How does this compare to '81?

Originally posted by 60sfan:
Never mind. I'll go to the senior center and talk about it..............

I remember laying on the couch watching us play the redskins, I think, and my girlfrined comes downstairs and asked how are they doing? (She was a raider fan) and I remember saying,"another boring win." Little did i know.

I am taller than in 81 and my hair is shorter.

OK, a serious answer.
In '81 I was 15 years old and still pretty much a hard core baseball guy. GO GIANTS!! Football was an aside for me. I was pleased the Niners were doing well but didn't really care too much. GO GIANTS!! I'd been to the 'Stick for Giants games but never for a Niners game. I still have never been to a Niners game. GO GIANTS!! My excitement for football didn't really get going until the Niners had won another SB... or was it two??? I don't recall. GO GIANTS!!

So now we've had many years of sucking wind and the internet plus NFLN and ESPN have kept me plugged into the game like never before. My excitement for this season is so thick you can cut it with a knife. So no, this season doesn't really remind me of '81. THIS SEASON is EPIC by comparison!!

GO NINERS!!!!!

There's definitely a lot of similarities to draw upon to make the 81' team comparison. Frankly we have a great shot of making a deep playoff run IF WE STAY HEALTHY (knock on wood). But the real question lies with whether we can beat GB....They are the best in the NFC right now and that's the doorway in the big game...

Yes, it does feel like 1981. The team was coming off a 6-10 record and then had a phenomenal draft plus some great free agent additions (Hacksaw Reynolds and Fred Dean). It was a team that had different strengths with a good to great passing attack that made up for an average at best rushing attack. The defense just got better once they had all their players on board.

The one thing that is missing this year..........a nemesis like the 1981 Cowboys. Could the Packers fill that role? Maybe.

Originally posted by m_brockalexander:
Yes, it does feel like 1981. The team was coming off a 6-10 record and then had a phenomenal draft plus some great free agent additions (Hacksaw Reynolds and Fred Dean). It was a team that had different strengths with a good to great passing attack that made up for an average at best rushing attack. The defense just got better once they had all their players on board.

The one thing that is missing this year..........a nemesis like the 1981 Cowboys. Could the Packers fill that role? Maybe.

It wasnt that long ago that the Packers WERE our nemesis - mid to late 90's....How many times did Brett Favre beat our @ss in the mid-90's before the Young to TO redemption catch in 98'?

I remember going to watch the 49ers play the Browns that year and we lost to Cleveland 15 to 12 with Brian Sipe as Clevelands quarterback. My bad luck that I went to one of the few losses in a 13 -3 record, 1981 was special, I remember that we had a ton of close games that we won.

The offense had some problems. This was Montanas first full year as a starter and if you look at his stats they are very pedestrian 19 tds 12 interceptions 3500 yards 63 completion percentage. His main targets were Freddie Solomon, Dwight Clark, Charlie Young, Mike Wilson and the backs that we had were not very good.

The defense was up and coming, but it was the Fred Dean move that changed the team when walsh traded for him with a second round pick. Drafting the entire secondary in a draft (Ronnie Lott, Eric Wright, Carlton Williamson and nickelback Lynn Thomas). I remember that the defense scored a lot of points that year.

The 2011 team has better overall talent than the 1981 team but Bill Walsh was ahead of the league in 81 with his west coast offense. The offensive line was coached by Bobb McKittrick and he liked quick guards and we had a guard playing tackle (Dan Audick). Harbaugh has inherited a much better team than Walsh did and Its great that Harbaugh is changing the league with his motion offense and run heavy formations.

The magic is there with this team, they don't quit and we have a dominant defense, and a great running back.......the x-factors is Alex Smith and Braylon & Crabtree. If he can continue to improve and get a chemistry with these players. (Crabtree is looking better.) Braylon looked great before he got hurt. He's a big target for Alex and can open up the field for us.

I think this team is special.......I can't wait to see what they do!

Originally posted by nw9erfan:

Originally posted by pasodoc9er:
NW that was an excellent compilation and I would add one thing to it: Both teams had great pulling Guards. Until 3 games ago, i didn't even know if Snyder should have gone with Heitmann and baas or not. About then it became apparent that chilo was the #1 problem and made guys on both sides of him look bad. Then the pulling G started, and all of a sudden, their were lanes to run not seen in yrs. Putting Soap in the backfield was an interesting wrinkle, but make no mistake , when you have a great pulling G, you are a much harder team to stop on Runs.

IWasWrongRubber, I posted before season and just after the Saints and Texans games that it would take JH hopefully no more than 10 games to get the OL to block. I figured 5 games to learn passblocking and another 5 to learn run blocking. Fast forward to Bucs game, and we had an OL that looked like it had been together for yrs. After the Detroit game, tho, against the purported best DL in the league, our OL just kicked their azz. Watching Suh be nullified, vandeBosch got his first sack and then, we just beat them up. At end of game I watched a number of the Detroit DL come over and congratulate the 9ers OL. They knew they had met their match.

Dj, I remember Stallworth getting clobbered across the middle (by Lott?...can't remember), and after that, nobody seemed to want to go into that minefield, or they got blown up.

1st and Goal, I agree it's not fair to compare Joe to anybody, alex or whomever. There will always be only one Joe...one guy 4-0 in SB with no INTs. As luck would have it , I was at the Bluebonnet bowl in Houston ( I think Joe's Sr, maybe Jr yr at Notre Dame), and watched him replace the #1 QB who wasn't doing plonk. Joe went on to rally his team, and even then at that early age, you could see him look right, pump fake Left and then throw one up the middle to an unguarded HB. He was the star of that game and i am certain he did not start. I followed him of course once he came to the 9ers, but he sat the pine for awhile, obviously a part of BW's playbook.

As for Alex, we have to remember this kid has taken a humongous beating physically with no OL blocking for 6 yrs. The verbal abuse was way worse yet
(not by me...I was neutral, saying he needed a good coach 1st, and then we would see), and the webzone was unmerciful with him. Biggest surprise? When he actually wanted to come back here. jH and his playing catch with alex must have been an interesting thing to see. I wonder if we will ever know what was said.
Many people forget that he came here after graduating from college in two yrs, then stayed on another yr to play football. The kid is smart. Obviously he was dying for good QB coaching, a great OC playcaller, and a HC who could coach each and every position, OL, DL , etc on the team. Well, he got that in JH, and now we are starting to see what Alex has. I know he has a high fastball, but i suspect we will start seeing jH work with him on looking off WRs, pump fakes, better ball handling, esp hand off fakes ( that Joe was best ever at ), as well as check offs , better reading (which is already worlds better than last yr)...well, you get the idea. We do not know what Alex has yet. Based on what i have seen so far with JH, we are all in for a really nice surprise when he finishes with Alex. And i don't expect it all to happen this yr.

First, thanks for the kind words PasoDoc...

Excellent point about the pulling guards (staple of the Walsh offenses) and great comments about Alex . It is going to be very interesting to see just what Alex's ceiling really is. After all, he has only been working in this system for a few months. Give him a full off-season and training camp and then let's see what he is really capable of.

Oh, BTW, the guy who hit Stallworth over the middle was Carlton Williamson... I remember the play well.

You're correct it was Williamson. I blanked on the name. He was very under-rated of that early backfield. Too bad his career was shortened by injury though his hard-nosed style of play made injuries almost inevitable.