Forty Niners Forever

Not much to say other than Shanahan should go. He said in the pisser of a presser after the game that he plans on calling the same plays going forward with Lance in the game should he come back. In other words, he’s more than ready to risk Lance’s health to win games. Lance has played 3.25 games and he has 53 rushes. Sure, some are scrambles, but most of them aren’t.

Shanahan gives no fucks about the guy he traded three first round picks for. He seems hell-bent on getting the QB of the future hurt. I simply do not get it. And then he has the gall to say “it was a football play” “other teams do it all the time” “Baltimore and Buffalo do it”.

So? Does Buffalo run Allen between the tackles 3 times in the 1st quarter? I was pissed at Shamahan after the Super Bowl loss. I was more pissed after the NFCCG last season. Same blown leads, same failure. How do we start the season? Another 10 point collapse. Shanny snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.

Now this. Folks are saying that these play calls obviously means that Lance isn’t ready. But then again, how do we know this? Have they done anything more than run a vanilla offense with Lance for the most part? Of course. Shamahan has nothing on Vanilla Mike Nolan. Shit, look at our 2nd half. We couldn’t have played more turtle-like. Shanny never met a lead he didn’t want to fritter away. We get to the red zone and do we play action? Nope. Run run run, blocked FG for TD.

It felt like another 2nd half collapse was on the way but Seattle is vastly inferior to the Rams or Chiefs, and they didn’t take advantage of our wimpy offense. What should be a well-deserved gloat of beating the shot out of the Seahawks is instead an indictment of our head coach’s pig-headedness.

Nice game by the defense. Talafoa Hufanga has played phenomenal these 2 games. Pass rush was decent.

Here we are, week 2, we are already down our starting RB Elijah Mitchell for 2 months. Our TE, formerly known has Stone Cold George Kittle, is now Brittle Kittle. He is following the career arc of one Crystal Todd Shell, whose outstanding start to his football career (2 sacks and 3 picks, one for a TD his first season) was cut short by his 3rd year due to numerous injuries, and he was done with the game after his 4th year.

And here we are. down one game to the Seahawks. In week one. Everyone else lost, and they were expected to. Ans should have. Had not Denver fumbled the ball TWICE inside the 2, and failed on a third trip to the goal line. Seattle has been a thorn in our side since Pete Carroll was hired 12 years ago. The 49ers are a dismal 7-18 (including the 2014 NFCCG) in the Cheatin’ Pete era. Different teams, different QBs, different stadiums, different everything, Pete has our number. The song remains the same. Even now, despite all this they are 10 point ‘dogs to us. Us! The team the couldn’t do a damn thing right vs another supposedly weak team, the Chicago Bears.

But that was last week. Thing is, should we go down to the ‘Hawks, no matter by what measure, the howling for Jimmy G will be deafening. I could really give a shit. The only way I think they should make a switch is if Lance gets hurt. He HAS to take his lumps to learn the NFL game. Just like the 6-11 Justin Fields did last year. Just like the 3-14 Trevor Lawrence Jags did. Even the 10-7 Jac Mones Patriots.

There is only so much you learn from practice and clip-board holding. The O line, which seems to have played better on paper than they did on the field last weekend, needs to keep Lance much cleaner than they did vs the Bears. Neither team comes in having a very stout pass rush, but that didn’t stop the Bears from getting pressure with ZERO blitzes, and dropping 7 ment into coverage.

This game to me will tell me if Shanahan has learned anything this season. I’m sick of the numerous penalties. Sick of the false starts. Sick of the vanilla offense. Sick of losing ur starting RB to start the season. Again. Granted, this all leads back to the shortened preseason and the lack of pad-to-pad contact in the preseason.

But Shanahan needs to figure out a simple fucking rollout where the RT and TE don’t just run away and leave the rushers unblocked. Fuck me sideways, I see that shit all the time.

AKA, hopeless vs Seattle. Looks like this is shaping up to be another confusing mess of a season. Seattle, the team i think is going to hit the skids, even more so now without Russell Wilson, stands atop the NFC West with a hugely bizarre game against Russell Wilson’s new team. If humanly possible, Denver played a worse game that the 49ers. 3 trips inside the 3 to take the lead resulted in 2 fumbles, myriad penalties, and a grand total of 3 points.

Denver coach Nate Hackett (49ers QB coach Paul Hackett’s son) decided to run the clock down with 45 seconds and a 4th and 5 from the Seattle 48 yard line. A 65 yard FG. You have Russell Wilson for fuck’s sake. Go for it.

Anyhow, Geno Smith came out throwing short passes very effectively and got Seattle in the end zone twice for a 17-10 halftime lead. the 2nd half was a little more real as Seattle did nothing on offense and Denver marched up and down the field only to fumble away their chances. And their 12 penalties didn’t help.

What does that mean for the 49ers? Who knows? Are we as bad as that Bears game? Ask the Rams. Or the Cowboys. Well, the Cowboys ARE fucked with Dak out 2 months. One thing about Shanahan that I have to give him credit for is he usually comes back strong after a terrible loss. The 49ers started their run after that completely demoralizing loss to the Cards at home last year.

We are down our #1 RB again. But beyond that, we didn’t have too many injuries. Javon Kinlaw missed a few plays with an ankle sprain, but he came back and played.

Tell ya one thing, falling behind Seattle 2 games to open the season would be a bitch. Shanny and Co better devise some better protections for Lance in this game. Seattle’s defense played pretty well last night, and we know how snakebit Shanny is by Carroll.

I’m in a pick ’em football tourney, and wow. 6-9. I’m hoping I reach 7 tonight with the Broncos beating the hapless 0-3 NFC West denizens, Seattle.

But, the Super Bowl teams were both losers. The Giants beat Tennessee, KC did fine without T Hill, Miami won with T Hill, Green Bay did horrible without DaVante Adams, the Raiders lost WITH DaVante Adams, and a bunch of these games were decided in the end on either missed or made FGs. Cincy missed an extra point with no time left to win as their long snapped got hurt, and the Steelers won in OT. Indy and Houston played to a tie.

Then there’s us. What should have been a nice tune up win turned into a penalty-filled shit-fest as the defense committed 3 penalties on 3rd down to extend 3 different drives, both the offense and defense disappeared in the 2nd half to allow the 19 unanswered points, the Bears were singing in the rain after being outplayed for 3 quarters.

A very familiar story in the Shanahan era. Blowing leads late. Ever since that amazingly disastrous Super Bowl when OC Kyle Shanahn led the Falcons from a 28-3 lead to a 34-28 defeat at the hands of Tom Brady (31 unaswered points!), he’s had an amazing knack of gagging down the stretch. Whether by being too aggressive (Falcon game) too conservative (NFCCG, KC Super Bowl), goes wimpy on defense (yesterday), or whatever, Shanahan with a lead in the 4th quarter seems to be the kiss of death for the team.

Chicago started the game paying conservative, and it didn’t work. By the 3rd quarter however, Chicago tried going deeper with their passes. It didn’t really work until the ONE broken play to Pettis. It changed the entire dynamic. After that play the Niners defense played off the WRs to prevent the big play, and instead gave up easy short passes. So, we allowed them to go back to their original formula of short passes to slowly march down the field. All the pressure that we had put on Fields vanished as Chicago negated our pass rush with quick passes and decent runs.

Our run game was non-existent. Even though we got 176 yards on the ground, only 63 came from the RBs. Deebo, who is not even a part of the passing game anymore (2 catches, 14 yards), got 54 yards, and Lance 52. Mitchell is likely out for a long time, and Wilson isn’t gonna make anyone forget Raheem Mostert. Run blocking was bad, and pass blocking was worse. The Bears 4 man rush got pressure all game, and we did nothing to negate that. Dropping 7 guys into coverage allowed the Bears to stop our passing game.

We were out-coached.

Here’s an idea, Shanny. Since you insist on using Deebo as a running back, THROW to him out of the backfield. This would force defenses to cover him with a linebacker/safety.

Well, this is yet another Shanahan special. Another defeat snatched from the jaws of victory. Give Shanny a 4th quarter lead and he’ll figure out how to blow it. Sure, the team made a ton of mistakes but really, Shanahan plays the game so close to the vest for 3 quarters that he leaves the Bears in the game long enough for them to come back and win going away. The FG drive we had Aiyuk on the edge 1 on 1. Do we play-action to that side? Nope. We run up the middle for a 2 yard loss. Fuck.

Throw in 12 penalties, a bad throw by Lance, too many run plays to Deebo to go along with his fumble, and there you have it. An awful loss to a shitty team that we left hanging around. I was furious at the end of the season last year due to Shanahan and his inability to close the game, and I’m still in the same place now. Deebo should NOT be running so much. The Bears, who have a terrible defense somehow blanketed Aiyuk and Samuel to 4 catches for 54 yards. We threw downfield successfully 3 times in the 1st half, and of course We ran the ball all over the place. 176 yards. all to no avail.

Dre Greenlaw continues to be the drive-extending idiot on very important plays as he committed a needless facemask on 3rd and 12. The early penalty was bullshit, but so wa the call on Aiyuk for OPI. The refs did their damnedest to keep Chicago in the game, and they finally responded on a broken play on, you guessed it, 3rd and long. But they had a LOT of company in the penalty department. Our vaunted defense gave up one broken play for a TD on 3rd and long, and we simply fell apart. We went soft and got no pressure on Fields in the 2nd half.

We failed in every aspect of the game. Well, special teams didn’t do anything wrong.

But once again a Shanahan-led team trips and falls late. And he’s NEVER the one taking the heat for it.

Shanahan and company were absolutely out-coached today. Plain and simple. He went from conservative to more conservative. Matt (who the fuck am I?) Eberflus went into attack mode as the defense played scared and soft late to let the Bears march down the field to take the lead.

These off-seasons that aren’t really off-seasons inexorably move to a point in time where we ACTUALLY PLAY THE GAME!!!And here we are. There have been 2,355,873 articles written about our starting quarterback. There have been 4,348,294 articles written about our backup quarterback. Some good, most bad, and all utter garbage.

It is time to PLAY!!! Lance is getting his shot. Hopefully he will be successful, but no one knows. The NFL has created this 24/7/365 miasma of fucktitude and trashtrolling of any player or team that is coming up, seen as a possible star, or a possible bust. Not sure why he has generated more babbling than draftmates Mac Jones and Justin Fields combined but this is the cycle of madness. Sure, they’ve got a season in the NFL under their belts, but I mean really, DeShaun Watson gets less anger thrown his way than Trey. Jones went to a solid team and did fine. Fields went to a shitty team and struggled.

And, as the NFL would have it, we PLAY that shitty team. Da Bearsss. Just as Seattle plays the best QB to be run out of a given town, Russell Wilson and the Denver Broncos. Just as Baker Mayfield takes his Carolina Panthers up against his old team, the factory of sadness. Soon to be renamed the factory of sex offenders, but hey, got to give the NFL credit for getting these matchups on the books for the opening Sunday of the 2022 season.

We all know what we have and what we are. Kittle is becoming a little more fragile that I’d like to see, but I’m more worried about the O line.

Still and all, we should roll over the Bears like the Bills rolled the Rams. 30-13 Niners.

Let’s ROLL!!!

Or, As the Stomach Turns? Or, The Edge of Wetness? Die Nasty? Genital Hospital?

Funny, it sure didn’t take long for the narrative to shift from “wow, the 49ers re-signed Jimmy” to “by what game will the 49ers pull Trey Lance and insert Jimmy?” I even heard a question by one of the babbling nabobs yesterday on 95.7 the Game asking whether they thought Jimmy would be the #2 quarterback or not. Yeah, Purdy should be the #2.

My thought was, of course not. You don’t re-sign Jimmy and let him be the backup. You put him 3rd string so, he can, uh, well . . . knit blankets? Has the world gone mad? I swear, there is no such thing as journalism anymore. Everything is the hot take. Peter King came out and said that the Niners will make the Super Bowl. Then two days later he came out and said that Jimmy would replace Lance by the week 7 game against KC. Not really sure how that works, but hey, I don’t get paid to write drivel and spew inanities all day and night. Sure, I do it here, but I ain’t getting paid.

Lance even came out last weekend and said he was initially ‘annoyed’ by the Jimmy G signing. Well, that was ‘reported’ by SI’s Albert Breer. Lance’s reaction was ‘Huh?’

Breer immediately had to walk back his comment because it was utter fabrication, and that it was ‘presumptive’ of him to assume that Lance was annoyed. Instead, Breer said it was ‘complicated’. As in it was complicated in BREER’S head as to what Lance’s reaction may or may not have been in the immediate aftermath. But I bet he met his click quota.

I guess the deal is, write something outlandish and get ready to backpedal furiously.

Now, the big red herring on the table is that Justin Fields is pegging this as a ‘revenge’ type game because the 49ers passed him over in favor of Trey Lance. This is coming from Chicago WR Darrell Mooney. Ooooh. Wow. Are we quaking in our cleats? Oh no!! At least this came from a player, not an idiot scribe, but Fields, when asked for his thoughts, said: “I’m happy to be here. We’re here to play ball. We’re not worried about last year’s draft.”

Right you are, Justin. Another nothingburger. Of course the media points to this game being the sole determinant in who made the right choice at quarterback.

Whatevs. The 49ers will go 21-0 this season and win the Super Bowl, Lance will throw for 6,500 yards, throw 42 TDs and 1 pick, rush for 1,700 yards, and score 11 rushing touchdowns and be the Super Bowl MVP.

I’m betting my house on it.

The 49ers got their roster down to 53. Just a few surprises. The biggest being Nate Sudsy Sudfeld getting the heave-ho. Purdy pretty much matched the output (good and bad) of Sudfelt, so they went with the young guy. Thus continuing the downward spiral of quarterbacks named Nate.

I would have shit-canned Sermon over Hasty, and Skule is a little bit of a head-scratcher as he was decent covering a few line spots, and they lack experience and consistency on the O line. Cutting Jordan Willis I guess shows the depth we have on the D line.

Poe will likely land on the practice squad. Castro-Fields as well. Same with Q Knight. They all showed flashes of talent. I think we can put Hasty on the PS but I’m not sure. They recently changed the rules.

And, in the biggest surprise, UDFA GA Tech RB Jordan Mason made the 53 man roster. I’m sure he’ll pass Trey Sermon on the depth chart by Friday.

Here are the moves made.

As far as the practice squad goes, it can now hold 16 players – with 6 having more that 2 years NFL experience. The signings will be happening all day today. I’ll update as needed.

Are you kidding me? Hard to spin this any other way other than the front office and coaching staff has little to no confidence in Trey Lance being the quarterback of the future. At least this season. In a move I never saw coming, the 49ers hedged their bet with the guy that cost them 3 draft choices by signing Jimmy Capocola to a one-year $6.5 million deal. Either that or they will cut him after the week 2 Seahawks game.

I can’t even believe Jimmy would agree to this other than to think the team said, you can fight for your starting spot. Which makes little sense as they aren’t gonna bail now. At least I hope they don’t. I guess this isn’t terrible thing as Sudfeld (bye) and Purty sure aren’t anything but greener than Trey, but still, after hearing for 2 years how the plan is on schedule, they pull this out from under the feet of the soon-to-be starter.

For all intents and purposes, Jimmy is a great guy who is all about the team, and the players have always rallied around him, but this sure seems odd that they but both these guys in a fucking weird position. One bad game and the clamor will start.

What this also brings up is the fact that Shanny will have no compunction running Lance all over the place since he has his backup ready to go.

Don’t like this move at all, but I guess it is worth $6.5 mill to keep Jimmy off the Seahawks.

Well, thank God that was a practice game. Unfortunately, this team looks like it is going backwards. Whatever that was, it was bad. Sure, we didn’t have Deebo, Kittle, Aiyuk, Mitchell, Williams, and McGlinchey playing, but you’d think the offense would have done something. Even the meaningless 4th quarter touchdown would have done something for the guys, but alas, that pass was dropped by Norm Snead the IV. Soon to be Norm Snead the ex-football player.

10 penalties for 100 yards was also a bit unnerving as this kind of shit has been an issue in the Shanahan era. False starts mainly. This shows a lack of cohesion and discipline. Still and all, it was a tune up game. Thankfully they have 17 days to work on things.

On defense, Samuel Womack continues to impress with his solid breakup of a TD pass that turned into a pick, and another play on a TD pass that he broke up but was called for PI. Iffy call, but hey, he’s in there breaking passes up. We were also pretty much not playing our star defense with Bosa, Warner, Kinlaw, Greenlaw, Moseley, C Ward, and AA all on the sidelines.

So, not much to take from this game other than it gives the coaching staff something to point at and say, don’t try to pull this shit off in the regular season. I’m glad they lost because I remember the bad old days of Aluminum Mike Singletary saying ‘Every win is important,’ going 4-0 in the preseason, and then going 4-12 in the regular season. So, no, pre-season games are not important.

Hopefully we can pick up some interior line help come cut-down day. But it is now the quiet before the storm.