Niners completely waste Brock and Jauan's almost perfect game

 

It's the sort of loss that makes me feel sick to my stomach. The previous week at Minnesota, where the Niners were competitive but ended up losing by six points, felt like an 'ah there's things to fix but they're plain to see and fixable' game.

This week against the Rams in contrast was a game where Purdy was missing three of his top four options on offense, where he would be forced to show up and show out in order to really truly shut up the naysayers (though of course not really, and definitely not once and for all - we could only hope).

And he did!! He played about as well as any QB this season. (Yes there was a strip sack but that was McKivitz, not Brock.) He was throwing to Jauan all over the yard, and holy god JJ had the game of his life - which is saying something because he should have been Superbowl MVP had the Niners won that one.

But they didn't win the Superbowl, and they didn't win this one either, and JJ - and Brock - will not get the recognition they deserve. What a waste, and what a shame. It's for them that the pit of despair exists in my guts today.

The reason for so many of the heartbreaking losses in the past, what, dozen or so years has been special teams. And special teams once again fucked us yesterday. And no, I don't even blame Moody (yes being drafted in the 3rd round raises expectations pretty damn high for a kicker, but his draft position isn't his fault). No one expects a 55 yarder to be automatic, that's not a reasonable expectation. But LA's successful fake punt and the final LA punt return were just not okay. Those are not winning plays, to say the least. Why can't we find a decent  special teams coordinator?? What is the origin of this curse?

The defense also should not be relinquishing that type of lead. Why does it keep happening to the Niners? Does this happen to other teams too? It boggles my mind, given the talent and the recent success that they've established as one of the standards in the NFL. New coordinator yes, and also yes I remember Demeco and Saleh both requiring time to get up to speed. But no, you should not be giving up a 10 point lead in the 4th quarter to end up losing by a last second field goal. Not to an admittedly pretty great QB, but with one with only ONE receiver.

I also have to say, Kyle, please stop with the Ronnie Bell. How many times does this guy have to break your heart? Put him on the practice squad if you want to keep him, but stop playing him in games. It's not working man, a receiver who can't catch does not work in the NFL.

Anyway, Brock and JJ, y'all balled absolutely tf out yesterday and I wish the rest of the team could have held on and won so your accomplishments could be properly recognized.

LA Times Article on NFL QBs by NFL QBs (by Sam Farmer)

Here is a really good article about NFL QB success, or failure.

It seems simple, quite comprehensible, and you'd think people with basic football knowledge - let alone coaches at the highest level, or team owners, or critics (some once NFL QBs themselves) - would get it. And yet so many don't. This list of 3.5 legendary NFL QBs (Jim Everett is only 0.5 legendary) plainly spell out why Sam Darnold, Baker Mayfield and Derek Carr are seeing career resurgences on new teams.

In conclusion: Carolina, you will remain busted as long as David Tepper is your owner.

Things that happened this weekend

The Culmination of the Year of Anna Sawai

I've watched a lot of Japan-based tv this year - Shogun, Tokyo Vice, Monarch (part-time-Japan), Pachinko (Japan-adjacent). Three of those four shows include Anna Sawaii in the cast. Last night, she - along with the rest of the Shogun cast, crew and creators - won a whole bunch of hardware at the Emmys. I'm not a real subscriber to award shows, but man alive I think this is just so well deserved. Shogun is a fantastic show, and Anna Sawai (and Hiroyuki Sanada) getting a whole bunch of accolades means the universe is working correctly.

I watched more Japanese-language tv than Chinese this year. Or, let's say tv series that contain Japanese or Chinese. Warrior's last season and the Brothers Sun were solid entertaining shows, but neither touched the depth of characters that maybe any of the four aforementioned shows do.

Oh I guess I also watched American Born Chinese, which did have a couple huge swing episodes to its credit. (The whole party in heaven episode was wild, I loved it.) And, should we count 3 Body Problem as Chinese adjacent? Considering its source material, if anything it had a lot of Chinese taken out of it.

Anyway. Congratulations, Anna Sawai. I thoroughly enjoyed the year of you.

Niners vs Vikings

The Niners lost to the Vikings this weekend, which normally would make me very sad but has actually only made me slightly sad. For one, this team needs to toughen up, for real. And Brian Flores' defense hopefully did some of that.

Defensively, Fred Warner is playing pretty much on god mode. I mean, he saved the game multiple times for the team, at least giving them the opportunity to win it. Which they did not, but still. I'm biased and I've watched way more Niners football than any other team, but Fred is my DPOY candidate after week 2.

On offense, Trent Williams made a couple mistakes that we are just not accustomed to seeing. BA is almost nowhere to be seen. And obviously CMC hasn't even played a down. So, there's some catch-up work to be done. These guys need to build up to game shape still.

As sort of meh as the team performed, I think the game was lost over a series of three plays. The 4th and goal where Kyle inexplicably called that screen and almost got Van Ginkle'd, especially after seeing the Giants and Daniel Jones suffer that exact fate the week before - I mean, what the hell was that. Then the Vikings take over on downs and two plays later, our safeties are showing us that we need way way better cover safeties out there. They are both torched by JJ, not to mention one of the refs apparently. I didn't see specifically but I'm assuming it was Brown and Odum. My god I hope Sorensen makes some adjustments and/or Huff returns asap. Also, you don't know what you got till it's gone but Gipson, our best cover safety, is most definitely gone.

The Brock fumble, not good. The blocked punt, not good. The muffed punt, very bad. The special teams pox continues in its, what, 12th year? 20th? I don't even know anymore.

But there are glaring things that can and hopefully will be cleaned up. Otherwise, as noted Fred Warner has the defense in relatively good shape and the offense put up good yards, they just couldn't finish. End result: only slightly sad.