San Francisco 49ers Forever

The Beater got his shot to play with the 1.5’s and did alright. Certainly didn’t stink up the joint as he went 6-9 for 58 yards, and if not for the weeekly drop by Bourne, he would have been 7-9 and 82 yards. He threw a nice TD to Bourne as well as he seems to drop easy ones, and catch the tougher ones.  Better still was his 25 yards downfield block on Jeff Wilson’s 41 yard reverse run for the Niners first TD.

No major injuries, and not much news so far about cuts as the first 9 to go have been goned. They are:

The most surprising is our former starting CB Dontae Johnson. I imagine we will be seeing some more familiar names in the next couple days. (Wilton Speight)

And either Bourne goes, or Matthews. I’m leaning toward Matthews just because Bourne is younger and has more upside.

Last tune up game before the season starts. This will be the scrubbini special as the I’ll-never-call-them-the-fucking-LA San Diego Chargers come to town. I’m sure they will follow suit and not suit up most of their starters as the NFL deals with the new normal of starters basically playing one quarter in the 2nd game, and one half in the 3rd game.

We of course will get a big dose of the Beater tonight as he auditions for a backup spot elsewhere in the league. I really don’t think we carry 3 QBs no matter what Shanny is saying. If it comes down to that we’ll be fucked regardless and can pick up Kaepernick on the cheap.

If anything, this’ll be a battle for the 5th WR spot, or the backup RB spot. Bourne, Matthews, and Rick James are the bubble guys, along with RB Jeff Wilson are the guys who are on the bubble. Pettis is safely in, and I’d thik Rick James’ solid punt returning gets him in. The injury to McKinnon may leave the door open for Wilson if they shut down grounded Jet for another year. then again, Hurt is dealing with a back issue, and Trent Taylor is a ? as well, so maybe Bourne squeaks by as well.

The D looks pretty set, so let the scribbinis play! Cut down day is looming.

Well, it wasn’t earthshaking, and it wasn’t even a real game, but I”m sure the coaches, players, and front office let out a collective sigh of relief as Jimmy G led the 49ers to 3 scores, and ended up with a solid 14-20 for 188 and a TD. He started off a little wobbly, but there were no picks, and only one questionable pass into triple coverage after that first drive.

The defense allowed a coupe TDs. The first being an easy wheel route to a RB that ended up going for 61 yards. The pass rush is still a concern, but then again we aren’t at full strength. Kwon Alexander looked like he was having fun flying around the field, and Dee Ford resumed practice today. The coverage by the defensive backs looked fairly good, and the offense looked very good under Mullens and Jimmy G. Only one drop, by Dwelly, killled an early drive, but otherwise a solid game all around.

The O line did much better, even if Jimmy G took a hit. Tha the KC D line is no slouch but there were no penalties on the line as Person did well in his first go-round this preseason. More good news on the injury front is that George Kittle also joined the team on the practice field as a full participant.

We get SD here on Thursday, and then. . . . . FOOTBALL!

Mainly because they have earned it. Sure it’s preseason, but it’s kinda cool that the 49er defense has yet to allow a touchdown in 2 games. The D gets Blair and Jones back, and we have not seen Nick Bosa, Kwon Alexander, and Dee Ford. We even got a pick last week. So, things look pretty good for the defense.

That being said, I think we are a little passive with the corners. So far, we are playing bend but don’t break and it maddens me some. Witherspoon and Sherman are regularly playing 8-10 yards off the WRs and Witherspoon gets a LOT of underneath shit thrown his way. The short zone also gives up a lot of short passes that lead to 1st down.

My hope is the bolstered pass rush forces quicker releases and some picks, but we must wait.

On offense, team ALWAYS jam our WRs at the line and this is why we never get quick separation and easy underneath passes. With no blocking, medium-range pass plays take too long to develop, and Jimmy/BDN/Beater is picking his teeth up along with trying to hold on to the football. So, the conundrum remains.

Better blocking by the o line and a better pass rush, this team will go places. If not, it’s gonna be another long season.

Well, when your golden boy QB goes 1-6 for 0 yards and a pick (shoulda been 2) for a 0.0 quarterback rating. The 49ers ended up winning the game on the back of The Beater and BDN, but the die had been cast. Jimmy Garoppolo’s 3 series netted one 1st down and 15 yards of offense. All on the ground. The defense played well enough to keep our old nemesis Joe fucking Flacco out of the end zone. We bent but didn’t break. Yet, Denver had receivers wide open all over the place as we played 8-10 yards off their WRs while we were jammed all game and got little separation.

Not that their openness mattered as Jimmy G and the Beater were under constant pressure in the 1st half. The Niners looked much better against Denver’s backups, but sadly, we don’t play games like that. The health and efficiency of this interior line, one that needed help all offseason, was not fully addressed, as noted by many thousands of people, including folks here. We dodged a bullet with Person’s non-major injury, and hopefully Westie rebounds from his shaky year and his recovery, and Garnett gets ins finger in order, and well, you get the picture.

Shit, even stalwart Joe Staley looked terrible as he whiffed on the Chubbster a couple times. Yeah, it’s a preseason game, and these guys have not played together till this game, but I sure thought we would look a little better than this. There were some nice individual plays (Deebo, Mostert, M Harris) but a general flatness and shittiness to the game.

Penalties were again a big issue. 13 for 101 yards. These are mainly being done by the backups, but still.

WR looks to still be the biggest battle as Kendrick Bourne looked to be playing himself off the team with another drop on a perfectly thrown deep ball by the Beater, but came back with a couple nice catches, including a late TD. Rick James is doing a solid job as punt returner, so he’s trying to stick. All in all though, the WRs were not a factor.

So, all those proposing the 2 game preseason might want to rethink that as this team NEEDS work on offense. Next week looks to be a big deal for the offensive line, Jimmy G, and Kyle Shanahan as this team tries to get on track offensively.

Well, that was ugly. The Niners win, but boy, it’s raining flags. The good news is our 2nd string offense and defense played pretty well against Dallas’ 1st string o and d in the 1st half. We kept Dallas out of the end zone, and even got some pressure on their QBs.

Mullens and The Beater looked decent, with a couple hiccups. Jalen Hurt had a very nice game, with 2 red zone TDs. Bourne looked rusty with a couple drops, the run game was not really there, but then again, we were down to our 3rd stringer there with the mirage (McKinnon) not playing, and Brieda and Coleman out as well. Deebo had a play or 2, and Dwelley had a nice gain over the middle on 3rd down.

D was decent. We held their Elliott-less run game in check, and did a good job on Dak and keeping him corralled and out of the end zone.
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Whether this is the new NFL or not, the Niners decided to not play 90% of their 1st stringers in this game and won’t play them in the last preseason games. That didn’t stop the injury bug from hitting the team as swing tackle Shon Coleman was lost for the year, and a nagging foot problem for Trent Taylor turned out to be a broken foot.

Frankly I like the idea of leaving the starters out for  weeks 1 and 4 of the preseason as the injury rate is skyrocketing in today’s NFL. And, I sure don’t get how that game was called by the refs. They neglected to review a questionable PI call that was supposed to be automatically reviewed, and some of those holding calls were dubious at best.

Hochuli, like his dad, craves that air time.

News from Santa Clara is mostly good. The defense is humming along now that we have a better pass rush, and the offense yesterday was led by Jimmy G at a 14-21 completion rate, and some nice red-zone work. The biggest surprise in camp so far is the fight for backup TE, where Ross Dwelley is moving past rookie Kaden Smith, and injured Garrett Celek. He of course was an undrafted signee, but spent the offseason in Nashville working with George Kittle and The Beater to his advantage.

Deebo Samuel is starting to show signs of life as he hauled in a deep pass between the CB and a closing safety, beat them both to the ball, and stayed on his feet for the score.

Worrisome is the play of backup center Ben Garland. He’s getting beat like a drum, and with Westie on the bricks till opening day, Garland will hopefully improve, or we may need to do something when cut-down day sends some talent into the void.

McKinnon and Verrett were nowhere to be seen,  nut K’Wuan Williams is quietly putting together a solid camp as well. He’ll be mainly a nickel back, but since we play in the NFC West with the likes of Goff, Wilson, and now Murray, I foresee a LOT of nickel. Having him playing well will be a big help.

4 days till the Dallas game!

Well, the good news is we’ve avoided the, uh nevermind. Don’t want to tempt fate. Word out of camp is that the defense is ahead of the offense. Which to me is a good thing because our defense has been a problem these last few seasons.

Granted, they are practicing against us so it’s hard to gauge how bad the offense really is, or how good the defense really is. This is akin to the 49ers back in the day when they were preparing for Super Bowl XXIV. Sure, Miami was a juggernaut on offense, but we were pretty damn good ourselves.

Miami’s defense however, was not very good, so for the Dolphins to be practicing against a subpar defense i felt, put Miami at a disadvantage as the 49ers were practicing against a top 5 defense. So, if our offense could move on our defense in practice, we would smoke the Dolphins in the game. Which we did.

Does that apply now? Well, the hope is that our defense has raised its game to the point where the offense really needs to get better to be able to hold its own against our improved defense.

Either that, or our offense is so inept that the defense isn’t really special, just playing against a bunch of stiffs.

I doubt that is the case, because even with Nick Mullens and The Beater, the team wasn’t wholly inept on offense last year, but the defense sure was. Anyhow, onward to the preseason!

The clock has officially started on the 2019 season, and for the first time in a long time at the start of camp, we aren’t worried about a player in trouble with the law, (Reuben, Aldon Smith, Ray Mc D, etc.), we aren’t worried about a GM who hates his coach, a coach that farts his way through his initial presser, a revolving door at the coaching position, and a plethora of shitty players without a clue on how to succeed.

For once it’s finally only about football. All our picks are signed. Including the great white hype that is Nick Bosa, and our hopefully #1 WR Deebo Samuel. Crazy thing about this season is that the possibilities are endless. In the immortal words of NoFear, I predict something between 10-6 and 6-10. All kidding aside, there are a lot of questions.

• Are all the offensive pieces going to click into place and become a top 10 offense?
• Will the all the new defensive pieces coalesce into a top 10 unit?
• Will Nick Bosa stay healthy? Jason Verrette? Jimmy G? Jerick McKinnon?
• Can this revamped defense rush the passer well enough to create turnovers?
• Will the secondary not get torched regularly, and not leave guys wide wide open?

We all know the drill. Injuries can waylay the best of plans, and last year’s team, one that had much the same expectations this one does coming off the 5-game winning streak of Garoppolo. Last started kinda shakey (Jimmy’s only win was nearly negated by a horrible pick near the end of the game), and was crippled by an ill-advised juke by Garoppolo. The season thereafter was an audition for myriad positions, and set the stage for yet another strong performance by a new QB late in the season. The unheralded Big Nick Mullens of course. CJ Beathard cemented his legacy as a guy who can take a hit, but was not getting it done on the field.

It seemed all our RB, DBs, and LBs, got hurt and we were revolving tons of different guys in and out of the lineup. Brieda was great but was in and out of the lineup. Jeff Wilson and Raheem Mostert played very well as 4th string replacements. the LBs and DBs however were a mixed bag of shit most of the time. However, I think a lot of that can be attributed to George Saleh. I think he did more to confuse his own players than to confuse opposing offenses. Guys were left wide open, like no one within 15 yards,  waaaaay too many times early on.  Things got a little better later as Selah simplified things and the breakdowns weren’t as prevalent.

Anyhow, here we go. The Giants already lost their presumptive #1 WR Sterling Shepard with a thumb injury. We need to keep the injury bug at bay.