would like that bye week.
At some point these teams will play back-to-back games, but it seems like we play these guys 5 times a season. But here we are back up against the SeaHawks, and Pete Carroll’s band of misfits. We kinda handled them easily last time, although the Niners did stall out in the 3rd.
This week? Well, the 49ers have GOT to know their last time down this road. They came out against the Browns and sucked badly. They said they got the wake-up call and proceeded to fall flat on their faces against the Vikes and Bengals. So, the old nemesis of Jim Harbaugh Freddy P. Softie punched them in the nut-sack and they licked their wounds and re-grouped during the bye week.
They did come back with a venegance, so, wwe seem to have righted the ship, but we all know how fast that shit can switch.
Because here we are again having crushed a supposed top team in the league by an absolute slaughter, on the road no less, as the team truly wonders what might have been had Brocky B Brock not gotten hurt. And here we are with a couple of flounders on the schedule. The stakes are high though, as the Cowboys have a shot of taking over the NFC East lead with a win at home over the reeling Eagles. Or the illing Iggles.
This of course would give the Niners the #1 seed in the league, home-field thru the playoffs, AND the week off. Dallas would take over the NFC East, and Fat Bastard’s employer would fall to the 5th seed behind the woeful 6-6 Falcons. Hah!!!
The week off is the most important part of this I’d think. Any time you can get a break in these grueling seasons, it is gravy.
So, keep the pedal to the metal. No fucking up now. AZ is next. Another true trap game. I would LOVE to lock up the #1 seed by the time the Lambs come to town.
Well, that was infinitely satisfying. Sure, it doesn’t replace last year’s NFCCG loss, but Philly lost their last game last year, so ha fucking ha. Both teams were in the same boat Super Bowl-wise. We just showed the NFC East just how overrated they are. We did to Philly what we did to Dallas. And that was to drop a 42 spot on them and beat them into the ground with little doubt as to who’s better.
As ugly as that start was, I was very happy the defense held Philly and Hurts to 2 field goals. Very reminiscent of the bad old Singletary days when we would control the clock for29 minutes of the 1st half and kick 2 FGs only to give up a TD late and be instantly behind. Purdy and the offense got off to a slow start, but the last 5 possessions resulted in 6 touchdowns. Domination.
Mooney Ward had another big game, Philly hit some quick slants early, but the relentless pressure and the coverage did their job to keep the big plays to a minimum.
The D was solid all over the field, even with the early bending but not breaking. Dre Greenlaw is really becoming the Draymond Green of the 49ers with his overly aggressive play. But, fuck it. He’s a guy I want on my team every day all the time and three times on Sunday. Thrown out for a finger-poke? Lame. And the refs threw out the sideline schlub and called it even? Please. Fucking joke.
The best response to all that bullshit was our quick strike TD to Deebo. CMC was out-of-this world yet again as Shanahan fianlly remembered after the `1st quarter that he has the leading rusher in the NFL. He will go down as the greatest in-season trade in NFL History, just ahead of the Fred Dean trade in the 1981 season.
But this scenario has worked out just like I wanted it to. For Dallas to beat the Seahawks, us to eat the Beagles, and for next week’s Philly/Dallas game to become eminently important to Dallas, as they could take control of the NFC East AND give us the #1 seed.
Bring it on!
Something like that. Purdy and CMC at least kinda fit the bill. Not much more to say about this one, but take it to them.
FWIW the weather looks to be mild with only a 15% chance of rain.
Time to do to Philly what we did to Dallas.
Can’t get this link to show, but it shows how we contained Hurts in our 17-11 win over Hurts and the Eagles in 2021.
Say what you will about all the trash talk around this game, and hey, it’s pretty mild at this point, but Vegas calling Philly a home dog (+2.5) speaks to the issues Philly has on defense. Mainly their pass defense. James Bradberry and Darius Slay are not slaying it these days in their defensive backfield. Sure, the defense plays as a unit, but Bradberry has a passer rate of 102.5 against and 8 TDs given up. Slay? 100.5 and 3 TDs. The Iggles are 26th in INTs.
They are 12th in sacks, so they do have that going for them. But the point remains, if our O line does their job, we should be able to light them up in the air. Their run defense is pretty good, but I think that’s mainly because teams simply kill them in the air.
And yeah, they are 10-1. But all their games are close, and their point differential is a measly +65. By contract, the 49ers are +140. the difference seems to be Jalen Hurts. His escapability, especially late in games, seems to be the deciding factor. His 410 rushing yards and his whopping 11 TDs is nothing to be coffed at. They are middle of the pack offensively, but Hurts is most definitely the guy to pay the most attention to.
Hurts and his 18/10 TD/INT ratio is middling as well, so there are ways to slow him down. Mainly keep him in the pocket and not let him run wild. Lane assignments and integrity is vastly important for the defense. Keeping the edges clogged up and the middle filled will do a lot to keep Hurts from scampering all over the place.
Gonna be a fight to the finish. Maybe this is Shanahan’s first 4th quarter comeback. He’s 0-36 so far in his NFL career. Yikies.
Color me unimpressed, but the 10-1 Eagles have been dodging bullets left and right. Dallas would have beaten them but for Dak’s big toe OB on the 2 yard line, KC dropped 10 passes in their loss to the Iggles, Buffalo (Cook) dropped a TD early and backed themselves out of FG range among the billion penalties called against Buffalo. Throw in the wide open pass that Allen missed in OT that would have won the game, and there you go.
Most of their games this season have been a struggle. Shit, Buffalo put up 505 yards on them yesterday. They barely beat the Vikings, the Jets, the Pats, and the Commies, all one-score wins, to go with the sure-fire bullets they dodged.
What does it mean? Nothing really. But it shows a pattern of their not being able to put teams away. But, the big but is, they’ve won 4 games in a row when trailing at the half. Seeing as we sometimes have a struggle putting teams away ourselves, this could be an issue.
Throw in the abject homerism displayed by the refs yesterday, and it could get weird. There were like 3 blatant PIs and that completely ignored roughing the passer call on Philly’s defense that were let go, while Buffalo was tagged with 11 penalties for ticky tack shit. The team needs to inform Dre Greenlaw not to do anything borderline, because the flags will be flying.
We of course had our bit of struggle in our 3 game losing streak, but we hopefully have gotten over that.
If the team can play solid without turnovers (in the wet weather), and avoid the flag-fest, I like us to take them semi-comfortably. Something like 31-20. May not be enough to take the #1 spot now, but it’ll be a step closer to it to get this win.
Forty Niners Forever 
Hurts pass incomplete short middle to A.Brown was a gift . . . The only way this guy’s name would ever be in lights is if his parents had named him EXIT.