Forty Niners Forever

In a game no one expected to be competitive, the 49ers and Raiders got into a shootout of pretty epic proportions yesterday as the 49ers outlasted the Raiders 37-34. The normally stout Niner defense gave up 254 yards and a 100 rushing yards. At HALFTIME. And, if not for the early goal-line stand, the lead very well would have been 24-14 at the half.

A lead the Raiders got anyway as Jason Stidham sliced and diced the Niners secondary, mostly Demmodore Lenoir on DaVante Adams, and ran effectively. The vaunted 49er defense was definitely caught sleeping and overlooking this Raider team. Jacobs ran well, and play action burned the D relentlessly to the tune of 500 yards given up.

So, is this a scary-ass game that exposed our weaknesses? Or a wake-up call to the team that they can’t overlook anyone at any time.

If anything, this gave our young gunslinger Brock Purdy a chance to show what he can do when the defense isn’t suffocating their opponent and the kid is down 2 scores late. Well, Purdy came through with flying colors. Purdy had like 75 yards passing in the 1st half but had scored 2 TDs. The 2nd half saw him throw for 200 yards and finally lead the Niners to victory after overcoming the 10 point deficit and the late missed FG by Robbie (not so) Gould.

CNMC had a huge game running the ball for 121 and a score, and 72 receiving yards, Jordan Mason added a TD run late, and Brandon Aiyuk had a big day as well going 9 for 101 and a 16 yard scamper late. The defense did get shredded, and I didn’t see us adjust by blitzing at all, but they came up with big plays late to seal the deal. Neither team got a sack, but the 2 picks by Stridham were a direct result of the pressure put on him.

So, this game was a great learning lesson for Purdy to overcome adversity, and for the defense to get this shit game out of their system. Pretty much a best-case scenario where you learn some things, but still get the win. Turn the page. Learn from the mistakes. 9 in a row.

Niners / Raiders used to mean something. It wasn’t very long ago that the teams agreed not to play in the preseason for all the fighting and mayhem. Now? Well, this is another home game for the Niners in the Roomba as the ticket purveyors are saying sales are around 70% to Niner fans.

Crazy that the Niners get games in LA that are home games as well. The league in its infinite wisdom is all about teams fleecing cities for stadiums to get built for fan bases that don’t exist. The Chargers had a huge following in San Diego and they had a promise from Alex Spanos that he wouldn’t move the team. Unfortunately that promise went to the grave as son Dean promptly moved them to a city and stadium that doesn’t care.

The Raiders? Same shit, different city. I’m sure ticket sales will be fine, but it will be predominantly away fans. The players must be bummed because both owners moved away from rabid fan bases.

Anyhow, have a happy and safe New Year’s and let’s keep the ball rolling.

Steve DeBerg, where are you? Strange times in Las Vegas as the ‘leadership’ of Tweedle-Dee and Tweedle-Dumb decide their future is to jettison the guy who has played with more guts and passion this year than McDaniels and Prince Valiant have shown their entire lives. Mark Davis is hell-bent on setting the franchise back a couple-three years while he tanks this season by benching Derek Carr for Jarrett Stidham for a shot at what? Will Levis in the draft? Carr has been the scapegoat for the Raiders issues lately, but the problem is really the head coach Josh McDaniels and his propensity to blow leads late.

The Raider players have to be completely demoralized seeing their head coach and owner give up on the season with a shot to get into the playoffs. Remote as it is. Say what you will about Carr but he, Adams, and Jacobs are busting their asses to win games while Davis and McDaniels play grab-ass on the sidelines.

Like the Cowboys of a few years ago, they are a team loaded with individual talent and no impetus to play as a team. Offensive and defensive stars but no leadership. And this is after the players lobbied long and hard for last year’s interim coach Rich Bisaccia and his staff. The Raiders were majorly fucked up after the Gruden affair, and the Ruggs tragedy. Bisaccia got the team into the playoffs and nearly beat the AFC champ Bengals and is rewarded with his walking papers. Leadership.

This looks worse than the Irsay/Saturday debacle. Danny Snyder is likely the worst of the worst in this carnival of thieves, but these guys are sliding down the turd pipe as well.

Good new for us though as we will likely have about 80% Niner fans in the Big Roomba in the desert, and the game should be decided by halftime and we can rest our starters.

Go back 2 months and no one would have the Niners, packers, or the Bucs in the playoffs. But thanks to an 8 game winning streak, and the emergence of Brock Purdy, for the Niners, and a lot of sucking in the rest of the NFC, gives us this possibility. Both the Packers and Bucs are 7-8. Brady even pulled off another ‘epic’ coma-back at the hands of the Arizona Cardinals. Like the Saints game before it, AZ stumbled, bumbled, and fumbled their way all over the field while giving Brady about 76 opportunities to win late. Which they finally did. They amazingly lead the NFC South by a game over the Saints and the Carolinas.

Same thing with A-A-Ron and the Packers. 4-8 and losing to everyone, they’ve reeled off 3 straight and all the teams around them in the hunt, the NYGs, Deetroit, and Washington all lost, and they now control their destiny. Sort of. But their chances did go up from 15% to 29%. Beat the Vikes and they jump to 52%. Win out and it goes to 89%. Silly. Miami and Tua Tavailoa helped tremendously by giving the game away with 3 late picks and Rodgers went 24/38 for 238. Tua later went back into the concussion protocol as Miami’s slide from the top has been precipitous.

Thought we wouldn’t be blessed with the old school QBs, I mean come on, man. But they are hanging around. Mainstays Dak Prescott is out there winning games. As is Jalen Hurts and the ascendant Iggles. And the shit-show that is Kirk Cousins. I still don’t believe these teams are for real. Sheesh. The NFL seems to be full of a lot of mediocre teams that can win at any time, or reel off 5 losses in a row. Hello Vegas. Even THEY are still mathematically in the race. Even sillier.

The Niners? SF has clinched, and we have Brock Purdy. The biggest surprise since what, Tom Brady 21 seasons ago? Kurt Warner? Something like that. Looking at the state of the NFC, and we are starting to look like the best team. Our defense is playing at its highest level and the offense is loaded with weapons.

Much is being made of what to do going forward for the Niners, but history paints a picture of teams that let off the gas earn an early playoff exit. And I guess the impetus to get that 2nd seed is enough to push for these last 2 wins. Minnesota has the packers and Bears to close out the season. Those early losses may bite us, but that shit is ancient history and hitting the road for our 2nd playoff game wouldn’t be too onerous. But beating Washington again won’t be easy. That defense is legit. The Giants? Meh.

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On the injury front, it looks like we very well could have Elijah Mitchell AND Deebo Samuel available for this playoff run. That would be most excellent.

The Brock Purdy train keeps rolling along. Against the toughest defense he’s seen so far, Purdy got a hard-fought win over the Washington Generals. Purdy used a revitalized George Kittle for 2 scores, a big 4th down conversion, and 6 catches for 120 yards. Washington pretty much dared us to throw by packing the line and stifling our run defense. And it worked for the most part, but for an end around by Ray Ray McCloud, which garnered 71 yards and the first score. Half our rushing yards for the day.

Purdy was an efficient 15/22 for 234, 2 TDs and a pick. The pick should have been a 12 yard completion but Jennings batted it into the air for the INT. Which led to the tying score. Shanny did a good job of calling plays today I must say. The red zone offense wasn’t all that, but Shanahan is designing play-action plays that work. The first TD to Kittle was a designed pitch to CMC with the option to throw.

The kid makes good decisions. Defense is on fire. Keep rolling.

Merry Christmas all!!! All I want for Christmas is Super Bowl 6.

This looks like the wrong week to step off the gas for Kyle Shanahan. More like he wants to step on Danny Snyder’s throat. Troubled waters run deep, and the Shanahan family is still pissed at the way Danny (#metoo) Snyder micro-managed and bad-mouthed the Shanahans as Snyder whispered behind the scenes that he would override Kyle’s dad Mike’s QB decisions as the team imploded.

So, I think this one is pretty big on Kyle’s radar. Washington’s defense is surprisingly good this year, and looks to get better with DROY Chase Young making his return from a knee injury. They are 3rd in yards allowed and 9th in points given up. And they have a crop of stud WRs in McLaurin, Samuel, and Dotson.

Their offense is not too dynamic, but they did have Carson Wentz stinking things up to start their season. Heinekie is nothing special either, but still, they have a dangerous set of WRs. Should be interesting anyway given Shanahan’s abject hatred for Snyder.

Step on their throats and don’;’t let up.

Still one of my favorite sound bites from the history of post-game interviews. Colts head coach Jimt Mora was asked about his team’s fading playoff hopes after a loss, and went on his mini-tirade. “I just want to win a fricking game!!”

Anyhow, the 49ers are NFC West champs, and the #3 seed in the playoffs. The Minnesota Vikings are the 2 seed, one game ahead of us. We would own the tiebreaker should we end up tied with them. And Indianapolis did us no favors by choking away the largest lead in NFL history. A 33-0 half time lead ended up not being enough for Jeff Saturday. It sure was interesting to watch as everything the Colts did backfired and Indy simply couldn’t get out of its own way.

But the real issue is, how hard do we try to gain the 2 seed. Being the 2 would keep us from playing the Iggles on the road in the divisional round of the playoffs, and we would instead play the winner of the Minnesota Washington (or Giants) at home.

So I guess it is a pretty big deal. But does it justify putting all the starters at risk for 3 games? I’l love to see the 49ers play the starters like 1.5 quarters and coast home these next 3 games. I guess this is all fluid depending on what Minn does. I mean, in theory we could catch the Eagles should they stagger badly. Doubtful, but hey. it’s out there.

I just want to see the team hit the playoffs as healthy as possible.

In a game with huge playoff implications for both teams, clinching the West for us, and kicking Seattle out of the hunt for them, Brock Purdy led the 49ers to their 7th straight win to clinch the West. Playing with a strained oblique (why do baseball players miss 8 weeks with a strained oblique?) and bruised ribs, Purdy calmly led the team to victory in one of the most difficult places for opponents and especially us to play, Seattle.

The 21-13 score ended up being more of a nail-biter than it should have been. The refs did their best to keep Seattle in the game by negating a pick 6 on a hit that was pretty much a textbook hit-the-QB-on-the-chest move, but nowadays you have to somehow alter your trajectory once you have shed a block and leapt toward the QB. And there was a great play where we got called for THREE penalties on a single play. The best part was Nick Bosa was grabbed around the neck and twisted down from behind and while trying to keep his balance knocked the helmet off the lineman holding him. Penalty Bosa.

Robbie Gould even got into the act buy missing a field goal that would made it a 3 score game, but alas, no luck there either.

Still and all, the defense did a great job stifling Seattle’s dink and dunk offense, and Dre Greenlaw had the hit of the night when he blasted Homer all the way home and caused the fumble that Mooney took down to the 5 for a quick score before the half.

Got to say, this game showed a lot from the young Brock. He read through his progressions, esp on the 2nd TD to Kittle when a slant to Aiyuk lined up on the right side was the 1st read, and he looked to the middle for something, then saw Kittle wide open on the left. Yeah, he had the dropped pick, but hey, them’s the breaks. He showed a lot of guts getting through that game hurt, and was 11-11 to start the contest.

Got to think Purdy needs the reps, but I’m of a mid to treat these last 3 games like preseason ones. Give the starters 1.5 quarters and rest them the rest of the way.

NFC West champs. With our 3rd string QB. Feels great, baby!!

This improbable season of weirdness continues with a trip to Seattle and the opportunity to clinch the NFC West. This seemed very unlikely as we stumbled out of the gate by losing our starting quarterback and losing to the 3-10 Bears, and the 3-10 Broncos. Both eliminated from the playoffs already. This team has even overcome losing their once and former leader Jimmy Garoppolo.

So, here we are with our 3rd string guy, the improbable Brock Purdy, taking the NFL by storm and taking no prisoners. Purdy is even coming of an oblique injury suffered early in his first start, against Tom Brady. So, the 22 year old is racking up quite the impressive resume in his rookie season. One that could rival Brady’s epic rise should things go even more improbable.

But let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves. As the NFC stands now, we are the 3 seed at 9-4. Win on Thursday and we are 10-4 with the West won. The only thing in play for the Niners would be getting the 2 seed from the Vikings at 10-3. We own the tiebreaker with them, for now, based on our better conference record, but it doesn’t change much as we would play either the Giants or the Redskins, uh, Generals, uh, Commanders in our 1st round game. Either one of those teams is eminently beatable, so the 2 or 3 seed isn’t a big worry. We can’t fall behind the Bucs, so we have a home game regardless. Dallas and TB is pretty much a lock as the 4th seed and the highest WC.

Which means, win this game, and treat the last 4 like preseason games. Give the 1st string offense a few series, and bring in the backups. Same with the defense. I sure didn’t see this coming when we were 3-4 and had just gotten shellacked by the Chiefs.

In the never-ending parade of injured 49er quarterbacks, Brody Purdy joins the list as he is undergoing an MRI on his oblique that he apparently strained during a 2nd possession scramble. I guess we will find out later today, but wow, the fun never ends.

This Seattle game has lost the bigger picture of being one that would determine the winner of the NFC West, but Seattle would be eliminated if they were to lose on Thursday. A win by them would still put them a game back, and even if they tie us, we hold a better conference record so the West is ours to lose. But this is Seattle. A team that always gives us fits. Well, except for earlier this year when Jimmy G came in as savior of the season. The 49ers have exorcized a lot of demons this season, flopping on a national stage, losing to the Cards, losing to the Seahawks, losing to Russell Wilson (ooops, not ALL of them), losing after the bye, so the hope is we can win this one, even if it happens to be with our 4th string QB. One that looks kinda like Geno Smith, the Seahawks QB.

Yesterday’s game was awesome in so many ways, but if we lose Deebo AND Purdy for any length of time, this season may fade away. Maybe Lance can come back? Who knows? The merry-go-round continues to spin.