Forty Niners Forever

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.

In the immortal words of Slim Pickens, see above. Wow. Just wow. I’m seriously glad I had plans with friends, and didn’t watch this game at all or I would have been once again like Deebo Samuel and screaming at the walls. I did get home in time to see the overtime. And, well, Jimmy was 6-6 for 78 yards and the acrobatic TD by Brandon Aiyuk for the win.

It baffles me no end to see so much good, bad, weird, solid, but in the end inconsistent play from all sides of the team. Jimmy G for him played a great game under a lot of pressure and ended up 27-41 for 296 and 2 TDs. He would have had 3 had Aiyuk been able to make the play in the corner of the end zone so it could have been a little better, but Jimmy still overshoots guys and threw what should have been a pick in what should have been the game winning drive that Robbie (tarnished) Gould fucked up.

Speaking of shitty special teams, Wishnowski is punting for shit lately and got off a 29 yarder yesterday, and we already know about Gould’s shank, but Cincinnati really gave the Niners a huge assist with 2 muffed punts in the 1st half. Throw in a really ticky tacky taunting call, and the 49ers got 10 points off those mistakes.

And, offensively, having Deebo as our running back is paying huge dividends as defenses can’t account for him when he isn’t getting the ball, thus opening up passes to Kittle (13-151, 1TD), and Aiyuk (6-62, 1 TD), and when he is. Samuel had 1 catch for 22 yards, and 8 rushes for 37 yards, and a 22 yard score.

Defensively, the mixed bag was even more mixed as Borrow was under a lot of pressure, but stood tall in the pocket and got a few spectacular passses off immense pressure. Burrow ended up 25-34 for 348 with 2 TDs of his own. One on a crazy 4th and 5 that saw him scramble under pressure and find Ja’Marr Chase in the end zone, Of course we helped some with Ambry Thomas committing fairly incidental hands-to-the-face calls to negate a pick by Jimmie Ward, and a 3rd down sack by Nick Bosa. You know, we can’t get too far ahead to make the game easier.

Speaking of making the game easier, once again the Niners built a 20-6 lead early in the 2nd half, and were outscored 14-zip in the 4th quarter. Offensively and defensively, like the Seattle game, the team went flat on both sides of the bal. The important thing was 6-3 in OT, but this team needs to score consistently across the full 60 minutes to be a better more consistent team.

Hey, learn as we go? Matty Ice and Atlanta is next. The hope is we can healthy up and take someone to the woodshed. Shannys old team I’m sure wants revenge for his Super Bowl efforts on their behalf. Funny thing is, there are 5 teams one game behind us at 6-7, including those Falcons, so it would behoove this team to fucking kick someone’s ass, and give Shanny a shot at playing Trey Lance for a few series. These Goddamn nail-biters are really getting on my nerves.

Man, those Super Bowls were a long time ago. I guess it is good news we got flexed to a late local time of 4:25, but hey we still have to play. We have the usual raft of injuries, and Cincy has a strong passing game, and a solid run defense, so naturally I think we are gonna win. So far this year, this team zigs when I think it is gonna zag. 31-20

PS. Saw Lonnie Mack in 1995 in Buddy Guy’s Blues Club in Chicago. Got there about 8:00 and it was rockin’ till almost 3:00 am. Great time.

And the question is, Alex, what the fuck is wrong with the 49ers THIS year? As year 5 of the Kyle Shanahan regime staggers along, here we are once again down to a 4th running back we signed off the street in Brian (don’t call me Shaun) Hill, our team is injured up the wazoo, and the offense alternates between solid and terrible. We have no cornerbacks worth a damn as we banked on an oft-injured Jason Verrett (who lasted one game), Moseley is hurt, over-the-hill Josh Norman has been sucking large, and we even went to an even more over-the-hill Dre Kirkpatrick for a game or 3.

Sermon is hurt, Wilson is hurt, Mostert is of course hurt, and Hasty is coming off a high ankle sprain of his own. Mitchell suffered a knee injury along with his concussion last week, so again we are waiting until game day to see who our RB on the day is.

The Sermon pick in the draft looks like a complete waste when you see how well Mitchell is doing. It really seems like the guys we trade up for are immediately put into the dog house and must fight to leave it. Speaking of corners, the two CBs we DID draft have done little to nothing. Ambry Thomas, the 3rd round pick has yet to see the field as he recovers from not playing (??????) in 2020 and, 13 weeks into this season has yet to reach game shape. Demoniere Lenoir is not good at all and looks to be a wasted pick as he gives up PIs and catches like a seasoned over-the-hill vet (Norman). Throw in injured linebackers Dre Greenlaw and Fred Warner and you get the idea. Yes, football is a violent game, but whatever this training staff is doing to prepare these guys for football, it ain’t working.

The offense fluxuates between decent and horrible. The defense has been all over the place as well. Azeez Al-Shaair has been an unexpected bright spot recently, except the the horrible game he (and the whole defense) played against the injury-laden Cardinals. Special teams have been a disaster these last few games, and still we are in the playoff hunt at 6-6. Huzzah for the new playoff format.

Point to all this is, what are we? When we can run, we look pretty decent. Until Jimmy G throws a misbegotten pass to the wrong team. Jimmy says he wishes he could take one throw back from the Seattle game. My response was, I saw about 6 that he shouldn’t have thrown. Yeah, he’s pretty much a lame duck out there this season, but his happy-go-lucky approach doesn’t work when he is blindly chucking passes to no one in particular.

I guess his trade value would be better if he did better and we at least looked competent entering the playoffs, but we are at the point this season where one more loss puts us out of the playoff picture. Might be the time to at least give Lance a start. Hard to go back and forth with your QBs, but what exactly are we getting out of Jimmy but a half-assed effort? Starting Lance against a beateble Falcons team may be a start.

Not sure what it takes to get yourself fired in the NFL as these positions seem to be fairly carved in stone, but what is the deal with the special teams coach? I’m sure Richard Hightower is a good guy and is trying his best, but in the past 2 games, the special teams have been responsible for giving up 20 points. Missed field goals are one thing, but giving up a 73 yard fake punt with no one getting a hand on the guy is awful. The week before we gave up a 102 yard KO return for a TD.

Trent Cannon fumbled away a punt twice on the same play. Aiyuk makes fair catches inside the 10 yard line all the time. Him running backwards after catching the ball on the 9 was brilliant, but at least he didn’t fumble.

Hey, let’s try Travis Benjamin as a KO retuner! OK. Fumble on his 1st try. Kickoff coverage was terrible in the Seattle game and we all know what happened in the Minnesota game. Wishnowski has been punting pretty badly these days. Kickoff and punt coverage in general has been spotty.

Not that this is the only problem with the team, but this has been the most obvious. Jimmy G throwing picks is no new thing, and he is the model of inconsistency. Defensively, the same. They forced 3 3-and-outs in a row vs Seattle, but then gave up the ghost. Mainly because Emmanuel Moseley went down with a high ankle sprain. One that will keep him out for the rest of the year. Uh oh.

So, good news folks! We are going against the high-flying Bengals with our shitty backup cornerbacks Josh (call me Magnum PI) Norman, and Dontae (call me sourdough, I’m toast) Johnson. Shouldn’t be a problem.

Mainly because the NFL referees seem to have been given a mandate not to call holding penalties on whoever is facing off against Nick Bosa. Bosa is having a stellar season despite being held on about 80% of his rushes. Meanwhile Laken Tomlinson gets a holding call while doing nothing but standing near a DE. Got to love those Seattle refs.

This may be an ugly one unless we can control the clock by running. Oh yeah, Mitchell is in the concussion protocol. Wilson? Hasty? Hofer?

Don’t really want to rehash the fucking car-wreck that was this game, but yeah, what a fucking nightmare. Everyone caught a whiff of the stench that is this loss. Special teams, offense, defense, coaching, and officiating.

Funny thing is, we had a 23-14 lead late in the 2nd quarter. Then we proceeded to give up 16 unanswered points. Seems like the missed extra point really derailed our team. Whatever. Crazy fucking shit always happens in Seattle. Most consistently terrible is the officiating.

Seattle of course played this balls-to-the-wall as they always do against us, and Russell Wilson is 16-5 in his time as the Seattle QB. and we are 1-11 in our last 12 games there. So I guess we should be happy they are out of the playoff hunt if we somehow make it, we won’t have to end up in our little stadium of horrors.

Plusses are Kittle and Aiyuk both getting involved in the offense. The D created a lot of turnovers, and if not for the special teams giving away 8 points, well, the outcome may have been different.

They just need to get the funk of this game out of their jerseys and move on. Cincinnati on the road looks pretty challenging and they can score a lot.

Thanks to Jared Goff and the Detroit Lions, we are still in the playoff picture as the Vikings dropped to 5-7.

Just to be the bringer of bad news, the 49ers are 1-10 in Seattle since the 2012 season, including that horrific 2013 playoff loss. But here we are in the playoff hunt while Seattle is the one looking up at everyone in the NFC West. As we have seen, fortunes can change quickly in this parity-ridden NFL landscape. Russell Wilson, coming off his finger injury, cannot carry this team these days as the Seattle defense gives up tons of yards, and the offense is struggling to score points.

All that being said, I hate playing up there, and as noted we just don’t do well up there in Grunge country. This will be yet another game that we should win. Yet we also need to do what has worked recently. Control the clock. Run well and run often. Throw quick psses between the numbers and minimize getting Jimmy into bad 3rd and long situations.

Deebo is out, but Aiyuk has been performing up to his standards of last year. Mitchell is lead back, Wilson and Hasty will back him up as Sermon is hurt again. Time to get Kittle back into the mix as he has been forgotten as an option in the passing game.

And as usual avoid the turnovers. The only thing keeping Seattle in their games is the fact they get a lot of turnovers even as they give up tons of yards. As usual the fans will be up for this so we need to get the crowd out of the game and life will be much easier. They have turned on their team so get them down early and keep them down.

27-10 Niners.