Look, i'm a natural conspiracy theorist. I question everything in life but i leave my theories behind when it comes to sports, specifically my teams. When Hoculi made that bad call i just kind of sarcastically laughed it off and realized that the NFL officially accomplished their goal.
Now please, there's soo many other things wrong with our 9ers and this whole season. Off the field incidents, internal issues, media reports/speculation and one of the main issues; INJURIES all contributed. And it started with Navorro's injury. It ended 2013 and began 2014 with a bad taste in my mouth. Everything all just caught up to us and took the life out the by second half of the season.
But let me get into the main reasons why we are bad. Our Defense is elite. I have no worries about the present and future of our D. We missed all-pros all year and still managed to pull off a top 5(or even top 3?) Defense. Kudos to Fangio and our youth for stepping up. Our Offense, though. Sigh...where do i start!?? Ill start from the top.
Harbaugh - I love our coach and want him to be here IF he 1000% wants to be here. I just don't think he does, anymore. But i question his offensive philosophy and stubbornness to change. The stubbornness alone has hurt us in soo many ways. One thing that i'm extremely annoyed with is the lack of using all of our talent(mainly on O), our youth and not putting them in winning situations. I think this is one of the main issues Baalke and Harbaugh have. We aren't developing young players and aren't using the talents of established players we bring in via FA and ones we already had. WHAT ARE WE DOING!!! Why bring in this talent if we aren't gonna use it?
Roman - I question EVERYTHING he does. Not just play calling but situational play calling. As bright and intelligent as he comes off in interviews he seems to be dumb and confused in the press box. No more creativity, no in game/half time changes, no trickery, no diversity and he continues over and over to go away from what works. It seems like HaRo makes things harder than it's supposed and has to be...like, they call plays in the back of the playbook, run schemes that we barely touched since training. I can go on and on and on about Roman. There's soo much to discuss but ill leave it there with him. We all see and have discussed his crap to death and it's well deserved. SIGH, my blood pressure just went up.
Kaepernick - Sigh. I actually like Kap and think he still has potential. I don't think he's broken and believe he can get patched up with the right Offensive mind as our next head coach and/or coordinator. But boy, he's regressed and has gone down hill, FAST. I've seen progressive but not $100m progression. One thing i think we all need to accept is that he's never gonna be Marino, Manning or Rodgers. He is what he is. He's never gonna be an elite passer but CAN be an effective one. We/he need to use his legs a lot more than we do but not overuse them because of risk of injury. STOP trying to make him a pocket passer only.
OL, Backfield and WR's - Man man man. Let's start with the OL. The biggest issue is health and continuity. Staley has been solid to good at times but seems to have regressed slightly. I hope its just a one year thing. Iupati has been inconsistent or maybe he is who he is...a great run blocker and below average pass blocker. I'm kind of lost of what to say about the C position. Kilgore was our best Lineman before his injury. Martin, i like him a lot but the jury is still out on him. He needs to stay healthy. Boone? Inconsistent. Should have brought your *** to camp. Davis? Never got in a rhythm with all the injuries...lost season for him. Gore? Still has a lil juice in his legs but he's but when we do run the ball we need a balance Gore and Hyde. Hyde is our future but needs to see the holes better. He needs to be slightly, SLIGHTLY more patient. Miller is a Pro-Bowler. VD!??? WTF??? Speechless. WR's? Boldin is a man. He's productive. Is Crab really mediocre or is it system, the QB or talent everywhere else? Stevie is a keeper and he should of been starting.
Off subject but id like to see a future starting Offensive Line of: LT Staley, LG Martin, C Kilgore, RG Davis, RT Boone.
Ok, back to my theory. Sorry, I know this is a really long post but i need to voice my thoughts and frustrations. I don't know what it is but it just seems like the NFL has something against us. It started in the 80's when we ran the league. It continued in the 90's but stopped in the 2000's only because we were irrelevant. Harbaugh brought us back to relevance and it's like the NFL saw us as threat to their favorites, their darlings(Dal, NE, GB, Den, NYG, NO and now Sea). It' doesn't help that Harbaugh refuses to cater(which i respect) to the NFL, he might rub them the wrong way. It also doesn't help the Kap is a target for the media and they have developed this negative image of him. He's young but not a bad person.
We've had terrible calls go our way the last 4 years. I wont even get into them. Terrible calls happen against every team in every sport. It just feels like there's a target, a hidden(well, maybe not so hidden anymore) agenda against us. Something just doesn't feel right. I'm not whining or complaining i don't do that i'm just stating what i feel. We have a lot of other issues that are hurting and holding us back but but Goodell and other top heads is another reason. Its a terrible feeling. I've slowly lost my passion for football but will never lose my passion for our 49ers. It just sucks to invest in all the time, energy and love and feel like no matter what, the NFL will hold us back. I want to believe that i'm trippin', that i'm delusional, that i'm just a crazy, biased, homer fan but something just doesn't feel right. The NFL got what they wanted. I believe there's some truth to the tension/drama with Harbaugh and ownership but the media ALWAYS makes up stories. This story just happened to grow legs and defeat our beloved 49ers. It just got overwhelming and the spirit was broken. The fight left. You can just see it in coach's face and it trickled down to the players.
It sucks but Harbaugh will be gone. The Harbaugh era is over. BUT, we aren't done. I hate that some of you think our window is closed, that we are done for the next 5 years or more. What!?? WTF? Slap the s**t out of your face. We are a good, effective, innovative Offensive mind away from getting right back to W's. Hopefully the conspiracy theorist in me never comes out again and we win our 6th, 7th, 8th and 9th Lombardi in those next 5 or more years.
[ Edited by GoldBlooded on Dec 15, 2014 at 8:00 AM ]
