San Francisco 49ers Forever

Hey, we got flexed into prime time so disregard the sidebar game time. But I’m sure you all know that. Great to hear from 12th that the stadium is rocking these days. The game I saw, Pittsburgh, was loud, but there were a fair amount of Steeler fans there. Great fans for the most part, and it ended up being a solid win after all the turnovers.

And, here’s to hoping we learn something from the Raiders and not lay a gigantic turd. Losing 34-3 to the Jets? Ouch. Just when you think you can trust Gruden and the Raiders,  them, they grunt out an effort like that.

We got no help from the Iggles as they were stifled by the suddenly resurgent Seattle defense. Just left Seattle on Friday, driving my daughter’s car down with all her stuff as she relocates back to the Bay. Astoria and Cannon Beach in Orygun are pretty damn beautiful. Great little break from the action.

The Rams are fighting for their playoff lives tomorrow. At home against the Ravens no less. I guess it would be nice to see if someone could slow the Ravens down, but I highly doubt it.

Anyhow, I think our offense will do better than Green Bay’s defense, so we win going away. A win would further give us breathing room for home field aqws we would have a 2 game lead and head-to-head, and with the Saints looking like they are about to lose, we would be that much better down the stretch.

Here we sit, 9-1 and on top of the NFL, according to some of those wonky ‘power rankings’ for this crazy 2019 season. Easy Street? Sure, but . . .

. . . there’s always a big but. The but is of course the last 6 games. Our remaining teams have a combined .683 winning percentage. Take out the Falcons and that rises to .760. No small task. And given that we are pretty banged up, the task becomes even tougher. Our stout and deep defense has lost Kwon Alexander and Dee Ford. Our daunting pass rush was slowed down by mobile quarterbacks these last 3 games.

Up next? Well, he ain’t mobile, but he is a long-lasting thorn in the 49er side, and local Chico boy, Aaron Rodgers. You know, the guy we could have drafted waaaay back in 2005. He’s ‘only’ 6-4 in his career vs the Niners, but he’s thrown 13 TDs and 2 INTs. The fun part is our 2-0 playoff record vs Green Bay. Both engineered by Colin Kaepernick.

At this point, this, along with the Falcons game appears to be the most winnable. The Packers seem to be winning by smoke and mirrors. Their signature wins so far are wins over a (Ma)homeless Chiefs team, and a win over the Cowboys. They inexplicably lost to the Chargers, and beat the Iggles.

Can we take them? Sure, if we can rediscover our pass rush. We don’t have to worry about the scrambling aspect of Russell Wilson and Kyler Murray (2x), but as we have seen over the years, Rodgers is very adept at getting outside the pocket and throwing accurately on the run.

Contain and destroy is the word of the day.  I think we can take these guys fairly handily.

31-17 Niners.

Hate to say it but even at this stage of the season, this is a must-win game vs the Cards.  Mainly based on the rest of the schedule in front of this game. With a streak of bad luck, this team could go 1-6 for 9-7. Shit, even Atlanta is starting to play up to their preseason expectations. I think we should  be able to eke out 3 more wins, even with the daunting schedule, and that would put us at 11-5. Win the division? Not sure. But that game in Seattle to close the season looks like it may decide the division. Lots of football between now and then.

Thing is though, we are getting slowly decimated with injuries. Kittle needs to be ready down the stretch, and so does E Sanders. The passing game totally revolves around those two guys. As does the run game. Yes, the defense is playing out of its mind, but even they are getting picked off one by one. Our depth along the line is being tested with Blair is out with an ACL tear, and of course so is Kwon Alexander.

So, we need this win to stop the bleeding, but also to get our division record on track again.

Playing here, we should do better than two weeks ago, so I;m thinking 28-17, Niners.

STAY HEALTHY!

Everyone has seen the footage by now, so we all know what happened. Garrett was suspended ‘indefinitely’ by Jolly Roger, so we will get to see what that means. I think it will be somewhere around 16 games. a full season. What Vontaze Burfict did was at least within the confines of a football play, dirty as it was. As was what Damarious Randall did to Dionte Johnson in yesterday’s game. He was later seen bleeding from his right ear as he went into the medical tent. And what happened to Juju Smith-schuster when he was hit in the head twice by  Greedy Williams and Morgan Burnett. The Juju play wasn’t even flagged despite the double-tap as he lay there unconscious, but Randall was ejected for his spearing.

But what Garrett did was crazy. If he had hit Rudolph with the crown of his helmet, he very well could have cracked Rudolph’s skull. Yeah, this is a violent game, and rivalries run deep, but I think for the most part players respect their opponents to the point of trying to play clean and within the rules.

Sure, the mind-set takes time to permeate the league, but because of the myriad rule changes, warranted or not, and helpful or not, are there to protect these guys from each other (and to help offenses score points, can’t forget that). Clotheslining went the way of Night Train Lane. Head-clubbing, the way of Deacon Jones. Pounding receivers till the ball is thrown, the way of George Atkinson and Mel Blount. Touching the QB, Tom Brady, of course. Helmet-to-helmet is just the latest indicator of trying to keep these guys from later incapacitating injuries.

Funny thing is, you look at old footage of Ronnie Lott, and he didn’t hit that way. Like most people back then, they led with the shoulder. Look at Lott, and his shoulder pads were huge. Linebacker pads. Players wore much bigger pads back in the 70s. And they used them. Now, with smaller pads, i guess you have faster players, highers collision speeds, and a fundamental change in tackling style. Leading with the head.

Yeah, guys have stuck their heads into hits since forever, but more often than not, they ended up hurting themselves. At some point soon, I think they are going to install accelerometers into every player’s helmet, and if it goes off during a game, the player is penalized/ejected/suspended, whatever.

Garrett? I think he’d be charged with assault with intent to maim if he had hurt Rudolph. Like I said, I think he gets a full season of games suspended. maybe even up to the 2021 season.

Yeah, that last game hurt in so many ways. Namely, Joe Staley fractured his finger. I guess it was the one he couldn’t stop Jadeveon Clowney with. He’s likely out, but shit, Justin Skule did just fine in his spot, and couldn’t have done much worse than Staley did against the Hawks.

Matt Breida is hurt yet again, drawing comparisons to Crystal Todd Shell, the oft-injured linebacker back in the day. Paper Matt?  Ahkello Witherspoon was held out, I guess for no other reason than Emmanuel Moseley is playing so well in his stead that they don’t need to rush him back.

But as we saw, after Emmanuel Sanders left the game with a rib injury, the offensive continuity left with him. Being down George Kittle as well really put  a crimp in Jimmy’s game, and he misfired some shit, but the drops were all killers, and the pass pro (as well as run blocking) was atrocious.

These are all thing was can work on, and hopefully we can get somewhat healthy down the stretch here. Because we have a ton of tough games after this AZ skirmish.

If they had only listened to me and not played the starters that last AZ game, we’d be healthier.

Anyhow, here’s the latest injury report. The good news is DJ Jones’ injury was thought to be season-ending, but he should only miss a week or 2. Unfortunately Blair looks like he has a torn ACL.

Joe Staley
OT
Status Questionable

Staley fractured and dislocated his finger and could miss multiple games, Matt Maiocco reports.

D.J. Jones
DT
Status Out

Jones (groin) has already been ruled out for Sunday’s game against the Cardinals, Cam Inman of The San Jose Mercury News reports.

George Kittle
TE
Status Questionable

Coach Kyle Shanahan expressed hope that Kittle (knee/ankle) will make enough progress this week to return Sunday against the Cardinals, Cam Inman of The San Jose Mercury News reports.

Emmanuel Sanders
WR
Status Questionable

Coach Kyle Shanahan considers Sanders “day-to-day” as a result of the rib injury that forced him from Monday’s 27-24 loss to the Seahawks, Nick Wagoner of ESPN.com reports.

Weston Richburg
C
Status Questionable

Richburg suffered a left hand injury during Monday’s 27-24 loss to the Seahawks, but he shouldn’t have to miss time, Tom Pelissero of NFL Network reports.

Ronald Blair III
DE
Status Questionable

Blair will have an MRI after suffering a potentially serious knee injury during Sunday’s 27-24 loss to the Seahawks, Matt Maiocco of NBC Sports Bay Area reports.

Marquise Goodwin
WR
Status Questionable

Goodwin (wrist) failed to catch any of his three targets, and suffered a wrist injury in Monday’s 27-24 loss to Seattle.

Matt Breida
RB
Status Questionable

Breida will go for a second opinion on his ankle, but initial reports are that the injury isn’t too serious, but he may still need to miss time to let it heal, Tom Pelissero of NFL.com reports.

Ahkello Witherspoon
CB
Status Questionable

Robbie Gould
PK
Status Questionable

Oh, Robbie. How we missed you last weekend . . .

Different era, same story. In a game reminiscent of the Harbaugh era, the 49ers scratched clawed, fought, but in the end lost to the fucking Seattle Seahawks. Despite controlling 28:00 minutes on the first half, the Niners, namely Jimmy G and a leaky line, gave up a strip sack near the end of the 2nd quarter. Fortunately for us, Jaquiski Tartt had a strip-tackle on his own, on our 2 yard line, no less, to keep the 3 point lead intact. The rest was a dogfight the whole way.

For all the drops, fumbles, mistakes, the 49ers were in the game, mainly for a late strip-sack of Russell Wilson, and lineman Germain Ifedi. Don’t know if I’ve ever seen 2 fumbles on the same play forced by 2 different guys (AA, and Warner), and recovered by a 3rd guy (DeFo) as they ran backwards about 25 yards and then the rest for the score. Unreal play.

As we all saw, the defense kept us in the game. The offense? Well, our tackles looked rusty and slow as that overrated  Jadaveon Clowney kicked our asses up and down the field. He had like 10 hits, 5 sacks, and  TD to boot. We couldn’t run for shit as Seattle dared us to pass by putting 5-6 guys on the line at the point of attack.

What annoyed me was our plays seemed to take WAY too long to develop. The way to beat the pressure is to throw quick hitters. Slants. Granted, we lost Sanders, and we really sputtered after that. And of course Kittle was out as well. 2 very important offensive weapons. Deebo had a nice slant for 30, and Bourne had a nice TD, but the guy not named Jason Bourne let a ball go right through his hand for a pick, and he dropped a 1st down catch that would have kept a late drive going, and Deebo dropped a slant of his own. It baffles me no end that these guys can’t consistently catch the ball. Pettis is a non-entity, Goodwin disappeared again, Dwelley is no Kittle, and even still, Jimmy made some bad throws amid the relentless pressure.

Still and all, we had the game wrapped up but for no Robbie Gould. Well-travelled Chase McLaughlin made the game-tying kick with time running out, but shanked the fuck out of the game-winner.

The hope is we have a healthier offense the next time we play these guys. We played Wilson about as well as we could have. 5 sacks, some hurries, a fantastic pick by Dre Greenlaw to set up the shank, but his scrambles to gain yards and to buy time  on throws bit us yet again. The good news is Seattle is playing better on the road than at home, so . . .

In the long run, this loss prolly helps the team. All it proves is we need guys that don’t drop passes every goddamn game.

Crazy day in the NFL, settled with a lovely Dallas loss to go withthe Rams loss, and AZ to boot. Really though, who looks great in the NFC? N’Awlins scores 9 and gives up 26 against 2-7 Atlanta? Packers struggle at home vs the 5-4 Panthers? Rams score 0 offensive TDs vs Pittsburgh and loses?

I’m liking this season more and more. Especially if we can remove the hold that Seattle has on us. A win tomorrow would put us 2.5 games up on Seattle and 4 games over the Rams. A loss? Well, not the end of the world, but it would drag us closer to the fair-to-middling rest of the NFL. Dallas and Philly lead the NFC East at 5-4. The Packers, Vikes, and Saints all look fairly flawed, as they all struggled this week.

Seattle, for all their recent success, are looking as good as the rest of the NFL, but not quite as solid as us on both sides of the ball. Our defense has been lights-out with our newly discovered pass rush. But, the X factor by far is Russell Wilson. He’s putting together an MVP season as he wills this fairly middling Seahawk team to victories week after week. I guarantee just about any other QB has this team at 4-5, not 7-2. He’s uncanny accurate on the run, he eludes the pass rush better than most, and he makes big plays all day.

Coverage is hard to come by 10 seconds after the snap, and Russell extends plays like that all the time. Chris Carson is nothing to sneeze at either. At 5’11” and 225, he’s no wall flower. He averages 4.4 yards a run, and I suspect they will try like hell to run on us. If they can go play-action,they have a huge advantage. Lockett and Metcalf are a solid pair of wideouts as well. So, we NEED to stop their run game early.

Gonna be a hard-fought game, and as Monday night games go, this is a big one. One that may even live up to the hype. Biggest game at Levi’s? Sure.

I think we run on them pretty hard, and win the battle of the trenches. Some play action big plays as well. We’ve got both our tackles back, and we have our Juicebox back as well. I think we outlast and outscore Seattle 34 – 27.

What a twit. After all the bullshit around the hold out and trade demand, Robbie Gould is hurt. Gould  has been kicking a long time, and has pretty much been one of the better kickers in the NFL lo these 14+ seasons. Thing is, he was revered in Chicago, until he wasn’t. They dumped him in 2016 and he signed a one-year deal with the Giants. He does fine for them but they let him walk. The 49ers sign him in 2017, 2 years for $5 mill. He does great, yes, but then after his 2 stellar seasons here, and his contract is up, he gets all whiny for sweet home Chicago.

Chicago FANS of course want him in the worst way, but the Bears front office already owes a shit-ton of money to their other kickers, and the price of Gould went way up, so without any draft choices they couldn’t trade for him. So, the Niners slap the franchise tag on him. Now Gould formally demands a trade.  Waaaah!

After bickering for a couple months, the finally 49ers offer him $19 mill, with $10 mill guaranteed, and Gould takes the deal. With Gould happy and paid, Gould naturally starts off the season kicking like his leg is made of gold-plated tin and he proceeds to go 13-20 for the season so far.

The low-light of the season being the Cleveland game where Gould was 1-4, and he missed a 53 yard attempt at the end of the first half that didn’t even reach the end zone. It would have been short from 40 yards.

OK, I will give him the Redskins game. The conditions were horrible, and he managed to make 3 of 4 (missed the rist one, though).

Funny thing is, during this winning streak, we haven’t really had to depend on Gould so far. Good thing, because he’s scuffling badly.

Wow. I had us starting fast, but I didn’t see us at 8-0. Somewhere along the way I thought we could very well be at 6-2 in a best-case scenario. But the football Gods, and the refs,  have been benign to pleasant so far. We are even close to getting our tackles back, Ahkello, and Juice as well. Funny thing though, losing our tackles and a corner has done little slow us down as Justin Skule, Daniel Brunskill, and Emmanuel Moseley have come up aces as their replacements.

The biggest injury is the one that just happened. Kwon Alexander is likely gone for the rest of the year after tearing a pec on Thursday night. With the meat of our schedule coming up, his presence was important. The next man us for his spot is Dre Greenlaw, the surprising rookie who has gotten a lot of playing time as the starting Sam LB. He will move to the weak side (Will) LB in the base D. Which of course creates a need for the Sam LB. Azeez Al-Shaair had a great camp, and the team is very high on him, but either he or Mark Nzeocha will fill that role.

Whatever they decide, the next 8 games are all (well, maybe not Atl) huge challenges. The next game is perhaps the biggest of all, at least from a reality check point on this season. 8-0 49ers and 6-2 Seahawks on Monday night? The mind boggles at the ramifications of this game. I almost with this was in their house, as the Seahawks have been uncustomarily struggling at home. Still and all, this is a playoff-atmosphere game at week 10. Should we lose, we’d still have a game lead, and we’ve beaten the Rams and the Cards, but we would be on shakier ground than a win would give us, that’s for sure.

The Hawks aren’t exactly on easy street themselves with games against the Eagle, Vikes, Rams, Panthers, Cards, and us. And the Rams are still hanging around, and they have the Bears cakewalk among their remaining sched of Pittsburgh, Balt, Cards 2x, Haws, Cowboys, and us.

Whoever comes out of this division come January, they should have a leg up on the entire NFL. Either than or beaten to a pulp and too battle-scarred to carry on.

Gonna be fun either way. Bring it on!

Yes, this was a short week. Yes, this was a trap game. Yes, we always have problems (0-8 in recent history) in the Big Cactus. But in only his 18th start, Jimmy G had a game that he needed to shine in, and he did. The run game was sputtering, and the defense was getting torched by big plays, and gouged by strong runs, but Jimmy G put together his best game as a pro with 317 yards on 28-37 attempts and  4 TDs against no picks (and no iffy passes) with a 137 QB rating. And as happens every game, a couple huge drops that would have made his numbers better. Deebo dropped a perfect pass in the end zone, and Coleman dropped an important screen pass that would have garnered a 1st down late in the game. A likely 15-20 yard play.

Turns out we overcame both of those mistakes, as good teams do, and we very recently didn’t, but as Richard Sherman noted, this wasn’t a championship effort. Especially by the defense. After stuffing the AZ passing game in the 1st half to the tune of 15 yards gained, AZ blew the game open with an 88 yard TD to pull the Cards with in 3 (after the 2 pt conversion). Numerous defenders misplayed that one pass, and this is one thing our defense has been very good at, and that is not giving up these huge plays.

In fact the game started with a 39 yard run to 3-day old guy, Kenyan Drake. A guy hiding in plain sight in Miami. He torched the Niner defense with 110 yards on 15 carries. A whopping 7.33 yards a carry. And  Murray was able to buy time and get loose for an easy TD pass to KeeShaun (not Keyshon) Johnson. Murray ended up 17-24 for 241 and 2 TDs. Our first play saw George Kittle get his knee hyperextended, and he gutted through 2 more quarters, scoring on a 30 yard TC, and catching a couple key 3rd down passes for 1st downs. Dwelley did get the game-sealing catch with a 12 yard grab on 3rd and 9 very late in the game to allow us to run out the clock.

This our the first game without forcing a turnover, but we also didn’t give the ball away. The closest was a sure pick 6 dropped by Fred Warner. But for Kliff Kingsbury’s Kliff Klavin moment, allowing a TD with 0:02 seconds left in the 1st half after stuffing us on 4th and 1/2 a yard, this game could have ended differently.

As it is, we geet 11 days off go get healthy, and get Seattle here on Monday night. Trap game avoided, but the injuries could be significant with Kwon Alexander undergoing an MRI today to check his pec. Kittle should be OK, but no word on him.