Forty Niners Forever

No, it wasn’t the prettiest of wins, and it won’t be winning any Oscars for the beauty of the game, but it was a nice reminder that the 49ers can simply out-will their way to a win. To their credit, the Giants came out swinging and blitzing at any and every opportunity. Say what you will about Wink Martindale, but he’s of a mind that he will bring pressure on every play. And it sorta kinda worked as we stalled out on 3 drives in the red zone and were held to 3 FGs on those drives.

Unfortunately for them, we also scored three touchdowns. Two on long passes where Brock Purdy was able to get get ball out just in the nick of time to hit his receivers. Both plays were well-covered but Purdy hit the marks. Which quieted the ‘he can’t throw deep’ doubters. The game saw the Giants getting chippier and chippier as they were baiting the Niners to retaliate. Notable was Deebo getting hit in the head (to no call) on a crossing route, Deebo getting tackled 5 yards out of bounds to a no-call, Clelin Ferrell getting facemasked on a pass rush, CMC getting facemasked on a carry up the middle, and Dre Greenlaw getting an unsportsmanlike on a fairly questionable call.

Trent Williams, his hate of all teams NFC East still intact, got in a shove and a punch as the 1st half closed. Fun stuff. Best part about it was Deebo and Kittle simply ran over all the would-be tacklers for at least 50 extra yards after initial contact. Very fun stuff. Ronnie Bell had a nice game replacing Brandon Aiyuk as he caught the first TD on a real nice deep out route to the pylon. Deebo had the other deep back shoulder fade TD after Purdy came out a little rattled by the early pressure. Still and all, 25/37 for 311, 2 TDs and no picks is stellar work as the Giants sacked Purdy twice, and blitzed on 33 of the 39 pass attempts. So, the O line gets kudos keeping Purdy relatively clean among all the pressure, and they even ran for 141 as CMC ran for 85 and the forgotten Elijah Mitchell got in some solid action and ran for 42.

The defense was solid as usual. Nick Bosa got a gift sack, likely the easiest one of his career as the Giants simply left him unblocked and Jones rolled right into his path. The only glitch was the special teams as the Niners got a holding call on a punt return, got stuck in their end zone, and interfered with a fair catch, giving the Giants the ball on our 35. Breida the cheetah scored their only TD.

Sure, the score should have been more lopsided as the 441 to 150 yards and 40:00 to 20:00 TOP would indicate, but it is good to see the 49ers can play nasty in the trenches smash-mouth football and kick some ass like the NFC East seems to think is their purview.

Bring on the Cowboys and the Eagles.

3-0.

Here we go with the nightmare that is Thursday night. For all the posturing by the league office, Thursday night football is up there as one of the most injury-causing things out there in the game. Football isn’t easy under the best of circumstances, but cutting 3 days out of the recovery time needed by these players, and putting them into the fray is counter to any health related benefits the NFL is trying to tout.

But hey, I guess it is better to get it over with early. Oh yeah, we play on Thanksgiving as well. Somewhere along the way, the league decided it would be perfectly fine to let teams play twice on Thursday per per year. So, we get doubly fucked by the league in the name of money. Ask any player how they feel about Thursday football and they will tell you they hate it.

To make things even worse, due to the plethora of shitty Thursday games last year (and there were a ton), the league wants to be able to flex in games of their choice, thus making things even more difficult on the players, let alone the crews that broadcast these games.

Jolly Roger is a fucking whore.

But anyway, back to football. The main reason I’m worried about this game is the same reason all the teams playing on Thursday are. You never know how your players are going to react when given the short recovery time. And the injury factor goes way up without the 3 days of rest taken away.

On that front, Brandon Aiyuk had a scare on his first catch of the Rams game as he thought he broke his clavicle, but the MRI came back negative. He was hurting throughout the game and missed some plays, but he gutted it out. He didn’t practice yesterday, so his status remains day-to-day. Since it isn’t a break, I guess he isn’t at risk for further injury, but we’ll see how the team plays it.

But this should be a good game for Brock Purdy to bounce back from his fairly wobbly game. I say that even though he did a great job avoiding pressure, did not force passes into traffic, or come close to throwing any picks. Ball security is a very important deal, and as we saw vs the Rams, it turned the game in our favor.

Crazy game that was hard-fought and very much in play down the stretch. I have to say, I REALLY didn’t see the Rams playing this tough. The lost a ton of talent, and picked up a bunch of draft picks, and they came up with a very hungry young team that did a hell of a job on their O line. We are supposedly the cream of the crop with our base 4 man rush, but for the entire 1st half, the Niners did nothing against their pas rush, and LA played our game of quick passes and runs inside.

If not for our late TD on the last play in the 1st half, the 49ers would have been down 7. As it was, the Niners offense did well enough to tie the score after taking the opening kickoff all the way for a touchdown, and watching LA turn a 10-3 deficit into a 17-10 lead.

The 2nd half saw the 49ers, and Wilks in particular, dial up the pressure on defense, and force a ouple Matthew Stafford specials and put the game away 30-23.

For this being this tough a game, we came away pretty unscathed, Deebo and Aiyuk both had stellar games amid being battered and bruised in the process. I’m hoping they aren’t too hurt. Mainly because we have the quick Turnaround tThursday night game agaisnt the NY football Giants. Who somehow overcame a 28-14 4th quarter deficit to beat the game but hapoless AZ Cards.

It was a bit concerning that LA had their way running and throwing on our defense most of the game, but they beat up on what I think is a pretty good Seattle team as well. Still hard to tell who is what in this new NFL season, but the Rams suddenly look like a pretty solid team.

Still and all, opening 2-0 on the road is a good start for the 49ers.

Get our home opener on Thursday. Onward and upward.

Are the Rams the scrappy underdogs? They have Stafford and Donald, and a whole bunch of mid-level draft picks that are looking to make m=names for themselves. You have to think Seattle underestimated the Rams a bit as they built their 13-7 lead. Seattle was shut out 23-zip in the 2nd half.

Seattle certainly isn’t as good as the Niners, and this will be pretty much a home game, so I don’t see us letting down or coming out flat. A fast start like last week would be most helpful. We are healthy and ready. Got to bank as many wins as we can, and this is eminently winnable.

Got a buddy from Santa Barbara going to the game so I’m curious to see how loud it is and how much this turns into a home game. Would love to see a game in that new stadium. I’ve seen a ton of baseball games at opposing stadiums, but obnly one game at the Masoleum.

Let’s go!!!!

Need I say more? A rivalry for the ages, but one where there rarely seems to be a time when both teams are among the league leaders. I mean, for all the years and games played since 1950, this will be the 150th game (SF leads 77-68-3), they’ve only faced off in the playoffs twice. 1989 saw the 49ers stomp the Chris Everett led Rams 30-3 in the 1989 NFC Championship game. We won’t talk about the one we lost (fuckfuckfuckfuckfuckshannyfuckfuckfuck)

That being said, the Rams are coming off a fairly impressive win over what was supposed to be a contending Seahawk team. A team I’ve been saying should be cratering for the past 4 years. Maybe now it is happening. I was surprised that the Seahawks stuck with Geno Smith, as I really thought his 2022 season was an outlier. As it was, he went 16-26 for a paltry 112 yards as the Rams held Seattle to 185 yards total, and turned a 13-7 halftime deficit into a 30-13 win.

What worked for the Rams was their going 11/17 on 3rd down. We won’t give that shit up. The Rams defense stopped Seattle 7 of 9 times on 3rd down. The Rams held the ball for a whopping 25:14 in the 2nd half to 4:14 for Seattle. LA’s D got 2 sacks. Nothing crazy.

Seeing as this will be a home game, the Niners should win this going away. As far as petty goes, the 49ers are even going as far as to wear their home red jerseys for the game.

Hah!!!

Good game tonight. Vikings vs the Iggles. The Vikings have to be pissed to lose to the lowly Bucs. And The Eagles narrowly escaped Foxborough with a rainy day victory over New England. Picking the Vikes to cover in my pick ’em league.

Not that you can draw too much from the first game of the season, what with the shortened preseason, shortened training camps, less two-a-days, and the general idea that teams aren’t quite settled into the grind of the season and shaking out the kinks, but the 49ers sure looked like a well-oiled machine despite a few too many penalties. Pittsburgh is reliving the awful issues with their offense that they thought they fixed, and we handled their defense, despite a good game from TJ Watt, handily.

My usual prediction of Seattle crashing to Earth was flipped this offseason as I thought they drafted extremely well, and were poised to be at least a WC contender. But the Hawks could not have looked worse losing to the lowly Rams in a game that wasn’t as close as the 30-13 score indicated. At home no less.

Same with Cincinnati. They came out flat as a pancake against their Ohio brethren Browns and lost 24-3. Joe Burrow is coming off a calf injury and the offense looked awful and out of sync. KC lost to Deetroit, the Jolly Rodgers-less Jets beat the Bills, who suffered through 4 turnovers by Josh Allen, the perennial close-but-not-quite Chargers lost yet another heartbreaker 36-34 to Miami, and Dallas shut down the hapless Giants 40-0.

Of all these weird games, I have to say Seattle and Cincinnati looked the crappiest. At least of the teams that were supposed to be good.

Is Dallas for real? The early hype machine says yes. Reality? Who knows? Jerry’s Jerks get the Jets, coming off their emotional win over the Bills, so they look to fall back to Earth so Dallas will be the gigantic story of the NFL if they go 2-0.

The Niners will be just the usual methodical team who should dismantle the Rams and quietly go about our bidness.

Is Cincinnati toast? They get a tough home matchup with the Ravens. 0-2 is likely. Is Seattle finally getting their reckoning? They have a roadie in Deetroit, they themselves coming off an emotional win over the Puer Bowl champs. Could be. They also could fall 0-2 early on. KC looked sloppy and unconnected without Travis Kelce, and his status for Sunday’s game vs the Jags remains in limbo, but they did sign Chris Brown to a one-year deal, so there’s that, but KC on the road becomes a big early game.

Six months (and change), the 49ers left Pennsylvania bloodied, battered, and beaten. Young phenom Brock Purdy was knocked out of the game on his first possession, and the 49ers dream season came to an abrupt end.

Opening day for the 2023 season saw the 49ers back in Pennsylvania hoping to exact revenge on the Pittsburgh Steelers. Well, they did. Brock Purdy was repaired, quick in his decisions, and his uncanny sharp self, CMC tore the Pittsburgh line to shreds, Brandon Aiyuk shredded the Steelers secondary, and the defense shut down what was supposed to be an offense on the rise.

You can look at the numbers to see how bad the domination was, but needless to say, those who thought the Niners might come out slow were sadly mistaken. That includes a lot of talking wonks. Including Patrick Peterson, who said he saw a ‘tell’ in Purdy’s game, and he would get a pick or two. Instead, he gave up 3 passes in 5 targets, and two TDs (to Aiyuk). Ooops.

391 yards to 239.
37:23 to 22:37 time of possession.

The only things that were an issue were penalties and some miscues on the O line. The 49ers had 11 penalties for 85 yards. Spenser Burford had a hold to kill a drive, and a false start, and Colton Mckivitz had his hands full with TJ Watt. The Niner O line gave up 3 sacks, and a lot of hurries. Still and all, the Pittsburgh D line is one of the top D lines in the league, and Purdy was able to hot his guys for the most part.

The 49ers D came out playing fast and furious. Pittsburgh’s first 5 drives were four 3-and-outs, and one pick. Our base D was relentless pressuring Pickett, and Pittsburgh didn’t get anything going until under 2 minutes in the 1st half. Drake Jackson led the charge with 2 early sacks to stifle 2 Steeler drives.

All in all, a resounding victory. One with what looked like an injury-free day. Williams did go out for a bit, but it looked to me like he just had the wind knocked out of him.

Here we go. Game one. On the road. Upstart Steelers. Young QB. Punishing defense.

A great test for the 49ers to kick off the season. And we are the road favorites, getting 2.5 points.

The 49ers come in fully loaded and fully ready. Bosa is back in the fold and I would be real surprised if they limit him much. Kittle is questionable, but I suspect he’ll get in there. We still can’t seem to find a backup TE that can do much more that take up space, as Woerner and Dwelley had a combined 3 catches last season, and Cameron Latu injured his knee and may miss the season.

Mooney Ward is also questionable, which is worrisome, as Pittsburgh is going to attack the Niners secondary deep if we don’t get off the blocks and get pressure early and often. DC Wilks likes to be more aggressive with the blitzing, and I’m happy to hear that, because the Niners need to rattle Pickett and get him uncomfortable. Early. The longer Pittsburgh thinks they can hang with the 49ers, the better shot they’ll have.

They also have local phenom Najee Harris to lead their running attack. He’s as tough as the come.This game ain’t gonna be easy, but I think we can wear them down in the end. All about the mistakes and penalties. Purdy needs to pick up where he left off last year and make the plays in front of him.

Well, they dragged it out as long as they could, but the 49ers and Nick Bosa reached a deal that will give Bosa $170 million over 5 years, with a whopping $123 mill guaranteed.

Glad the front office finally got their collective heads out of each other’s asses and got this done.

Sure, it’s a gigantic deal that will be hard to work around next year, but the NFL is all about now.

Stay healthy, Nick.

Let’s get this shit STARTED!!!

We are apparently ‘close’ to signing defensive MVP DE Nick Bosa. Color me unimpressed as close don’t mean shit unless you are playing horse shoes, throwing hand grenades, slow-dancing, or trying to get your rocks off.

But I digress. At least Bosa isn’t say Deebo Samuel, a guy who lost a season, out of shape and hurt due to, in his words, HIS hold out. Bosa is pretty much a ‘pin-the-ears-back-and-kill-the QB’ guy who keeps himself in maniacally good shape, so the worry shouldn’t really be about his working himself into game shape. The goal is simply to get him SIGNED for fuck’s sake.

The longer this drags out, the stupider this organization looks. And this has been a pretty stellar effort for the team this last offseason to look like a bunch of dart-throwing monkeys. You have the Trey Lance fiasco, which if not for Brock Purdy, would have really hurt the team if Lance is as bad as he appears to be, the 3rd round kicker pick who is hurt, the 3rd round TE pick who dropped passes and then got hurt, Javon Kinlaw, and their misuse of top picks overall in their tenure, the Jimmy G jerkaround, Jet McKinnon, Aiyuk’s doghouse benching, Solly Thomas, Reuben Foster . . . on and on.

But this isn’t about throwing stones in glass houses, it’s about signing Bosa. GET IT DONE! I want him to be available for every game this season.