The 49ers and Seahawks’ offensive game plans were polar opposites Sunday night. Let me explain.
The Seahawks did what the whole world expected – they ran at Ricky Jean Francois and they threw at Carlos Rogers. The Seahawks’ message was simple: We’re going right at your weakest links. Stop us.
It was as basic as an offensive game plan gets, and it worked.
The 49ers did the reverse. They over-finessed their game plan. The simple thing to do would have been to run Frank Gore up the middle from the beginning of the game. It worked for the 49ers the first time they played the Seahawks this season. What’s more, the Seahawks had been giving up 5.3 yards per carry since that game. The Seahawks needed to prove they could stop Gore, but the 49ers pre-stopped him. They handled it on their own.
Their attitude was the Seahawks were expecting Gore to run, so throw. Not only that, throw at Richard Sherman, the best cornerback in the league. That will fool the Seahawks.
The Niners shouldn’t have to fool teams. They have the most talented roster in the NFL. Just keep it simple.
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I agree Grant, GR is just so darn inconsistent, I do hope he becomes a head coach in college and we can start new.
I think it’s too easy to focus on the bad after the game. I mentioined about the second quarter the team should instead focus on staying healthy.
I said that because it appeared to me that Seattle was more interested in hurting SF players than anything else. I think Vernon Davis and Manningham can attest to that that objective.
I think we’re seeing what we’ve seen in the nfl whenever there is a highly motivated coach. The team responded well to Singletary the first few games then flattened out. It appears to be the same issue with Harbaugh.
The rah rah pumped up coaches don’t do well in the NFL long term.
The successful coaches aren’t outwardly emotional. I don’t remember seeing Seifert ever go into a game slapping men on the back and screaming on the sideline or after the game.
Coughlin is a hard nose coach, but you don’t see him “pumping up ” his team. He teaches through high demand and discipline. Belicheck is much the same.
On the opposite side, Schwartz is another Harbaugh. Outwardly emotional. His team lacks discipline. Singletary’s team lacked discipline. Barry Switzer was much the same. Then you look at Rex Ryan.
In the NFL, you can’t win a superbowl without discipline and right now SF is missing discipline.
See Vermeil. They don’t come anymore emotional.
An overly emotional head coach best known for success in college didn’t seem to hurt the Seahawks last night!
Absolutely right on. Compare Harbaugh’s coaching style to Bill Walsh, who was calm and strategic.
Some here make it sound like Walsh walked on water. 49-3, anybody remember who coached that playoff game in the Meadowlands? How about 36-24?
3 Super Bowl wins tend to make people think Walsh was a pretty good coach. I know it’s shocking.
Houston,
Walsh was great, don’t get me wrong. But people forget that his teams got blown out and beat up from time to time too.
Well if you’re using Walsh to combat this knee jerk overreaction about Harbaugh being overrated then I concur. Walsh, Lombardi, Knoll, etc all lost games and even sometimes got their butts kicked. Harbaugh is a good coach. One loss doesn’t change that fact.
That’s exactly it Houston. LC knew Walsh extremely well, having spent an entire season with him at Stanford, but he was not immune to failure.
Jack, Houston, you’re absolutely right that Walsh got beat and by no means am I trying to say Walsh was perfect. I am only pointing to the lack of discipline and the flatness this team is demonstrating as the season goes on.
I believe some commentators brought attention to this when Singletary was coaching SF. It was around the VD incident. They mentioned that the emotional coaches can only get players to rise up to the occasion so many times before they lose the intensity and the results suffer. ( much less eloquent and clear paraphrase ).
That appears to be an underlining issue in sf. Personnel is by far the biggest problem. But even after fixing personnel, the issue of emotion and disciine will torpedo a Super Bowl wii. In my opinion.
Contrast in player attitude. Seahawks played like criminals abusing their 49er victims. Very embarrassing.
Razor
A very well put bit of imagery there. I commend you.
I can’t really blame the coaching. The truth, in my opinion is that this team is not as good as I thought it was. Hard to say that but there is really no excuse, the coaching or injuries just don’t matter in the end. Coming off of an emotion packed cross country game against NE I expected the 49ers to be a little flat but if this was a champion caliber team they eventually would have risen up and would have taken it to Seattle. It never happened because it is simply not in this teams DNA. Coaching, injuries, cross country trip, tough stadium to play in excuses are for losers. Eventually you play with the heart of a champion and this team did not last night. Seattle on the other hand sure looks like they do, stringing together three superior performances in a row.
Time to regroup. Take the rest of the season one game at a time. Beat AZ and hope Minny beats GB AND pray that if we face Seattle again its on our turf.
Grant
Sorry about all the non-football posts. Can’t stand for that stuff though.
Anyway, what would be the ramifications of cutting Rogers after this year is up? The guy was just pathetic last night. And following on that, where should the team focus its efforts in the draft? After last night, the Niners suddenly look weak at DL, OLB, CB, WR, & K.
It seems like DL, CB and WR are big needs.
Is Manningham done? When will we get a injury report?
Need a kick returner, especially for punts, maybe a cornerback can do that.
This is not good, Manningham has ligament damage and their is a possibilty that Justin Smith will not be ready for the playoffs. This makes me sick!! Accorsing to MM Comcast.
Culliver is a #1 cb right now. I dont understand why he has been the 3rd cb for the whole season. Harbaugh’s staff seems to be too hesistant in making roster moves based on performance.
Absolutely agree. And Baalke must address these things. His track record so far on receivers leaves a bit to be desired but the other positions I think he probably has a pretty good bead on.
The game yesterday underscored it for me on defense in the draft. We don’t have to look any further than the second half of the Pats game and this last game to see what life will look like without Justin Smith. They need to start grooming up another guy as soon as possible, Smith isn’t getting any younger. I like Jean Francois but he’s not Cowboy.
I don’t see the Niners hitting the free agent market, they will have to do this with drafts, I wonder who and how many players might be available in the college ranks for the d line and do we have a chance in scooping one.
Isn’t the consensus that the draft is deep at DL this year? I probably heard that on one of the talk radio shows on ESPN radio
You might be right on passing too much but the 9ers got down early and were forced into throwing the ball for much of the 2nd half. Hawks are 7-0 at home and 3-5 on the road. They aren’t going anywhere in the playoffs.
The 49ers passed on their first three plays and went three-and-out.
The Seahawks game plan should have been the 49ers. Run the ball. It sets up everything you do Roman.
Russell Wilson is a hell of a QB.
It’s like Harbs thinks he can change the identity of the team and go pass-first. Didn’t work with Smith and it isn’t working very well with CK. We’re run and play-action. Period.
The problem is that a decent defense can stack the box and if they have above average corners that can play ‘man’ they just dare us to throw. That’s the secret to beating (or at least slowing down) the Niners. CK doesn’t look like he reads defenses well enough yet to understand what’s happening so he’s checking in and out of plays that seem backward sometimes. If he’s got a weak set of DBs in ‘man’ he can pick them apart, he has trouble with better DBs in ‘man’ and with zone.
The main issue I’ve seen for years now is that we don’t have the kind of receivers that can beat being held or hand-checked at the line and/or get any kind of separation. This has been a problem for a while now. We need some TO-type physicality at receiver. Crabs is a good possession guy and gets a few yards but he’s not John Taylor and he’s not busting tackles.
Dunno. Looks pretty rough in some areas. I think we’re lucky if we win one playoff game. Anything beyond that is gravy!
@Adam I’d say we’re defense first and the offense is along for the ride. Finding a long term replacement for Cowboy has to be the #1 priority for this team.
If Manningham would have caught the 1st pass of the game, perhaps the complexion of the would have changed. The problem was not only the offense. The D forced ONE punt the entire game. That’s pathetic.
The pattern continues: two strong games and a stinker. The team will win the next two and lose the third. I hope that’s the wrong conclusion.
Agree Grant, but I believe that they honestly believed their game plan would work. Right out of the gate if we connect on that deep pass to Manningham I think the game has a completely different tone. (Oh, and I watched that play again and seriously think that should’ve been called pass interference.)
What bothers me most about our team (Aside from the Rams game) is that whenever we lose we get skunked. Final scores are only padded by garbage time scores. We don’t fight and we’re not in it. I mean look at how the Patriots responded to being down 31 – 3 to us last week…I was fully expecting that to happen this game at half time. Sure, there were some drive/momentum killers but some times just come right back.
More specifically this issue appears when we’re down by multiple scores…not just with the game tied or down by a score. I can’t seem to figure that out, but I agree with what I’ve seen from a couple other posters here in that Roman isn’t consistent with his play calling and that our offensive tempo doesn’t even pick up in those situations (i.e. Where’s our no huddle offense?).
Just,
No huddle just won’t work with our O line. I just don’t think they are conditioned for it. We’ve got big guys. They would struggle with that. He’ll, they can’t even get to the line fast enough to get the plays off in time consistently. I think no huddle would kill them.
Don’t know that I’d say that about our O-line. As far them getting to the huddle…well I watched some of that game over and quite a few times it was a matter of the play call getting in late….on top of Kaep not keeping track of the play clock. I don’t know man…plenty of blame to go around.
Just,
Definitely plenty of blame to go around. We do have toget this technical stuff cleared up. A play call that fails is one thing. However, this junk with not getting plays ran 6 times a game and losing our timeouts is sickening. We can’t burn timeouts like this come playoff time.
Where did this “truism” come from?
” They have the most talented roster in the NFL. Just keep it simple.”
If the loss of one defensive tackle/end, a tight end, and a receiver gut’s the team, how can they be the most talented roster in the NFL? They have a good roster, but to refer to is as the best is just another way to dump on Harbaugh.
As for Harbaugh, why in the hell wasn’t our number one draft choice active for last night’s game? It wouldn’t have made any difference in the outcome, but it makes me wonder about coaches who don’t use players that they didn’t want to draft. Is it possible that the GM and the coach aren’t on the same page all the time?
I was wondering the same as to why Jenkins wasn’t active last night, but didn’t put too much thought about it. Certainly hindsight continues to be 20/20 and didn’t expect our top TE and one of our starting WRs to go down in the same game. I suspect he’ll be active next week though.
I never thought of it being a matter of Baalke and Harbaugh not being on the same page though.
Neither did I until about 10 minutes ago. It might explain some of what’s gone on with our receivers this year. The other thing that might indicate a possible disagreement is the fact that two of Seattle’s outstanding players are from Stanford/Harbaugh times. Was it Harbaugh or Baalke who thought they weren’t worth a look?
Well, I’m not sure how much of an example loooking at other Stanford players serve because Harbaugh had plenty of Stanford players on the roster during training camp. I mean, he can’t sign them all…there are other teams out there with talent.
I think seattles exceptional cb play is a direct result of the coach that carol is. I am not a big Pete Carol fan but He’s always gotten the most out of his defenses.
I was disappointed with the bush scandal which I didn’t think affected the outcomes of any games. Even more so though i have been more and more disappointed as he continues to coach, but I do credit him as a great defensive mind.
I think we tend to forget what a fantastic job Carroll did coaching the 1994 49ers defense.
First a great OC Holmgren went to Seattle and kicked the 49ers asses and now a great 49ers DC does the same. Why do 49ers coordinators keep going to Seattle and kicking the 49ers’ butts?
Seriously, can the Mayans do something about Seattle?
It’s possible Jenkins isn’t any good. The WR Baalke drafted before Jenkins didn’t even make it out of pre-season so who knows, maybe our guys just aren’t real slick when it comes to judging receiver talent.
Makes you wonder.
Adam
It’s weird that the Niners’ biggest WR is Crab. I realize Moss is taller, but he is limited at this stage of his career, so I see him as such, a tall, limited WR.
The Niners have seemed disinterested when it comes to guys who fit the mold of Fitz, Marshall, or the Johnsons. Bowe is available and Colston was available, so it seems we might need some bigger dudes. LeStar Jean, Ruben Randle, Sanu, Jeffery, Josh Gordon … all guys who were available to the Niners at some point over the last two years. With Seattle equipped at CB with 6’1+ guys across the board, the Niners will need to match up physically in order to pass the ball against that team in the near term. It’s a dark realization, but true.
I agree. I’m not sure why they don’t opt for one of these big guys or go after obvious choices in the draft.
The “Jenkins was in our special envelope” thing to me smelled.
Dunno. We seem to find some great talent elsewhere but receiver… not so much.
How good would Dwayne Bowe look right now?
A big body guy like Demtrius Thomas is a real need. Vernon should be the 49ers big, post-up receiver but for some reason he isn’t.
Although Crabtree has been a disappointment I tend to give the 49ers a pass for this pick. No one expected him to fall out of the top 5 and when he dropped into the 49ers laps at #10 they sort of had to take him.
Adam,
The jury is still way out for Jenkins, we will see him play next week. Don’t see VD playing next week and Manningham has ligament damage, so he might be out for the season.
If Jenkins doesn’t play this week against Arizona, then we can start talking about him being a bust. Adam and Mr E don’t get me started on last years FA and draft regarding WRs. Over recent years, the NY Giants have been very good evaluators of WR talent. So what did Baalke do? he signed a WR (Manningham) that the Giants didn’t want and passed up on a WR (Randle) that the Giants drafted.
This difference is Pete isn’t as conservative as Harbaugh. Seattle doesn’t play there defensive line every snap they bring in fresh speed pass rushers and rotate. Niners don’t even play draft picks yet alone bring in fresh pass rushers. This has to change. RJF Sopa Ray Mcdonald and Brooks don’t even have 10 sacks combined for the year. We need to bring in some fresh rushers off the bench and see if we can find another guy who can get to the Qb. You can’t blame Carlos Rogers on this one… Donte Whitner was just as bad if not worse. Is it me or is it a waste to have our all pro lbs sitting back in coverage most of the game? How about some zone blitzes and corner blitzes!! Like I said conservative coaching will cost them in the long run. Aj Jenkins didn’t even dress up for the game? What happens if old man Moss goes down to injury now. Walker moves to wr and we play 1 wr and 3 tight ends? How about activating 5 wrs and spread it out!! I’m tired of watching Delaine Walker being our go to guy!! Let’s see what Jenkins can do!! Give him some targets!
This pretty much sums it up — Harbaugh wants to play Bully Ball and the league caught up to him. He thinks he’s smarter than the rest of the coaches, and you can tell that they other coaches, who have paid their dues, love showing him up.
Tim Kawakami wrote a great article — The Seahawks exposed the Niners. It’s sad, but it’s true.
Pete Carroll actually won a national championship. He knows how to coach and now has players — especially a QB.
The Niners need to adapt.
The league caught up to CK, so now the staff needs to find ways to utilize his skills. He through some ugly balls out there yesterday. He’s regressing and that’s not good.
I dont think the word is regression, its the inexperience of the player showing and the staff trying to figure out late in the season how best to use Kaepernick. This is where Jim Harbaugh screwed up. Its was a move too late in the season and now they are scrambling to get it right.
“The league caught up to CK”…
Wow, maybe arguably the best coach in the league over the last decade (Belichick) somehow failed to get that message last week.
It seems like the CK7 doubters are conveniently and suddenly fogetting his games against the Bears and the Patriots and only highlight his sub-par performances as if they were the only games he’s ever played.
Sad indeed.
CK7 had a miserable game. The defense had a miserable game. The coaching staff had a miserable game. It was plain and simple a miserable day for all 49ers players, Org, and fans. As I said last night, there is no one player who could have made a difference for us yesterday. The margin of victory may have been different with the likes of Justin Smith and VD in the lineup, but the hawks were not going to be denied.
Time to move on and beat the Cards and prep for the playoffs.
If we face the c-hawks again it will be a huge game and one I believe we win. The 49ers won’t be embarrassed again by smirky Pete.
If we have to win on the road it’s no big deal because we have played well on road games.
I’m not fretting one bit.
I still believe that we are a SB contender this year.
Every team has a big stinker throughout the season. The NYG’ had the Saints hang a 49 spot on them last season and still won the SB.
Even our last SB 49ers team in 1994 had the Eagles come to town and lay the smackdown on them to the tune of 40-8.
Time to move on from this ugly train wreck, pick-up the pieces, regroup and go out and win a Super Bowl!
Stinkers in the year are acceptable, losing division games late in the season are another. Especially when you score really only 13 points and 7 of those were a late TD in garbage time.
Grant,
I agree with most of your entry. We definitely shouldn’t have been throwing at Sherman. All the other cornerbacks were backups. Sherman did not shadow Crabtree. He played on one side of the field. The issue was that we didn’t exploit the other matchups either.
Well, our boy Kaep wasn’t exactly settled in the pocket either. He made some throws of course as we expect him too, but I thought he had Randy Moss for a TD had he stayed in a pocket a second longer on one play. I think Kaep was trying to make up for that the second time Moss was in the end zone when Sherman picked it off.
Like I said last night, Kaep pissed me off last night but I watched the whole game and swalled my pill like medicine. Lol, as Singletary used to say.
My point is…hard to exploit matchups when our QB didn’t play well.
It’s not quite this simple but your point is taken Grant. The Niners often tend to overthink it when the tried and true method is working just fine. The common thread in each game the Niners have struggled is the offense getting away from running the football or the defense giving up a deficit they can’t recover from. Last night was a combination of both. The defense couldn’t get off the field letting Seattle convert 11 out of 13 3rd downs, and the offense ignored the running game early and were never able to recover after getting down 21-0. This was a game they needed to be patient in, weather the storm early and stay close until the energy wore down, but once the FG was blocked and returned for a TD that was out the window.
This team has to realize what it is and ride it as far as they can. If you get beat playing your game then so be it, but getting embarrassed because you go away from your identity is unacceptable.
This crap about our identity is really starting to annoy me. Look, there will be some weeks where our defense just isn’t clicking and it’s those times where our offense has to hold serve. I hate the idea of a deficit we can’t recover from…our offense needs to be able to show some moxie. There will be games where establishing the run early in the game isn’t viable and we need to execute in the passing game. It shouldn’t matter…we need to be able to do that if we’re to be a SB contender.
Enough of this, “we’re a running team” crap and can’t recover deficits. Every team wants to run the ball the way we’ve been able to because of the balance it brings on offense but sometimes you have to abandon your game plan per se and dial up effective plays and execute.
All and all this game like the four previous losses points to the same problems that seem to get fixed for one game and they reappear in others.
Same problems different QB.
Offense:
Penalities
Dropped Passes
Play Calling
Turnovers
Reveivers not getting open
field goals
Defense:
Penalities
Consistant pass rush
coverage
Consistant run stopping
New problem:
Game management
Depth
Super Bowl teams do not have these type of problems this late in the year. I still think we can make the big game but its going to take some work to do so.
So is it time to get a little antsy about Baalke’s ability to draft? McCloughan seems to be pulling all the right strings in putting together the talent in Seattle while Baalke’s 1st round pick is inactive most of the time.
Baalke has done a fantastic job of drafting defense. Maybe he should delegate drafting offense to a different person?
All you gentlemen forgive a lady who doesn’t know as much as you about the”ins & outs” of football, but….I can’t figure out what the he.. is wrong with the 49ers. I have been a fan for a very long time(going back to the “glory days”) and I thought things were looking up since Harbaugh and his coaches arrived. However, something is seriously wrong with a team that cannot maintain their level of performance for more than 2 games straight before they fall apart…not just play bad, but play like a high school team. I’m starting to think that our coaches are really being out-coached on a regular basis. Colin was in over his head, but I don’t think Alex would have done a great deal better. The Seahawks came out and chewed us up and the coaches had no answers for what was happening. Yes, there was some holding that was not called…so what!! As a few of you gentleman have alluded to, if the 49ers were really a championship team they would have got the job done. Something is really wrong with this team, and it just might be the coaches are not as good as advertised.
I’m used to the offense disappearing occasionally. There just isn’t a lot of talent at the skill positions outside of Frank Gore.
I’m stunned the defense performed so badly. Seeing the heart of the team collapse was brutal. Justin better get well soon.
Maybe it was just me, but it seemed that after the Seahawks went up 14-0, the body-lanuage of the defensive players was one of fatigue and defeat after just a few minutes on the field in the first quarter. They just didn’t appear to play with heart and it only got worse after the blocked FG for the TD. It was almost like they said to themselves, “Well, okay, we’re still in the playoffs so it’s okay to lose this one.” That’s why agree with Grant that it was on the coaching staff. I was hoping that after the half – and after a good gut-check speech by Harbaugh, that the intensity would pickup and though it may still be a loss, they would at least start shutting down the Seahawks offense and give the 49er offense a chance to at least make it a close game. It just never happened.
I agree completely Space. Really weird to see the 49ers defense just roll over and die like that. Even against the Giants they still showed some spark and played physical.
Maybe playing two games worth of snaps against the Patriots had a carryover effect.
According to Maiocco
Ginn played 0 snaps on offense. Cam Johnson played 4 snaps on defense.
So why wasn’t Jenkins active?!!!!
After watching LaMike play so soundly the past three weeks, you have to fault Harbaugh for mishandling his rookies. Huge weakness. Get AJ into the gameplan and do it quickly.
Time to trade Alex Smith and either James or Hunter with him. We don’t need a redundant back. Hopefully we can get a second rounder and a something else for them. Then we need to get more bodies at DL, WR, CB, and a new center. We could also use more depth at LB. Unlike Seattle which is young and poised to be really good for years, the Niners are going to have to get some quality infusion of young talent, to many guys are getting old and to many defenders play way to many snaps.
I love my 9ers, but down on our coach. I’m glad to see this happen to him after his wonderful QB decision.
Can’t wait for him to lose in the first round of the playoffs, and then see Alex succeed somewhere else. I like Kap, but it’s just not his time. Everyone’s so high on him for all the wrong reasons. He’s mobile and has a rocket arm. But I would have much rather had Smith in there. I felt safe with Smith. Kap increases the need for the D to step up even further.
Fantastic game by the Hawks tonight, seeing our coach get destroyed brought a smile to my face.
You need to change your name to Fair Weather Niner. Your love of Smith is pretty revealing, what Niner fan would want to lose. You are not a real niner fan, keep drinking the Kool -Aid.
If you love the 9ers, why do you want to see them fail and Smith go on to succeed somewhere else? Oneniner, is that you?
“For his short, dramatic, tempestuous, successful tenure as Niners’ head man, Harbaugh has conducted himself as someone who invented football. It’s like no one ever thought about offense or defense until he applied his gray cells to the issue. Bill Walsh who?
Fans believed in him with a faith usually applied to the pope or Saint Francis of Assisi. Whatever he did was right even if it wasn’t just because he did it. People believed in him because he succeeded poor Mike Singletary who possessed the football knowledge of a spoon. Compared to Singletary, Harbaugh was Vince Lombardi and Paul Brown rolled into one.”
“He is not on the Tom Coughlin level or the Leslie Frazier level — Leslie Frazier? — and he sure isn’t on the Jeff Fisher level. He couldn’t beat Fisher in two tries this season despite having the better roster. We always assumed he was above the Pete Carroll level going back to college ball. Not anymore. After Sunday, he’s lucky to be on the Pete Carroll level.”
+1
Please be honest. You love one niner.
Realniner, you should change your name to realALEX! I personally like Alex and hope we keep him on the roster. However i would like to bet you he will not have the same success he has had with Jim H and the Niners with another team! I am shocked to read your blog! CK does not have the same experience as Alex however his upside is much higher and he will continue to get better with more playing time. Besides there is nothing we can do about the QB situation except cheering for our team. GO NINERSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSs
Here are some QB stats from games in Seattle this year.
Cowboys vs Seattle – Romo 23-40 251 yds 1 TD/ 1 int Loss
Packers vs Seattle- Rogers 26-39 223 yds 8 sacks 0 TD’s/ 0 int Loss
Newton Vs Seattle at Carolina – 12-29 141 yds o TD’s /0 int 4 sacks Loss
Smith vs Seattle in SF- 14-23 140 yds 1td/1 int. Win
Brady vs Seattle – 36-58 2 TD/ 2 int 395 yds 1 sack. Loss
Kaepernick vs Seattle- 19-36 244 yds 1td/ 1 int. Loss
Seattle is 7-0 at home this year. 8 -0 possibly after the Ram game.
These numbers tell us a few things. Seattle has a pretty good defense. Seattle is a tough place to play now for any QB. Tom Brady is no joke. They are definitely a different team on the road as opposed to home. Kaps performance last night wasn’t unlike a couple of other good QB against Seattle in Seattle.
Did he win? No. Did he look poised, confident and ready to win in pressure moments, NO. Seattle is good but we have a better team and underperformed. Stop making excuses and call it straight.
Our defense gave up 6 points in San Francosco. We gave up 35 in Seattle.vSmith and Kap scored the same number of points against Seattle. Defensively, the worst game under Jim Harbaugh. 11-12 on 3rd down defense. Seattle punted 1 time. I think this loss was definitely Kaps fault Sam B.
Once again we can argue the results all day. What would you have done differently? More importantly, what would you change going forward? I’m interested in knowing your position. Do you have one?
Sam B,
You just said it yourself. Just killed your own argument. WE have a better team but WE underperformed. I’ve not made any excuses. You blamed the QB. The posters here feel like coaching was to blame for the loss. You just blamed the team. I told you that you were talking out of both sides of your mouth? Make up your mind fella?
The offense was equally bad in not converting on 3rd down and not in the redzone. That is the QB. Now what would I change? What can you change? Harbaugh screwed our season by puttting in an uknown and now the results show that. Im not saying Alex Smith would be better, but it was working and now we look like a team with no identity.
Sam B,
Our offense was just as bad as our defense???????????? Somebody please help me out with the football savvy less Sam B.
1. Seattle was 11 for 12 on 3rd down.
2. Seattle was 4 for 4 in the red zone.
3. Russel wilson threw 4 touchdowns.
4. Seattle ran for almost 200 yards.
5. Russel Wilson ran circles around our D.
6. Carlos Rogers got destroyed last night.
7. Aldon Smith looked lost without Justin.
I love our defense to death and if you have followed this blog for any window of time, you would know that. Our defense got embarrassed last night. We played better than that under Singletarythan we did last night. Thatbwas the worst performance I’ve seen in at least 3 1/2 years. 11 for 12 on 3rd down. I have never seen that from a Niner team. You are killing me Sam B.
Prime Randy.
You are such a bottom dweller two face oh I mean three face forgot about Axel, you have said time to move on with the change of QB but you can’t let go, ofcourse you having a little mind like your older sister, although it has been confirmed DS is a man, so will switch it to your older brother, that if you think for a second this was all Kaep fault, you are a real buffoon, well you are one. Yes the coaching and the defense had nothing to do with it, can’t wait till AS is traded so you will leave this blog Randy.
Can you explain our dismal 3rd down conversions and redzone offense? The offense did not keep pace. Is that not what Kapernick was brought in to do, score points and be able to lead comebacks?
The defense was bad but the offense did nothing to help. How many times did Kaepernick have to call timeout or get a delay of game. That should not be happening late in the season in Seattle or Mars for that matter.
You are killing me by making so many excuses outside of the Qb position. He was terrible, why are you hiding from that?
Neal=SNOOZE!
Sam B,
Last question. Was the QB the reason we lost the game vs Seattle? Was it mainly Kaps fault?
Shut up Randy.
No it was not his fault, he just looks like he is in way over his head. Wilson who has played all year looks more confident, poised and a leader of his offense. Kaepernick who is the better QB eventually, has not had the tme to develop and be ready for the playoffs after only what will be 7 starts.
Be honest now, do you think Kaepernick looks like a QB ready to win a superbowl?
Sam,
If your mind is just one game, CK is not ready but he sure looked ready against the Pats, but it appears that you forgot that game. Eli and the Giants didnot look so hot last year with a 9 and 7 record, and they one the big one.
Sam B,
See that’s what’s you don’t understand about this football team. We don’t need Kap to win the Super Bowl. We need our defense to play well. Like they have most of the past 2 years. We need our special teams to be adequate. We need to be able to run the ball pretty
Good. We need Kap to be successful getting the ball to playmakers and to use his legs as a weapon. We can win a Super Bowl with all of those things. Kap can win a Super Bowl with this team. Making it there as beat up as we are makes it difficult.
Neal,
Its sad that prime continues to post here even though he was banned. Grant continues to erase his posts as fast as he writes them, yet he still comes up here. Now that’s a sick puppy.
Randy=Prime Slime=Axel Foley and many more
Jordan, excellent perspective
Ofcourse you being a Seahawk fan that is what you would like.
Why would the Packers’ game have an effect on the NFC West seeding?
If the Packers win, they will have the number # 2 seed in the NFC. Atlanta has number one
Not the west, the whole thing.
Realniner,
Now that is funny. Do you honestly believe that the Niners will even be close to losing to Arizona??? My advice to you would be to give Arizona the points. I don’t care why the spread is. Give them the points and bet the house. We are going to destroy Arizona this week. The only game grant will predict right this year.
Looks like Real Niner has left the building.
I hope Grant predicts a lost for the Niners against the red birds!
Like that is going to happen, hey he thinks Green Bay going to beat the Vikings, so we have a better chance that the Vikes will knock off the Packers
coaches around the NFL are extra motivated to beat Harbaugh. Take the Rams for example who after beating us lost to the Jets. Kind of like T.O. running into the middle of the Dallas star then dropping the football into it, you don’t want to give teams extra ammunition. Other coaches hate Jim, hopefully he and the whole stuff are now humbled and work to be more like Belichik
Story on CSN I just saw that says Jim mocked the Seahawks as they left the Stick, player calls him “dude acts like a child”. So proves my point, he goes too far and gets teams focused on tearing us a new one
Sled,
Know that this quote about Harbaugh mocking the Seahawks players on the team bus came from Earl Thomas. Harbaugh was asked about it in his press conference today and he said the qute was false. That he has never done that and that when the visitors team bus leaves the stick, he’s still in the building. He said he has never left before a visitors team bus to his knowledge. Thomas claimed that Harbaugh was honking at the team bus and saluting their players. I find that hard to believe.
What I do like is the rivalry we have created now with them finally beating us. Harbaugh might play conservative against some teams in the future. He will not do that against Seattle. I hope we see them at the stick in the playoffs. That will be a matchup for the ages!
Sam B says:
December 24, 2012 at 1:42 pm
“Stinkers in the year are acceptable, losing division games late in the season are another. Especially when you score really only 13 points and 7 of those were a late TD in garbage time.”
Did you or anyone here really believe that the c-hawks were going to be a walk-over win for us last night? They are tough to beat at home no matter what their record has been over the years.
Agreed, you never want to lose to a division rival at this point in the season. But we did. Can’t change that.
I’m not happy with our entire teams performance last night, but I chose to dwell on what lays ahead rather than an embarrassing loss.
We got our ass– handed to us.
Time to move on bud.
Are you jumping ship, or are you going to ride it out?
I know what I’m doing; Go 49ers, Super Bowl 2012-13!
Being optimistic is one thing, seeing a team starting to unravel is another. The strongest most dedicated fan cannot deny this team is in serious trouble.
As Jack had mentioned, the Niner lost 49-3 with a Walsh team against the Giants, ifIi recall correctly they did pretty well that year, but you have tunnel vision, and just can’t let go, all Super Bowl teams have bumps and road blocks on their way to champipships.
Well, SamB. I’ve been a serious 49ers fan since the mid-60′ and with all due respect, I seriously believe that you are overreacting bud.
I’ll hold my pessimism until after the season is over. I don’t react to one terrible game by saying that the team is unraveling.
If you want to wallow in misery that’s your prerogative and your right.
We ran into a buzzsaw team last night. Had the c-hawks played the SB against ANY team last night, I believe we see the same results.
I personally don’t see them sustaining this level of play throughout the playoffs. But that’s just one man’s opinion.
Overreacting after a bad game is probably healthy for some people because it allows them to vent their feelings.
Hope you feel better by the end of the week bud.
AES,
His criticism of Kap tells me that he’s bitter about the QB change. He says the offense looked worse than the defense last night.Even though the defense knows that it couldn’t have played any worse. They got humiliated last night. Arizona is coming to San Francisco at the wrong time. It’s gonna be ugly next week.
Those 35 extra snaps in New England killed our defense this week, along with the loss of Justin Smith. I dint think his impact would be that great. I was dead WRONG. He sets up that entire defense. That is why I hate to see Aldon celebrate sacks. He owes 50% of his success to Justin Smith. I never see him celebrate with Justin. If Aldon is half the player he thinks he is, he gets the sack record next week without Justin. Our defense owes me a shutout this week. Thankfully, that’s what we normally do on defense after a loss. We DOMINATE!
The kid looked horrible last night. No bs, just plain horrible: he’s rattled, can’t even get the team lined up and the ball snapped, and he’s telegraphing his passes.
He is raw. So it’s not a surprise that he bombed. But Harbaugh was a fool to make this switch so late in the season.
Ego, arrogance, no understanding of NFL history…karma is a bitch, as the boy genius is now finding out.
No doubt when Kaepernick beats Arizona at home next week, the Amen Chorus will tell us how he’s Rookie-of-the-Year material. But you saw the Rookie-of-the-Year tonight, in green. The contrast was brutal.
Techie, CK7 is in his second year so he does not qualify for Rookie of the Year consideration.
And yes, I agree with you, he played horrible.
I for one am not making any excuses for his poor performance.
But I’m not making excuses for the way the whole team played as well.
Just putrid!
Time to move on.
Thanks prime. Must be tough when you keep having to bounce around town to post messages from different locations. Where are you now? public library??
When the dime bags post and get deleted it really messes with the flow of things.
Grant, is there a way to censor the posts instead of deleting them? Like strip the text out but leave the post? Maybe then it wouldn’t get all out of whack?
Amen. Maybe edit the post with a [censored] tag or something so the whole board doesn’t get destroyed.
I am sick to death of these anti-Niner fans on this post. The niners are going to go 11-4-1 with wins against the packers, saints, and pats on the road. They lose three of their best players against a rival after an exhausting win against pats, didn’t show up to play and got smoked. Yet, suddenly knowing all that, they are suddenly terrible. You guys are a bunch of clowns. Go root for another team why don’t ya. “Smith would have won”…Smith would have gotten killed last night. Also, let me remind you that we smoked the seagulls at home when we played them last. They were due one. When we win the SB, I don’t want see any of you negative posters talking about how you are fans and knew they would win. In my book, you are a bunch of know nothing, front runners with no real sense of history with this franchise. In fact, the gulls are lolling for some bandwagoners, why don’t you go jump on there train.
+10 (The zero isn’t a typo)
That’s a great “get back to Earth” post. A lot of good stuff this year for the 49ers.
Still, man, that loss was painful. A real let down after the win against the Pats. Expecting back-to-back wins on the road was probably a bit much.
you are so right! GO NINERSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
I hope Packers lose this sunday
Oh and I forgot, apparently our coach sucks too. Absurd!
Kaepernick threw into Sherman’s coverage eight times and completed three passes for 73 yards.
Sherman recorded an interception and three passes defensed – a single game career-high.
Kaepernick had 31.8 QB rating throwing into Sherman’s coverage. Kaepernick had a 108.7 QB rating throwing into Jeremy Lane’s coverage, completing 7-of-12 passes for 87 yards and a touchdown.
Grant laying down the knowledge! The miners should have just let shade an island alone and not pass to him the whole night. Big coaching error. I wish the niners treAted Jenkins like a first round pick and forced him into the lineup. He looked like he had good chemistry with kap in the preseason. And his speed would make him open quite a bit
Grant, I would like to wish you and your family happy holidays. I disagree with your assessment. Coaches do not play in the game, they do not drop passes our fumble after hits! This team has a very talented coaching staff and they will explore every possible option to win on every given Sunday! This is not Mike S team that comes up with the same offensive game plan every game which was run it up the middle! JH and his staff know how Sherman plays better than any other coaches in the NFL and they might believe they can exploit him by going after him! In matter of the fact CK and Crab had a very good play against Sherman. The issue in this game was MOMENTUM!!! On the first drive CK threw a nice pass to Crab for a potential first down and the ball went through his hands! Then One busted play and hawks were up 7-0! Then we are in the position to score a TD and everything goes against us so we try for a field goal and which it gets blocked for another TD! Now they are up 21 points in a very loud staduim. Coaching staff needs to take some of the blame but i do not believe all the fingers should be pointed at the coaches! GO NINERS