It is never a good sign to hear members of a team say they are “excited” to have a season end, as the 49ers did this week. You can be excited about going to the playoffs. Or excited to start the season. But if you are thrilled that it is over, it must have been a real downer. And it was. If the 2019 season was a rocket ride to…
The 49ers surprise Arizona . . . and us. Also, is the “Kittle effect” real?
I guess everyone saw the 49ers’ 20-12 win over the Cardinals coming, right? At kickoff, we had the floundering, 5-9 Niners, losers of the last three in a row, and defeated in six of the previous seven. They were on a month-long camping trip to Arizona. They had so many injuries the team bus is an ambulance. They were dis-invited to the playoffs last week. They were basically playing for…
As hard as he tries, you’d think Nick Mullens would get a break. That’s not how this works
By now it almost seems cruel to keep running Nick Mullens out there as the 49ers quarterback. Everyone can sense the poor guy is giving it everything he’s got. He’s energetic and enthusiastic. He is cooperative and honest in interviews. And he just can’t do it. Asked to assess Mullens’ performance in Sunday’s 23-15 loss to Washington, former 49er QB Jeff Garcia said he was “very sporadic, late on throws,…
49ers can’t lose again – it’s just math
Win or go home. It’s that simple after the 49ers 34-24 loss to Buffalo. Don’t buy it? Check with the coach. “We’ve got four more games . . . and we’ve got to win all of them,” said Kyle Shanahan. You know the calculation. The Niners were 5-6 coming into Monday night’s nationally televised game. Ten wins is a perfectly acceptable total for an invitation to the playoffs. To get…
At a moment when it would have been easy to quit . . . the 49ers make a stand
You’d have to say the 49ers’ season has been a disappointment. Super Bowl participants are supposed to roar out of the gate the next year, establish themselves as one of the favorites and then expect to do some damage in the playoffs. Instead, the Niners lost the opener to Arizona and have been on a frustrating quest to get to .500 for most of the year. It has begun to…
49ers in the playoffs? Seriously?
It keeps popping up. You’re watching the 49ers’ game on TV, and at some point the playoff possibilities are flashed on the screen. It lists the sure-fire contenders and a short list of teams “on the bubble” to make the playoffs. And listed, week after week, are the hard-luck, much injured, losers-of-three-in-a-row 49ers. Do they really have a chance to make the playoffs? Yes. And probably no. It is true…
On the 49ers bye week to-do list: rest, heal up and for God’s sake fix the offensive line
While it is always fun (and easy) to pile on the quarterback after a loss, I’m sure they are plenty of people doing that. So I’d like to go in a different direction. Following the sound thumping the Saints put on the 49ers Sunday, the team gets some R & R. With the bye week, they will have time to heal up, take a break, and re-commit to the season….
Jed York buys a victory for the 49ers
It turns out the 49ers did get a win last week after all. Only it wasn’t on the field. In a way, you could say it was about the field — the one at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara. Earlier we told you about the efforts by 49ers owner Jed York to vote in team-friendly candidates to the Santa Clara city council. And when we say “efforts,” what we really…
The 49ers never had a chance vs. Green Bay — for lots of reasons
One of the charming qualities of sports is magical thinking. It is the idea that a team with pluck, grit and gumption can overcome a more talented team on sheer will and want-to. You take your best shot and the next thing you know the USA hockey team is beating Russia in the Miracle on Ice in the 1980 Olympic Games. Unfortunately, there’s a reason we call those miracles. They…
Reality bites the 49ers. It looks like this is who they are
In a way maybe the loss to Seattle was for the best. You know what would have happened if the 49ers had pulled off the upset and beaten the Seahawks. Irrational exuberance. We saw it after the back to back wins over the Rams and the Patriots. Don’t sleep on the Niners, people said. They’re pulling it together. The playoffs are not out of reach. Instead, they went to Seattle,…
49ers stick together – and win
You can drop passes. You can fumble. You can blow a coverage or miss a tackle. Those can be fixed. But if a team loses its chemistry – its cohesion – it is cooked. And let’s don’t pretend the 49ers weren’t headed that direction coming into Sunday night’s game with the Rams. They had a losing record, a series of why-us? injuries and were coming off a defeat that…
Yanking Garoppolo sets up a whole list of possible consequences for Shanahan
We don’t do it often here, because we’re usually big fans, but we’re going to have to call out Kyle Shanahan. His performance in Sunday’s embarrassing loss to Miami was not impressive. Others have run down the list of whiffs, misses and sacks the team allowed and committed. I recommend that you read them. I’d just say I hope Shanahan went through all the possible scenarios when he yanked quarterback…
Yes, Nick Mullens imploded. But others aren’t off the hook.
Nick Mullens had a tough day against the Eagles. But so did the 49ers defense. (AP Photo/D. Ross Cameron Let’s take a break from bashing Nick Mullens for a moment, although I am sure we will get back to it. Sunday’s 25-20 loss to Philadelphia was the first time this year the 49ers looked shell-shocked. This was supposed to be the glide path of the schedule. And although they lost…
There’s more to this than a win over the Giants. Shanahan makes a statement
It wasn’t news that the 49ers beat the Giants Sunday. It would have been news if they lost. But this played out exactly to script. Only three games into the season, it is pretty clear who the Giants are – a poor team with problems. They committed bonehead penalties, blew pass coverages, and when things went south in the second half, showed quite a bit of quit. Good teams,…
Everything is up in the air for the 49ers – QB, injuries and turf. They did win Sunday, right?
I was honestly interested to tune into Kyle Shanahan’s Zoom presser today. Last week, after a disappointing loss to Arizona, he seemed surprisingly nonchalant. The vibe from him, as well as the players, seemed to be, “Yeah, it happens. We didn’t think we were going to win every game.” So this week, after watching key players limp and stagger off the field with injuries, or in the case of Nick…
There’s plenty of blame for the 49ers’ loss. So let’s get started
It was a long day for Jimmy Garoppolo against the Cardinals. But he wasn’t the only one. (Kent Porter/Press Democrat) Unprepared, sloppy and flat, the 49ers hit the trifecta in Sunday’s 24-20 loss to the Cardinals. It isn’t often that you can blame all three football components for a loss, offense, defense and special teams, but they all contributed. “All three units got to play well,” George Kittle said…
Prediction: Another Championship Season for the 49ers
New acquisition Trent Williams has been terrific so far for the 49ers. (Phelan M. Ebenhack/AP) (Editor’s note — Now that the season has begun (barring any last-second problems) we’re going to make a change in the blog. Starting next week it will appear the day after every game. It will give us a chance to highlight some overlooked moments, strategize and yes, creatively second-guess everyone. And that’s every game,…
The 49ers hold down COVID-19 – Whoops, except for Fred Warner
Just when you think you have figured something out . . . At 10:30 Monday morning, I was writing about how surprising it was that the NFL has been able to keep COVID-19 cases under control. Although there was a spike of nearly 100 players when training camps started, once those players were quarantined and cleared, the virus seemed to be staying down in professional football. The NFL even put…
Out on the edge, life with the 49ers is intense
Nick Bosa’s battles with new acquisition Trent Williams have been a featured attraction at training camp. (AP Photo/ Butch Dill) The 49ers are all about life on the edge. According to tradition, every NFL training camp must have a theme. Unfortunately, the 49ers do not have a quarterback controversy, so we can’t use that old chestnut. Instead, attention has been fixed on the “edge.” The edge is the mythical point…
Trent Taylor and Jet McKinnon are back. Hopefully.
As training camp gets underway, those who observe football professionally end up preforming two services. The first is to dutifully note that player X or Y, has gone through an innovative off-season conditioning program and is now “in the best shape of my life.” For the sake of brevity, let’s stipulate that everyone is in great shape. And the second is to identify and analyze potential prospects. This is a…
