San Francisco 49ers - St. Louis Rams Fan Thread: The Tides and Times of a Great NFL Rivalry

Claiborne and Kirkpatrick seem to be at the top of the CB board

Nolantary’s coaching since 2005 and Erikson’s before that was terrible enough to assure that we would be near the tippity top of the draft every year, which lead inevitably to a roster stacked with first round talent. The biggest thing Harbaugh has really done is brought a level of competence to the sidelines that has been missing every since the “anybody but mooch” crowd had their say. Imagine what this guy can do with a real offseason, and a further opportunity to build this team to run his system.

What I see in the 49ers position coaches is how well they prepare and coach their groups for each game. Our position coaches can be seen standing on the sidelines watching the game, while yours are huddled up with their guys talking strategy.
I’m betting that irregardless of what happens to Spagnuolo after the season, the position coaches will see wholesale change across the board

I haven’t watch Hunter closely. Both he and Gore should have a field day against the Rams run D. We’ve had trouble finding OLBs to team up Laurinaitis, who is an absolute beast in the middle. Team game plan around JL55 to isolate our OLBs weaknesses. Look for Gore to catch quite a few short swing passes for good yardage.
Since you’ll be drafting low in the Draft, you may want to have a look at Aaron Dobson out of Marshal Univ. in rounds 3-4. He reminds me a bit of T.O. without the mental baggage.
While I think many of your injuries have been of the shorter term variety, I still wonder about NFL injuries as a whole this season? Totally shocked by the number of season ending injuries to players across the league. Is it just me, or has the number of players being carted off the field risen alarmingly? We’ve has three severe head/neck traumas this season. not to mention the 10 CBs we’ve lost to a variety of injuries.

Explains things perfectly…I think you should use animal metaphors for every answer from now on.

But I do have to disagree about the injuries. Football is violant and every team has injuries, but by and large I think the 49ers have had to deal with less than most teams. I think part of it is the kind of players the front office has been targeting in the last few draft. They’ve been trying to create a big physical team and those types of players seem to hold up better.

Sam Bradford has a tendency to latch onto a receiver, and Lloyd’s arrival with his great range and hands, is the latest Rams WR to benefit.
As far as who else Sam passes to? The Rams WRs have to think that being Sam’s favorite target is a curse. Everyone Sam likes to through to is out for the season – Amendola, Salas, Clayton.
After the preseason, I would have said Kendricks, but something happened to him when the season began? Right now, Sam is so gun shy after being pounded by 33 sacks, I’m not really sure who he throws to other than the first Ram uniform he sees.

Damn

I think I see a parallel between Sam Bradford and Alex Smith. Here is an excellent observation from NN’s own – Ougadas

In my opinion, Harbaugh started the year trying to find Alex’s comfort zone and once that was established he’s worked on expanding that zone as the season has progressed. This is in contrast with the previous 38 regimes that had their system and expected what was essentially still a rookie QB developmental wise to run it. There are still limitations on what this offense can achieve that have nothing to do with Alex, and those have slowed progress. But no situation is perfect.

Sam is on his second OC in his two year NFL career. Has Harbaugh acted as QB coach? I ask this because the Rams currently don’t have a QB coach for Sam and I think he’s truly suffering because of it. McD certainly isn’t coaching anyone…

The 49ers leave TE’s and RB in for protection to make the scheme simpler for the QB. There was an article out two weeks ago on this.

were spying. they were confident in letting tebow throw the ball on them.

My first game attended and Niners lost 26-16. We were swept by the Rams that year as we had lost 31-7 in week 4. Niners actually won the West that year @ 8-5-1. I loved the years that John Robinson was Head Coach. Truly. Once the team left LA, I didn’t feel much animosity towards it anymore as far as a rivalry.

My first 49er-Rams game, as well as my first NFL game. It was the last season that the Rams were in LA, so I guess it was the last game in this rivalry to be played in Southern California. The 49ers won 34-19. What I remember most about the game was that it was the first that Deion Sanders played for the niners after being signed as a free agent. It was also the first game the 49ers wore the throwback uniforms that brought them so much good luck that year.

This was actually one of the first games I ever remember watching on TV. Before that I listened to the Niners on the radio. It was a big monday night game. The 11-2 Niners were visiting the 9-4 La Rams at Anaheim Stadium. I remember it being a offensive slugfest. The rams were up big in the 1st quarter(17-0). Then the Niners started clawing back with 2 long John Taylor Tds( a 92 yard rec and a 96 yard rec). The niners finally took the lead in the last 2 mins of the game on a Roger Craig td run. Just amazing talent on those 2 teams. Montana, Rice, Craig, Taylor, Jones, Rathman, Haley, Lott, Romanowski, Flipper, Ellard, Everett, Greene, Strickland….Stars galore.

The oldest one that sticks out in my mind was John Taylor’s 2 catches for 90+ yards on MNF. Not the first Rams game I’ve watched, but the most memorable for me.

If you look at just the money side, taking Luck would save HUGE amounts of $$$. Trading Sam would garner a few picks in any other year but this coming 2012 Draft, which seems packed with quality QBs

Luck is on the fast track to Indy.

From Washington to Rice, you’ve had WRs that have ruined soooo many Sundays of mine…

The great thing is that there really haven’t been too many “blowout” ggames throughout the years. I wish this game had the NFC West title on the line, but….

None were 49er killers like Kevin Greene.

When he was acquired, it was for a 6th round pick that converted to a 5th if Lloyd caught more than 30 passes. He caught his 31st last Sunday and it won’t stop any time soon

teams are more worried about our running game and they stack the box

This same situation in any other year would be one of the most powerful draft position ever

if you get my drift.

Lower scoring, where SF can grind the ball down the field, keep it out of Rodgers’ hands, literally stifle everything right down to Rodgers himself (like, perhaps a rediscovered pass rush), which can be done – we have the D and ST to do it with – and the offense does just enough…

Niners can beat ’em. I know they can – just a matter of quite a few pieces falling into place.

I would love to have the weathers help to stop Rodgers.

We’re probably playing the Saints first, which will be rough. I’d almost rather give up the 2 seed and get a 1st round win.

They wouldn’t have an answer for us and it would be a beat down similar to what we saw against Tampa Bay. Physical beat down as well when Alex Smith and Aaron Rodgers meet after the game and Smith sucker-punches Rodgers screaming at him for all the comparisons he had to go through to him.

are a team that relies on the big plays. They have 49 plays of 20+yards(26 from 20-29, 11 from 30-39, 7 from 40-60, and 5 from 70-94). If you can make them drive the whole field in small increments they actually arent that impressive. Also, kick away from Reggie Cobb. He has 2 returns for Tds, and almost every game gives them a 30-50 yard return. Make them drive it a full 80 yards with a touchback. They’ve only done that 4 times this year. 80 yard drives without a big play so make them earn it. Thirdly, you have to value the ball. No turnovers. The packers have scored Tds after 10 turnovers this year. Short fields after mistakes by the other team is what they prey on. Lastly, you have to keep the game to a minimal amount of possessions. The less they have the ball, the less they can score.

I think overall, the Niners have a good shot at taking the packers because of these. They have an excellent running game to keep the chains moving, and more importantly, the clock moving. They have arguably the best Special teams in the NFL. Andy Lee, David Akers, and the coverage units are all top notch, and will help win the field position battle. Finally, the Niners defense has been very good at limiting the big plays. They are a bend, but don’t break, type of defense. You might make it down to their 25 yard line, but you will have to settle for a FG because they don’t give you room to work in the short space of the red zone.

Of course this is all in the perfect world. It could be a blowout. But I believe the Niners have what it takes to beat the Mighty Packers.

I’m just a lowly Editor known for his fiction posts and their absurd comments numbers they generate along with our MNF- Photo Caption Contest.
Not to worry though, both posts at TST and here will be up all week

… I have no doubt having 2 OCs in two years has affected him. I also think he’s having shoulder issues, as evidenced by his lower release point when he throws compared to last season.
One thing I think Sam is having problems with is calling protections, which he didn’t have to do under Shurmer. He also has a slower learning curve than we had hoped.

A new offense with a very shorten offseason stunted his production. We still have issues with WRs and droops. He would have like 5 more TDs if we didn’t have all the drops. Also the o line is struggling. Both our tackles are out for the year, but it’s not like they were playing well to begin with. Again as Doug just said, Sam is having to call the protection this year and is struggling with it. So many times on 4 man rushes a guy will run free at Sam, simply because the wrong protection call was made. Sam is still playing worse than he should. His accuracy, especially downfield, just hasn’t been there this season consistently.

I remember the day I heard Jack “Hacksaw” Reynolds went to the 49ers… dark days indeed :-)
Few people realize Reynolds was 6’1" and weighed only 227 lbs. He played the Middle like a giant!

is that replay of the guy punching the goalpost in STL, and yelling same city but same old sorry ass Rams. Then we won the super bowl like 3 years later.

One thing that could be pointed at as a first shove down the loss hill was our WRs. Until Lloyd arrived, catching a pass was a fluke at best. I’ve never seen a team that dropped so many passes that hit them in the hands. It translated to too many 4 and outs, keeping the Rams D on the field far too long and the Rank of #32 in the NFL for points scored.

everything that was supposed to be okay is horrible and everything that was supposed to be bad, is abysmal. Regression across the board. Injuries have had a lot to do with it, but the play is still bad for what we should be playing like. Lack of execution is the biggest problem. Part of that in my opinion is culture and lack of overall talent on the team. We have some good guys, SJax, Sammy B, Lloyd, Chris Long, James L, Mikell, but at every other position we are under talented.

… If you really look at the Rams problems this year outside of injuries, it’s hard not to draw a beeline to several of the position coaches failing miserably at their jobs. The worst offender has to be OL coach Steve Loney. One of my favorite Rams players of all time, Nolan Cromwell, is also guilty of failing to give his WRs any clue as to how to perform well. While the WRs were dropping pass after pass, Cromwell never moved from his place on the sidelines as he watched the game.
Great position coaches work with their charges on the sidelines. Our look completely lost. McD to my mind has far more to answer for than Spags.
Do I think he’ll be fired? Yes. Without a change season ticket sales will plummet. Kroenke will see it as a pure business decision. Billy Devaney will be either fired or his position as GM will be re-defined.

10-33, and we are as bad of a team this year as we’ve ever been. Injuries or not we need to see better results. There also doesn’t seem to be any urgency from Spags, which is horribly frustrating.

Seriously, I’m just hoping for a great game. The chance of us beating you are just shy of none.

The 49ers defense has always gotten really pumped up to play SJax so it won’t be because they didn’t take him seriously.

the WRs and defensive line would be very tough to do. Along with Faulk vs. Dickerson, but for me it’s Faulk by a mile. Also Warner or Norm Van Brocklin.

Tony Banks

Bettis is still one of the most overrated players in the history of football in my opinion.

http://www.49ers.com/team/history/49ers-hall-of-fame.html

They have also recognized players from past teams during half-time shows and such.

we’ve been killing you guys!

That is an amazing number. Double what I would have guessed.

yes.

most of the injuries have been freak type, like Bartell’s neck, or the torn ligament variety, which are really just random.

“Blaming the Taliban, Global Warming, Snooky or the over abundance of cute kitten videos that dominate the web for the St. Louis Rams contagion level injuries just isn’t panning out. The CDC will no longer take my calls, and refuse to acknowledge my assertion that “Turf Gnomes” have infested NFL stadiums. N.A.S.A. won’t look into the obvious increase in gravity I pointed out to them as the cause of recent Rams weight room incidents… I’m thinking cover up? My thirty seven page letter I sent to Oliver Stone was a bit ranty, but the letter from his attorney was down right rude… Maybe I’ll try Michael Moore?"

or else we won’t be so hospitable in week 17! :P