San Francisco 49ers


49ers Faithfuls, Since this is my first official "blog" so to speak on any type of website and as I get used to the idea of having my own blog, I think I'll get better.

Anyways, I was throughly impressed by the 49ers this year due to the fact that they all looked GREAT. As a TEAM and as the stat board shows. So what if Alex Smith didn't throw for 5,000 yard and 45 TDs, he did what he needed to do to win games and advance the 49ers into the playoffs. Let's not forget about the season that Frank Gore had and the fact that Kendall Hunter like to run the ball a long ways too. It showed that the niners were a diversivied team this year and that we can improve on the foundation that Jim "Greatness" Harbaugh has brought to SF. The niners have not looked this good since the '80s and 1994 when they won their fifth Super Bowl Title.

The coaching staff and the players really rallied around Jim to make him feel welcome. Who could forget that when the lockout was lifted for a day he gave Alex Smith the freakin' playbook, and he wasn't even under contract. I have defended Alex for 7 years saying that it's all because of him changing offensive coordinators every year and this year proved it. Harbaugh a QB himself and staff embraced Alex's past, present and future, and said "Here you go kid" let's get this party started. Alex took it and ran with it. He organized off-site workouts for all players and also studied the playbook like their was no tomorrow. Alex proved himself this year and hopefully is awarded with a nice 4 year contract.

Let's talk about Vernon Davis for a minute. Vernon was benched 2 years ago by then coach Singletary, who I liked ALOT, and said "can't win with him" he wanted winners. Dont really wanna go and say that he needs to eat his words but come on. The Catch 2 in the final seconds of the Saints game that lauches them into the Championship game?! Holy cow, I think we can win with Vernon Davis, I'm just glad he's on our team and not playing against us.

Michael Crabtree is emerging as the leader of the recieving corps and now if he could actually practice and stop complaining about his feet hurting during the week and saying they are good on gameday, could you imagine if he practiced more than twice a week. In his defense I don not think that they target him enough in games and in the games that they did call his number alot, Alex Smith threw them high and he had to jump for them making it hard to rack up yards after the catch. I hated him when he was in Texas Tech (I'm a Longhorns Fan) but he can only get better with time. Joshua Morgan should have never been in the game when they were kicking the stuffing out of Tampa Bay (as most of you can agree with me) but let it go, he'll be back next year and tearing up the field like he does.

Defense was freakin' awesome this year led by none other than Pat Willis and Justin Smith. The secondary looked great (Carlos Rogers had his best year yet) Navarro Bowman proved that he could lead the team when Willis was hurt for those two weeks. And Aldon Smith (who got snubbed in the DPOY voting) as did Alex Smith (CBPOY) but none the less Aldon did his job as a pass rush monster (he like to run over people in his pursuit of the QB) I was loving the defense this year as well as the offense.

We can't forget about the Special Teams led by Andy "punt the ball inside the 10" Lee, David "kick from any distace" Akers and Blake Castanzo who was all over the field during run backs when they were allowed. Akers had a record year and Lee also capped a fine year with all his punts inside the 20 and the 10. Lee made it hard for the opposition to start with good field position and Akers was a FG machine. Castanzo made it difficult to get a good return.

Now, if we can get our Free Agents signed i.e Rogers, Goldson, Smith, lead the pack for that area. As long as Trent Balakke knows that they are top priority, the niners will bring back a good corps for them to build on and now guys have playoff experience, which only feeds the hunger to make it to the show.

We probably need to adress the RED ZONE offensive stutters and the little problems we had punching it into the end zone as well during camp. We have the team to do it and now that we have had our first taste of the playoffs in a long time, we as FAITHFULS should have had a great year. Now, if we could tape the ball to Kyle Williams hands, I'm just sayin'. WHAT A YEAR for the faithful, and to steal a line from my baseball team the SF GIANTS "TORTURE NEVER FELT SO GOOD", but honestly "WHO'S GOT IT BETTER THAN US?"