San Francisco 49ers Forever

I’ll tell you, the Rams defense is not very good. Slow their pass rush, and they can be had. Yeah, they killed us last time but we were moving up and down the field on them. With Mac Jones.

Their offense is out of this world, yeah, there’s no denying that, but the hope is that we can get some kind of health back on our defense to shore things up for these last few games and a close-your-eyes playoff run.

I guess we want the Seahawks to win? Win out and we own the tiebreaker with the Seahawks, but not the Rams. I don’t see the Cards beating LA, but maybe the Falcons find lightning in a bottle and win their game at home vs LA. So, LA would have to lose 2 out of these 3.

Doubt that will happen, but just watching McVay go for it 4 times in this game already makes me think the Rams just may very well trip over their dicks tonight.

So I guess it don’t really matter. If we win out we are the 5 seed. Or maybe the 1. Being the 5-6 seed gives us TB or Iggles. I don;t know. I just want to see a pass rush. This offense can win a Super Bowl.

Rams have 250 yards halfway thru the 1st half and are losing.

Well, here we are at 10-4. Still in the 6 spot despite our 4 game winning streak. We almost got help from Deetroit and Indy, both were losing yesterday while our game was going on, but alas, no such luck. It weould be nice to jump either Seattle or LA, but not sure we get any help. Sea is our best shot with the last game of the season.

The game yesterday was cool to watch, and pretty damn cold to boot. Watching Pearsall get open pretty much at will was great to see, despite the 2 times he hobbled off the field. His presence is a big need for the offense going forward. He opens up thiings for Kittle mid-range and even CMC for the checkdowns as they can’t roll extra guys up close on Kittle and CMC. Purdy missed him a couple times on big plays, and the one thing that you just don’t see on TV is how the secondary is playing these deep shots. The deep crosser that Purdy hit him on was s thing of beauty, and just watching his break on the ball was textbook perfect and the ball was delivered on a dime. The deep shoit he missed was SO wide open as to be insane. The deep shot Ward missed on was the same. Easy to tell that he was wide open, and that Ward totally missed the shot when he threw it.

Other than that. the 49ers played 3 perfect quarters of football, and got sloppy in the 4th. Tenn is 2-12, but they have a pretty solid O line and Pollard is a stud RB. They are beyond injured in the defensive backfield, and we killed them in that regard, but they look like a young team that should improve.

I’ll say one thing that I’ve seen in the games that Purdy is back. We are converting 3rd downs a lot more, and we are scoring TDs in the red zone. Fun game if only to see the offense rolling like it should. The pas rush was again missing, and the run D got very soft by the 4th quarter, but Purdy’s fumble wasn’t a fumble.

We are at what really looks like a trap game in the extreme. 9-4 team vs 2-11 team? Of course that means nothing in todays’s NFL Anyone on any Sunday (or Monday or Thursday) can beat anyone.

Those are just the facts. How it goes today, who knows? CMC might be on the shelf, and really, I’d love for him to get a game off, but this souldn’t bee that difficult. But the Tuxedos put a hurt on what is supposed to be one of the toughest defenses in the league last week by beating the Brownies and ran all over them. A bit shocking to me, but like I said any team on any given day.

I just hope we don’t let Tenn hang around. Get on top of them and run them into the ground.

As of now, the 49ers are fairly secure in their quest for the playoffs. After last year’s disastrous injury-filled season was followed by the offseason purge, there was not a lot of hype surrounding this team. At least nationwide. I think here, we had a little better perspective on the success of the team. Mainly because of the revamped coaching staff additions of Robert Saleh and Brant Boyer.

But those plans were severely tested by the injuries to Purdy, Pearsall, Kittle, Bosa, Warner, etc. etc. etc. But here we are at 9-4 and in the thick of it.

If all goes well and we win these next 2, we would be at 11-4 and surely some of these other teams would have stumbled. That will be the point where we can maybe go for the #1 seed. Our test of course will be the Bears and Seattle games. If we get there and win out, we’d need the Rams to drop 2 (Deetroit, Seattle) and the Packers (Chicago) to lose a game to get the 1 seed. Us winning out is predicated on beating Seattle and that would give us the 2-0 advantage.

Without 2 Rams losses, the division is out. The Rams are ahead in the better-record-in- head-to-head games tie-breaker. They are at 9-2 and we are 7-4 with 3 common games remaining. So it looks like the path to the division is a rough one. The Rams would need to drop 2. After that, I don’t think it really matters. We would end up somewhere in the 5-7 seed and be on the road regardless.

I must confess.I’d really like to get the 1 seed improbable as it is.

Oh well. Both Seattle and LA were on the road yesterday, and both crushed their opponents. After LA’s somewhat stunning loss to the Panthers, they smoked the Cards to the tune of a 45-17 win. Seattle also beat the shit out of the Dirty Birds in Atlanta 37-9. Of course those 2 teams have 7 wins between them, so a loss by either would have been surprising.

After winning 3 in a row and not moving up in the playoff picture, the 49ers moved to the 6th spot over Chicago on their bye week with the Bears loss to the Peckers. Funny, eh? All that means is that these guys cannot afford to lose any more games. Starting this weekend. Mainly because Deetroit is hot on our heels at 8-5. But they have a rough set of games to close the season. And the improbable Panthers and Cowpokes are lurking (but they suck).

The Niners? We have the 2-11 Titans and the reeling Colts these next 2 weeks. The Colts just lost Danny Dimes to an achilles tear, but next up is the Titans. Funny thing about the Titans is they just smoked the vaunted Cleveland Browns defense to the tune of 31 points. Cam Ward was average but he hit some big plays, and Tony Pollard rushed for 164, so they played pretty tough. Of course they also gave up 29 points and over 410 yards to the mediocre Browns offense, but hey, I’m sure they’ll take a win any way they can get one. We can’t rest on our laurels and have happen to us what happened to the Rams and Carol.

So, as we stand, we are one game out of 1st in the West, but really 2 games behind the Rams due to their 6-1 record vs 3-3 in common opponent games. The Seattle tiebreaker will be determined a lot by that last game. If we can get to 11-4, I think we make the playoffs. but we could fall anywhere between 1 and 7. I think we stick at 6. Chi and Seattle is a tough finish.

Well, another game, another raft of injuries. The latest IR winner is OG Ben Bartch. He got the career-threatening ListFranc sprain to his foot. This requires surgery and a long rehab. Juice (bruised ribs) and Nick Martin (concussion) both look to possibly be back from their latest injuries, so there’s that. And Gross-Matos could be back

Bartch has been on half-time anyway, rotating with Burford, but I guess Colby is next man up if they keep the rotation going. I guess I’m glad our bye week is this late, as it forces the Seahawks and Rams to play one more game down the stretch to the playoffs.

• Seattle has: Atl (road), Indy (home), Rams (home), Panthers (road), and us (road)
• LA has: AZ (road), Lions (home), Sea (road), Falcons (road), AZ (home).
• 49ers: Bye, Tuxedos (home), Colts (road), Bears (home), Sea (home).

Sea has 3 (2 east coast) roadies and LA has 3 roadies (1 east coaster), we have 1 eastie roadie.

Anyone can beat anyone. Well, except for the Titans. We will hopefully be a little more healthy, and sitting at 10-4 after week 15.

12th, you gonna be at the Titans game? Gonna go to this one.

If ever a team needed a break, it’s your San Francisco 49ers. They’ve been torn, spindled, and mutilated for 13 weeks now and are looking to get some of their injured brethren back. LB Tatum Bethune, DL Sam Okuayinonu, and K Eddy Piñeiro are all slated to be available for the week 15 game against the Tennessee Tuxedos. And they may even open WR Jacob Cowing’s practice window.

So, yeah, getting those guys back, mainly Bethune and Sam O, would be a step in the right direction i this team wants to make some noise in the playoffs. Matt Gay didn’t miss a FG during Dinero Piniero’s downtime, and Jake Moody even made his attempts yesterday in the Commandos narrow loss last night, but Gay may have bought himself a job somewhere else in the immediate future with his makes here.

As far as the playoffs go, the 9-4 Niners are 1/2 a game out of the NFC West lead, but hold the last spot in the playoff chase at 7th. Our 3 wins have gained us one spot to the inside of the race. The Carols did the Niners a huge favor by beating the pants off of Matthew Stafford and the LA Rams yesterday. It has made the NFC West race very tight, and the good news is that the Rams and Seahawks face each other in 3 weeks, and both have 5 games remaining to the 49ers 4. Wonder how those teams would do relying on their backup QBs.

Funny how when Purdy had a bad day (in a win no less), the talking heads cry for Jones to be put back in. But when Stafford throws an INT in the end zone, followed by a pick 6, and then fumbles away the Rams’ last chance, it’s “oooh, he had a bad day”. Yeah no shit. Fuck the Rams. I’m surprised Stafford hasn’t gotten hurt yet, but I guess there’s still time for that. Their juggernaut hit their own speed bump, and they have some tough games remaining.

So, we are all tied in the win column, they face each other, and we have the Titans in 2 weeks. Sea has Indi as well as us. We may need to win out to take the West. If that happens, I wonder if the #1 seed would be in play. I don’;’t really believe the #1 Bears (!!!) are all that.

Cleveland games never seem to go well, and even during the glory days they beat us here something like 13-7 during one of our 13-3 seasons. I saw Tim Couch win one of his few NFL game where the Niners controlled the ball 45 minutes only to kick 4 FGs, and Tim Couch led 2 TD drives late to beat us.

In Cleveland, we’ve played 10 games there going back to 1950. We’ve won twice.

Gonna be cold and windy so let’s hope we can run. Brock hopefully lives up to his number.

That being said . . .

Got the kids coming back to town so I’ll be leaving this one up for a few days, but give much love to you and yours this Thanksgiving. As we just found out, things can change suddenly and life can become very different, so make sure those you love know you love them.

As for the Niners, in the NFL’s wonderfully weird scheduling proclivities, we get a Monday night game followed by a 5 hour flight across the country to play an early Sunday game against the Shedeur Sanders-led Cleveland Browns.

Like this previous game, and a few others this is another low-level scuffling team in the Browns. But there are a few reg flags beyond the short-week-3-time-zone-early-morning game. Jim Schwartz, he of the Jim Harbaugh handshake-gate game, seems to own Kyle Shanahan to the tune of his 7-1 record against him.

Also, Sanders is a pretty big unknown to everyone, and he managed to beat the (clown emoji) Raiders last week, so there’s that. They have Myles Garrett, disruptor #1 in the NFL these days. Also, Cleveland and wind and cold and wet don’t seem to agree with the pickoff machine that Brock Purdy is morphing into, so that’s another deal.

Then again the Factory of Sadness IS 3-8, so something isn’t perfect. Their 2 big wins against the Packers and Dolphins are in their house, but the Patriots, Steelers, and Vikings smoked them, and the Jets beat them. I’d call this a trap game, but with the entire defense being injured (Sam O is the latest MIA with a high ankle sprain), just fielding a team that has enough players is a challenge in itself.

They live and die by their defense and just enough offense. so it is incumbent on Purdy to knock the hero ball shit off and take what he can get. I’d like to see this game turn into a run-fest on our side but Purdy cannot wing the ball all over the field like he’s Dan fucking Fouts. Play within the game and grind out a 24-17 win.

Wow. I was worried about the defense when the offense shit the bed. Namely Brock Purdy. After the surgical 8 1/2 minute drive to open the game, Purdy proceeded to throw 3 interceptions to try and keep Carolina in the game. Not sure if this is due to his toe issue, but it sure looks like there isn’t a lot of power behind those deep throw attempts. the real bad one was INT 2 as we were on the doorstep ready to score, and Purdy had the 1st down by running, or simply dumping the ball off to Kittle.

Instead, he badly underthrew Pearsall and it was picked in the end zone. So, bad decision compounded by a poor throw. The 1st pick would have been picked by someone else had Purdy led Jennings properly. Instead he threw behind him, and was picked. The 3rd was simply CB Horn playing Purdy’s tendency of throwing deep crossers. He undercut the route easily for pick 3.

But hey, the defense came to play. I LOVED that Saleh came out and played press man early. It really slowed their offense down and led to the pick in the end zone. The only time we really let up on the press man was on their TD drive. But Brown had a game for the ages as he had 2 picks, and the defense stuffed the run. Still not a lot of pressure, but we did get Young off his spot and defended the short passing game we get killed with so much.

Chalk one up to Saleh and his defensive wizardry.