San Francisco 49ers Forever

Got the kids coming back to town so I’ll be leaving this one up for a few days, but give much love to you and yours this Thanksgiving. As we just found out, things can change suddenly and life can become very different, so make sure those you love know you love them.

As for the Niners, in the NFL’s wonderfully weird scheduling proclivities, we get a Monday night game followed by a 5 hour flight across the country to play an early Sunday game against the Shedeur Sanders-led Cleveland Browns.

Like this previous game, and a few others this is another low-level scuffling team in the Browns. But there are a few reg flags beyond the short-week-3-time-zone-early-morning game. Jim Schwartz, he of the Jim Harbaugh handshake-gate game, seems to own Kyle Shanahan to the tune of his 7-1 record against him.

Also, Sanders is a pretty big unknown to everyone, and he managed to beat the (clown emoji) Raiders last week, so there’s that. They have Myles Garrett, disruptor #1 in the NFL these days. Also, Cleveland and wind and cold and wet don’t seem to agree with the pickoff machine that Brock Purdy is morphing into, so that’s another deal.

Then again the Factory of Sadness IS 3-8, so something isn’t perfect. Their 2 big wins against the Packers and Dolphins are in their house, but the Patriots, Steelers, and Vikings smoked them, and the Jets beat them. I’d call this a trap game, but with the entire defense being injured (Sam O is the latest MIA with a high ankle sprain), just fielding a team that has enough players is a challenge in itself.

They live and die by their defense and just enough offense. so it is incumbent on Purdy to knock the hero ball shit off and take what he can get. I’d like to see this game turn into a run-fest on our side but Purdy cannot wing the ball all over the field like he’s Dan fucking Fouts. Play within the game and grind out a 24-17 win.

Wow. I was worried about the defense when the offense shit the bed. Namely Brock Purdy. After the surgical 8 1/2 minute drive to open the game, Purdy proceeded to throw 3 interceptions to try and keep Carolina in the game. Not sure if this is due to his toe issue, but it sure looks like there isn’t a lot of power behind those deep throw attempts. the real bad one was INT 2 as we were on the doorstep ready to score, and Purdy had the 1st down by running, or simply dumping the ball off to Kittle.

Instead, he badly underthrew Pearsall and it was picked in the end zone. So, bad decision compounded by a poor throw. The 1st pick would have been picked by someone else had Purdy led Jennings properly. Instead he threw behind him, and was picked. The 3rd was simply CB Horn playing Purdy’s tendency of throwing deep crossers. He undercut the route easily for pick 3.

But hey, the defense came to play. I LOVED that Saleh came out and played press man early. It really slowed their offense down and led to the pick in the end zone. The only time we really let up on the press man was on their TD drive. But Brown had a game for the ages as he had 2 picks, and the defense stuffed the run. Still not a lot of pressure, but we did get Young off his spot and defended the short passing game we get killed with so much.

Chalk one up to Saleh and his defensive wizardry.

$29 million dead cap hit. But $85 mill in cash savings. Happy trails, Brandon Aiyuk. If the teams waits till after June 1 next year, they can even spread that dead cap hit out over a few seasons. That being said, I don’t really get what is going on with BA. For what all this is worth, I’m guessing that this is a problem between BA and Shanahan, rather than BA vs the front office. There was the weird episode where he wore the wrong shorts in practice a while back, Shanny called him out on it, and BA threw a very childish tantrum that the whole team saw. BA himself said he played a big part in screwing up the negotiations that set the stage for the mediocre play and then the injury. And he said he wanted to be here.

From what I gather now, Paraag cancelled BA’s contract early in camp when BA was not following team protocols regarding his rehab., a la Jimmy G. It has all been under wraps until recently when all this blew up. Aiyuk even went so far as to say he won’t file a grievance against the team for the contract cancellation. He apparently wants out that bad. So, there you go. The team hasn’t even opened up his 21-day practice window. I doubt they will. He will more than likely not set foot on the field this season, and get cut after June 1 2026.

Oh well. He can join Deebo on the Commandos and languish at the bottom of the NFC East together. Shoulda traded him for Terry McLaurin. Hah! Another diva WR.

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As for the Carolina game? All about the defense. If we can get any stops, we should win. The offense appears to be clicking pretty well. They even racked up a bunch of yards against the Rams, with Mac, but made too many self-inflicted errors. No mistakes from the offense and we should be OK.

These next 3 are ones vs the Carolinas, the Brownies, and the Tuxedos should be easily winnable. But as we know, nothing is easy with this injury-riddled team.

Another week another couple of crippling injuries. Now we are back to looking for a kicker as Dinero Pineiro got hurt trying his best Garo Yepremian impersonation, and Fred Warner’s capable back-up Tatum Bethune got the dreaded high ankle sprain.

The good news is I think Kyle Shanahan understands now that the imperative for this team is to score early and often. Granted the Cardinals are an unmitigated train-wreck of a team, but the 49ers offense with Purdy and Kittle rolling with CMC was looking sharp. I hope Pearsall joins the party this week as the WRs didn’t get too much action, but with the passing game clicking and getting nice chunks of yards, it’ll do a lot to keep the defense at least playing with a lead.

I’m not very enamored with this bend-and-break style of soft zone, but we don’t have any reinforcements getting healthy, so the hope is Nick Martin gets fast and furious, and Keion White / Sam O can get the pressure.

I would like to see SOME press-man, and some corner blitzes out of that, but we will see. Carolina isn’t the push-over they once were, but they aren’t the Rams either. Let’s see if these guys can put 2 games together.

Well, we keep up the string of L-W-L-W-L-W-L with the W. 7-4 is worlds better than 6-5, but it looks like we lost Bethune to injury. Not to worry for this game as AZ managed to shoot themselves in the feet about 20 times, I think they los 4 TDs to turnovers and penalties.

But, Brock Purdy looked pretty solid and Shanahan has seemingly come up with some actual plays in the red zone that don’t involve running up the middle repeatedly until Piniero comes in.

Speaking of Dinero. even he might be hurt after fielding a blocked PAT that resulted in him getting crushed when he recovered it.

Another day in Niner-land, eh?

Still a VERY anemic pass rush that resulted in zero sacks, but lo and behold, 2 picks!!! Demo Lenoir had a hell of a game and his pick and return really sealed the victory as the only thing at the time stopping AZ was AZ.

Hey, a win is a win, but wow. Saleh really has to abandon the soft zone 4 man rush. Trust the coverage as this pass rush did nothing all game. We have to rush 5 all the time. Otherwise we will get chipped to death like last week. And 3 weeks ago. And 5 weeks ago . . .

Purdy’s back. Pearsall’s back. Yay.

Demo is hurt.

All about the defense. No pressure on Brissett, no win.

Pretty simple, but the defense is not anywhere near healthy. Saleh should still be able to scheme a way to beat these guys, but they are always a thorn in our side. Lose and we are in big playoff trouble. Win and we are fine until next week’s batch of injuries.

Funny how Joe Burrow, who suffered a more severe toe injury AFTER Brock Purdy, is now scheduled to play this weekend after undergoing surgery for his more significant turf toe owie. The Niners of course rushed Purdy back in against the Jags, a fairly meaningless non-conference game, ony to see him hurt it worse.

More mismanagement of an injury due to the crack (smoking) medical staff?

I don’t fucking know, but why this team is always in the top 5 of injuries during the Shanahan/Lynch tenure begs the question of whether to do something different with the medical/training staff.

But I digress. Fuck it. The problem with this team isn’t really the offense anyway. Even the much maligned offensive line was fairly stout vs the Rams. It’s the defense that is ravaged by injury. As we showed against the Rams, it was the dumb 4th down call and the JJ fumble that sealed the deal.

Jones went up and down the field just as effectively as Stafford.

But here we are at week 11, wondering if Pearsall and Purdy are any closer to actually playing than they appear to be. Since our 3-0 start we’ve gone: L-W-L-W-L-W-L. Here’s to the next W.

Get the win and we are on the fringes of the playoffs. Lose this one and the season is more than likely done.

Well, we are officially looking in from the cold in the playoff race. All that good will and great division a conference record just flew out the window with this demoralizing loss to the Rams.

Hard to win when your entire defense is nursing wounds, but here we are at 6-4, 8th in the 7-spot race.

Yeah, there’s a long way, but no, we aren’t getting Bosa or Warner back. Let alone Williams or whatever.

At least we are consistently inconsistent. After our 3-0 start, we are L-W-L-W-L-W-L. We just had zero answers for the Rams today, and the Niners started answering the shootout when we were down 21 points.

Say what you will, but the offense looked really good but for a fucking retarded 4th down call and JJ’s fumble.

I get trying not to give up a bog play, but how many 3rd down conversions do you have to give up before you just send 9 guys on a zero blitz?

Whatever. AZ just goit rolled by the Seahawks, but if we want to have any kind of chance to go anywhere this season, they have to beat the Cards. I don’t like our odds at this point what with the defense just completely overmatched.

Well, as all our players slowly get hurt, no one seems to be recovering. BA, who was a possible starter before game 1, according to the crack medical staff, is now possibly out for the year. Brock Purdy and Ricky Pearsall are both minute to minute to hours to days to weeks to months from full practices, let alone playing a game. Fred Warner will be ready for the Super Bowl, and Nick Bosa is looking at being ready for OTAs in 2026. So there’s that. Yikes.

With that being said, and due to the fact that we are in great shape divisional-wise (3-0), and conference-wise (6-1), and even record-wise (6-3) I was a little surprised we didn’t make moves. For all that we are in 3rd place in the NFC West. We are in good shape but are we in playoff shape?

I just don’t see how this team can compete week to week with all these maladies. Recent taxi squad call-ups Clelin Ferrell and Robert Beal, and recently traded for Keion White are the latest replacement guys for the slew of guys who are out. Ferrell and White actually played pretty well last week, but it was the NYGs. But for all their suck, they have a very solid pass rush. And the O line played well enough to allow Jones to go 14-14 in the 1st half last week on the way to a solid win. With an actual run game.

Good news is Bryce Huff is coming back for this all-important game.

So, hey, maybe there is a chance. We limped into Levi’s South in week 5 and took one from them. Let’s do it again.

So, this is the deal. The 49er brass are in complete hedge-the-bet mode. No need to throw good picks after bad to improve the defense when we don’t know when our #1 QB, #1 and #2 WRs, # 1 pass rusher, #1 linebacker, #1 pick, and the various other guys on the shelf ever set foot on the field again.

So far we have gotten away with Mac Jones as our starting QB and he has done a fairly good job of keeping the team in games, and getting the victories. 6-3 is something I’d think the folks here would call success even before we became the walking dead. The D has been sporadic at times, and Shanny seems to be doing better in the red zone, but it is fairly easy to move up when you are 26th in scoring.

I wanted them to make moves of the low-level variety but I can see why they just figured, why even chase a chip when we have so many players down? A deep playoff run seems like a pipe dream at this point, even taking into account our 3-0 division record and 6-1 conference record. Both tops in the NFL despite being in 3rd place in our division.

Mainly because Brock Purdy remains off the field nursing his toe injury. One of course exacerbated by putting him into a game that was meaningless anyway. One that we lost anyway. But that toe has sailed. They created the jam they are in with Purdy.

Anyhow we are in the same situation that we were in when we played the Rams in week 5. A seemingly tall task that no one gave us a shot at winning. And that was before 5 more critical injuries.

Win this game, and our division record would be guaranteed #1 for any tiebreaker. Lose and we slide into the wildcard pack as both LA and Seattle look to keep their pressure on us the whole season. And we lose our tiebreaker with the Rams.