This is my column for Wednesday. The 49ers need a new quarterback. This is not to say the 49ers should give up on Colin Kaepernick — with the right coaching he may still have a future. But they shouldn’t go all in with him, either. The 49ers should hedge their bets, draft a quarterback who could back up Kaepernick as a rookie and could eventually take over as the starter…
Here is my Saturday column previewing the upcoming 49ers-Rams game. SANTA CLARA – If the 49ers lose to the Rams on Sunday, you can forget about the 49ers. The 49ers currently cling to the sixth and final NFC playoff seed. The 49ers can’t afford to lose to the Rams and fall behind in the race for the final Wild Card spot. The Rams have improved since the 49ers embarrassed them…
Here is my Tuesday column on the upcoming 49ers-Rams game. You don’t have to look hard to find reasons to pick the 49ers to beat the Rams Thursday night in St. Louis. Here’s one: The Rams stink. Last Sunday they got destroyed by the Cowboys, a .500 team the past two seasons. And the Rams showed no emotion while they got stomped. It was like they expected it and didn’t…
49ers fans and Bay Area residents are hyper-aware of Colin Kaepernick’s excellent 2012 season. He took Alex Smith’s starting job Week 10, started the final-seven games of the regular season and was one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL over that stretch. I thought it would be interesting to compare Kaepernick’s final-seven regular season games to the final-seven regular season games of each of the quarterbacks the 49ers will…
The 49ers are going to absolutely handle the Rams in St. Louis on Sunday. The Rams offense is going to come out running, like it did a few weeks ago against the Niners. That strategy worked for the Rams the first time. It will not work on Sunday. The 49ers will shut down Steven Jackson and Daryl Richardson from the beginning of the game. As a result, the Rams offense…
SANTA CLARA – Vic Fangio spoke in the 49ers media tent Thursday afternoon. Here’s what he said about the Rams offense. Them having WR Danny Amendola back, how does that kind of change what they do? “I don’t think it changes what they’re going to do schematically because they had a good guy to replace him with in [WR] Steve Smith, the guy that was with the Giants and…
NFL Films analyst Greg Cosell spoke on the Murph and Mac Show Thursday morning. Here’s what Cosell said about the 49ers upcoming matchup with the St. Louis Rams. Q: Who are these 3-5 Rams? COSELL: I think they’ve clearly made a conscious effort to limit Steven Jackson’s carries for whatever reason. Daryl Richardson has taken up those carries and he’s got a little more juice, he’s got a little more…
SANTA CLARA – Carlos Rogers spoke in the media tent Wednesday afternoon. Here’s what he said about the Rams offense. Q: How does Sam Bradford look on film? ROGERS: He looks pretty good. He looks better and the team looks better. Different coaches, different players. It’s going to be a challenge. Any time you play a division game, it’s going to be a challenge no matter if we’re on our…
St. Louis Rams head coach Jeff Fisher spoke on a conference call with Bay Area reporters Wednesday morning. Here’s what he said about the Rams. Q: When you were considering the Rams job, did you look at the NFC West and analyze it, and if you did, what did you see from that division? FISHER: Certainly very, very impressed with what took place out there and the great job that…
Here’s what Jim Harbaugh said at his Monday press conference about the St. Louis Rams in general and their quarterback, Sam Bradford, in particular. HARBAUGH: [The Rams] are playing good football. I think it’s an improved team. It seems like they’re doing a very good job. Q: Did you watch film of them this week? HARBAUGH: Yes. Q: What new challenges do they present your team? HARBAUGH: New challenges…schematically? Personnel-wise?…
This is the final installment of our NFC West matchup preview. Today we’re breaking down how the Niners match up with the St. Louis Rams. Tomorrow we’ll break down their matchup with the New England Patriots. 49ERS DEFENSE VS. RAMS OFFENSE: This matchup isn’t close. The Niners have a great defense and the Rams have a terrible offense. St. Louis got shut out twice in their final five games last…
SANTA CLARA — Here’s what Friday’s injury report looks like. Notice that a couple key Rams are questionable to play – Sam Bradford and Chris Long. Jim Harbaugh said in his press conference today he expects Bradford to play. Why? “Educated guess,” Harbaugh said. Also notice that Braylon Edwards is listed as questionable and Adam Snyder and Bruce Miller are listed as probable. I expect Snyder and Miller to start,…
SANTA CLARA – Here’s the transcript of defensive coordinator Vic Fangio’s Thursday afternoon press conference, courtesy of the 49ers. [LB] Patrick [Willis] was talking about the goal line stand that you guys had in Baltimore a week ago, how he was able to call out the drop there with QB Joe Flacco in, said that was something you showed them on film, even though Baltimore hadn’t run it all season….
Here’s what St. Louis Rams head coach Steve Spagnuolo said on a conference call with Bay Area reporters this morning. Q: You’ve seen the 49ers quite a bit over the years. Could you talk about differences you see this year with their offense? SPAGNUOLO: A lot of the personnel’s the same. I know I counted up a lot of guys, same guys we played in the second-to-the-last game of the…
ESPN’s Mike Sando just came out with an interesting article comparing the NFC West Quarterbacks by their Total Quarterback Rating – a new, highly subjective, supposedly more accurate metric for measuring quarterback performance. Sando explains it in detail in his article, but all you need to know is that a TBR of 50 is average, and a TBR of 65 is pro-bowl caliber. Last season, Alex Smith’s 82.1 quarterback rating…
