Saints 31 - 49ers 10: Let's just brown bag this one...

by Fooch on Oct 28, 2007 10:48 PM PDT in News Comment 16 comments

So instead of landing in Oakland at 7:30 this evening, I managed to avoid a traveling nightmare and landed at SFO at 9pm. I flew Delta and caught score updates of the game on the satellite tv they have on board. After seeing some of those updates, I'm really not in the mood to watch the game after a long day of travel. So the plan is to check it out tomorrow and discuss it in further depth at that point. For now though, I'll leave you with this:

0 recs | Comment 16 comments

Story-email Email Printer Print

Comments

Fooch

Somehow it seems unfair that you weren't around to suffer through the game.

by Bob In Pacifica on Oct 29, 2007 6:58 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs

keep your food down

Fooch, hey bud I love your blog and you seem to be a nice guy and that is why. I am telling you if you do watch a tape of the last so called Niner game it will make you sick enough to puke. I mean it was that bad and it don't look like it wiil get any better soon, Oh well I do own Pepto Bismo stock LOL

by odog707 on Oct 29, 2007 7:41 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs

So these Niners...

Ummm... we're not very good, are we?

Jeez, between the Giants, the Niners, the Golden Bears, the Raiders, the A's, and the Earthquakes, I'm not having a very good year.

Am I going to have to figure out Basketball to get my fix of good this year? Or even harder for me... Go Sharks?

I keep reliving the moment when Steve Young almost fell down. Over and over. / My Blog, For Writers

by howtheyscored on Oct 29, 2007 8:10 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs

Disappointment

If you don't want to be disappointed, you should put your money on the Sharks. The Warriors, as strong as they were at the end of last season, is a very volatile team. They'll likely have very many ups and downs.

Hockey isn't so bad. I can't say that I watch all of the regular season games I can (like I do with baseball and football), but the last month or two (and playoffs) are great.

by sfgfan on Oct 30, 2007 7:47 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

We are still in it

I know that we are 2-5 but we are only 2 games out of first to an average seatle team. We play the 1-6 flacons, then seatle and then the 0-8 rams. 2 of those 3 we can easly win and i know that we can beat seatle. So by doing that, we are .500 so don't can like the seasons over because it's not. We'll be holding the lombardi trophey in early Feburary after shocking the 16-0 new england patriots!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

by montasmob69 on Oct 29, 2007 8:13 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs

I have never said this but...

I am going to be counting on the Warriors for a winning season.

by billwalsh4ever on Oct 29, 2007 8:20 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs

that was brutal

maybe smith was rusty. Maybe it's because D-Jax was out. Maybe we just plain and simple suck. We are terrible. Even the defense looked bad. there was nothing good in that game. nothing. ugh. what a disaster. I knew we'd miss Norv Turner, but I didn't know we'd miss him this bad.

Bring back the classic Uni's!

by wjackalope on Oct 29, 2007 8:49 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs

Wipe that smile off your bag!

Where have you gone, Ed DeBartolo, Niner nation turns its lonely eyes to you.

by str8tarrow on Oct 29, 2007 12:21 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

Admittedly

I'm still pretty bitter over this loss. For me right now it's just another loss where we could see that the team was underperforming but in which there were also reasons to believe that the product on the field wasn't an example of a complete puzzle.

And by complete puzzle I don't even mean execution. Strike execution from this puzzle. Obviously execution is the single biggest problem this team has.

What I mean is we can look at it and say "Well, Jackson was out, Smith wasn't 100%, Gore's ankle is crippled, Jennings was hurt (ha!)..." and still think to ourselves, "Ok, so when Smith is healthier and has had more practice reps, when Gore gets his ankle healed, when Jax is Bax, as long as VD keeps progressing and Lelie is still on the field stretching the defense... THEN blah blah blah..."

I'm done with that line of thinking. At least for today. Of course id everybody was perfectly healthy, then the team would be doing a lot better... but no team is EVER perfectly healthy. The Pats were w/o any running back for weeks, and didn't drop off for a second (extreme example, I know)... <frustration brain pop, train of thought off rails>

Anyway, I'm down to this now. Screw individual performances. Screw health. Screw gameplanning and playcalling. The problems with this team run thusly:

Execution
Depth.

Period. Done. We have the starters to compete in the league (or division, your call), but our second layer is abysmal. At. Every. Single. Position. On. The. Team.

Except, I guess, LB and DB.

Let's put it this way: The Ram's also have the quality first stringers to compete in the league, even to make a playoff run, but with a few key injuries they're the worst team in the league. We're a little better than that, with vaguely less skill in the first strng (offense).

And that's not Nolan's fault. It's not Hostler's fault. It's not Smith's fault, and so on. This was a team that was built from five-feet-below-the-ground up. It's a hell of thing that in less than 3 full years we have the talent that we do on the front line to begin wirh.

But we desperately need some depth. And I probably won't be getting my hopes up for too many games from here on out that don't fulfill one of the following 4 conditions:

We're playing the Falcons
We're playing the Rams
We're playing the Cardinals
Every single player on the offense is 100%.

I'll still watch. And I'll still predict the wins. I just won't really expect them anymore. At least not for a few days while I still have the sting of this one freshly rapped on each cheek.

I keep reliving the moment when Steve Young almost fell down. Over and over. / My Blog, For Writers

by howtheyscored on Oct 29, 2007 12:41 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

The upside to this, of course

Is that I'll be able to get excited this week! Hooray for convenient conditions!

I keep reliving the moment when Steve Young almost fell down. Over and over. / My Blog, For Writers

by howtheyscored on Oct 29, 2007 12:44 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

WE have no plan

I realize none of us on these blogs sit in meeting rooms and figure out game plans and I know what is planned is not how reality works..having said that there is no way anyone can sit and watch our beloved niners and say we are prepared to play a full game on gameday. We are all over the place. we continue to call plays that do not work. If we call another bootleg 2 yard pass to TE i am going to puke. When will we as a niners nation realize that we have a young team with a young coaching staff. it shows up on game day no adjustments. HOW many times do we see Alex looking at pics on the side or making checks at the line or even taking advantage of mismatches. How many times is Vernon Davis staying to help Staley. why in the he!! is horrible as our receiver corp is we are not getting the rooking ready to play. I tell you why ..WE HAVE NO PLAN. go ahead sfgsf give all the excuses on how we could have won..because you no what we are no where near a playoff team right now. no where near.

"Niners Are Back!!!"

by mississippininer on Oct 29, 2007 9:18 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

I kind of hoped

That I'd covered the finished with excuses angle. I admit, excuses are nice. They give us hope and stuff. But I agree that at some point it has to stop being "If Smith wasn't hurt" or "If they didn't commit so many penalties" and start being "why don't we just have better discipline and better backups?"

I keep reliving the moment when Steve Young almost fell down. Over and over. / My Blog, For Writers

by howtheyscored on Oct 29, 2007 11:19 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Rookie

I'm not going to make any "excuses" for the team this week, as I didn't get to watch the game (wayy out of town). What I will say is that Jason Hill did get on the field for 9 offensive snaps, which is a greater amount in one game than Lelie had in any single game earlier this season. I'd say that's progress, and that the rookie WR did indeed step on the field.

As for plans, yeah, the team looks like they have no plans. A rookie offensive coordinator is showing his lack of stripes, so what? I've said it before, and I'll say it again, this team has the potential talent to be a playoff team, but they're borderline. They're not a true playoff contender, in other words. Am I saying I still think they can make playoffs? As a division winner, yes, but as a wild card no. Their ticket into the playoffs will have to come on the heels of beating Arizona, Seattle, and St. Louis.

Nolan mentioned previously that the offense scripts 15 plays for first and second downs (and third down if the situation permits). He has also said that the execution (or lack thereof) has made it so they're still going through those 15 plays on first and second down in the second half. When it comes to something like that, the coaching group has to decide when it's time to scrap the script. I don't know if this coaching staff knows when to do this, or if they should. Nolan isn't an offensive coach, and he doesn't have a lot of experience as a head coach. Which leaves a lot of the offensive decisions on a rookie OC. That's a lot to ask a rookie OC.

As Braekneck says, it's hard to blame the coaching staff on the whole. Right now, (almost) everything rests squarely on Hostler. Everything from playcalling and putting his players into position to succeed. If Nolan decides to bring him back without so much as an interview of an outside candidate this offseason, then the blame can justifiably be shifted toward Nolan. With the exception of this previous game, the defense (which is where Nolan and Manusky make their living) has been fairly solid. They just need someone that could take full rein of the offense.

I'm still encouraged by Alex Smith. He's overthrowing balls a lot (from what I'm hearing), but he's still not making bad decisions. Again, I didn't watch the game, so I'm just going off of his interception count (not necessarily accurate, I know). The team last season started 2-5, and if it weren't for two untimely loses in the last four weeks, they would have made the playoffs. So this team could definitely make the turn-around (as the defense this year is loads better than last year's). If the team doesn't win it's next two games, then I'll probably start to join the "it's over" crowd. Until then, I'll wait some more.

by sfgfan on Oct 30, 2007 8:03 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

And for crying out loud, too

Smith had almost a month with a bad shoulder and limited practice time. He's going to have had problems making the in game adjustment to getting hit again (a mental thing, testing the injury), and he's going to have wonky mechanics. Anytime you get hurt your mechanics suffer, and without ample practice to smooth it out, they won't be right during the game.

I think a lot of people are making a lot more of the overthrows this week than they need to. He did still generally make the right reads and throw to the right guys. If there's one thing I can rationalize this week it is actally Smith's rust. Everything else I'm trying to remain pretty critical of.

I keep reliving the moment when Steve Young almost fell down. Over and over. / My Blog, For Writers

by howtheyscored on Oct 30, 2007 8:34 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Can things be corrected?

I wonder if it's all about bad drafting? Vernon Davis is making the same mistakes he made last year. How much of Davis' lack of receptions due to him not being in the right place at the right time.

Alex Smith is still making rookie mistakes. (throwing late and throwing high). There won't be many completions and any YAC if Smith gets the ball late to the receivers. He also seems to be having problems with reading the defense.

Perhaps the reason for all that unreached potential is just that the players drafted have serious problems that others recognized but Nolan et al didn't.

by Bob In Pacifica on Oct 30, 2007 7:57 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs

The New Plan

Let's borrow a page from the Cardinals. Trent Dilfer can't move the ball and A Smith can't score. Let's let Alex in until we get close to the red zone, then we'll put in Trent Dilfer to finish it. That oughta put a fire under their asses, a nice little competition to see which loser can become a real quarterback the fastest.

by LA49er on Oct 30, 2007 8:44 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs