The Bye week has come and gone and the 49ers return to action this week, having advanced to the third seed in the NFC courtesy of the Giants and Eli Manning putting up a clunker at home against the Steelers. With a victory this week against the Rams and another the following week against Chicago, the team would be sitting on the second seed, just like they were last year.
Assuming our boys have not gotten rusty during the idle week, the Rams should not pose much of a problem. After a gritty beginning, they’ve slipped back to stinky lately and that trend should continue at Candlestick. As AZ discovered, giving Jim Harbaugh and his coaches extra time to prepare is a recipe for a whupping.
In the first eight games, the 49er offense has done very well, very poorly, and very enoughish. The running game has been consistently good, and the only thing that has stopped it is falling behind in a game. The passing game has been good twice, lousy twice, sensational twice, and ordinary twice. Will the real aerial game please stand up.
Opponents have gone to great lengths to negate Vernon Davis this year and been successful. In the second half of the Seattle game and the entirety of the AZ game, however, the team found great success with the underneath and mid-range routes. The dynamic between Michael Crabtree and Alex Smith was especially evident in the AZ game. If that is a sign of things to come, the offense could really take off in the second half.
The defense has been more consistent, with only two poor games and six lock down efforts. They are not getting the turnovers they did last year, and the pass rush isn’t as prolific, but the secondary play has been markedly better, virtually taking away the deep ball from opposing offenses. They have not allowed a TD in four of their eight games.
Special teams play was significantly worse than last year through the first six games, but they have regained their stellar play in the past two games. It looks like ST coach Brad Seely has finally got the newcomers to his squad up to speed. Ted Ginn has been outstanding as a return man since coming back from his injury.
All in all, the 49ers look fully capable of duplicating their 9-2 start from 2011, defying the regression statistics that have no way of factoring in when a team has truly arrived as an elite unit, as opposed to being merely an ordinary element in the cumulative predictability of league history. Sorry, nerd boys, your theory don’t fly with the 2012 49ers.
Just how elite this team becomes probably depends on how much the passing game progresses between now and the playoffs. If it becomes as reliable as the running game and defense, a sixth Lombardi is well within reach. If it doesn’t, we’ll be crossing our fingers in the postseason, hoping for Dame Fortune to favor us, and talking about Colin Kaerpernick most of the offseason.
The Gnats are now 6-3 and a half game behind the Niners in the battle for home field advantage and a first round bye.
Steelers showed the formula for beating the Gnats holding Eli to 114 yards passing and no Tds and 65 yds rushing.
Steelrs led in time of possesion by 11 mins running 65 plays to the Gnats 46.
NY WRs had a combined 6 catches for 77 yds.
Game film on should be a good blueprint on developing a gameplan to defeat the Gnats.
Looks like a mutiny in Dallas. The players locked Jerry Jones out of the locker room after the game.
How ’bout that Andrew Luck!
The Steelers were running out of running backs and just kept running. It was quite impressive.
Vikes are almost fading as fast as the Cards having lost 3 out of last 4 games with victory over the Cards.
The Vikes had 246 yds rushing yet only ran 49 plays as opposed to the Seahags running 70 plays and
the Seahags dominated time of possession by 12 mins.
Vikes had 44 yds net passing and in 3 of Ponder’s games this season
he has thrown for 111, 58 and 63 yds which just won’t get it done in the 2012 NFL and has his OC Musgrave on an extremely hot seat
of Jimmy Raye/Hostler level of impotent passing offense
In case you were wonderung Jimmy Raye is a Senior Offensive Assistant with the Tampa Bay Bucs.
Hostler is currently the WRs coach with the Ravens.
Crazy rumor of the day.
The NFL has voided Sean Payton’s contract with the Aints.
With that said Jerry Jones has his sights set on Payton being his next coach after he fires Garret.
That would cause turmoil in both orgs which the Niners could benefit from as it would devestate the Aints and it’s going to take Payton a few years
to institute what he wants for the Cowgurls.
Shit, once you get into the coaching ranks, you can’t screw yourself out of them. Only take a demotion and move across the country.
How can the NFL do that to Payton, I wonder? Seems a little heavy-handed. Even for Roger dodger. No union to protect coaches, I suppose.
Actually it makes Payton a hotter commodity as a free agent coach
which means biggers bucks.
Otherwise he’d still be under the old contract with the Aints unable to talk to other teams.
Yeah, the old pete Carroll lay-a-team-to-waste-and-skip-town philosophy.
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Here’s to hoping Jerry Jerkoff hires him and Romo keeps throwing picks.
Bye week is over. It’s Niner time!
We’ve sure seen some bad teams on display lately. KC, Raiders, Eagles – it reminds me of the Niners under Nolan.
Depending on the the sportsbook the current lines on the Ram game are Nineres being 11-12.5 point
favorites this Sunday
The Seahags D has proved to be most vulnerable to the run.
Niners rushed for 175 yds and the Vikes 246 yds this past Sunday. The Vikes just couldn’t pass netting under 50 yds.
If it was like our game, the Seaslugs were clobbering the receivers and getting away with it.
I just voted. The line was pretty long. This gives me an idea. To speed things up we should all work as a team and take shifts. The Republicans vote today, the Democrats vote tomorrow. If we can do this as a team the lines will be shorter!
Something is terribly wrong where you have to wait in line for up to 7 hours to vote such as Fla or Ohio.
Usually the problem is voter apathy where you get less than 50% turnout.
Regardless they need to fix that problem where it should take you less than an hour.
I hate lines and always vote absentee via mail.
bullit- The lines wouldn’t be so long if the Dems weren’t voting “early and often”.
The Bull Moose Party already has 1.
Good news from PFT. Jerry Jones says there is no way he’ll give up being General Manager!
I see you enjoy sucking Anne Coulter’s dick, Bergs . . .
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Bullit, maybe Fla and Ohio are using the Romney voting machines. You know, thee ones that only vote4 for Mittens.
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http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/13221476-romney-family-buys-voting-machines-through-bain-capital-investment
unca- I thought you were an Independent? You sound offended by Mayor Daly’s quote!
BTW, Ann Coulter is hot, unlike most Democrat women. Asking a typical Democrat woman to sit on your face is the same as saying you want to suffocate!
Best line I saw on twitter from “Timmy Tebow” Dems will take an early lead in voting today, until the Repubs get off work and vote. Not Tebows real twitter BTW.
Berger, Ann Coulter is not hot.
12th- Janet Reno is all yours!
I’ve voted for Blue, Red, and Ind. Whoever strikes my nerve less than the other guys. I’m not as easliy manipulted by the knee-jerk Fox talking points like you are. Too bad.
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Bergs, you must be a necrophiliac if you dig Coulter. Funny thing about Ann is SHE doesn’t believe 1/2 the shit she says. Much like Bill O’Reilly. They do it for the ratings. Company line and all that.
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Jessica Beil on the other hand? Yeah, I’d be on that. You can have Clint Eastwood and the bag of dead Coulter bones. I’ll tag team Jessica and Jennifer Anniston.
I don’t think a vote from Hawaii has been worth a crap for years. Most of the time it’s over before we get to the polls.
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Skeebs, it would be a remarkable thing if Alex and Crabs could start doing that on a regular basis.
Aren’t there propositions to vote on in Hawai’i?
Who hasn’t padded their record this year, Skeebs? There are a lot of mediocre teams out there.
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Da Bears haven’t played anyone worth a damn. Except for their loss to GB. Detroit qualifies as a decent win, but they could be the next team to go an a 1-5 streak. They have Houston, SF, Sea, Minn 2x and GB coming up.
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ann coulter is fine
Ann Coulter is a stick insect.
Sarah Palin works though.
unca- I’ve got Hillary Clinton and Madeline Allbright scheduled for you! Better stay on top.
was Janet Napolitano busy?
12th- She’s yours. She’s a Dem.
You think I’m a Dem?
Berger
Bay Buchanan and Mary Matlin for you.
Yikes!!!
Berger
This is happening in your neighborhood.
http://tinyurl.com/cftv3yz
You guys can have all of them. Just leave me the smart and slutty libertarian chicks. 🙂
Libertarian or librarian?
ummm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Johnson
watshis name !
chuck – yeah Hawaii has issues too. In fact politics over here are pretty brutal. I was just bringing up the fact that we really are pretty inconsequential when it comes to votes counting for the major elections.
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12Th – Stick insect sounds just about right.
In college football University of Texas HOF coach Darrell K Royal passed away today at the age of 88 after being in poor health for some time.
He won 3 National Championships at Texas and introduced the Wishbone offense that dominated College Football for a decade.
RIP DKR.
Royal and UT had legendary battles with OU and Nebraska. It was fun to watch. RIP Darrell.
Speaking of the Big 12, formerly the Southwest Conf, they are all offense and no defense these days. Each time I watch USC this year I think they should be in the Big-12 because that is how they play, all O and no D. USC needs to get back to paying more attention to the D-line.
New post is up.