49ers Fancast #36 – 2010 Offseason Report #1
Talking about everything that’s happened between the Super Bowl and right now!
Talking about everything that’s happened between the Super Bowl and right now!
I know the episode is late. Yes, the date I quote at the beginning of the episode is wrong. This is what happens when it takes so long to encode your MP3, you forget you haven’t even posted the episode. The title is in the ID3 tags for the file, and it has something to do with News and Feedback and something else, and honestly, I’m not taking the time to figure it out.
Anyway, talking about the Playoff games we just witnessed, and the ones we will witness forthcoming. No episode from Kevin and I this week, as I completely flaked on him. We will likely have an episode to preview the Super Bowl, at the very least.
Discussing our sterling 1-3 record on 1st round game picks, how we see the Divisional round playing out, and we touch on the “greatest quarterback of all time” argument. Bonus discussion of Mark McGwire’s recent admission to steroid use. Email 49ersfancast@gmail.com, or leave a voicemail at 206-666-2826.
Prompted by comments from a listener, I talk about where this team has bean, where it is now, and how the future will be affected by it. Also looking at a couple recent news stories regarding the team. Email 49ersfancast@gmail.com, or call the voicemail line at 206-666-2826.
Due to some recent trouble with my Feedburner feed, I have abandoned use of it until I can figure out what went wrong. My site RSS no longer redirects to the Feedburner feed, so if you want the latest episodes of the 49ers Fancast, you must change your feed subscription to http://indianajim.net/49ersfancast/?feed=rss2.
I had noticed that my iTunes listing was only updated to Episode #28, so I realized (after a few listeners complained) that there was something obviously wrong. When I removed the feed redirect and refreshed my iTunes listing, it was updated with the latest episodes.
Thank you for your attention to this matter, and I apologize for the inconvenience.
My friend Kevin the Bengals Fan joins me to discuss the upcoming playoffs. Who do we like in the Wildcard games, and who do we see going forward to the Super Bowl? Plus some obligatory bashing of the Pittsburgh Steelers. You’ll have to excuse Kevin. He is, after all, only a Bengals fan….
Talking about the win over the St. Louis Rams, and a little discussion of things to come. Email 49ersfancast@gmail.com or call the voicemail line at 206-666-2826.
Sorry about the lateness of this episode. I ran into some FTP difficulties yesterday, and laziness the day before that. Many, many meanings behind the word “inconsistency,” eh?
Talking about beating the Detroit Lions, and looking forward a bit to 2010. Also briefly looking at the Rams. But only VERY briefly.
This is a different Postgame Reactions post.
The most readily apparent thing about this 49ers team is how incredibly inconsistent they are from top to bottom. The first thing I noticed is how easy it seemed for 3rd-stringer Drew Stanton to move the ball against this defense. Yes, the 49ers gradually became more opportunistic as the game dragged on, but it was yet another example of how this team plays up or down to its competition.
The other microcosm of inconsistency was this: Alex Smith play fakes and drifts to his right. Michael Crabtree breaks wide open downfield with no safety help. Imagine seeing a tree uproot itself and walk, and you might understand how rare an occurrence this is. Crabtree does not have game-breaking speed, and Jimmy Raye’s offense does not produce many long balls. I can imagine Smith’s overriding thought: “Don’t screw this up.”
Michael Crabtree and Vernon Davis are both in the top 5 in drops in the NFL right now. So imagine Michael Crabtree, so wide open he’s probably thinking that they’ve crossed into another dimension. He’s a rookie, and he’s probably thinking, “Don’t screw this up.” Remember Josh Morgan with a Shaun Hill pass falling into his arms and dropping it? He said it was like a punt. Smith’s ball to Crabtree was hardly a punt, and yet when Crabtree brings it in, the ball pops out of his hands, and he has to catch it again.
Whatever happened on the play, the route worked, and Crabtree was wide open. The 49ers are not accustomed to plays working the way they’re supposed to. The 49ers of old knew which plays would work, when they would work, and how to execute them. But those teams had a lot of time together. The 49ers of now are starting to figure out what works, they don’t quite know when it’s going to work, and when it does work, they can’t quite execute it just right.
Therefore, sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn’t.
It ain’t sexy football talk, and it’s not going to be a locker room slogan any time soon. I can’t see the 49ers PR department signing off on that going on a billboard. But it is the truth about this team. As for the current PR slogan, “Don’t tell me, Show me,” the 49ers have definitely seemed to stop telling us. But somewhere along the way, they forgot to show us.
The 49ers don’t field a team that gives us the right to demand a blowout of anyone, even if it is the Lions. As Mark Purdy of the Mercury News has stated in his most recent column, “the 49ers could get away with being less than perfect.” They couldn’t get away with that this season. The fact that the 49ers won by two touchdowns is a testament to how bad the Lions are. Imperfect and inconsistent teams can still walk out with a win.