A Little Perspective, Please?

Well, Greg Roman is no Bill Walsh. It's showing. We've done the same boneheaded things for 14 weeks. Our offense has been long ball oriented, not consistent. It's just that now the rest of the league is catching up.

HOWEVER, I have to find the silver lining here -- we had our lowest penalty total of the season against Colts.

MORE IMPORTANTLY -- I can't recall a delay of game.

These two items are prerequisites for our long term success.

However, I am not sure Roman can give up his formation fetish and focus on what he should -- common sense play calling; getting the talent involved (Gore Davis Hunter McDonald Patton), figuring out how to take advantage of 8 defenders in the box.

Originally posted by NJNiner:
On the bright side, I think I hear the bandwagon 49er fans packing their bags!

I'm not going anywhere, damnit.



Not yet, anyway.

Originally posted by brodiebluebanaszak:
Well, Greg Roman is no Bill Walsh. It's showing. We've done the same boneheaded things for 14 weeks. Our offense has been long ball oriented, not consistent. It's just that now the rest of the league is catching up.

HOWEVER, I have to find the silver lining here -- we had our lowest penalty total of the season against Colts.

MORE IMPORTANTLY -- I can't recall a delay of game.

These two items are prerequisites for our long term success.

However, I am not sure Roman can give up his formation fetish and focus on what he should -- common sense play calling; getting the talent involved (Gore Davis Hunter McDonald Patton), figuring out how to take advantage of 8 defenders in the box.

The only way to get teams to get away from 8 defenders in the box is Kaep throwing to loosen up the defense. Once teams respect the pass game, they will have to move defenders back in coverage. However the only WR we have thats respectable right now is Boldin but neither of our receviers can't beat press coverage.

Last year, Moss was a respectable deep threat and defenders needed to respect him by rolling double coverage at times his way which left Crabtree and Davis open at times. Moss absorbed extra coverage. None of our pass catchers really do that now except for maybe Davis. Boldin's big game against GB was against alot of zone. If we had a threat like a Fitz, Megatron, or even a Welker.....maaan o maaaan.

Originally posted by 4ML:

Originally posted by ChipDouglas510:
For the first time in 2 years and it is only week two! We have lost to two playoff teams from last year and beaten one. We still have a lot of football this season boys and girls, lets not hit the panic button just yet.

IMO...facing adversity early on the season can be a blessing a disguise. We will see how we rebound from it and if we can - it'll only make us a better team.

Originally posted by ChipDouglas510:

Originally posted by Crazy49er1313:
I don't think it's the "losses" in general, it's HOW we lost (severe beatdowns )...I agree that there is a lot football left to play and we are a very good team, but to get back up to the upper echelon of teams w/SB aspirations, we will need to:

1. Get healthy on defense
2. Find a consistent pass rush w/out Aldon Smith
3. Get back to power running/read option
4. Trade for WR (josh Gordon anyone?)

I would take J Gordon in a heartbeat if the price was right

Given that he is just one substance abuse away from a one year suspension, the price should not be more than a 6th or 7th round pick.

Please, do not try to tell me that veterans on the team can straighten this guy up. Players on the team are not babysitters.

The team does not need any distractions.

Originally posted by buck:

Originally posted by ChipDouglas510:

Originally posted by Crazy49er1313:
I don't think it's the "losses" in general, it's HOW we lost (severe beatdowns )...I agree that there is a lot football left to play and we are a very good team, but to get back up to the upper echelon of teams w/SB aspirations, we will need to:

1. Get healthy on defense
2. Find a consistent pass rush w/out Aldon Smith
3. Get back to power running/read option
4. Trade for WR (josh Gordon anyone?)

I would take J Gordon in a heartbeat if the price was right

Given that he is just one substance abuse away from a one year suspension, the price should not be more than a 6th or 7th round pick.

Please, do not try to tell me that veterans on the team can straighten this guy up. Players on the team are not babysitters.

The team does not need any distractions.

Two words for J Gordon, synthetic urine!

YEAH GO 49ERS! #OPTIMISTIC GUY!

Thank you BillBird. I was actually thinking of starting a similar thread that would have a positive outlook. What I want to add is that sometimes a little adversity and having to navigate through rough waters makes a team stronger down the road. I don't think it's just a coincidence that many of the Super Bowl winners, especially recently, were teams that had to overcome some serious issues sometime during the season. I did want to use the 1988 49ers as an example, in that they really had to struggle that year before they were finally able to click. But once they did, they could not be stopped. Some of you are saying Harbaugh is no Bill Walsh. Well of course, so far, that is true. However, would any of you, at the time, have thought that Bill Walsh was Bill Walsh? In several games the offense looked terrible. Bill Walsh was engaging in a revolving door of QB's. Some of you think you had a problem with the way Harbaugh handled the QB situation last year? I can only imagine what you would have thought if you went through that 1988 season with Bill Walsh trying to bench Montana several times in favor of Steve Young and then going back to Montana. Like BillBird said, at the time people were questioning whether Bill Walsh had lost it and whether he had lost the team. The same thing is happening now. Now, of course, I'm not saying that they will surely overcome this adversity and go on to win the SB, but I think they have the talent, the coaching, and the locker room to do it. And if this Thursday night is the beginning of the turnaround, then later on in the season we may look back at this and think that this is what made the team stronger. We've been too used to smooth sailing, and I think this has affected us in certain games and made us soft. What we are facing now will make this team take a good look at itself and try to find its identity once again.

Sorry mods, didn't read this thread

Great post and excellent perspective! The level of scrutiny teams are under today is ridiculous. First, the viewship for NFL has gotten so large. Then there is the internet, which faciltates knee jerk reactions from arm chair monday morning quarterbacks. There are widely disseminated power rankings, which can serve to artifically raise expectations to a point where any contender is destined to not meet them. Finally, the 24/7 coverage via the NFL network and others greatly magnifies imperfections. Man, I'm shocked that some coaches manage to do this for 5 years plus anymore, let alone 10.

Harbaugh has coached at a historic win rate. His team puts together two bad games, and the world is second guessing him. Man, what a miserable job. I'm glad he's a tough enough man to grind on.

I'm finding this bit of early-season adversity really fascinating. Seriously. I'm not trying to stir the pot or anything. I really do believe that Harbaugh and Co. will right the ship. It's just really interesting to see (and armchair guess) the fixes for the team's problems.

In addition, I think that we'll get a real good gauge of where our team is mentally over the next few games. They'll either improvise (to plug obvious roster inadequacies), adapt (to opponents adjustments to our current tendencies), and overcome...or they'll spiral downward and it will be dogs and cats living together.

The tough sledding on the way is gonna make for some serious must-watch football in the coming weeks...particularly with the inevitable changes in play-calling and personnel usage (tell me it wouldn't be awesome to witness Baldwin or Patton bloom from right out of this early-season crapfest).

Don't get me wrong, utter domination en route to Super Bowl redemption would be fine, but what if...

we exorcise these early-season demons and come out on the other side clicking on all cylinders with a surprisingly healthy/spry Crabtree and Manningham?

What if we discover through our currently-necessary rotation of situational pass-rushers that we've got a diamond-in-the-rough sack master on the roster?

The possibilities for sweet vindication (or discovering the depths of despair ) are endless.

Of course, we could possibly lose in St. Louis, screw the pooch at home against Houston and spiral downward, but that's what's making this so exciting. This team, coming off a soul-crushing Super Bowl loss, is immediately facing season-defining adversity, and although I'd rather us be 3-0, I can't wait to see how they respond.

For the record, I have a good feeling we come out Thursday, run the ball right down the Rams' throats for ridiculous yardage, and pull out the win. Go Niners.

"Nothing very very good and nothing very very bad ever lasts for very very long." - Doug Coupland

I think most of us knew that we wouldn't be 5-0 going into week 6. We obviously have a ridiculous start. I wasn't bummed out by the loss in Seattle because that was pretty much how I expected the game to play out. The Colts game was a little more disheartening. A lot more. I'm a little sickened with the ship-jumping. REALLY upset that half our posters have written off our star quarterback after two bad games.

Hell yeah dude. Like I was saying in the gameday thread, our season couldn't of started off any worse. I hope our players will respond.

The team is going through an identity crisis. The next 2 weeks make or break the season. We have to be at least 2-3 through 5 games. If not, forget about a playoff spot.

We need WR , we lost VD for one game and we could not get of the line . Are we going to Waite for Mannigham and craps or trade for one ?