San Francisco 49ers Forever

Let’s hope we don’t play like Betty White..

A true original. RIP, Betty.

And Dan (Mr uptight) Reeves died as well. The guy who shackled John Elway and lost a couple Super Bowls.

Shamahan thinks he’s playing it coy by not announcing Lance as the starter? Please. If Jimmy goes out there, he’ll be handing it off every time. Come to think of it, if Lance is out there, he’ll be running it every time.

I don’t know where we are going or what we are doing, but this season is a travesty, and this coaching staff is not giving me any comfort that they know what the fuck they are doing. I just hope that if they trip over their dicks at the finish line and don’t make the playoffs, Shanny and Co get the old heave-ho.

I ain’t holding my breath, but this season brought all the issues with Shanahan to the forefront.

A sad day for football, and a sad day in general. Local boy John Madden passed away yesterday at the age of 85. A life well-spent is a life well lived, and Madden embodied that to a T. His family moved to Daly City when he was a youngster, and he played alongside John Robinson at the JC College of San Mateo. He then went to Cal Poly SLO where he starred as an offensive tackle.

Drafted by the Eagles, he suffered a knee injury in camp that ended his career before it started. While trying to rehab, he spent a lot of time watching film with Eagles QB Norm Van Brocklin as he explained what was going on. His knee never recovered, so he took an assistant coaching gig in Santa Maria, CA. From there he went to SD State as their defensive coordinator and coached under offensive guru Don (Air) Coryell, who put that program on the map as a top small college school.

Al Davis hird him as his LBB coach in 1967, and by 1969 ws named head coach when John Rauch bailed on Dirty Al and went to Buffalo. Amazingly, Manned never had a losing season as a head coach for his 10 year tenure. He missed the playoffs only twice in that span, and won the 1976 Super Bowl over the Minnesota Vikings (“Old man Willie!”) 32-14.

Growing up a 49er fans, it was pretty much carved in stone that you didn’t like the Raiders. That’s just how it was. And while I hated the organization, I did dig a lot of the players. Ted Hendricks, Dave Casper, Daryle Lamonica, Lyle Alzado, Kenny Stabler, Phil Villapiano, Fred Biletnikoff, and especially the mad scientist keeping all the mayhem under some semblance of control, John Madden.

Even before the Miller Lite ads made him much more famous than his coaching career ever did, and he became the voice of the NFL for 38 seasons, he was a larger-than-life personality that wore his heart on his sleeve, and was fiercely loyal to those who played and bled for him and those he was close to.

Madden was portrayed in ads as the guy next door who it would be great to watch a game and drink a beer with, and he WAS the everyman coach, the blue-collar guy who was connected to his players, treated them like men, and imposed little rules other than ‘show up and come to play your ass off.’ This came to the forefront in the way Bud Grant had so tightly wound up his players for their Super Bowl games, that they invariably failed. Much like Bill Walsh after him, the drive to be a great coach, and the effort it took to produce a championship football team took a huge toll on him physically and mentally. The day-to-day stress was too much, so after 10 years he hung it up.

The rest, as they say, was history. So, come Sunday morning, as we watch the kickoff for whatever game happens to be on, raise a toast to the man, the coach, the announcer, and the legend, John Madden.

Rest in Peace.

Well, I was bummed that the team wouldn’t make the switch after yet another deflating performance by Jimmy G, but he done and gone hurt his thumb somehow. Sources say John Lynch was seen walking out of the training room with a hammer in his hand that he quickly threw away, but it is not verifiable. The tweet did go out however.

So, here we go, ready or not. The Trey Lance era will begin. Jimmy G’s torn thumb ligament and bone chip will keep him out for the rest of his contract, so he leaves the team on a sour note. But we have not come here to praise Garoppolo, but to bury him. The team and its middling playoff hopes now are in the hands of Trey Lance.

A playoff scenario that as of now we are not in control of. We are still a decent shot to get in, but should the Niners, the Eagles, and the Saints all win out and go 10-7, we somehow lose the tiebreaker despite our win over the Eagles. If the Saints lose, I think we have a much bigger shot to get in.

But hey, before I found out Jimmy got hurt, I wondered what would happen if we made the switch anyway. Jimmy obviously wasn’t consistent enough to take us far in the playoffs, and the thought was just make the switch, playoffs be damned. Let Lance take the wheel and drive.

So here we are. Let the fun begin. I just hope Shanny doesn’t get Lance killed by playing him wrong.

All I want for Christmas is a new quarterback. Not gonna get my wish tho. Funny thing is, we didn’t lose our spot, and we have the tiebreaker over the Iggles and Vikings, so we would really have to tank to miss the playoffs. Meaning 9-8 prolly gets us in. After that, who knows?

So, have a Merry Christmas folks, enjoy your loved ones and enjoy the football weekend.

Man, only 3 games left of this crazy season. And as this is likely one of Jimmy G’s last starts in a 49er uni, it is fitting to look at his last Tennessee game. The one where he led two late scoring drives to beat an actual good team fighting for their playoff lives in the Tennessee Titans back in 2017. It was the impetus to sign him to a big deal as he won 2 games before that one, and 2 games after go to 5-0 that season.

Those 4 years have been rough on Jimmy, with the knee injury, and late collapse in the Super Bowl, and the high ankle sprain last season. Which has led to the Trey Lance era next year.

But hey, let’s revel in Jimmy’s resurgence, hope it continues, and raise a glass for Steve (Skeebers) Beigel one last time. RIP, my friend.

Quite the extravaganza for football fans this week. Yesterday had the Raiders Browns tilt that saw Big Dick Nick almost pull out his victory. Instead, the Raiders kept their faint playoff hope alive by winning on a 47 yard FG.

The late game saw the Vikings completely get flummoxed by the entire backup defensive backfield of the Chicago Bears. Unreal game that saw Chicago not only shoot themselves in the feet numerous times, but then they cut their arms and legs off to seal the deal. They outgained the Vikings, and held Cousins to 84 yards. Chicago got nearly 200 more yards than the Vikes, nad even got a pick, but they turned the ball over 3 times, including the dreaded muffed punt, and had 3 gigantic penalties, a big fight, and a couple ejections. The Morons of the Midway.

The refs were letting everything pretty much go until a few questionable calls went against the Bears and Matt Nagy. He joined in the fun and got a personal foul of his own. Justin Fields was all over the place, and the Bears were God-like between the 20s but their 7 trips to the red zone, they turned the ball over 3 times on downs, had 2 fumbles, and a blocked FG. It was only until the LAST play of the game that the Beards came up with a TD.

Matt Nagy looks to be gone, but the Bears played very hard, if not utterly stupid. That being said, I want to sign EVERYONE in the Bears secondary. They had no notice and they all came up huge. How good are the starters if these backups were so solid?

Thursday of course is our tilt on a short week, and on the road as we travel to Tennessee to play the Derrick Henry-less Titans. They are certainly a different team without Henry, and Tannehill certainly can throw picks with the best of them as he leads the league with 14. Tied with Lawrence and Burrow.

Our resurgent outcast, Jimmy G, vilified by this very guy has really turned his shit around as he played his most complete game in a long time against those Bengals, and especially the Falcons. After 8 TDs 5 picks, and 2 lost fumbles in his first 5 games, Jimmy has settled down with 10 TDs, 3 picks, and no lost fumbles in his last 6 games.

Gone as well were the high throws that plagued Jimmy throughout this season. The run game has really started clicking with Wilson back to fine fettle, and others coming back to heathiness.

We will see what Thursday brings, but I like the team’s chances now rather than 8 weeks ago. AZ is stumbling, and Rams still have a game against us, and we are getting hot at the right time.

Solid win over an overmatched opponent, but as you all may have heard, Skeebers, the guy who ran the 49ersOutsider blog, and frequent nemesis of mine and others, passed away on December 11. Skeebs was a very good writer, and for the most part his stuff was enjoyable. We frequently butted heads over tangential bullshit, but the man was a true 49er fan whose faithfulness to the team was readily apparent. Funny thing is I’m still banned, I guess in perpetuity, but I hope Skeebette sees the words caught in the anti-unca filter.

So, Thursday night before the kickoff with the Titans, raise a toast to Steve, and drink in his honor.

Good night sweet prince.

Here is Skeeb’s obituary

https://www.candfservices.com/obituaries/steven-wayne-beigel/

. . . Kyle Shanahan is now out of MY doghouse. Even DeMeco Ryans has poked his head out as well. Looking back on the season when we were at 2-4, the defense was stagnant, Bosa was being blocked and chipped (and held) to oblivion, the DBs were getting PI’ed to death, the run defense was terrible, and we couldn’t stop opposing teams on 3rd down.

Offensively, Kyle was questioning his own ability to call plays, he had sort of dallied with Trey Lance coming in for certain plays, Kittle was hurt, Aiyuk was in the doghouse, and the revolving door of injured running backs spun like a top. The only good thing about the offense was Deebo Samuel.

Now? Well, things aren’t perfect by any means, but the team hit its stride in the Rams game by putting Deebo Samuel in the backfield. Samuel proceeded to rip off long runs and score TDs at a Jim Brownsian rate. Even as a decoy this freed up Brandon Aiyuk, un-hurt George Kittle, and even Jauan Jennings as the passing game started to click with a better run game behind it. The 49ers controlled the clock, and won some big games. Namely against the Rams and the Vikings.

Defensively, with Dee Found on Road Dead dead and gone as a 49er, DeMeco Ryans started moving Bosa around to the right side so as not to tip off where to double team or chip him. This has paid off in spades as Bosa has gone from 5 sacks in his first 6 games to 9 in his last 7. Also, with the loss of Kinlaw, Armstead has become the steadying force as an inside run stopper, with the help of D.J. Jones. In their last 5 games, they are giving up an average of 66 yards a game on the ground.

And still we are ravaged by injuries as this season progresses. Here’s the list of the missing yesterday:

LB Azeez Al-Shaair (elbow)
LB Dre Greenlaw (groin)
DL Maurice Hurst (calf)
CB Dontae Johnson (personal matter)
DL D.J. Jones (knee)
RB Elijah Mitchell (concussion, knee)

Johnson is dealing with his mother’s death, but the rest are very concerning. These aren’t rest days, and I’m sure more will come out before the game, but getting any one of these guys back would be a big help. Atlanta is one of the many teams chasing us in the playoff parity chase (thanks for stopping by, Flying V), so any loss going forward will hurt.

And it will re-open the door to the doghouse.