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Chree

Medicated
Dec 7, 2005
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damn peter kings monday mornign quarterback article is all about the niners!!!!!!!


We all have opinions on what passed for Sunday Afternoon At the Fights in Detroit Sunday, and before I get too far into my 9,300 words this morning, let me give you my view of it so we can get on to the incredible story the 49ers are writing, what a NaVorro Bowman is, how Steve Young is playing a part (a small one, but a part) in the Aaron Rodgers story, the value of Andrew Luck, how Kurt Coleman might have saved the Eagles' season, WWAD (What Would Al Do) at quarterback, and the general flotsam, jetsam and mayhem of Week 6 of the season.

I liked it better when coaches wore suits.

The NFL likes coaches to wear licensed casual apparel on the sidelines (not "likes;'' more like "mandates''), and maybe there'd be more dignity in sideline decorum if the league went back to allowing coaches to dress like businessmen. Maybe that would have prevented 49ers coach Jim Harbaugh, after a huge win at Detroit, from flying off the sidelines like a bottle rocket and slapping Lions coach Jim Schwartz like a player on his team who'd just scored a touchdown.

And maybe it would have stopped Schwartz, though understandably ticked off at Harbaugh's exuberance, from chasing after him the way he'd chase the kid on the block bullying his fourth-grader. Harbaugh lit the fuse. Schwartz exploded. And if it weren't for a 49er security guy and San Francisco PR man Bob Lange interceding ("WhoaWhoaWhoaWhoa!!!!!!'' Lange shouted at Schwartz, in the middle of the two men, when Schwartz was about to get at Harbaugh and possibly do something he might regret for a long, long time), this story might be a lot more than three paragraphs on the top of this column.

The postgame handshake is supposed to be an example of the sportsmanship the NFL stands for, which is why I think the NFL has to discipline both coaches in the wake of what happened Sunday. On all the TV shows, including my stint on NBC, as much attention (maybe more) was paid to the bizarre sights of an orgasmic Harbaugh and a losing-it Schwartz than to an incredible game between two of the best teams in football, and certainly there were more sound bites pertaining to the fight than to what happened in three tense hours of football at Ford Field.

At NBC, we not only used the accusatorily mellow sound bite of Schwartz and the mea-culpa bite from Harbaugh, but also looked at the Baltimore-Houston game. Instead of celebrating another great game by Ray Lewis or another steamroller game by Ray Rice, Jim's brother John, the coach of the Ravens, joked about fights he got into when he was a kid with Jim. Not blaming us; the coaching confrontation was the wildfire story of the day at 7 p.m., for better or worse, and our job at NBC was to mirror that, cover it from all angles, and reflect what everyone was talking about.

Point is, the actions of Harbaugh and Schwartz took away from a great football game. I don't care who started it, or who was most at fault. Fines will be fine, but there's something else the league should do: Make each coach either do a PSA about sportsmanship, or appear at a school, with the local media covering it, to talk to student athletes about the importance of sportsmanship. Sorry if I come off like your nerdy, ancient high school gym teacher, but the NFL will be taking the easy way by taking $15,000 from each coach and leaving it at that. Make this a teaching moment.

***

The Niners are serious contenders for a first-round NFC bye.

San Francisco is 5-1, comfortably ahead by 2.5 games in the NFC West. The Packers look like overwhelming faves for one of the top two NFC seeds, and of course, if Green Bay wins the North, the second-place team in the division, at best, could be the fifth seed in the conference playoffs. With the egalitarianism of the East and the presumed knock-each-other-off dogfight in the South, why can't the Niners win 12 or 13? Have you seen them play? Mike Florio pointed this out at NBC last night, and he's right. There's no good reason the 49ers can't be home resting on Wild Card weekend while the Saints and Bucs and Eagles and whoever else are trying to survive.

And the schedule. San Francisco plays 0-5 St. Louis and 1-4 Arizona four times in its last 10 games. Combined record of foes: 21-31.

Not to get ahead of ourselves, but in the words of teens everywhere, I'm just saying.

On to the game in Detroit. Tense. Tremendous. Not altogether pretty, but gritty. It reminded me of something Bill Cowher used to tell his Steelers before road games at hostile places. He's not the only coach who says it, but he used to preach it a lot. You've got to take their best shot early, and you've got to fight the crowd, and you've just got to hang in there in the first 20 or 30 minutes and not get too far behind. The crowd will shout itself out, and emotion will level off, and then it'll be a football game.

Mature teams do that. The 49ers, led by Harbaugh and the quarterback no one believed in, look very much like a mature team. Here were the first nine snaps, making up the first three 49er series, by San Francisco at a cacophonous Ford Field:

1. First series: Alex Smith strip-sacked by Kyle VandenBosch. The turnover led to a Lion field goal. Detroit, 3-0.

2. Second series: False start, tight end Delanie Walker.

3. False start, tackle Anthony Davis.

4. Frank Gore up the middle for 1.

5. Smith incomplete to Ted Ginn.

6. Smith pass to Gore for 8. Punt.

7. Third series: Kendall Hunter around left end for minus-2.

8. Smith pass to Michael Crabtree for 7.

9. Smith incomplete to Ginn. Punt. The punt led to a Lion touchdown. Detroit, 10-0.

Over the next 49 minutes, the 49ers, having taken the Lions' best shot, outscored Detroit 25-9. One of the best run defenses in football -- more about inside linebacker Patrick Willis and his trusty sidekick NaVorro (I Love That Name) Bowman later -- held the Lions to 66 yards, and though Calvin Johnson got his catches and yards (seven for 113), he was held touchdown-less for the first time all season. And really, while the Niners battled back to take their first lead, 15-13, Johnson was invisible. In the first 35 minutes of the game, he managed three catches for 29 yards, well-blanketed by an intent secondary.
Frank Gore
With 541 yards, 4 touchdowns and a 5.0 yard per carry average this year, Frank Gore is rewarding the 49ers for signing him to an extension.
ZUMAPRESS.com

At the same time, the players Trent Baalke drafted and Harbaugh showed faith in came through. Baalke signed Gore to a contract extension in the summer and drafted Kendall Hunter in the fourth round last April; they combined to rush for 174 yards (141 by Gore). Smith was chased by a marauding Lions front and didn't have a great day, but he still exited Ford Field as the league's eighth-rated quarterback, and after six games has thrown just two interceptions. This kind of move-the-pocket, move-the-sticks passing game is the closest he's felt to his days at Utah. The Niners admittedly reached to make him the top overall pick in 2005, and there is no quarterback who has had more lives with his current team than Smith. But maybe, just maybe, he's found the right offensive match in his fifth offensive scheme.

And the draft picks. Baalke, in charge of the last two drafts, has every right to light up a fine Dominican cigar today. Last year, he chose to rebuild the offensive line with guard Mike Iupati and tackle Anthony Davis and get a defensive piece to pair with Willis, Penn State linebacker Bowman. This year, pass-rusher Aldon Smith came with the seventh overall pick (way too high, some said). Bowman had a game-high 13 tackles. Smith had two sacks for a loss of 29, plus four tackles, a forced fumble and a pass defensed.

Harbaugh's made the mix work. What's amazing about the job he's done is that he didn't know most of these players before July 25. He was installing a new offense, and defensive coordinator Vic Fangio was tinkering with what the Niners did on defense, and the results have been other-worldly. How does a new head coach come in and build a team in seven weeks that wins five of its first six games? How does a West Coast team play three Eastern Time Zone games in 22 days and sweep them?

Harbaugh left this message on my voicemail afterward: "That was as good a victory as I've ever been a part of. I was talking to [defensive coordinator] Vic Fangio, and he said it was the best defensive performance he's ever been a part of.''

That's one of those calls on the busy postgame Sundays I wish I hadn't missed, obviously. Topical day for Harbaugh.

"Jim was tough and gritty and smart and competitive as a player,'' Fangio told me. "He just tries to be himself. And we've got good players. Jim's smart enough to know he doesn't know it all, and he relies on his coaches to coach.''

Now for a bit on the dynamic inside linebacker duo. When's the last time a 3-4 had two inside guys who played all three downs? I mean, played every snap? Entering Sunday's game, Bowman and Willis had missed 15 of a combined 666 San Francisco defensive snaps. They have the quickness to play laterally and the speed to chase plays down. Bowman is still learning to drop in coverage, but his pursuit ability is already at a Pro Bowl level. He caught a juking Michael Vick, preventing a key third-down conversion, in Philadelphia two weeks ago.

"They're athetic enough to play three downs,'' said Fangio. "Patrick is probably the fastest inside linebacker in the league. NaVorro is not too far behind. They are not one-dimensional. That means they can stay out there in the sub packages.''

About Bowman: He played three years at Penn State. Being from suburban Washington, he followed the Redskins, and when he went to Penn State, linebacker LaVar Arrington, a Nittany Lion himself, followed him. In his third year at PSU, Bowman was asked by Arrington to wear his old No. 11, which hadn't been given out since he left the school. Bowman played well enough to be a third-round pick by the 49ers last year.

"I take pride in seeing things before they happen,'' Bowman told me. "I run well, and I think I diagnose plays well. LaVar helped me with that, and now, playing next to Patrick, it's like having another teacher on the field with me.'' Pupil is fifth in the NFL with 56 tackles. Teacher has 47.

About the name "NaVorro:" "I was named after my Godfather, who is Cherokee Indian. When my mom sees the name misspelled, she always corrects people, even the capital 'V.'

Have a feeling we'll all be learning that name over the next few years. On Sunday, in Detroit, Bowman was as much of a sideline-to-sideline factor as Willis.

***

Road trip!

The 49ers are in the midst of one of the most challenging travel schedules I have seen in 27 years covering the NFL: five trips to the Eastern Time zone in a 61-day span. The first four trips (the third of which happened over the weekend, to Detroit) are 1 p.m. Eastern Time games, 10 a.m. on the body clocks of the players. The fifth trip, a 2,431-miler from San Jose (the Niners' home airport) to Baltimore, will be for a Thanksgiving night game.

The fifth never would have been scheduled if San Francisco had hired Jeff Fisher as head coach last winter. But the 49ers hired Jim Harbaugh, and suddenly San Francisco-Baltimore became a made-for-TV, feel-good story, with brothers Jim and John the two head coaches in the game.

The 49ers played their third Eastern Time game in 22 days against the Lions Sunday. The two-month Odyssey they're in the midst of, along with a little color from each trip, is listed below:
Niners' Road Trip
Date Foe Time (ET) Sat. walk-through site Result
Sept. 25 At Cincinnati 1 p.m. Paul Brown Stadium Niners 13, Bengals 8
Oct. 2 At Philadelphia 1 p.m. South Philadelphia H.S. Niners 24, Eagles 23
Oct. 16 At Detroit 1 p.m. Eastern Michigan U. Niners 25, Lions 19
Nov. 6 At Washington 1 p.m. -- --
Nov. 24 At Baltimore 8:20 p.m. -- --

Just for fun, on New Year's Day, the Niners will play another morning game on their body clocks, 10 a.m. Pacific Time, at St. Louis.

Read more: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/writers/peter_king/10/16/Week6/index.html#ixzz1b4X8KThi

Fine Fifteen
The Bills' Terrence McGee made life difficult for the Giants' Mario Manningham.
The Bills' Terrence McGee made life difficult for the Giants' Mario Manningham.
Jason O. Watson/U.S. PRESSWIRE

1. Green Bay (6-0). Look on the bright side, Rams: You held the Pack to their lowest point total of the year, 24. Green Bay still won by 21.

2. San Francisco (5-1). I believe in the hip-world vernacular the right way to talk about the Niners right now is: These guys are no joke.


3. Baltimore (4-1). Should be 6-1 entering Week 9 showdown at Pittsburgh, with Jacksonville and Arizona on the slate the next two weeks.

4. New England (5-1). Good to know you can call on the two-minute drill when you need it. The Patriots have been laying waste to so many teams they haven't needed to convert a crucial two-minute drive in a while. "We haven't had really a true two-minute situation at the end of the game where we needed a touchdown in a long time,'' Tom Brady said. But he had the 80-yard game-winner in him.

5. Detroit (5-1). Bobby Carpenter has been reborn in Detroit. Notice that? This is the player Bill Parcells made a first-round pick in Dallas five years and two teams ago.

6. San Diego (4-1). On the bye Sunday, Antonio Gates prayed to the god of plantar fascia, "Why have you forsaken me?''

7. Pittsburgh (4-2). I agree with Mike Tomlin, who says of his team, which moves in mysterious ways: "The jury is out on us.''

8. Tampa Bay (4-2). A 45-point loss one week, a division win to take the NFC South lead the next. The race isn't over, but Tampa had lost to the Saints at home for two straight years. Sweet redemption, in many ways.

9. New Orleans (4-2). It's so strange to see Drew Brees make a foolish throw, which he did with the game on the line when he gave Quincy Black a gift in the waning moments.

10. Oakland (4-2). Oakland drops because of the injury to Jason Campbell (broken collarbone). That was a classy halftime celebration of Al Davis' life, highlighted by the football person Davis trusted most, John Madden, lighting an eternal flame that will burn at the Oakland home field. Forever, I assume. What happens if the Raiders move to L.A., I wonder.

11. New York Giants (4-2). Who can figure out the NFC East? Washington beats the Giants by 14. Giants beat Philadelphia by 13. Philadelphia beats Washington by seven. I am clueless what the order is in this division. My choice is New York on top, followed closely by the other three. In some order. I guess. Maybe.

12. Buffalo (4-2). Naaman Roosevelt scored a touchdown for the Bills Sunday, which continues the weird parade of Bills no one's ever head of scoring touchdowns in games meaningful to the AFC playoff race.

13. Philadelphia (2-4). I know it's ridiculous to put a 2-4 team ahead of those with much better records. But I defy anyone who watched the first half of the game at Washington to say the Eagles aren't one of the best teams in football. Of course, NFL games are two halves long.

14. Dallas (2-3). They'll play in a bowl game at the end of the year. The Continually Almost Done It Bowl.

15. Cincinnati (4-2). Andy Dalton (15 of 19 in the first half against the Colts) doesn't know he's not supposed to be a mid-range (15th-best, 18th-best, somewhere in there) quarterback in the NFL right now. But he's playing like he is.
Coaches of the Week

Cincinnati defensive coordinator Mike Zimmer. For the fifth time in six games in an offensively explosive NFL this year, the Bengals allowed 20 points or fewer in their 24-17 victory over the Colts. They're among the league leaders in opponents yards per rush (3.3 per carry), and they're holding foes to 58.6 percent completions in a league gone wild with passing.

Immense credit goes to Zimmer for cutting a touchdown a week off the Bengals' defensive totals and for refocusing a no-name group to playing playoff football again. I just hope the owners in position to make coaching hires after the season will do the smart thing and at least interview Zimmer to be a head coach. Long overdue, in my mind.

San Francisco coach Jim Harbaugh. Forget whatever the league makes of the postgame exuberance with Jim Schwartz. Any coach who can have a team of new players for seven weeks, players he's never coached before, and boast of a 5-1 record in his first NFL coaching job, with win three Eastern Time Zone games in 22 days ... well, that guy can coach for my team any time.
 

Cut-Throat

Bob Pimp MOBBEN!!!
Apr 25, 2002
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Really gotta congrats the front office for the best draft class in a minute but also cutting clements n getting rogers, bass cut for godwin, all for cheaper, and aldon smith has come in and has done everything that manny lawson couldnt, i mean 4 sacks through 6 games? god damm, and bowman is will be better than Takeo Spikes over time, he was a highly sought after prospect in HS, went to college football powerhouse, and injuries/life deceisions dropped his draft stock, like frank gore, like josh morgan, just great to see the talent put things together
Bowman is better than Spikes right now....
 
Jan 12, 2006
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Do the 9ers have a bye next week? With the new CBA rules I'm pretty sure they HAVE to have this whole week off anyway?
the new CBA states they have to give them a mandatory of 4 days off on their bye week, so i guess harbaugh is giving them an extra day off. they deserve it after being out of state for so long these last few weeks. Although a bunch of 49ers are tweeting theyre training and reviewing cle browns video right now so im guessing some guys decided to keep working.
 
Jan 12, 2006
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John Harbaugh on The Handshake: ‘I know whose side I’m on’
Posted on October 17, 2011 at 3:46 pm by Eric Branch in 49ers


Don’t worry. I’ll soon have reaction from Joe Biden and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper on the dust-up between his Jim Harbaugh and Lions coach Jim Schwartz.

In the meantime, though, we’ll have to settle for the response of Ravens coach Jon Harbaugh, via Janie McCauley of the Associated Press:

“I can tell you this, whoever was right or wrong, I know whose side I’m on,” Harbaugh said. “The same side I’ve always taken. You know what? Everybody’s got a lot to learn. I guess right now he’s 5-1. If the biggest lesson he has right now is how to shake hands postgame after a victory, he’s doing OK.”

John Harbaugh, by the way, is 4-1.

That Thanksgiving night meeting between the Ravens and 49ers — the Har-Bowl — is looking increasingly intriguing

http://blog.sfgate.com/49ers/2011/10/17/john-harbaugh-on-the-handshake-i-know-whose-side-im-on/
 
Jan 12, 2006
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http://www.grantland.com/blog/the-triangle/post/_/id/6711/draw-it-up-the-49ers-and-the-wham-play

Draw It Up: The 49ers and the 'Wham' Play



While much of the news out of the San Francisco 49ers 25-19 win over the Detroit Lions centers around the Jim Harbaugh-Jim Schwartz handshake-of-doom, there is another storyline to consider: The 49ers' close win. The victory was another step in the resuscitation of 49ers quarterback Alex Smith's career, which is not a complete surprise given that his coach, Harbaugh, was once an NFL quarterback himself. Yet Harbaugh hasn't brought a quarterback-dependent throw-it-around-the-stadium type of offense to San Francisco. Instead, he's doing what he did to rejuvenate Stanford, which seems to be to channel his old college coach Bo Schembechler's tough, physical approach to the game. And against the Lions, Harbaugh's 49ers didn't get their yards by running outside or getting the ball in space. Instead, the game plan was simple: run the ball right at Detroit's vaunted defensive line, led by Ndamukong Suh.

In that effort, Frank Gore paced the 49ers rushing attack with 141 yards, and he earned 102 yards on just two plays — 47- and 55-yard sprints. Indeed, not only were the two plays similar, they were the exact same play. That play is known as a "wham" concept.

Running plays come in different flavors. Some involve straight ahead blocking by the line, while others pull extra linemen to get excessive force at the point of attack. But another tactic is to focus on the leverage offensive players use to make their blocks, which frees up extra blockers to crush extra defenders. In short, while it typically takes two guys to block Suh, with the right tactic, the 49ers were able to use one, thus opening up all sorts of advantages. The most common form of this is known as a "trap," where a defensive lineman is left initially unblocked but is then blocked by an offensive player from the opposite side. Against Suh, the 49ers used the "wham" play, which is the same concept except the blocker comes from the outside.

On Gore's first big run, with just a few seconds left in the first quarter, the 49ers lined up in a "trey" set with a wide receiver to each side and a tight end and wing or "H-back," Delanie Walker, each lined up to the right. The goal of the "wham" blocked run play was to leave Suh unblocked. As shown below, Walker's job was to perform the "wham" block on Suh as he crashed upfield — a surprisingly simple block because Suh would be so focused on getting in the backfield that he wouldn't see it coming. This freed up the other linemen to block Detroit's linebackers, which they did.

wham1


In the image below, you can see the play developing perfectly: Suh, blissfully unaware, flies into the backfield hungry for a tackle for loss. Meanwhile, San Francisco's interior linemen release for the linebackers, each in good position to make a block.



A moment later, the big play is evident. Walker has completely taken Suh out of the play, while the other players have all made their blocks — ether in excellent fashion or simply by getting in the way as Detroit defenders get out of position. The one defender who could make the tackle — the blur in the photo near Gore — is Detroit safety Amari Spievey. He crashes down too quickly, though (to be fair, he undoubtedly expected better help from the inside), and Gore is off and running.



All that is left is for Gore to put a move on the safety, which he does, and he is off to the races. He would be caught at the one, but would score a touchdown one play later.



Because Harbaugh knows you can't have too much of a good thing, he called the exact same play in the third quarter, this time for a 55-yard run for Gore. This play seems to exemplify the theme of the week for Harbaugh: tough, physical, and a little bit unexpected.
 
Feb 12, 2004
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Kevin Lynch was on KNBR talking about how the Niners have the most creative running plays in the entire NFL and NOBODY uses anything similar to them, but we are already being copied by other teams and that's praise to Harbaugh and his staff.
 
Dec 9, 2005
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Kevin Lynch was on KNBR talking about how the Niners have the most creative running plays in the entire NFL and NOBODY uses anything similar to them, but we are already being copied by other teams and that's praise to Harbaugh and his staff.


Greg Roman is a beast in the making. I love his run designs, and his play calling has been on point as well. Plus, you know the guy loves his tight ends (PAUSE), and he uses them accordingly.
 

Chree

Medicated
Dec 7, 2005
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SANTA CLARA, Calif. (AP)—San Francisco 49ers right tackle Anthony Davis is toning down his tweets.

After a series of profanity-filled boasts on Twitter following Sunday’s 25-19 road upset of the previously unbeaten Lions, the second-year offensive lineman quickly deleted his posts. He was encouraged to do so by the team, but will continue tweeting. Quiet in the locker room, he is one of San Francisco’s most animated players when it comes to tweeting.

Some of Davis’ entries were directed at Lions fans or in response to those supporters’ tweets, and he insists he was “just having fun.” He says in no way did he intend to agitate some already angry Lions fans.


^ his tweets were bomedy lol
 

V

Sicc OG
Apr 25, 2002
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  • V

    V

^^im glad someone had a talk with him...tweeter is no place for a grown man to be talking shit...especially where everyone else can see it and especially when you throwing lols in there like some young schoolgirl...
 
Jan 12, 2006
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Props to OP

It might interest everyone to know that of ALL of the undefeated and one loss teams remaining, the 49ers have played the most difficult schedule in terms of opponents winning percentage.

49ers: 19 - 15 / 56%

Lions: 15 - 14 / 52%

Patriots: 12 - 14 / 46%

Ravens: 12 - 15 / 44%

Chargers: 9 - 17 / 35%

Packers: 12 - 22 / 35%

Throw in the fact that three of these games were back east and nobody can talk trash about this 5-1 record.