ick. i knew there was some reason i didn't wanna check out this board today, and now i remember what it was: embarassment.

<rant>
honestly, i wanted to wring madden's pasty, sagging neck last night when he started babbling about how the niner's "west coast offense" was inherently unable to put up quick scores to get them back in the game- and this was in the third quarter. uh, hey fatboy- remember joe montana? bill walsh? remember them having any trouble putting up points under pressure? remember them strugging with their 2 minute offense? lets not forget what "west coast offense" translates to, porky: "bill walsh's grand offensive strategy, as executed by joe montana, after adpotion by nearly every team in the NFL over the next 20 years, and essentially every successful one". but that IS quite a mouthful, i guess. better to just call it "west coast offense", right?

right, ok. so cram that turd-ucken back where it came from, larda$$.

but this just isn't niner football anymore. the simple fact is that the niners have lots of talent on their team, but are increasingly poorly coached. i've held out hope for mariuchi for a long time, thinking he'd come along like any other promising rookie. no friggin way. even fatboy was incredulous last night over the "horrible clock management" before halftime, when the niners got the ball with over 40 seconds left and all 3 timeouts, and couldn't even come up with a plan to get into field goal range, let alone execute it. what did they do? run three or four rink a dink plays, burn all their timeouts, and huck one desparate pass toward the end zone. sound familiar? it should. cuz they did the SAME DAMN THING last week, and that's pretty much what happens any other time they're in a hurry-up situation. it's like watching a buncha gradeschoolers in pop warner. it's really getting embarassing. now i know what it must feel like to be a raider fan...

</rant>

philly fans, good luck, and best wishes to two QB's who deserve to compete.

g++

 

ok, the more i think about this the more it hits me: it's gotten obvious over the last few years that the niners just can't play intelligent, strategic football anymore. it's also getting obvious that the coaching staff is just unable to deal with certain aspects of the game properly. for example:

* special teams- every aspect, in every situation. percentage, yardage, returns, coverage... consistently among the worst in the league. so today they released both cortez, and the punter, baker. you tell me- does switching kickers fix this? duh.
clue #1, mooch: the kicker is the highest scoring member of every NFL team. special teams isn't something you only think about on off days.

* clock management- at least they actually gave the illusion of a hurryup last night, as they assumed a no huddle stance from the end of the third quarter. that's more effort than they usually put into this charade. of course, look how many points they got in the process- zero. so in the end, about as effective as usual in two minute posture- waste a buncha time, get nothing. the REALLY funny part? they got 64 of their 104 total rushing yards in the 4th quarter. duh.
clue #2, mooch: you don't run the ball in the hurry up offense.

* general offensive strategy- sit on a three point halftime lead and try to play ball control? who the hell do you think you're coaching, the NY giants? the '68 packers? i could maybe see it once, or if there was some reason to think they'd have a hard time scoring late but they've pulled this crap several times this year, and in san diego it finally caught up to them. so now everyone laments mooch's lack of "killer instinct" for not "running up the score" or "putting the game away". BS. that's missing the point. it's a perfectly obvious, utterly stupid strategy change at halftime: if we're ahead, switch to ball control, even if we can't score to save our lives. poof! there goes half your playbook. the more effective half. well, maybe the other team won't notice. duh.
clue #3, mooch: archaic offensive strategies are not going to work in today's NFL. using the pass to set up the run is bill walsh football. using the run but forgetting to score is mariuchi football.

*player professionalism- remember when niner players were actually expected to act like professionals on and off the field? remember what happened when they didn't? ok, i'll cut to the chase- remember ricky watters? amazing runner. but consider this: since the niners got sick of his snotty little pre-madonna act and dumped him, how far have his teams gone? there's no room on a successful team for that kind of self-inflated BS. but there's room for it on the niners nowadays. there is no discipline on this team anymore. do you think owens would act the way he does if walsh wore the headset? no. if he's actually got half a brain, he'd understand why he has to button it up, and why it's important to the team. if not, he'd be gone, just like watters. i don't care how talented he thinks he is. when he's a hall of famer like walsh, montana and lott (who are already there), or young, rice, craig, jones and rathman (who will be), then maybe he can talk some sh*t. till then, he's the guy who's such a goddamned showboat, sharpie made a commercial out of his dumb stunts. duh.
clue#4, mooch: history shows again and again how nature points out the folly of man (bonus ref. points, anyone?). you're not gonna win if you're depending on players who think they're the only important part of the team. period.

bah. ok, i'm done. there's plenty more, but that's already way too much post... i'm just furious about this crap, i had to spew it somewhere. it just seems lately like i watch the niners make mistakes that would get high school coaches fired for outright stupidity. and then make the same mistakes again, week after week. kinda like being a raider fan... (ok, ok, i'll stop)

g++