Forty Niners Forever

The most obvious lesson we learned so far is that we share the same issue that most every other team has, and that is if your starting QB goes down, you have little chance of getting anywhere. Sure, the Iggles won with their backup Fick Noles, but that is the outlier. The only situation that bears a similar resemblance was in 2012 when we had Young Sir Alex backing up Colin Kaepernick. Even with that, the Eagles are now struggling with their starter, Carson Wentz, so make of that what you will. But last year the Packers lost Rodgers, and missed the playoffs. Any number of teams would suffer the same fate.

We also found out that Matt Brieda is a pretty damn good player, as long as he keeps his ankles from snapping. We got a solid TE in George Kittle, who seems to have overcome his dropsies, and has shown power and speed in his route running and catching. That being said, Kittle may be the only piece of that first Lynch draft that has a meaningful career as Reuben Foster has dumbed himself off the team, Salomon Thomas has become a part-time option, Joe Williams is already gone, Ahkello Witherspoon is a work in progress, and the rest are hangers-on.

As great as that first draft was on paper, it has turned into a disaster with Foster’s release yesterday.  This year’s draft, with McGlinchey and Warner leading the way, looks good. Pettis showed some flashes yesterday of why he was traded up for, but he needs a better O line to let him become an option, but he certainly doesn’t solve our need for a true #1 wide receiver. M Harris has played a little coming off the IR, and Rick James has done fine as a KR/PR, but again a lot depends on how the injury picks come out of their season off.

Speaking of which, T. Moore and K. Street are red-shirt freshmen, so we still have a chance they are impact players. Sorta like extra picks, but we have only 6 picks this next year, and we’d better hit at least 4 of them.

FB Juzchyzpiuy was a good pickup as a FA signing, but Garcon has been a bust. Sherman has been top-notch, irregardless of his getting burnt yesterday. But all that does is focus the opposing offense on Ahkello. He either needs more help, or more work to get better. Richberg has been fair to middling, but better than Kilgore I suppose. Malcolm Smith has been less than nothing.

So, yeah, we suck. We have little depth, and we need a healthy Jimmy Garoppolo to even be close to competing. The new front office has been fairly decent, but nothing more, in their drafting and free agent signings. This next draft is crucial to the team’s improvement. Tighten up the line play on both sides of the ball, and get some playmakers.

There’s a game? This season has truly gotten away from everyone, and what with the bye week and the Thursday game it feels like we haven’t played in a month. \

And that’s the good news.

Top WRs Goodwin and Garcon are out. Not that Mullens throws to anyone besides Kittle, but those guys are a bit of a hope of generating some offense. Brieda it would be nice to see not limp off the field at any given point.

That being said, I just saw the news that Reuben Foster was arrested for domestic violence at the fucking hotel where the Niners are staying in Tampa at 9:00 pm local time.  Can’t wait to see how this one turns out. He hasn’t even been bonded out yet.

I wonder if Lynch will play Foster like St Jim played Aldon Smith after his DUI arrest.

Reuben and Aldon can start a reality show called “Wasted Days and Wasted Nights.”

Duuuur.

Some big games on the college side ofo things today, Notably Michigan vs Ohio State. Just turned on the game and saw Mich score 2 TDs in 10 seconds due to a bogus PI call and a muffed KO by Ohio St in the final 25 seconds of the half.

Anyhow, enjoying all the time off . . .

Meant to post this earlier, but I was smoking my turkey all day.

Football aplenty today. Enjoy . . .

Due to the vagaries of the NFL and the draft, the important item in the list of determinants, for the no 1 pick we have this:

• Overall ties are then broken by strength of schedule, which is a calculation of the combined record of all of a team\’s opponents in that year, with divisional opponents counting twice.

I thought head-to-head was the first determining factor, but apparently that is only for playoff seeding, not the draft. So, by not playing this weekend, and the Raiders winning on the road against a team the beat us twice, the Cards, we own the right to draft yet another defensive lineman in Nick Bosa.

Yay! I don’t think this team will have a problem losing out, as BDN has shriveled a little, and our defense is of the Swiss cheese variety. Sure, I’d like to see us play well down the stretch like anyone else, but really, who cares? I may feel different on game day but right now, let the chips fall where they will and go 2-14 and secure the no 1 pick.

Is it just me, or is anyone else concerned about the apparent problems Kyle Shanahan has in closing games out? Last year was all about being in games, but not quite getting over the hump. This year? More of the same. Even with Jimmy G, we were close with the Vikes and Chiefs, barely beat the Lions, and now we have blown 4th quarter leads.

I get that we are hurt, we are thin, and we are in transition, but still, we had the Packers on the ropes and then played conservative and gave the ball back to Rodgers enough times that he finally won it. Much like last night. We have the ball on the Giants 20, first down, time running low, and we run run pass, 4th and one, FG. Not exactly inspiring football there. I would have loved to see a shot into the end zone there off play action.

Yes, it’s BDN (or SDN [shrinkage dick Nick) in there, but why so careful?  Neither pick was an egregious error on Mullens’, they were both miscommunications between Mullens and the WR. As it was of course we take the lead and then promptly forget to cover a TE for a 40 yard run and catch. Game over for all intents and purposes.

BDN made it close coming down the field, but NY was in prevent and were happy enough to give up the short over the middle shit. Still and all, with a full compliment of timeouts, we would have been able to have a better chance. to get that game-winning TD. Yes, another pet peeve of mine. Time management.

They screwed up the close of the half as well by not using a timeout at 38 seconds and instead burned 14 seconds spiking the ball. That’s a waste of a down, plus two plays in those 12 seconds. When you get down that close with time winding down, you pass. Every time.  So it is either incomplete, you go out of bounds on the catch, or you get down and call time.

Anyhow, we are now #2 in the draft with losses to AZ and the Giants. I’m really starting to wonder f the Raiders will go all-in on a QB. Justin Herbert in other words. Chucky wants his QB and that low-hanging fruit might be too hard to pass up. Carr should be long gone by draft time, so this should be very interesting. Oak (Vegas) can get a great pass rusher + a QB if they pay their cards right. Unlike the Browns who could have had Saquon Barkley and likely Mayfield anyway and instead fucked it up. Like the Bears and their misguided leap of 2 spots.

Big Day Nick now becomes Nick at Night as the 49ers continue their sojourn through the drags of the NFL with their 3rd game in a row against a one-win opponent. Their stellar record is 1-1. They lost to the hapless Cardinals, who were thusly dispatched by the KC Chiefs, and the happlesser Raiders were thoroughly pounded by Philip Rivers and the LA Clippers.

Tonight of course is our 2nd national game in a row, against the one-win New York football Giants, and our 2nd game with the well-endowed one, Nick Mullens.  The Giants seem to be following our footsteps of playing well enough to be in games, but not good enough to win them. Eli Manning is dodging more bullets than the Beater was, and Saquon Barkley is running against stacked lines and 9 in the box.

The Giants? Man, what a shit show. They are 22nd in yardage given up, and 22nd in points allowed.  25th against the run, 23rd against the pass. Their offense is as equally bad. 21st in yards per game, 27th in points per game, 9th in passing yards (!), and 31st in rushing. Even with Saquon.

Not that we are any great shakes in any of these categories,

• D: 12th yds given up; 26th in points given up; 19th passing,; 13th rushing
• O: 20th yards; 18th points; 23rd passing, 4th rushing

But that is why they play the game. Even if all it does is solidify someone’s abjectly shitty season. My only solace is to see if BDN shrivels up under the scrutiny. I think he keeps it going, and the defense feasts on another shitty team.

28-13 Niners.

So, the Nicky Mullens Experience continues. I’m glad because he deserves it. He hit 8 different pass catchers, and did his job. Yeah, it was the Raiders, but the Beater didn’t exactly light up the Cards. The Beater has always done just enough to lose, so we need to see if Mullens can continue his roll.

And we need to see if the problem lies with the QB, or the signal-caller. Shanny himself has some major issues with closing out games, so we need to determine if Mullens gives Shanny a better opportunity to win. And if the problem lies with Kyle to some extent.

Weird we go from Thursday to Monday, so we’ve had a mini-bye followed by our real bye after the Giants Monday night game. That’s a lot of time off. Yeah, draft position is key, but again, we need to focus on getting better, and let the draft chips fall where they may. We have two winnable games coming up, and the next five games are within the realm of reachable. Providing Mullens can get rolling.

Gruden can piss away what remains of his Oakland goodwill and build for the 2020 season as he thinks he must, but iIf I was a Raider fan, I’d be furious. I also wouldn’t trust Gruden with those 3 first round picks next year. I’d shit-can his ass before he gets there.

Word out of 49ers HQ is that Nick Mullens will ‘reportedly’ start the next game against the New York Giants on Monday night. No definite word yet, but really, they really have to go with Mullens at this point. Mainly because he has looked good in his preseason stints and now has passed the real (sort of) test of live game action. He hit small windows, he hit a couple nice mid-range passes, and really only threw one bad pass.

The Beater on the other hand has been a turnover machine in his 10 starts. He is ahead of 16 TEAMS in turnovers. He leads the league in balls tipped at the line as well. Something that annoys the shit out of me as that can lead to easy picks. We know what we have in the Beater. He may be bigger and stronger and tougher, but he isn’t better. Mullens feels the pressure better (seemingly),  gets the ball out MUCH quicker, and goes through his progressions nicely. Granted, he faced a fairly disinterested team in the Raiders, but just look how CJ did against the nearly-as-shitty Cardinals.

I’ll repost the breakdown of Mullens’ game as it shows the details of his reads very well. And the Pokemon video!  Good stuff.

Here’s the Wiki caption when you look up Nick Mullens:

Nicholas Clayton “Nick” Mullens is the owner of the Oakland Raiders of the National Football League. He played college football for the Southern Miss Golden Eagles football team, where in 2015 he set single-season school records for passing yardage and number of touchdown passes.Wikipedia

Too funny. Nick Mullens, he of the UDFA status and the practice squad last year, and this one, set a ton of records at Southern Mississippi, throwing for over 11,000 yards, 87 TDs and 46 picks. All that got him was 4th on the depth chart last year and a seat at the kid’s table. He looked pretty darn good at times in the preseason, and folks have been itching to see him at least get some real live action, as the Beater was stumbling anf fumbling his way to a 1-9 record. I mean, what is there to lose? Except draft positioning, that is.

Something tells me Nicky won’t be on the practice squad for a while.

Granted, this game was against a Raider team that has quit on the season already and is looking to get pick #1 (and Baby Bosa) in the draft. I mean really. Gruden’s plan all along was to tank the season and get Bosa. Otherwise, why trade your best player, an elite pass rusher, before the season even starts?  But I digress.

Nick Mullens yesterday came out throwing and didn’t disappoint. He hit short passes, fit the ball into small windows, hit a couple nice mid-range passes, and fared pretty well under pressure. The only really bad pass came before his 2nd TD pass of the game. Which he shook off, and hit Bourne for a score on 3rd down. His line was 16-22 for 262 yds, and 3 TDs. Mullens threw to 8 different receivers. Brieda and Mostert got 130 on the ground for a well-rounded effort. Again, the Raiders.

The biggest stat, though? ZERO turnovers. And only 3 penalties

The defense chimed in with SEVEN sacks against the Raiders high-priced line and held the soon-to-be-crapped-out Raiders to 242 total yards. Carr was a mediocre 140 yards in the air.

Bottom line, the team at least hasn’t given up. At this point all they can do is try. to play well, and act like they are getting their shit together. They accomplished that yesterday. A short week, no less.

We will likely play ourselves out of the Baby Bosa sweepstakes, but there are a boatload of great pass rushers in this draft.  The least this may do is quiet the thoughts in my head that we need to get a QB with a high pick. Our needs are so varied that I’d hate to think we need to use a high pick on a QB. If Mullens can keep his head while CJ fumbles his way to oblivion, then we have one less thing to worry about.