Forty Niners Forever

Well, we keep up the string of L-W-L-W-L-W-L with the W. 7-4 is worlds better than 6-5, but it looks like we lost Bethune to injury. Not to worry for this game as AZ managed to shoot themselves in the feet about 20 times, I think they los 4 TDs to turnovers and penalties.

But, Brock Purdy looked pretty solid and Shanahan has seemingly come up with some actual plays in the red zone that don’t involve running up the middle repeatedly until Piniero comes in.

Speaking of Dinero. even he might be hurt after fielding a blocked PAT that resulted in him getting crushed when he recovered it.

Another day in Niner-land, eh?

Still a VERY anemic pass rush that resulted in zero sacks, but lo and behold, 2 picks!!! Demo Lenoir had a hell of a game and his pick and return really sealed the victory as the only thing at the time stopping AZ was AZ.

Hey, a win is a win, but wow. Saleh really has to abandon the soft zone 4 man rush. Trust the coverage as this pass rush did nothing all game. We have to rush 5 all the time. Otherwise we will get chipped to death like last week. And 3 weeks ago. And 5 weeks ago . . .

Purdy’s back. Pearsall’s back. Yay.

Demo is hurt.

All about the defense. No pressure on Brissett, no win.

Pretty simple, but the defense is not anywhere near healthy. Saleh should still be able to scheme a way to beat these guys, but they are always a thorn in our side. Lose and we are in big playoff trouble. Win and we are fine until next week’s batch of injuries.

Funny how Joe Burrow, who suffered a more severe toe injury AFTER Brock Purdy, is now scheduled to play this weekend after undergoing surgery for his more significant turf toe owie. The Niners of course rushed Purdy back in against the Jags, a fairly meaningless non-conference game, ony to see him hurt it worse.

More mismanagement of an injury due to the crack (smoking) medical staff?

I don’t fucking know, but why this team is always in the top 5 of injuries during the Shanahan/Lynch tenure begs the question of whether to do something different with the medical/training staff.

But I digress. Fuck it. The problem with this team isn’t really the offense anyway. Even the much maligned offensive line was fairly stout vs the Rams. It’s the defense that is ravaged by injury. As we showed against the Rams, it was the dumb 4th down call and the JJ fumble that sealed the deal.

Jones went up and down the field just as effectively as Stafford.

But here we are at week 11, wondering if Pearsall and Purdy are any closer to actually playing than they appear to be. Since our 3-0 start we’ve gone: L-W-L-W-L-W-L. Here’s to the next W.

Get the win and we are on the fringes of the playoffs. Lose this one and the season is more than likely done.

Well, we are officially looking in from the cold in the playoff race. All that good will and great division a conference record just flew out the window with this demoralizing loss to the Rams.

Hard to win when your entire defense is nursing wounds, but here we are at 6-4, 8th in the 7-spot race.

Yeah, there’s a long way, but no, we aren’t getting Bosa or Warner back. Let alone Williams or whatever.

At least we are consistently inconsistent. After our 3-0 start, we are L-W-L-W-L-W-L. We just had zero answers for the Rams today, and the Niners started answering the shootout when we were down 21 points.

Say what you will, but the offense looked really good but for a fucking retarded 4th down call and JJ’s fumble.

I get trying not to give up a bog play, but how many 3rd down conversions do you have to give up before you just send 9 guys on a zero blitz?

Whatever. AZ just goit rolled by the Seahawks, but if we want to have any kind of chance to go anywhere this season, they have to beat the Cards. I don’t like our odds at this point what with the defense just completely overmatched.

Well, as all our players slowly get hurt, no one seems to be recovering. BA, who was a possible starter before game 1, according to the crack medical staff, is now possibly out for the year. Brock Purdy and Ricky Pearsall are both minute to minute to hours to days to weeks to months from full practices, let alone playing a game. Fred Warner will be ready for the Super Bowl, and Nick Bosa is looking at being ready for OTAs in 2026. So there’s that. Yikes.

With that being said, and due to the fact that we are in great shape divisional-wise (3-0), and conference-wise (6-1), and even record-wise (6-3) I was a little surprised we didn’t make moves. For all that we are in 3rd place in the NFC West. We are in good shape but are we in playoff shape?

I just don’t see how this team can compete week to week with all these maladies. Recent taxi squad call-ups Clelin Ferrell and Robert Beal, and recently traded for Keion White are the latest replacement guys for the slew of guys who are out. Ferrell and White actually played pretty well last week, but it was the NYGs. But for all their suck, they have a very solid pass rush. And the O line played well enough to allow Jones to go 14-14 in the 1st half last week on the way to a solid win. With an actual run game.

Good news is Bryce Huff is coming back for this all-important game.

So, hey, maybe there is a chance. We limped into Levi’s South in week 5 and took one from them. Let’s do it again.

So, this is the deal. The 49er brass are in complete hedge-the-bet mode. No need to throw good picks after bad to improve the defense when we don’t know when our #1 QB, #1 and #2 WRs, # 1 pass rusher, #1 linebacker, #1 pick, and the various other guys on the shelf ever set foot on the field again.

So far we have gotten away with Mac Jones as our starting QB and he has done a fairly good job of keeping the team in games, and getting the victories. 6-3 is something I’d think the folks here would call success even before we became the walking dead. The D has been sporadic at times, and Shanny seems to be doing better in the red zone, but it is fairly easy to move up when you are 26th in scoring.

I wanted them to make moves of the low-level variety but I can see why they just figured, why even chase a chip when we have so many players down? A deep playoff run seems like a pipe dream at this point, even taking into account our 3-0 division record and 6-1 conference record. Both tops in the NFL despite being in 3rd place in our division.

Mainly because Brock Purdy remains off the field nursing his toe injury. One of course exacerbated by putting him into a game that was meaningless anyway. One that we lost anyway. But that toe has sailed. They created the jam they are in with Purdy.

Anyhow we are in the same situation that we were in when we played the Rams in week 5. A seemingly tall task that no one gave us a shot at winning. And that was before 5 more critical injuries.

Win this game, and our division record would be guaranteed #1 for any tiebreaker. Lose and we slide into the wildcard pack as both LA and Seattle look to keep their pressure on us the whole season. And we lose our tiebreaker with the Rams.

At this point I think the team really needs to make a mover to bolster the D line. Esp DE. Even with Bryce Huff coming back. He’s best when able to rotate in and out to stay fresh. There are a bunch of guys available including ex-Niner Arden Key, Bradley Chubb, Kavon Thibodeaux of the Giants, and many others. Hendrickson would be a pure rental and way too pricey. Chubb is likely out of their price range as well.

I’ve mentioned Granderson from the Saints as he shouldn’t cost more than a 4th at worst. And there are a lot of mid-rage guys out there. Much like the guy we just got. Keion White from the Pats for a 6th rounder. He looks to get a lot of playing time with the injury to Mykel Williams. And Bryce Huff should be returning from his hamstring injury, but they really should make a move or 2 mainly because of all the injuries and decimation on the defensive line.

Or they stand pat. We will see soon enough.

Not the prettiest of wins, and as usual it comes at a heavy cost as we lost yet another defensive lineman when Mykel Williams tore his ACL by merely falling on the turf, but the 49er offense actually looked fairly efficient and solid as they broke the 30 point barrier for the first time since the Lions loss last season.

CMC has become 1/2 of the offense with another stellar 106 on the ground and 67 in the air with TDs from both. Neither team was taking deep shots, but the 49ers were able to run at will on the worst run D in the league to the tune of 160 on the ground.

Jones was an efficient 19/24 for 243 and 2 TDs. The only black mark being a fumble late in the 1st half that resulted in a missed FG for the NYGs.

The D did enough to slow down the slow Giants offense with some pressure, a couple sacks, and stifling a fairly mundane offense.

But hey, a win is a win, we lose another starter on defense, and we get to wait and see if anyone gets healthy this week as we prepare for the very important Rams game.

Here we are at week 9 and it is a very crucial time for the 49ers. Another dreaded trip to the east coast, another dreaded trip to the stadium that took out Solly Thomas and Nick Bosa a few years back, and another attempt to try and build momentum for the rest of the season. At this point 6-3 would be worlds better than 5-4. A loss Sunday would be a big hole to dig out of.

As for the team, the two main guys (well 3 counting BA) are still on the shelf. Purdy is limited yet again, and Pearsall is a DNP entirely, BA’s window hasn’t opened, so he’s a long way off. Huff is out one more week at least, but Burford is back, for good or ill. And Dee Winters was a full participant so that’s good. Jones and Jennings as well are full participants. Oft-injured Yetur Gross-Matos and Ben Barch are limited as are DTs Jordan Elliott and Alfred Collins.

In other words, another day in Ninerland.

The Giants have their own slew of injuries, what with the latest being Cameron Skattebo, who had what looks like the same injury suffered by Fred Warner.

I’m sure Marc was psyched for this game, so at some point, raise a glass, throw a quick prayer, or simply give a knowing head nod to Marc, our friend and fan.

Don’t know if you guys saw the end of the last thread, but Marc (NJ 49er) Hadzimichalis passed away last weekend. We traded emails over the past 15 years, and he was a true Niner die-hard and friend who wore his emotions and his loyalty on his sleeve, literally, with his Niner tattoos. He was a fan, a father, a husband, and a good guy. And my son has one of his t-shirts that he made.

Wish I could post the pic he sent to me of him skydiving while showing off his latest Niner tattoo but he did send me pics from 2016 when the Niners visited the Meadowlands and he got to hang out with Matt Maiocco and Matt Barrows in the parking lot. Like I said, he was very passionate about the Niners.
PS. Totally digging that his son is sporting a Rathman jersey.

RIP NJ49er. You will be missed.