The election is over, the World Series is over, the Bye Week is over. Time to return to those thrilling days of yesteryear. Hi yo, 49ers, away!
I can kind of see Jim Harbaugh riding around the West in a big, white steed, shooting the guns out of bad guys’ hands without ever blowing off a finger or thumb or even drawing blood, but riding off victorious with Tonto and pulling up his shirt and waving his belly around — that would be more Cicso Kid than Lone Ranger.
At any rate, we’ve got The Jaw vs The Mustache next Sunday. This will be the first of many games that remind Jeff Fisher he picked the wrong time to become an NFC West head coach.
Handing out midseason awards seems to be all the rage lately, but this site politely declines to do so. If you want to move air around the room just for the sake of movement, we prefer to recommend a Jerry Jones press conference. Jones, as most of you noticed, recently said he would fire himself as GM if he wasn’t actually himself, but since he is himself he promised Dallas fans that he would keep the incompetent GM in office as long as himselfness was the owner of the team. Cheers, Cowboy fans. Warm your hearts over that rosy promise!
We’re not sure if Jones’ speech amounted to throwing in the towel on this season or all seasons, but Mike Shanahan for sure tossed in the cloth after last Sunday’s loss. Until everyone on his team and elsewhere in civilization noticed this was kind of a quitter attitude, so Shanny quickly recanted his words by claiming he never meant them to be his actual words, but merely his virtual words which were prematurely ejected from his mouth and shouldn’t count as actually being real words.
Football can be a tough racket when your team stinks, it’s your fault, and you can’t fire youself to solve the problem.
Ken Whisenhunt is flirting carefully with this conundrum as his team sinks slowly into the desert sand after five straight losses. He decided to blame the team’s woes on guys who won’t play hurt, singling out Todd Heap and then refusing to discuss whether he had singled him out or not — the old failed Mike Nolan gambit. The real culprit, of course, is the guy who blissfully blew off getting any NFL quality beefers to play on the AZ offensive line, and waddled into the season with two backup QBs to try and function behind that porous mess.
But as humorous as it’s been to watch other teams and coaches flail around during this idle time in the 49er empire, seeing our own team spring back into action cannot come soon enough.
“Top comp pct throwing to/past 1st-dn marker: Ryan 64.4 (85-132), A.Smith 62.4 (53-85), RG3 58.4 (59-101), Rodgers 57.7 (86-149). Avg 52.1”
I thought Smith didn’t throw past 6 yards?
Well, those throws come after a 1st down run of 5 yards. . .
Yes, we’ve not had a third and long all year.
Wonder if Jim Trotter is preparing a piece on Eli’s waning confidence after two straight poor games (58.4 & 41.1 QBRs)?
Sensitive, ain’t we?
.
As far as Eli goes, I’d say probably not since he has 2 Super Bowl rings to boost that waning confidence.
Actually, Chuck, it was just a rhetorical joke.
Sorry, that joke was incomplete, and there was a penalty on the play.
Illegal use of verbiage . . .
This is great.
I hope Eli breaks his leg.
http://video.search.yahoo.com/video/play?p=neil+young+this+land&tnr=21&vid=&turl=http%3A%2F%2Fts1.mm.bing.net%2Fth%3Fid%3DU.5040363949457560%26pid%3D15.1&rurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3Dfy-aGEqGwtI&sigr=11aju5d0c&newfp=1&tit=Neil+Young+%26+Crazy+Horse+-+This+Land+Is+Your+Land&back=http%3A%2F%2Fsearch.yahoo.com%2Fsearch%3Fei%3DUTF-8%26p%3Dneil%2Byoung%2Bthis%2Bland&sigb=11u7g4uh7
The winner of this election was me. I haven’t smoked weed since college, but it’s absolutely idiotic to spend all that money.
Tax it, regulate it. Control it, and treat it like alcohol, but don’t classify it as heroin.
Ask the voters of Colorado and Washington what they think. and the Governor of Colorado. Write to him if you’re pissed.
You’ll stop half the crime in NM once they get it figured out. That stuff is important to me.
Cross posted from Chuck’s Den of Iniquity:
http://www.thepostgame.com/blog/men-action/201211/how-oregon-coach-chip-kelly-can-spark-moneyball-revolution-nfl
Interesting argument, if you get past the Duck fangasm. Personally, I’d like to see someone try it out. I trust math more than I trust conventional wisdom.
Great article to spur debate. I’ve been capping on coaches all week because I keep seeing situations (3) where kicking a FG on 4th down deep in enemy territory gives a 6 point lead when a 1st down allows the game to end in the victory formation. Two of those timid coaches lost their game. One was the LSU-Alabama game.
Bellicheat often does go for it. I remember him going for it on his own 35 yd line and not making it. He was quizzed about it after the game and was defiant about it saying he would do the same thing.
12th- I remember that game. He was playing the Colts and Peyton Manning. If he gets the 1st he runs the clock out and the game is over. He didn’t get it and Peyton beat him. Manning had just been lighting it up. I think he loses anyway if he punts. Manning was going to win that game if he got the ball back. I thought it was the correct decision. It doesn’t always work but the odds are just better to get 1 yard than stopping a QB that is on fire.
NJ, how are you doing? Record 80 degree temps today. Last year at this time I was shoveling mud left over from the snow.
In three weeks when the temp hits -10, I’ll be snoveling snow again. Old crippled guys, old ladies, that’s how in works in NM.
We’re all just getting ready.
Let me know what I can do to help, OK?
I think too often coaches will go with the ‘safe’ call, which is what everyone else would do in that situation. A guy who is a bit of a dick has an advantage, in this case, because he doesn’t give a shit what anyone else thinks. So Belichick, maybe Payton, maybe Rexoid. Of course, Rex won’t ever get that first down, because the Jets suck so bad they defy math. But if you have any kind of offense it sounds like it’s worth paying attention here.
I will say this for Nolan, he did try the onsides kick enough. Partly because Nedney was so good at it, but he was willing to gamble there. He did not trust the offense on fourth and short though – and that was not about passing, IIRC. Our run game repeatedly would fail to get a yard in that situation. We had problems for the longest time in short yardage – seemed like the defense ALWAYS got under our pad level. So you have to consider that when judging him.
I would hope Harbaugh would read this article and rethink his conservatism on 3rd and 4th down. Hope, but not expect. Most coaches are ultimately reactive, and as long as he is winning, he may be unwilling to change anything.
Yeah I am a fan of going for it most times. Not sure I agree about that particular time but Manning was killing them. Big risk, but if it had worked I wonder if it would have forced coaches to re-evaluate when to go for it.
Thing is, no matter your approach, you are going to lose some of them. The other team is trying to win, too. What matters is what approach will win you the most games. If Kelly’s approach wins you a few more games over a period of time, as the math seems to show, it’s worth giving that a shot.
It is also how you go for it. Going with a formation that allows the defense to load the box with 10 or 11 usually does not work. I advocate spreading the formation to give a play maker a chance to make a play. The defense will need to rely on a missed block or a great move to stop the play. In goal line it is about overloading the gaps.
In the Nolan situation it was my opinion the worst thing he did was call a time out. When I say coaches are unprepared for this situation it is the time out that allows defenses time to rest and regroup. Typically, my feeling is if you need to call a time out it is probably best to kick. Chip Kelly seems to fully understand this concept. If you have a defense tired and on their heels do not back off. Giving them a rest with a time out allows them to re-strategize and even make personnel changes. If coaches were better prepared for this situation the time out would not need to be called in the first place.
Berger
More on Darrell Royal.
In the 1969 Game of the Century
against Arkansas trailing by 6 with over 4 mins left in the 4th
quarter he called a bomb to the TE
on 4th and 3. The rest is history.
He was one of the greatest coaches of all time.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6HBbvVNzzYk
FYI the Texas QB James Street is the father of Padre relief pitcher Huston Street
On Saturday, in a tribute to Darrell Royal, the Longhorns will line up in Royal’s classic wishbone formation on their first play from scrimmage in their game against Iowa State.
It would be so cool if they ran the triple option and it went for six.
Just watched 49ers Central and Tarrel Brown had quite a game against the Cards.
TB had 5 passes defensed in that game the most in the NFL this year.
He’s become one of the unsung stars of the defense.
Veterans Day is coming and this story is worth watching
http://tinyurl.com/bda8thl
Oops bad link
Try this one
http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/video/standing-heros-benefit-raises-money-wounded-veterans-17676360
I just have one thing to say…bring back President Reagan!
And while you’re at it, sign Peyton Manning.
Make that two things.
New post is up.