Category: San Francisco 49ers

By Morris Phillips

Colin Kaepernick passed for a career-best 225 yards and a touchdown in the first half, and the 49ers held on for a 25-20 win over the Baltimore Ravens Sunday.

No Super Bowl XLVII, but you could term it the Super Bowl of 1-4 teams, a pair of flawed squads desperate to escape their current circumstances at almost any cost. For the Ravens, that passion was personified by two hardened veterans, Steve Smith Jr. and Justin Forsett, lifting themselves off the injury report and into the starting lineup knowing the paper-thin Baltimore lineup wouldn’t stand up in their absence.

And for the 49ers, looking for the first win in over a month, that passion to win meant taking advantage of a familiar face, even if that guy was Shareece Wright, a teammate just 10 days ago.  Wright was released just days after he went public with his dissatisfaction over lack of playing time.  On Sunday, while wearing a Ravens uniform, Wright got his wish.

Leading 6-3 in the second quarter, Kaepernick found Torrey Smith streaking down the far sideline—with Wright trailing—for a 76-yard pass play that gave the 49ers their first double-digit lead since Week 1.  Then in the second half, Kaepernick bought time, stayed in the pocket, and spotted Quinton Patton for an easy 21-yard pitch and catch.  On that touchdown, Wright was again the primary defender and he slipped and fell near the goal line just as Kaepernick released his throw.

Coming in, Wright supposedly announced that he would reveal 49ers’ tactics that would help him and the Ravens get a win at Levi’s Stadium.  Instead, it appeared the 49ers had a plan for Wright.

“I think being around any player, you pick up on their tendencies,” Kaepernick revealed when asked if the game plan had an extra wrinkle for Wright.  “You pick up on what you can take advantage of.  There were a couple things we thought we could take advantage of, and we did.”

On both plays, Kaepernick showed his growth that started in the Meadowlands last week in the tough loss to the Giants.  Hitting the deep ball had been the quarterback’s major flaw, but against the Ravens he connected with fullback Bruce Miller for 52 yards and Anquan Boldin for 51.  On the touchdown to Patton, Kaepernick stayed in the pocket and made a play downfield to what he said was his third option.

And most importantly, Kap got it going early, before the boo birds and the doubt could surface.

“Early on, we wanted to get the ball out of Kap’s hands, just let guys have one-on-one situations where we can make plays,” Boldin said.  “Kap did a great job of seeing the field, giving guys opportunities.”

While the Ravens secondary banged up and vulnerable, the 49ers found themselves in a rare situation where their defensive backs weren’t served up as the San Francisco treat.  Since, trading the expensive Boldin following their Super Bowl win nearly three years ago, and then losing Torrey Smith in the off-season, Baltimore hasn’t had enough downfield threats to compliment high-priced signal caller Joe Flacco.  That made Steve Smith’s availability a critical component to Sunday’s game, and the 14-year veteran somehow made it a go.

On Friday, Smith told the Baltimore Sun’s Jeff Zrebiec that he wouldn’t be able to go on Sunday as a result of the painful microfractures in his back.  The injury suffered against the Steelers forced Smith to miss Baltimore’s last game against the Browns.  But on Sunday, Smith was in the lineup and involved in two critical plays, one he wished he could have back, and another he won’t likely forget.

With the Ravens driving and looking for their first points early in the second quarter, Flacco found Smith in the end zone on a third-down pass play, but the pass slightly behind Smith was bobbled, then dropped.  A catch would have given the Ravens a 7-6 lead, instead they would trail for the entire ballgame.

In the third quarter, Smith appeared to be tightly covered by rookie Kenneth Acker, but came up with an amazing 34-yard catch in the corner of the end zone to trim the 49ers’ lead to 19-13.  Acker immediately complained that the veteran receiver pushed off, but a replay showed how subtle that push was on the fast moving play.

Forsett, who didn’t practice Wednesday or Thursday due to an ankle injury, also made it a go, producing over 100 yards of offense on the afternoon.  But despite the heroic performances by Smith Jr. and Forsett, the 49ers held on.

Flacco threw 53 times on Sunday, but misfired on 20 of those and was picked twice.  Acker found himself all alone deep when Flacco gifted him with a ball that he returned 45 yards.  Earlier, Flacco was picked by linebacker Michael Wilhoite.  But what was he thinking on that deep ball picked by Acker?

“I was looking to hit the shot over the top,” Flacco explained.  “I was hoping to buy time on the play and it got to the point where I didn’t see anyone open so I was just trying to throw it away.  I didn’t see anyone down the field, but it ended up being a really dumb play.”

The 49ers won for the first time in over a month, on a day that both Arizona and Seattle lost.  As a result, the 49ers and Seahawks enter Thursday’s big meeting with identical 2-4 records.  The Cardinals, still leading the NFC West at 4-2 maintain a 1 ½ game lead over the idle Rams.  Could the 49ers growth pattern extend for another four days, and against the two-time NFC Champs?

“We’re gradually picking up momentum.  We’re playing better and better.  It’s something that we have to continue,” Kaepernick said.

“We need this win on Thursday.”

By Morris Phillips

Colin Kaepernick looked confident and capable. The 49ers’ offense as a whole played better. And the Sunday night national television audience got treated to a whale of a football game.

But the 49ers’ defense was powerless as Eli Manning and the Giants marched down the field for a game-winning touchdown with just 21 seconds remaining. Now after a heart breaking 30-27 loss, the team finds itself in a 1-4 hole that’s almost impossible to climb out of.

Did we mention that Colin looked confident? Well, he really did.

“He did a great job. I’m proud of him, the way he bounced back after a tough week,” Torrey Smith said of his quarterback.

“It just looked like he was having fun,” Anquan Boldin noted. “He was himself. And that’s what I’m used to seeing.”

Could it just be that franchise quarterbacks burdened by multi-million dollar contracts and hindered by expectations are acutely sensitive to public sentiment? It could be, but you certainly didn’t hear that from Kaepernick himself.

“No,” Kaep responded when asked if he was feeling the pressure this week due to the backlash of three, subpar performances. “To me, I have to go back out and play football. It’s a game at the end of the day. It’s not life or death.”

Consider Kaep’s outing to be progress like running through South of Market and entering Hayes Valley on your way to Ocean Beach during a Bay to Breakers race. Kaepernick completed 23 of 35 passes for 264 yards, no picks and he ran just three times, executing Geep Chryst’s gameplan that saw the quarterback attacking downfield, and making plays in the passing game. For the first time in 19 games, a 49ers’ tight end caught a touchdown pass, and the run game featuring Carlos Hyde picked up tremendously after halftime as a result of Kaepernick’s capable passing.

On the other hand, the 49ers settled for a pair of field goals in the first half, and didn’t have any of their first 41 offensive plays result in a touchdown. And once Kaepernick and the offense rallied from a 13-3 deficit in the third quarter to tie the game at 13, and then again in the fourth quarter to tie the game at 20, the defense wilted, allowing Manning to mount a final drive without any of his top three wide outs available and on the field.

It there’s a final step a quarterback must take on his way to being a top-10 NFL signal caller, that step would undoubtedly be mastering the art of leading a red-zone offense with a passer’s pinpoint touch. Manning took that step long ago, and his miraculous throw and catch to Larry Donnell on Sunday in the final seconds was just another example.

On the game-winning play, 49ers’ linebacker NaVorro Bowman found himself in a familiar place, looking to clog any running lanes near the goal line while being responsible for Donnell, the Giants’ rangy, 6’4” tight end, who’s more often than not kept in for protection of the New York running game, while possessing the ability to make a tough catch over a shorter defender, in this case Bowman. The 49ers’ defensive leader reacted beautifully to Donnell, eschewing the run, backpedaling into position and reaching with his right hand for the ball just as Donnell made the catch.

But Donnell amazingly held on in traffic while tapping both feet inbounds. Had Donnell juggled the football at any point, the tight end would have been pushed out of bounds, and the play would have resulted in an incomplete. But that—for the 49ers—how the ball is bouncing right now.

“It seemed like we played a whole game today,” Bowman said. “It seemed like everybody was on it. We knew it wasn’t going to be easy being that we were the visiting team. But I feel like we came out focused, I feel like we played a full, 60-minute game. And I’ll take that one. I’ll put that on me.”

What doomed the 49ers was the inability to defend the pass game, as Manning completed a franchise-record 41 passes on Sunday. That Manning would be so inclined to put the ball in the air, despite missing two and sometimes three of his top targets showed how little regard the Giants and other NFL clubs have for the San Francisco secondary at this point. Needing only to defend running back Shane Vereen as Manning’s only experienced pass target in the final drive, the 49ers couldn’t stop Vereen or any of the other Giants and get off the field.

The Giants won their third straight after opening the season with two losses, while the 49ers fell further into the basement in the NFC West.   On Sunday, the 49ers host the 1-4 Ravens, also desperate to turn things around after losing to the Browns at home in overtime on Sunday.

 

By Morris Phillips

If 2015 devolves into rebuilding campaign for the 49ers—and officially, it hasn’t yet–don’t expect the franchise quarterback to get a pass.

Colin Kaepernick was an obvious target again on Sunday, as the 49ers fell to the Packers, 17-3 at Levi’s Stadium.  Kaepernick misfired on 12 of his 25 pass attempts, and the 49ers amassed fewer than 200 yards in total offense.  The Packers’ front seven repeatedly took advantage of the 49ers’ porous, offensive line, totaling six sacks, and disrupting the running game.  Sam Shields also picked off Kaepernick, as he left too little air under a deep pass attempt targeting Anquan Boldin.

On the other side, Aaron Rodgers, the best player on the planet, made a fire with matchsticks, leading the Packers to a touchdown on their opening drive, and compensating for Green Bay’s numerous injuries on offense by stinging the San Francisco defense with a bushel of big plays.  Rodgers endured a challenging day, attempting 32 passes to gain just 200 yards, but not an unsuccessful one as the Pack made do courtesy of his vast skill set.

As expected, the scoreboard and the variance in quarterback play brought out the Santa Clara boo birds.  Fox’s Skycam and its intrusive microphones added to Kaepernick’s burden, catching Green Bay linebacker Clay Matthews reminding Kaep that he “ain’t Russell Wilson” after a designed run in the fourth quarter with the 49ers’ already trailing by two touchdowns ended with the quarterback sliding down for a one-yard loss.

Among Kaepernick’s numerous issues on Sunday, a number of Packers players and coaches were in town still smarting from that 2012 playoff loss in which the 49ers’ quarterback passed for 263 yards and ran for 181 more in San Francisco’s 45-31 win.

The numbers did the rest to Kaepernick.  The 49ers had just eight first downs—one in the fourth quarter— they were killed in time of possession, and ran just 50 offensive plays.  And from ESPN’s stat machine, this revealing look: on passes thrown at least five yards past the line of scrimmage, Kaepernick completed just 3 of 12.  In his last two games on passes downfield, he’s completed just 31 percent and thrown all four of his picks.

Afterwards, the questions came fast and furious, and the answers brief and curt.  Mark Purdy of the San Jose Mercury News asked the obvious.  Should a quarterback change be considered?

“Won’t even go into that discussion,” Coach Jim Tomsula said.  “It’s not on my mind.”

Has Kaepernick lost his confidence?

“That’s not the way I would term it,” Tomsula said.  “But, we’ve got to, collectively on offense, we’ve got to have 11 people going in the same direction, at all times.”

Kaepernick didn’t say much as usual.  Can’t fault him for that after an afternoon like this.  But he did offer some, brief assessment of his play, saying “the one throw I want to have back is the one to Reggie in the red zone.  He made a great move, I didn’t make the throw.  But the other ones, once again, I’m not going to throw a ball into traffic and risk this offense and this team and putting them in a bad situation.”

Is this already a bad situation?  Undoubtedly, yes.  Three-fifths of the line, center Marcus Martin, right guard Jordan Devey and right tackle Erik Pears are overmatched.  Green Bay ran a majority of their rush stunts against the trio with great success.  In the first five weeks, grading schemes that account for offensive lineman individually have all three near the bottom of the league.  On Sunday, in addition to Kaepernick having little time to throw, and being sacked so frequently, the 49ers couldn’t run.  The Green Bay front was simply better, more hostile, and didn’t matter much what good Alex Boone and Joe Staley had brewing on the other side.

“They brought the safeties down, played a zero look a lot,” Carlos Hyde revealed.  “They brought extra defenders in the box.  It’s hard to run against eight or nine guys in the box.”

Hyde had just eight carries on the day.  Just three weeks ago, he led the NFL in rushing.  That alone represents a dramatic decline.

Vernon Davis was unavailable Sunday, and while he’s far from the playmaker he’s been in the past, he’s a steadying influence in the protection game, and that was missed.  In his place, Vance McDonald drew a flag, dropped a pass, and struggled throughout.

Boldin and Torrey Smith have grown visibly frustrated, and why not?  The duo is wearing themselves out trying to catch passes from a guy who hasn’t shown the acumen to do so.  Both veterans, and Reggie Bush as well, know what it’s supposed to look like, and this isn’t it.

Among NFL teams with authentic uniforms and fan bases dying to be entertained, the 49ers rank dead last in scoring through four games with 48 points.  That’s 20 points fewer than number 31, the Bears with 68.  Beyond their gritty effort on Sunday, the defense hasn’t helped either, the 49ers have allowed 110 points, only three other teams have allowed more.

That means the product is hard to watch, Kaepernick is hard to watch.

Could Blaine Gabbert help things?  We could find out sooner, rather than later.