Forty Niners Forever

Sorry. Anyhow, the injury parade rolls along even during the bye week as Trent Williams and Javon (damaged goods) Kinlaw will miss tomorrow’s game against the Colts. Kinlaw’s knee tendonitis was known before he was drafted and it is why some teams shied away from him in the draft. And his predecessor DeFoBu is playing at a pro bowl level for the Ponies. This is worrisome as this team has plenty of healthy players that get injured, let alone ones who are already damaged (hello Dee Ford) goods before playing a down for us. 5 years of this and we’ve had one season of relative health.

But hey, everyone gets injured in the NFL, and one bad injury can sideline an entire season. Just ask Russell Wilson and the Seahawks. We’ll see how they do the next 3 weeks without him. But given the competition in the NFC West, the hope is we can stay ahead of them for the foreseeable future as he tries to get his finger back.

Us? Christ. Who knows. We have a couple ‘easy’ games on our sched in the Colts and Bears before we get back into the meat of the West. The hope is Shanahan has come up with some plays that will actually work. We have Mitchell, Sermon and Hasty back, so the run game should get back on track. Something that pretty much drives the Shanny offense.

Still and all, will that get the ball out of Jimmy’s hand faster? Will it speed up his progressions? He looks so indecisive these days, and the sub-par pass pro doesn’t help. Will we see Nate Sudfeld tomorrow? Like sands through the hourglass, these are the days of our lives.

Defensively, well, Carson Wentz has played pretty well for a little but, but please. Any kind of pass rush and we SHOULD be able to win fairly handily. But there is nothing easy about this season. Fucking Detroit almost took us down. And that was when we were healthy.

When I’m pilled you don’t notice him . . .
He only comes out when I drink my gin.

Stop me if you’ve heard this. Jimmy G looks to regain his form after coming off an injury. Mr. Inconsistent has another chance to ignore Brandon Aiyuk, but can’t try to kill George Kittle as he’s out yet again, no thanks to some ill-advised passes from said Dr. Jimmy. I really hope this 2 week break has given our ‘genius’ offensive mind time to figure out how to get players open and not get his quarterbacks killed. Granted, the pass protection leaves a lot to be desired, so this means quick passes and draws.

Unfortunately, everyone knows this bit of strategy and these plays haven’t been working. Reminiscent of our last 5 coaching staffs and their reluctance to throw deep given the pass pro problems. You’d think that at some point, they’d either figure out how to fix the line problems, but it is still a work in progress. McGlinchey and Brunskill both struggled mightily vs JJ Watt and the Cards last game, and who’s to say we have answers now?

These types of plays of course are predicated on our run game. Which has vanished in a cloud of injuries. Wilson didn’t make it out of the locker room. Mostert had 1 carry, Sermon was nearly killed on his first carry, and Mitchell has been battling shoulder injuries of his own since his first game. Hard to build a consistent run game when you are signing practice squad guys from other teams just to fill out your roster for game day. So, with no run game to speak of, the short passing game doesn’t work as defenses play us up close and personal.

Which is why this team needs to run 4-5 WR sets and spread the field ALL THE TIME. This at least gets SOME guys out of the box. It MAY open a lane or 2 in the run game and it MAY open up some quick passes. That is if Jimmy can find them. They also need to throw the ball downfield. Just to show it, more than anything. Put Aiyuk on the edge and throw it to him deep. It doesn’t even have to be real deep. Just enough to show teams that we know how do it. Seattle makes a living getting PI calls on plays like that. Us? Never. Come on Kyle. Come up with something new and different to get your playmakers the ball.

Say what you will about the sub-par performance of the team, at least to the outside world, there doesn’t appear to be dissention in the ranks. Jimmy G seems to be well-liked despite his mediocre results and frequent injuries. Lance had his one shot and was done in by his head coach who seemed hell-bent on killing him his first game. Starting your first game is hard enough in the NFL without your head coach saying ‘yeah, you carry the rock 16 times. You carry the team. We’ll rest our weary RBs while you take all the punishment.’

So, here we are in Week 7. We have a couple winnable games in Indy and Chicago. Games the defense should be able to dominate. Wentz is Wentz and is good for a pick or 2 with any kind of pressure. Chicago? Who knows? They are in a similar spot as we are, but they went ahead and made the switch to the rook Justin Fields. We’ll worry about Indy first. If Jimmy can’t win this game, then his tenure should be done as well

Might as well be now what with both our quarterbacks being hurt, and Kyle Shanahan’s hell-bent mission to get Nate Sudfeld on the field, and to coach himself out of his current job. Bummed about the Giants and how the season ended, but the bats went cold at the wrong time and the usual horrible umpiring. How Angel Hernandez gets a playoff nod is baffling to say the least. He’s year after year the worst at calling balls and strikes.

Anyhow, the football season is ready to spiral out of control as well, so this could be another long season of disappointment. Shanahan is not coaching well, and his play calling leaves a lot to be desired. I get being aggressive on 4th down, but you’d damn well do better 1 for 5 on 4th down. And 3 for 11 on 3rd down, for that matter. Shanny even said the play to Juice on the sneak was blown somehow. Yeah, it was blown because AZ saw the earlier tape and loaded the middle when they made the shift. Whatevs.

Point being, we are once again in flux as jimmy g was not playing very well before his injury, Shanny tried to kill his newly drafted QB, and the O line is still fairly porous in pass pro. We are 5 years into this current regime, and the team has no offensive identity, all the RBs are hurt again, and our WRs are either hurt or underused. Kittle is hurt again. Aiyuk is in the invisible doghouse, Samuel is doing well, but no one else has stepped up.

The season is early, and we have some fluff coming up, but we also have AZ again, and our first Ram game. These next 3 games will determine a lot the season. Beat the Cards and Rams and we are at least in the vicinity of the top. Otherwise, it is another lost season of disarray and disappointment.

And likely a coaching change.

Rams play the Giants in the house of horrors that is New Jersey, AZ plays the Browns on the road so there’s some hope there, andthe scuffling Seahawks play the scuffling Steelers on the road as well, so the hope is these home teams take care of business.

Game 5. What more is there to say?

Kyle Shanahan has a dislocated brain.

I tell ya, Shanahan seems hell-bent on shit-canning his rep as an offensive genius these days. Or even as a good coach. His play calling all season has been iffy. The Detroit game started fine, but the offense cratered in the 2nd half. The Eagles game saw the offense go nowhere for most of the 1st half. Green Bay? Same thing. 3 and outs, punts little offensive flow for the 1st half. Seattle? Ditto. Granted Jimmy G is not what they thought he was. Then there’s the AZ game. Trey Lance’s first NFL start.

What does Shanahan do? Put the entire game on his shoulders to do whatever it takes to win. So now he’s sacrificing his (the team’s at least) most coveted new player all for an early season win. Are wins important? Of course they are. But Lance ran 16 times. Most of them designed runs. Yes he got 89 yards. But he also suffered a sprained knee that will keep him out of action for a couple games. And he nearly got killed on that goal line run as he was put in harm’s way repeatedly by Coach Don’t-give-a-fuck. Eli Mitchell had 9 carries! 9 fucking carries!

Is this how you ease your new QB into the league? FUCK NO. Shanahan had him running all over the place. The routes didn’t have any outlet receivers as they were blocking for the most part. Kind of irksome to me was the way Trey got the Niners close, and instead of taking the early points, he had Lance roll out. Sure, if he was a little more seasoned, he could have held the ball a tick more and waited till the LB committed to Lance and hit Mitchell in the end zone. But he didn’t, and we all saw what happened. Instead of us getting points and Lance getting credit for a scoring drive, AZ took the ball and got a FG of their own.

Speaking of blocking, the line play has become a HUGE issue with this team. Brunskill and McGlinchey did little to stop JJ Watt or anyone else lined up against them. The 3rd quarter saw 5 holding calls on a couple drives. That Trey was able to overcome those and even get ONE score was pretty amazing.

I’m no fucking head coach, and I’m no goddamn GM, but I’ve watched the game for a long time, and what I see now in the NFL are quarterbacks like Russell Wilson, Kyler Murray, Lamar, Jackson, and Josh Allen. All these guys have excellent arms. They are also mobile. Christ, we had Steve Young for fuck’s sake. The prototype for all these guys. Can they run? Yes, they can run, but they are NOT used as running backs! Why? because they end up like RG III. A guy who Mike Shanahan used and abused till he broke.

Did Bill Walsh design run plays for Steve Young? Sure. Maybe a sneak or 2 or a naked bootleg a couple times a year. Shanahan seems to believe he is the be-all end-all for offensive coaches in the NFL, but he frankly is dropping like a stone in game preparation and getting fucking points on the board.

The good news? The defense once again held a team averaging 450 yards and 33 points to 305 and 17.

Offensive genius my wrinkles white ass. If I’m Jed, I seriously think Shanahan gets the boot after this season. This is year 5 of his tenure, and there is little to show for his time here but a huge pile of injuries, and a clock-mangled Super Bowl loss.

Christ. This team played like this is season one of a new regime, rather that year 5 of what was supposed to be the christening of the Super Bowl contenders. Penalties, mistakes, more penalties and some really shitty play calling led to yet another loss in yet another winnable game. Trey Lance looked like the raw rookie that he is, firing high passes (one for a pick) and missing guys. He ran well.At least on the plays that weren’t really designed for him to run.

Once again we outgained out opponent, 338 to 306, And once again we were behind the whole time. The 49wrs were an astounding 1 for 5 on 4th downs. Mainly because Kyle Shanahan seems very inept at creating a mismatch somewhere on the plays. Most involved trying to stuff it up the middle. The Cards must have watched the recent tapes, because when Kyle Juszczyk came into the play, 2 linebackers followed him and stuffed him at the line.

The biggest play of course was the roll out that Lance got stuffed about 2″ short of the end zone. The pass to Mitchell wasn’t really there, but he could have waited a tick to let him get open, but he made the charge. If he went high he might have gotten in, but woulda coulda shoulda.

Speaking of Lance, he had 16 carries for 89 yards. Shanahan doesn’t seem to think that he should maybe protect the investment. Much like dear old dad did with his mobile QB, Robert Griffin. Lance was all over the place, 15/29 for 192, but there were drops, and missed passes.

Most troubling to me is the fact that Shanahan is fucking hard with Brandon Aiyuk. Mohamed Sanu AND fucking practice squad guy Travis Benjamin somehow jumped over Aiyuk on the depth chart. So our most versatile playmaker was on the bench for the first few drives.

The defense played great and should have won this one. They even got a turnover. Something not seen for a while.

I’m starting to lose my good feelings for Kyle Shanahan. He is turning into his father in being very inflexible and pig-headed to the detriment of the plays called and the outcomes of games.

There’s a new sheriff in town, and his name is Trey Lance. Kyle Shanahan decided not to follow last year’s path of throwing an injured and ineffective calf-inflicted Jimmy G into a game and watching him throw picks and flail and lose. Of course, now we have Lance, not The Beater or BDN. As usual though we are down a tight end, George Kittle is nursing a calf injury of his own that will sideline him for 3 weeks. And of course our kicker also hurt himself warming up.

Too much ice time? Our former NHL training staff doesn’t seem to be helping the cause, but who knows? Jeff Wilson blew out his knee in the locker room for fuck’s sake. Maybe they should rethink their personnel there.

But, on the field we have our new quarterback getting his first start. The recent track new guys so far is not very heartening.

Trey Lawrence: 0-4
Zach Wilson: 1-3
Justin Fields: 1-1
Mac Jones: 1-3

The wins of course are Tennessee, the Jets, and Detroit. We are playing the 4-0 Cardinals. But we nominally have a better foundation to work from. Trey Sermon is running well, and, uh, Samuel has had some nice games. The offense is struggling badly though. AZ is bad against the run, so I don’t expect to see a high-flying aerial attack, but Shanny HAS to take advantage of Lance’s deep ball ability.

Teams are playing us just like the bad old days of smash-mouth drop-your-pants football of Gore left, Gore right, Gore up the middle, punt. 9 in the box. 10 on the line. Samuel has already caught a couple nice deep passes. Do it 3-4 times a game, not a season.

The D is doing well enough to win games. Barring the fucking Green Bay debacle. ButKinlaw is questionable, Greenlaw is still out, and Warner is the only guy that can keep Murray under some kind of control. We NEED a pass rush from the outside, and we can’t lose contain on the edges. Like we always do with mobile QBs. The Rams did great on controlling Wilson by doing just that. Set the edge so there’s a long way to run just to GET outside, and have the LBs pursue.

We’ve done fairly well against Murray and Kliff Klavin, so we’ll see.

And we are going the wrong way. The Niners started the season well enough, winning two roadies. Granted, the Lions and Eagles are a collective 1-7, and are dogshit, but I digress. I am a little surprised by the Eagles, but whatevs. Who gives a fuck about them? Coming home to the friendly confines of the Great America parking lot, with fans no less, the Niners shit the bed against two guys that have been thorns in our side for quite a while in Aaron Rodgers and Russell Wilson. Both games were winnable, both games were affected by turnovers and dumb mistakes, and in the end they were simply avoidable losses. The worst kind. Better clock management and Trenton Cannon simply laying on the ball and we could very well be 4-0.

But we aren’t. We are in last place at 2–2 looking up at the 4-0 Cardinals. Our next opponent.

We get to see if this team has any guts. I’m banking on Jimmy G getting the 3 week break, so Shanny gets to devise an offense around his new quarterback, Trey Lance. My hope is last week wasn’t a precursor of the style of play with Lance, because it looks eerily similar to the Jim Harbaugh/Colin Kaepernick 2-back clog the box offense. I don’t want to see read-option, short passes, and the packing of the box like that was. Lance has an arm and we NEED to exploit it. I don’t want to see Kittle getting killed on crossing routes, or Aiyuk ignored because he exited the limited range of Jimmy’s arm. Or bubble screens that don’t work because there are 10 guys up on the line.

You know, the good old days.

Well, that sucked. We have become the team that can’t afford to make mistakes. And yet, we made mistakes. And lost. Jimmy G is proving to be a turd on ice as we know he can’t hit the long passes, and now he can’t hit the short passes. After the obligatory injury to Crystal Jimmy, Trey lance came in and underwhelmed. He did direct 2 TD drives. but missed passes, got them batted down, hurried shit, and basically looked like a guy who does not have a lot of game experience. Not so worried about Lance yet, as he has time to grow into the job. Albeit, he’s now on the front lines.

More galling to me is the inability of Shanahan and company to get people open. We have a lot of weapons in Aiyuk, Samuel, Kittle, and Sanu. Dwelley even, who scored our first TD. Our run game however is back to the scrap heap as once again we are down to practice squad guys and no-names. Yes, part of this is the trickle-down effect as teams know we aren’t running well, and this means they KNOW we will lean heavily on the short passing game. Sermon though had a pretty solid game with 89 yards on 13 carries.

Which means they play us close to the line and take away all the effectiveness of the misdirection runs, the jet sweeps, and anything within 10 yards of the line.

Still and all, for all the 3 and outs and general ineffectiveness, the game came down to the usual. No created turnovers, a pick by Jimmy G, and the horrendous double fumble of a punt by last week’s hero Trenton Cannon. Those 14 yard drives are real back breakers.

The defense played well enough to win,. Dee Ford had a couple sacks, but he also had a motherfucking retarded offsides penalty that negated a 3rd down stop and instead created a 3rd and 1 that Seattle converted. A la the 2018 AFC Championship game. There was another critical penalty on Fred Warner. A PI call that was utterly ridiculous as Warner briefly touched the WRs shoulder pad on a 3rd down incompletion. No impeding or slowing or anything. That of course gave Seattle 20 yards and a 1st down to keep the TD drive alive.

Back to the offense though. Shanahan amassed 457 yards to Seattle’s paltry 234, but the Niners were the ones down 2 scores in the 4th quarter. The first half saw the Niners marching up and down the field but getting no points but for the opening drive TD because our kicker got hurt playing hacky sack before the game, or some shit. Our punter came in and stunk up the joint, missing a FG and an extra point.

So, here we sit, 0-2 at home, and in last place. We had a chance to put a pretty decent sized nail in the Seahawks coffin, but we gagged badly. And to top it all off, Trent Williams came out of the game with a shoulder injury. Huzzah. Once again the team is reeling from injuries and ineffectiveness. Next comes Arizona, the buzzsaw that is currently chewing up the NFL. But hey, we are 2-0 on the road, so maybe we can pull this off.

In much better news the Giants look care of the NL West and won their 107th game to force the Dodgers into a one game WC play-in. Fuck yeah!!

Another week, another slew of injuries. Kittle is questionable with a calf injury after playing the whole GB game. His value this year seems to be more as a blocker, but whatevs. Seattle is last by a big margin in defense, so we’d better start fast.

Don’t let them hang around and just overwhelm them.

Winning the division starts here and now.