The Other Side Of Paradise

It's usually around this time of year that I gear up for Football season and the return to action of the San Francisco 49ers. The 49ers, however, have had what's basically been the offseason from hell. It started about 15 minutes after their season finale in 2014, after a year in which they'd already regressed and coach Jim Harbaugh was basically pushed out the door by their non-entity legacy owner Jed York.

Since that time, well, the roster has been gutted. Gone are names that had been such huge parts of the team's success over the past few seasons, like Frank Gore, Michael Crabtree, Patrick Willis, Anthony Davis, Mike Iupati and others. In their place, well, I'm not quite sure. There's a new coach, Jim Tomsula, an organization guy who's been around for years and whom the players love. Colin Kaepernick is still Quarterback. Navorro Bowman returns from his knee injury. Other than that, well, I'm not quite sure what to expect, and given that the teams around them in their own division have probably improved, I have a bad feeling that the 49ers are probably not going to have a very good season.

There's one reason to get excited and that's the presence of Australian Rugby import Jarryd Hayne, who emerged out of nowhere as a Running Back, Punt Returner and all-around ass-kicker type who defied odds and made the roster, albeit in a reserve role. But maybe he'll surprise some people. I don't know. The Hayne Plane makes for an interesting story. Unfortunately, the 49ers don't have many of those. Though they probably won't be completely 2-14 level horrible, I also don't think they'll be especially good and as far as their chances of playing in The Big Game in their home stadium, well, I think the window for that closed before last season had finished. This means they're probably stuck in that 7-9/8-8 gray area which means they're not good, they're not bad, they're just blah.

There's really no juice for me this season for Football in general. A lot of it stems from everything that's happened to the 49ers over the past several months. Some of it has to do with the culture that's been perpetuated by Roger Goodell, who seems to have let the power of the Commissionership corrupt him to the point where he's turned fans, players and even some owners against him. Another reason might be this idiot, yo-bro attitude that this new generation of Football fans seems to have perpetuated. I don't know.

But maybe the biggest reason I don't really feel into the start of Football season is the fact that for the first time in years, the Mets are actually playing relevant Baseball in September and their season may well extend into October. I usually have made it a point to devote a blog to that week's 49ers game throughout Football season, but it was easy to do that when it was that against a meaningless string-killing baseball game. Now, the Baseball games have meaning. And, in reality, this is a Mets blog first and foremost. The Mets come first.

Sorry, 49ers. For now, you'll have to take a back seat. I'll watch when I can.

Fare Thee Well

Rumblings on Monday led to a pair of painful announcements relating to the 49ers this afternoon, breaking up the general monotony of Spring Training baseball where no news tends to be good news. One item was expected. The other, a shocker that's kind of left everyone feeling numb.

The surprise retirement of Patrick Willis came mostly out of nowhere. Willis, the unquestioned leader of a defense that has been among the NFL's best the past 4 seasons, hadn't given much in the way of indication that he wouldn't be back from the toe injury that shelved him for a majority of the 2014 season. But as a sign that you can never really know what's in the head of an athlete, Willis instead announced today that he planned to retire to pursue a more philanthropic career. It's noble, and certainly speaks to the character Willis displayed throughout his career, but that doesn't make it any less shocking.

Willis' career has been nothing but one accolade on top of another. Drafted by the 49ers in the 1st round in 2007, Willis was the Defensive Rookie of the Year, a first-team All Pro multiple times and voted to the Pro Bowl every year of his 8 year career except this past season. Willis was a leader in every sense; not so much that he set an example for his teammates both on and off the field, but for the fact that he made everyone around him better. NaVorro Bowman, who from everything I can gather like a little brother to Willis, was hardly heralded as a prospect when he entered the league in 2010, but after playing next to Willis became a force just as strong and together, the tandem helped the 49ers become great again. Bowman will be back, though nobody knows just how strong he will be after his knee injury now over a year ago, and certainly everyone had to think Willis would be there alongside him. But he won't.

Whether it was the wear and tear of playing at the level of ferocity he usually displayed or a religious awakening that became so prevalent across his social media pages, Willis decided now was the time for him to move on. It seems shocking and premature but the best way to look at it is to reflect on the 8 seasons he played and remember what a force he was.

Less surprising, but not less upsetting was the word that Frank Gore was also departing the 49ers after 10 sterling seasons as the team's Running Back. Gore, a Free Agent, wanted to be back and the 49ers certainly indicated they wanted to have him back at the end of the season, but the way things unfolded that seemed to dissolve, because I'm not sure the 49ers ever made him an offer. Over the weekend, it seemed like the hot word was that Gore was headed to the Eagles, but he ended up shunning Philly for an offer from the Indianapolis Colts.

With Gore, the answer of whether to bring him back or not seemed less cut and dry. Gore's 32-year old legs covered a lot of ground over his 10 seasons and at times he certainly didn't have the same juice he did when he was younger. But just when you figured he was through, he'd come out and rip off a 120+ yard game and score 2 Touchdowns and you'd remember that he was still the same Frank Gore who was always going to get the job done. Gore, the 49ers all-time leading rusher and a 5-time Pro Bowler, always ran tough and angry, but accomplished his job humbly, so much so that sometimes it was easy to overlook him. But he was always there in the end to grind out tough yards when the 49ers needed it most.

Most importantly, Gore and Willis were the two key cogs on the 49ers through the latter half of the dark era of 49ers football in the mid to late 00s that toiled through a lot of lean years before finally getting a taste of success in the past few seasons. When the 49ers re-emerged in the Jim Harbaugh era, it was Gore and Willis who stood front and center as the team's leaders and nobody questioned that. These were two players that clearly appreciated every ounce of the winning they got to experience. But as Harbaugh has departed, and now Gore and Willis have left as well, it seems that the window on this era has closed for the 49ers. The 49ers do have the depth and pieces on their roster now to replace these large holes, but will they? It's not the time now to focus on how or why this has happened here, or to start knocking owner Jed York, or whatever. For now, you tip your cap to Patrick Willis and Frank Gore, a pair of great players who always made me proud to root for the 49ers.

Big Game Blahs

I'd had some grandiose plans to write about the two Championship games and how they were studies in contrast. The New England Patriots won their game in a runaway romp that would have happened whether their footballs were fully inflated or not, or if they'd been playing with clay pigeons. On the other side, the Seattle Seahawks got here on a prayer, or, more appropriately, a wholly gutless performance by the Green Bay Packers. It wasn't the fault of Aaron Rodgers, and it wasn't the fault of poor Brandon Bostick who was needlessly turned into a national flog, it was the idiotic coaching job done by Mike McCarthy, who managed the game with the tenacity of a scalded dog, turning what appeared to be sure Touchdown opportunities into Field Goals, failing to allow his offense to take advantage of 5 Seattle turnovers and instead just let the Seahawks hang around. This is probably the worst thing you can do against the Seahawks, because if you let them slip back in, all of a sudden things just snowball for them. The Seahawks didn't deserve to win that game. They came out looking like they'd took too much Adderall at the pregame meeting and played like a team that was overconfident and expected the Packers to just capitulate to them. Well, the Packers did capitulate, but it just took a little longer for the Seahawks to take advantage of it.

So, now, here we are, the Seahawks and the Patriots in a BIG GAME matchup of two teams that nobody likes. Even the Seahawks fans seem to have this dispassionate relationship to the team; I'm of the belief that the idea of the "12th Man" is more a self-aggrandizing tactic in the same vein of "Got Rings!" for some American League Baseball team that plays in New York. It's more about drawing attention to themselves than it is about the team. The "12th Man" will probably be out in full force on Sunday in Arizona, but if the Seahawks don't play well, you'll see them either abandon ship or start trouble. Patriots fans aren't much better, but at least you can see there's some kind of connection to the team. They're Patriots Fans, not a "thing."

So, there's still a game to be played here, if anyone's still paying attention, and it should be a good game on the surface. The Patriots have put together probably their best team as a whole in several years, probably since the 2007 season when they went 16-0 and annihilated everyone in sight. Tom Brady is healthy, Rob Gronkowski is healthy, they're running weird gadget plays that keep their opponents confused and even their defense is improved thanks to the addition of Darrelle Revis.

But then, there's the Seahawks. The Seahawks, the Seahawks, the Seahawks. Obviously you don't need to be a genius to know that I'm not rooting for them in this game, but for some reason, for as close as many seem to think the game is going to be, I have this sick, sneaking suspicion that this game could turn out an awful lot like last year. Pete Carroll probably laid out triple-HGH-laced adderall for his team this week, Marshawn Lynch has spent the entire week clowning the NFL and working himself into a frenzy, and Richard Sherman has been running around doing Richard Sherman things. There's not been a consensus pick either way in this game, which is like what happened last year. Denver came in with this high-flying offense and took the field like a bunch of bitches and the Seahawks just stomped them. I can absolutely see the same thing happening this year. The Patriots lost two Super Bowls to the Giants because they were facing a defense that hit Tom Brady in the mouth and wouldn't let them grab a toehold, and that's the kind of game the Legion of Adderall likes to play.  But if the Seahawks somehow can't get out of their own way like they did against Green Bay, the Patriots probably won't let them slip back into the game. Still, you go with your gut in a game like this, and as much as I would like to see them get slapped around and humbled like they so richly deserve, my gut says the Seahawks will win this game.

Pick: Seahawks 29, Patriots 13

Big Boy Pants

Championship weekend has arrived in the NFL once again, and after three straight years of involvement, the 49ers aren't around and therefore I can sort of sit back and watch these games like a normal person instead of a catatonic wreck. Then again, given the depth of my feelings toward the two NFC Championship participants, maybe it's better if I make other plans. Last weekend, I made three conventional picks and one calculated gamble and unlike in the Wildcard round, everything worked and I went 4-0. New England beat Baltimore in a rousing double-comeback affair that sort of exemplified everything that makes Tom Brady great. Seattle didn't totally humiliate Carolina, but they came close enough, winning a game that probably was closer than it should have been because Carolina scored in garbage time. The shootout I expected in Green Bay didn't happen and had things broken one way or the other early in the game, the Cowboys could have pulled off the upset. But they couldn't capitalize, they didn't get the call on the Dez Bryant catch/no-catch call and even if they did, they couldn't stop Aaron Rodgers, who did the Discount Doublechecking rather than receiving it this year. Then, there was the Indianapolis/Denver game, which I thought Indy would win, and they did because all of a sudden Peyton Manning started looking really really old, and his receivers forgot how to catch passes. This was just as I expected. The Colts fell behind early but clawed their way back, eventually took a lead and rode the momentum home from there. They had a pair of long scoring drives in the 2nd and 3rd Quarters, the Broncos could find no rhythm, and they could have conceivably sent Peyton Manning into retirement with one more puss on his face.

So, now we're here.

Sunday, 3:05pm
Green Bay Packers (13-4) at Seattle Seahawks (13-4)
The matchup that everyone wanted is probably the matchup I least wanted to see but knew was unavoidable. Green Bay and Seattle were the two best teams in the NFC for a majority of the season, and after they both started slow, they got their acts together and at one point or another were really stomping everyone in their path. The Packers certainly have the more potent offense right now. Rodgers is at the top of his game, and Eddie Lacy has performed well when he's had to, to say nothing of the fact that the Packers have a no-name group of receivers that look better than they deserve to because of who's throwing them the ball. Seattle can score points too, because America's Sweetheart Russell Wilson does Russell Wilson things and Marshawn Lynch is on another cycle of HGH is "tough to tackle." They don't have sexy receiving options, but they get the job done. Defensively is where the game will probably be decided, because where the Packers, as you well know, are led by this decade's Brian Bosworth, Clay Matthews III, the Seahawks are led by Shire Specialty Pharmaceuticals Richard Sherman and his mouth, combined with Earl Thomas and Kam Chancellor and Bobby Wagner and K.J. Wright and Cliff Avril and the names just go on and on and on until you want to smash your head in. Which is a pretty accurate description of what they'll do to you. And that's before we even begin to talk about the Clink, where you can rest assured the "Soundtrack of 1,000,000 people rioting" will be playing over the PA speakers throughout the game. So, basically, although I'd like to not see this happen again, the Seahawks have too much on their side for the Packers to be able to overcome. Rodgers might do his best, but why fight it.
Pick: Seahawks 27, Packers 21

Sunday, 6:40pm
Indianapolis Colts (13-5) at New England Patriots (13-4)
Since the beginning of the Andrew Luck era in Indianapolis, the Colts have been regularly and thoroughly flattened by the Patriots every time they've matched up. I don't know for certain that this will happen again this time, but I do think that the Patriots are going to come out on top in this game. Though the Colts have been winning on Luck's talent and general guile, they have also been winning with the "groundswell effect," which I mentioned earlier, where they may fall behind early, but they kind of hang around, and hang around, and maybe they lead by 3 points at halftime, and they get the ball coming out of the half and score and then get a turnover and coast home. That won't quite work against the Patriots, who have been known to run the ball down the Colts' throats and not give Luck a chance. The Colts can't run the ball much, although this Little Mack Herron fellow has been a nice story, he's also their 4th option at RB. This means Luck is going to have to throw a ton in order to keep pace, and though Wimpy Flacco had success doing so last week, he still couldn't beat the Patriots. The Patriots proved they can finagle themselves out of the depths last week, twice coming back from 14-point deficits behind Brady, some offensive formation chicanery (which to the best of my knowledge might have been slightly unsportsmanlike, but not illegal), a trick play that resulted in a Touchdown, and a defense that held the line when they absolutely needed to. The Colts might be able to hang around and make this interesting, but on another one of those cold New England January nights, I don't think they have enough to take down the Bill Belichick Machine.
Pick: Patriots 34, Colts 28

So, once again, there you have it. Order your Pizza now, maybe Peyton Manning himself will deliver it since he's not playing tomorrow.

The More Fool You

Last weekend, I tried to be a hero and make some innovative picks based on what I believed to be some well-informed observations. Instead, I looked rather foolish as teams played straight up or generally took advantage of some controversial breaks and I ended up going 1-3 for the Wildcard Round. That's not my general pattern, but then again maybe I should have known better. The Cincinnati Bengals weren't going to go into Indianapolis and win. Though the Colts don't pose as a team of world-beaters, they were advantageously matched up against a team that has a habit of self-destructing at this juncture. A similar case unfolded in Pittsburgh, where a Steelers team that is probably better than the Ravens ended up losing because a) Their Running Back-By-Committee was doomed to fail before it even got started and b) the Ravens have a habit of turning it on at this juncture. So, now we're here in the Divisional Round where the Big Annoying Boys take the field and things really start to get interesting. Maybe. I again want to try to be a little more interesting than just going with the field, but I have the sense that this is probably going to be a more form-holding weekend than we usually get. But either way, I have an even greater sense that I'll end up looking the fool.

Saturday, 4:35pm
Baltimore Ravens (11-6) at New England Patriots (12-4) 
Bad enough that the Ravens are here again, but now everyone's remembering that magical nauseating run they had two years ago where they went into New England and beat the Patriots, and if you'll recall, I picked against them in every round and they won each time. I thought they weren't that good, but somehow Wimpy Joe Flacco turns into Joe Montana in January and I'll never understand why this happens. New England, however, has put together their best team in a few years, and this is a team that finishes 12-4 and goes to the AFC Championship Game on a routine basis so that's saying something. Tom Brady is still there being Tom Brady, and Rob Gronkowski will probably have had his bowl of gravel for lunch, and oh by the way Darrelle Revis is lurking in the secondary. Pundits that claim to know lots of things seem to be leaning towards the Ravens because this seems to be the sort of situation where Flacco will succeed and because Terrell Suggs intercepted a pass with his feet last week and everyone needs a new Ray Lewis to hang their hat on. That's why the Patriots will win. Too much hype in the opposite direction.
Pick: Patriots 28, Ravens 24

Saturday, 8:15pm
Carolina Panthers (8-8-1) at Seattle Seahawks (12-4)
I'd heard an argument somewhere that maybe, just maybe, the Panthers can come into Seattle, run the ball, not make mistakes and keep the Seahawks off balance and give them a game. I'm not fooled. Carolina didn't play a good game last week against Arizona, but they happened to come out on top because the Cardinals were playing a 4th string Quarterback. This won't fly in Seattle. You know what's coming. The speakers are cranked up, the aluminum walls are extra tinny and the crowd noise is on queue, waiting for Cam Newton to capitulate and throw some dying quail to Richard Sherman so he can disco dance into the End Zone. This is a joke of a matchup and likely won't be interesting for more than a quarter. Make other plans for Saturday night.
Pick: Seahawks 51, Panthers 3

Sunday, 1:05pm
Dallas Cowboys (13-4) at Green Bay Packers (12-4)
So the team that was 8-0 on the road goes to play the team that was 8-0 at home in this matchup of annoying teams that nobody likes but the NFL loves to cram in our faces. America's Team! Frozen Tundra! Aaron Rodgers! Tony Romo! Jerkoff head coaches! Ice Bowl! Coach Willy Loman! Woo woo woo! If you haven't puked from overexposure by the end of the 1st Quarter, I salute you, but this is the sort of matchup that the NFL and TV executives are probably peeing their pants over. Word is it's going to be -33˚ and driving snow in Green Bay, which I think is basically the weather there every day from November to April, or at least that's what the NFL wants you to believe. Meanwhile, there's still a game to be played, and stripping away the hype, you have a pair of teams that at one point or another could have been considered "The Hot Team" in the league. Dallas got off to a hot start. Green Bay was throwing 40+ points on the board each week for a while there. But they both came back to earth, and now what it boils down to is a pair of injured Quarterbacks playing in cold weather, so maybe it's better to focus elsewhere. They can both run the ball. Defense? Hmm...neither of these teams play it much. Dallas can't get out of their own way most of the time and the Packers defense is led by a second-rate commercial actor who plays football when he feels like it. What it boils down to is that this is a total snark-fest and part of me is kind of glad I booked a noon brunch so I can kind of ignore it.
Pick: Packers 45, Cowboys 34

Sunday, 4:40pm
Indianapolis Colts (12-5) at Denver Broncos (12-4)
I actually think this is the oddest matchup of the weekend. Conventional wisdom would have Peyton Manning going out, tugging his jockstrap a few times and throwing 7 Touchdown passes in the 1st half just to remind everyone that he's still the Pizza Man. And that may yet happen. The Colts, as I mentioned last week when I picked against them, don't do many things well, except that they have Andrew Luck, who may be the second coming of Manning himself, if his first few years are any indication. Denver can run and plays good defense. It's highly doubtful that the Colts can do either particularly well. But many of you know my 4pm Sunday game theory, and how in general, conventional wisdom tends to go out the window in favor of strange things happening. That, combined with the fact that strange things tend to happen to Peyton Manning in the Divisional round in general, the certain-to-be-cold weather in Denver, and the fact that he's been sort of un-Manning-like as this season has drawn on and it makes the hero in me want to show itself. There's an overthrown pass on a 3rd down play. There's a dying quail that falls into the hands of an opposing player. There's a 9-minute Touchdown drive in the 3rd Quarter. There's another game slipping away and hands are being tossed in the air and another shake of the head and a puss on the face...
Pick: Colts 23, Broncos 19

OK, ok. I couldn't resist. After all, I'm not putting any money on these games. Get your Insurance and your Pizza and your shampoo and Chunky Soup ready.

The No-Cares Bears

I feel some sort of moral obligation to make picks for the NFL Playoffs, even if the 49ers aren't involved. I suppose if I don't I might be subject to some sour grapes taunts but let's be real: The NFL Playoffs this season are going to be more about rooting against teams I don't like than anything else, and unlike the previous 3 years, I can't say I have too much of a vested interest in the whole thing. That being said, since there's no team for me to clearly root for, and plenty of teams that I don't like involved, expect a lot of snide comments and ridiculous barbs out of me while I make my picks for these next few weekends.

I suppose the one bit of solace I can take is that given how badly the 49ers played at times this season, it's probably better that they didn't make the playoffs because they stood a good chance of getting themselves bounced in an early round if they did make it, and in some ways, it's better to just not be there at all and count your losses at 8-8 than making it, getting beaten on Saturday afternoon and being "The Forgotten Team" in the playoffs like the Bengals usually are every year.

So, what is there this weekend?

Saturday, 4:20pm
Arizona Cardinals (11-5) at Carolina Panthers (7-8-1)
That the Panthers are here is by virtue of one of those little NFL quirks that gives the division champion an automatic home game, and another one of those little NFL quirks that the Panthers won a particularly awful NFC South with a sub-.500 record. But here they are, and believe it or not I think they actually have a good chance to win. The Panthers have been here before, they did win 12 games and scored themselves a 1st round bye last season (before the 49ers came to town and kicked them in the teeth), and they're facing a Cardinals team that started off 9-1 and were the darlings of the NFL before Carson Palmer got hurt, and then Drew Stanton got hurt, leaving them with journeyman Ryan Lindley at the QB helm which has kind of put their offense at a standstill. They do boast a good defense that should give Cam Newton and company fits, but I have the feeling that it won't be enough. The Panthers have the advantage of having muddled through a season where they didn't win a game for 2 months, but they won the games that counted, which ended up being their last 4 in a row, so believe it or not, the sub-.500 team is actually peaking which generally is a good thing to have happen when you're heading into the playoffs. I figure this is one of those games where the Panthers sort of lull their way to a lead, and this is one of those games where you look up and see it's the 4th Quarter and they lead by 17 points.
Pick: Panthers 23, Cardinals 9

Saturday, 8:15pm
Baltimore Ravens (10-6) at Pittsburgh Steelers (11-5)
This is one of the NFL's favorite masturbatory matchups, a rivalry game between two hated rivals, and they still want to give it that starch even if Ray Lewis isn't around to do his stupid Dougie Dance or whatever the hell it is. Somehow the Ravens are in the playoffs; they made it here as the AFC's #6 seed, the winner out of a consortium of teams that spent a majority of the season unable to get out of their own way. I believe this group included Buffalo, Houston, Kansas City, San Diego and even Miami was involved at one point, but it's the Ravens that are here, in spite of their best player being suspended in one of the NFL's stormiest scandals and Joe Flacco still looking like $120 million worth of wimpy (and if you think I'm still stewing over the Super Bowl from 2 years ago, YOU'RE RIGHT!). The Steelers have been the better team most of the season, Ben Roethlisberger has had a great year, as has WR Antonio Brown, but the issue for the Steelers right now is the availability of Le'Veon Bell, their Running Back who's proven himself to be of Frank Gore quality, but was injured late last week and is unavailable. This is a big blow to the Steelers, but even though they're forced to use one of their lesser backs, they still seem to me like they're going to advance here.
Pick: Steelers, 24, Ravens 17

Sunday, 1:05pm
Cincinnati Bengals (10-5-1) at Indianapolis Colts (11-5)
This is a matchup between two teams that need to put up or shut up. The Bengals need a win here because they've made the playoffs every year for the last 4 seasons, and every year, they've played like schmucks and lost their first game. Generally, it's because their Quarterback, the wildly uneven Andy Dalton, has turned the ball over some ungodly number of times. The Colts need to win simply to prove that they're a more cohesive team than just some middling players with an extraordinarily talented Quarterback, Andrew Luck. Last season, the Colts were well on their way to getting embarrassed at home by Kansas City before Luck sprung to life and spearheaded a big-time comeback, and then the Colts summarily got their asses handed to them the following week in New England. Injuries play a role here too, since Cincinnati may be without Receiver A.J. Green, who was concussed last week in Pittsburgh. Indy's top receiver, T.Y. Hilton is also banged up but seems more likely to play. Tossup games like this seem to come down to running games moreso than the Quarterbacks, and here the edge goes to Cincinnati, simply because the Colts have no running game to speak of and have to rely on Luck, whereas the Bengals have a two-headed attack with Jeremy Hill and Giovani Bernard, and this could well tilt the edge in their favor. A tough call for certain, but I'll take a gamble and go with the Bengals to win their first Playoff game since the Boomer Esiason era.
Pick: Bengals 34, Colts 30

Sunday, 4:40pm
Detroit Lions (11-5) at Dallas Cowboys (12-4)
This is also a real tossup game between a pair of teams that haven't had Playoff success in a long time. Dallas has won all of one Playoff game since 1997 and the Troy Aikman/Emmitt Smith regime. Detroit hasn't won one in about as long as Cincinnati has, which takes them back to when Barry Sanders was toting the rock for them and their QB was Erik Kramer (a halcyon era indeed). To compound matters, that's the Lions only postseason win in the Super Bowl Era. Dallas has had a surprisingly good season, primarily because they decided their best way to go about things was to run DeMarco Murray into the ground, eat up the clock in a majority of their games, and not try to let Tony Romo have to do too much. Romo has had a fine season for once in his life, and so the prevailing thought is that maybe he's over that general A-Rodism that overcomes him in big moments. The worry about the Cowboys is that they've been consistently mediocre in spite of a wealth of talent for so many years, that you had to think that one of these years, they might actually get out of their own way and win some games. This could be one such year, but I'm not really buying it. The same could be said of Detroit, who can match Romo with Matthew Stafford, equal parts talent and stupidity, and can match Dez Bryant with Calvin Johnson, and their RB tandem of Reggie Bush and Joique Bell. The Lions also have a much better defense than Dallas, and they'll have the added benefit of having Ndamukong Suh playing this week, his suspension for stepping on Beautiful Aaron Rodgers last week having been overturned. I suppose either team could come away with the win here, but I see Detroit's defense stepping up and making plays in such a way that I don't think Dallas' defense is capable of doing. Plus isn't Romo way overdue for a real stinker of a performance? Finally, this is the 4pm Sunday game, usually a marquee matchup where something weird usually happens and things never go quite the way you'd expect it to. I see a close game, but a late Romo turnover will tilt the scales in Detroit's favor while Jerry Jones turns a Coughlin-esque shade of red.
Pick: Lions 30, Cowboys 20

So, there you have it. Enjoy the weekend if you can, and don't sit there watching these games in a mostly dark room sullenly stewing like I probably will.

Seasons In The Sun

Not surprisingly, the 49ers final game of the 2014 season ended up being the swan song for the Jim Harbaugh era in San Francisco. After an excruciating stretch of 4 straight losses, the 49ers were at least able to send Harbaugh off to (assumedly) Michigan with a win, closing out their season with a 20-17 victory over the Arizona Cardinals.

The game itself seemed kind of academic on both sides. It wasn't on in New York, so I was relegated to following on the computer, but basically the 49ers were just trying to get things right after 4 weeks where everything went completely wrong, while the Cardinals, already playoff bound, I assume were just trying to not get any more key players hurt. Colin Kaepernick finished an uneven season with a reasonably solid effort, throwing a 76-yard TD pass to Anquan Boldin and another short TD pass to Bruce Miller in the 3rd Quarter that gave the 49ers the winning points. Boldin capped off another 1,000 yard season, as did Frank Gore, who finished off strong with a pair of 100+ yard efforts. A patchwork defense intercepted Arizona's 3rd string Quarterback Ryan Lindley 3 times and made a slim lead stand up.

But the story was more about Harbaugh, whose departure from the 49ers after 4 seasons surprised nobody. The fans and the team seemed to rally around him after the game, and why not; he was obviously a major reason that the 49ers had this resurgence the past few seasons after so many years of failure. Under his watch, the 49ers returned to relevance, making it to three consecutive NFC Championship games and one Super Bowl appearance. There were great plays and great moments that happened these past few seasons that brought back all the memories of the 80s and 90s when this was the NFL's flagship team. Harbaugh took over a team that had a lot of undisciplined talent and molded them into winners. He took a chance on Colin Kaepernick and Kaepernick emerged as a rising star. Other players like NaVorro Bowman, Michael Crabtree and Aldon Smith grew into All-Pro caliber talent. The team went from a string of 7-9, 6-10 seasons to go 13-3 in Harbaugh's first season at the helm and for three seasons was as good as any team in the NFL. And for that, Harbaugh deserves all the credit in the world.

But for all the success the Harbaugh 49ers had, they couldn't finish off the job. Three seasons in a row, they came right to the precipice of glory only to be turned back at the last moment. And for all the victories, Harbaugh couldn't find that common ground with GM Trent Baalke and Owner Jed York. It's a shame, because clearly, Harbaugh is the kind of coach that doesn't come around very often. It's real easy to bring in a bad coach, the 49ers suffered through a few of those in their 8-year slumber. The fear is that without Harbaugh, and with the roster certain to change a bit due to salary cap concerns, the success could prove to be very fleeting and the team will rue not only their inability to find a way to work past their internal difficulties, but that they weren't able to seize the opportunities they had to win another Championship. It was a great few seasons, for sure. But you can't help but feel more than just a little unfulfilled. 

Whoever the 49ers do end up hiring to replace Harbaugh will have some pretty big shoes to fill. They'll also be taking over a roster that's going to have plenty of talent, but also a lot of questions. Not only are there some players that stand to make a good chunk of money next year that underperformed and may be cut, such as Ahmad Brooks, but there's some pretty big names that are heading into Free Agency, and who knows whether or not the 49ers may be able to resign them. Justin Smith may retire. Vernon Davis held out this year. Alex Boone held out. Players like Michael Crabtree, Mike Iupati, Perrish Cox and Frank Gore may have all played their last games with the team. Gore, in particular, is perhaps the most poignant name on this list. The longest-tenured 49er, Gore finished up his 10th season strong, but there's a lot of miles on those legs of his. Certainly, younger guys like Kendall Hunter and Carlos Hyde are there to help spell him, but if he should return—and he's made it pretty clear that he wants to return—it would likely be in a reduced capacity. Then again, Gore has bucked the trend of the every down Running Back that wears down as the years pile on. The 49ers all-time leading rusher and a player who has gone about his business with class and efficiency, nobody on the roster seemed more aware of just how precious it was to find success as a team these past few seasons. Gore toiled away for years on those awful 49ers teams, piling up great games in mostly hopeless efforts. Nobody's embodied the spirit of the team more, so it's going to be truly sad if he moves on.

So, there's no January story for the 49ers this year. The season is done and now come the questions, many of which have been lingering throughout this frustrating season. The first order of business, obviously, is to bring in a new coach and who knows who that's going to be. Defensive Coordinator Vic Fangio has been bandied about as a likely candidate, and other names such as deposed Jets Coach Rex Ryan have also been mentioned. I really don't know what to expect, other than that I know that it's hard to find the Jim Harbaughs of the Coaching world and it's not likely that the next coach is going to be as dynamic. Then come the players. In spite of the names that may not or will not be back, other players like Anquan Boldin will be here, Patrick Willis and NaVorro Bowman will be back and the roster will have plenty of talent. But will the offense be able to rebound after a wildly uneven year? Has the rest of the NFC advanced enough to catch and pass the 49ers as a contender? The NFL season is a blur and so too is success on a continued basis. Hopefully this year isn't a sign that the team is about to go back into the tank.

Even The Good Is Ugly

There's nothing left for the 49ers to play for at this point, we already know that. But in an opportunity for them to salvage some pride and knock the Chargers out of the playoffs, the 49ers charged out to a huge lead on Saturday night, ran all over San Diego to the tune of a team-record 355 yard rushing, got an unbelievable 90-yard Touchdown run out of Colin Kaepernick...and still managed to lose the game, blowing their lead thanks to a furious 2nd half charge by Philip Rivers and eventually folding in Overtime after a Quinton Patton fumble. The 38-35 loss marked their 4th loss in a row, their longest such streak in the now-almost-certain-to-be-over Jim Harbaugh era and each loss has underscored the issues with the team to the point where I'm not unconvinced that they haven't just decided as a team to give up and just lick their wounds and come back next year.

The game started out just fine for the 49ers. Frank Gore took off for a 52-yard Touchdown run on the game's 4th play. For Gore, just another forgotten man in this forgettable season, this could be a last hurrah of sorts; as an impending Free Agent and with a good deal of miles on his 32-year old legs, he certainly is approaching the end of the line. But he'd like to come back and it certainly doesn't seem right for a guy who's meant so much to this team to just walk away at the end of a bad season. But that's just another question the team has to address. One of Gore's potential replacements, Bruce Ellington, had a good half as well, running for one Touchdown and catching a second from Kaepernick in the first half, and Antoine Bethea picked off a Philip Rivers pass and returned it for another score, so the 49ers, who hadn't played well in weeks, certainly seemed off to a good start in this game, and went into the half with a 28-7 lead.

And then, of course, the whole thing went to shit.

The Chargers scored a Touchdown midway through the 3rd Quarter that seemed kind of academic. But the 49ers appeared quite happy to hand the Chargers even more on their ensuing possession. First, Kaepernick hit Vernon Davis, who might be even more forgotten than Gore this season, for a 63-yard Touchdown. Great! Davis has just been lost all season, not getting any kind of opportunity or momentum and for a guy who's been one of the real key guys in this offense, you can understand why he might be another player who's more than just a little frustrated and another guy who has a contract situation coming up (when I don't quite remember, but that's besides the point). So for him to catch a TD here seemed good, just to get him involved somehow, but of course there was a holding call on Joe Staley that wiped it out. And on the next play, Kaepernick was sacked, fumbled the ball backwards and was buried when the ball rolled into the end zone and was recovered by the Chargers for a Touchdown.

The 49ers then managed to back themselves up by not returning the ensuing kickoff past the 10 yard line. This was rendered academic when Kaepernick, in yet another example of important parts of the 49ers offense that disappeared for no reason this year, took off on 2nd down under a little pressure, picked up a block and before you could blink was gone for the Touchdown, rushing all of 90 yards without really being touched. It was a career long score for Kaepernick, the 2nd longest run in 49ers History period, and Kaepernick's first Rushing TD of the season. In the next to last game of the season. Kaepernick's bread has mostly been buttered by his running ability and this was the kind of play that underscores how dangerous he can be...except that for whatever reason this kind of a play was absent from his arsenal all year. I've already talked about why but it's another question on that long list of questions.

You can forget the rest of the game. I'd like to. Whereas in prior weeks I was away and unavailable to see the carnage live and ultimately deleted recordings of a couple of games (Seattle and Seattle) mostly unwatched (though I did watch enough of the game in Seattle to see old friend John Olerud raise the 12th Man flag, which was probably the only enjoyable thing about that game), I was actually home for the 2nd half of this one, so I saw everything come apart from there. The Chargers were, at that point, down 35-21 and they scored twice in the 4th Quarter to tie the game. In Overtime, the 49ers started off with the ball and appeared to be well on the move because Quinton Patton, the young receiver who came on strong at the end of the year last year but got lost among the high-priced talent the 49ers brought in this year (and didn't accomplish all that much), gained 20 yards on an end-around on the 2nd play of OT, but then he was stripped by Eric Weddle and the Chargers scooped up the fumble, and ultimately drove down and kicked the winning Field Goal while Philip Rivers ran around screaming with the kind of ferocious intensity that would rival Matt Ryan. And that, friends, is how this game got away.

So, there's now just one game left in this season, a game against the Arizona Cardinals that's similarly meaningless for the 49ers, and kind of meaningless for Arizona, who is in the playoffs and jockeying for position. You'd like to think that the 49ers would show a little bit of juice for this game, but after so many weeks of bumbling, I don't think there's too much to look forward to. Hopefully, I'm wrong.

Fold Up The Tents

Analyze the way the season broke out for the 49ers, and it probably isn't too surprising that this ended up being as much of a mess as it turned out to be. Never mind the constant controversy surrounding Jim Harbaugh and the will-he-stay-or-will-he-go-and-if-he-goes-where soap opera. That's the least of it. There's the in-fighting between the Owner John York, the GM Trent Baalke and Harbaugh. There was the preseason holdouts by Vernon Davis and Alex Boone. There was the Aldon Smith suspension. There was the ongoing rehab of NaVorro Bowman, who this week was placed on IR, ending his season without him ever setting foot on the field. There were a constant stream of injuries, to key players like Patrick Willis, Glenn Dorsey and Daniel Kilgore. There were the other injuries to players like Anthony Davis, Eric Reid, Tramaine Brock and Stevie Johnson, which kept each of them off the field at one time or another and left the 49ers shorthanded. There were the issues with Colin Kaepernick and his general regression from a dynamic running and passing weapon into a confused mess who held on to the ball too long while pockets crashed around him. There was the general abandonment of a running game that had long been the strength of the team for no particular reason. There were too many questions that were getting answered with "We'll address it in the offseason..."

Add it all together and I guess it shouldn't be too surprising that the 49ers 2014 season, which had tenuously remained on the fringes of the NFC playoff picture, officially met its end Sunday, fittingly at the hands of the Seattle Seahawks. The Seahawks 17-7 victory earned them a season sweep of their rivals, their 3rd straight victory over the 49ers overall and their 4th straight victory over the 49ers in Seattle, a place that has become a house of horrors for the 49ers in recent years.

This game wasn't quite the washout the Thanksgiving Debacle was for the 49ers, but that's not to say it was much better. The 49ers, this time, managed to hang around for most of the game and actually led 7-3 at halftime, but two Seahawks Touchdowns in the second half, the first, not surprisingly, by Marshawn Lynch, and the second on the heels of an egregious roughing the passer penalty that probably shouldn't have been called but almost always is, put the game away. Colin Kaepernick, whose numbers, 11 of 19 for 141 yards and 6 sacks, seem reflective of the way he's played all season, couldn't lead the 49ers back, couldn't get them out of their own way, and the Seahawks basically outwilled the 49ers the rest of the way and kicked them out the door and into the offseason.

Not only did the Seahawks bash the 49ers on the scoreboard, they did so on the Field. We already know what happened to the 49ers the last time they visited Layne Staley Windows8 Adderall The Shermandome Clink Field, and this game brought about similar carnage. Frank Gore, who started the game strong, left with a concussion in the 1st half. Carlos Hyde also left with an injury. Chris Borland hurt his ankle on the last play of the 1st half and didn't return. Not that any of these players would have made much of a difference on a day like this, but perhaps they might have. Who knows. At this point, it's too late to get too worked up about this particular game, because it seems like the team has been heading down this path all season long.

Consider that the 49ers, after 3 games this season, had managed 3 points in the second half of games in total. They've been outscored in the 3rd Quarter of games by something ungodly like 183-48, and they're last in the NFL in 4th Quarter scoring by a significant margin. This is a team that has always struggled with a general inability to play complete games, for all 60 minutes. They peaked last season late in the year and hit a stride, but even then they had some bad moments. This year, it seems like they never peaked. They never got going. The wins were all more of a battle than they needed to be, and teams that have those kinds of struggles ultimately can't maintain. The 49ers didn't maintain, they ended up collapsing, and after having enough of their games televised here in New York, I can't say I was too surprised to see it unfold that way. I already said I DVRed the Thanksgiving Night game and ended up deleting it unwatched. After being out most of the afternoon on Sunday with the DVR running, and coming home to see the waning minutes of the game come crashing down, I have a feeling this game may see a similar fate. Why subject myself to this when I already know how it turns out, and it doesn't turn out well?

Whether I watch the game or not doesn't matter. What matters is that for the first time since Jim Harbaugh took over as coach of the team entering the 2011 season, the 49ers will not appear in an NFC Championship Game. They won't be appearing in January at all. With their record now at 7-7 and nothing meaningful left to play for, the final two games of this season are now more about seeing if what's done can somehow be undone, if there's some pieces here that can distinguish themselves, and, of course. if there's any pride left for this team to play for. The way they've looked the last few weeks, limp and sluggish, it makes you wonder what they can muster up.

Grim Reapings

Seriously?

The 49ers, who've had enough of a puzzling season through 11 games, saved perhaps their worst effort of the season for last week, in a game so putrid against the Seahawks in front of a national audience that I ultimately erased the game from my DVR without ever watching it. But if their lifeless 19-3 loss to the Seahawks was bad enough, they appeared to be in a similar slumber yesterday when they voyaged across the bay to Oakland to face a Raiders team that, at 1-11 and coming off a 52-0 loss, was basically a punchline, and managed to not only lose, but lose convincingly, 24-13, dropping their record to 7-6 and basically putting their playoff chances on life support.

The offensive struggles that have plagued the 49ers for the past several weeks have pretty much come to a head these past couple of weeks, but it's one thing when your offense struggles against the Seahawks. The Raiders boast a defense that strikes fear into nobody, and yet they harassed Colin Kaepernick all day, holding him to 148 yards passing, intercepting him twice and sacking him five times. Kaepernick was intercepted by Brandian Ross (I know, who?) on the first play of the game and that pretty much set the tone for the game right there. Though Kap connected with Bruce Miller for a Touchdown late in the 1st Quarter, they didn't accomplish much else and the game was tied 10-10 at halftime. Then, the 49ers, as has been their annoying habit all year, went in the tank in the second half as their offense stagnated completely and couldn't respond once the Raiders went ahead.

The 49ers were in need of a better performance after last week's stinker, and certainly, though their playoff position in a crowded NFC was disadvantageous after their loss last week, but things now are looking pretty grim for them. Having lost two games in a row, the 49ers now have the pleasure of attempting to break this losing streak and save their season on the road in Seattle next Sunday. That's not what I would call a pleasant proposition. Seattle is streaking and Arizona, even without a viable NFL Quarterback is still cobbling together wins. Green Bay, the NFL's darlings, are primed to doublecheck their way into January, but unfortunately it seems unlikely that the 49ers will be there to kick them in the nuts once again.

Then again, given how Kaepernick has regressed this season, it seems unlikely that even the sight of the Packers would be enough to right his ship. It's baffling to me how badly he's played, even in some 49ers victories, and it can't simply be that the league is catching up to him. For one, the play calling isn't as wide-open as it has been over the past few seasons. An argument I'd heard—I forget where so I'm sorry I'm not properly attributing it—on Kaepernick's poor play ties less into the uncertainties surrounding Jim Harbaugh and the status of several other players on the team, and more around the big contract Kaepernick signed in the offseason. The 6-year deal that guarantees him a rather princely sum of money may have forced the 49ers to dial back their playbook in an effort to make Kaepernick more of a pocket passer, rather than a runner who can use his legs as a weapon of equal danger to his arm. This is in some sort of convoluted effort to protect him, taking the case of Robert Griffin III as a cautionary tale. The problem is, that's taking him out of his comfort zone and forcing him to go against his general instinct on the field. Kaepernick is used to making his progressions on the move, looking around and running in order to make things happen. If he's sitting around and not moving the way he's used to, he's going to end up a sitting duck, get sacked a bunch of times, and when you get your ass hit like that often enough, you start to look pretty ordinary.

Lately, Kaepernick has looked ordinary. That's not the way the 49ers have looked the past few seasons and not the way they were supposed to look this year. I can understand why the 49ers want to protect their investment, but stack Kaepernick and Griffin against each other for a second. Griffin had a history of knee issues before he even reached the NFL, and that's before you get into his height and his build, because he's a Quarterback in a scatback's body. Kaepernick, on the other hand, hasn't had injury problems, and that's probably because he's built like a truck, and where Griffin's promising start came off the rails because of a knee injury, the stupidity of his coach was also a contributing factor because he was allowed to play hurt. Kaepernick has had neither of those problems around him.

Point is, Kaepernick was within a whisker of winning a Super Bowl and within a second whisker of a second Super Bowl and now he's starting to unravel into Tim Rattay or any one of the 22 horrible Quarterbacks that managed to start games for the 49ers between 2003 and 2010. And there's no good reason as to why he's regressed or why the offensive game plan has now been designed to shackle him and take him out of his strengths. As Quarterback, he's subject to a majority of the blame, and certainly he's not blameless, but you have to wonder if this could all have been avoided if the team had just stuck to their guns. At the very least, they wouldn't have gone out yesterday and puked up an awful effort against the horrible Raiders and their Darth Vader hats.

Can't Bear To Watch

I'd mentioned that due to Thanksgiving family functions and the fact that I am outvoted on the TV front, I was relegated to DVRing the game that night. But in this age of technology, I was being fed updates on my phone throughout the evening, and as the game progressed and the results proved to be of the turkey-regurgitating variety, I felt little desire to watch the recording of the game when I got home. It's Monday, and the 49ers and Seahawks played on Thursday night. I still haven't watched the game, and I can't say I have any desire to. The 49ers probably put their worst effort out on the field in the most important game to this point this season, pretty much no-showing a Nationally Televised game against their most hated of rivals and losing to the Seahawks 19-3.

After last week's middling effort against Washington on the heels of another pair of unimpressive games against the Gnats and New Orleans, I talked in great depth last week about the general blah-ness of the offense, and in particular the play of Colin Kaepernick. I surmised that Kaepernick, who has a habit of playing his best in big-stakes games, might rebound against Seattle. But that didn't happen. In fact, for as bad as Kaepernick looked in the previous two games, he was downright embarrassing against Seattle, and I didn't need to see the game in order to know that to be true. Kaepernick completed 16 of 29 passes, which is actually a good game for him as far as completion percentage is concerned, but those 16 completions got the 49ers all of 121 yards, and when you figure in the 4 sacks he took, the 49ers offense gained all of 100 yards through the air. The rushing game did no better and the end result was the 49ers finished the night with 164 yards of offense, and that's not even getting into the two interceptions from 49ers nemesis Richard Sherman. Add it all together and this was a wholly miserable performance that team owner Jed York deemed unacceptable.

York has taken some flack for his tweet, but he's got a point. This wasn't an acceptable performance and the fan base has begun to abandon Kaepernick, Offensive Coordinator Greg Roman and Jim Harbaugh in droves. A season that has been marred with injury, inconsistency and internal turmoil may now be coming to a head. This isn't good and kind of underscores the "season from hell" talk that's been flying around the team all year long. Somehow, the 49ers have managed to keep themselves in contention, and at 7-5 they are still very much in the hunt, but in a deep and competitive NFC playoff race, they find themselves currently on the outside looking in.

But the success of the team has been a one-sided effort, as the defense, a unit that's been really decimated by injuries and suspensions, has carried the team. The defense has, at one time or another, been missing Patrick Willis, NaVorro Bowman, Aldon Smith, Eric Reid, Glenn Dorsey and others has played sterling football all year long. The offense has been the problem, and when you look at the level of talent that the 49ers have, the blame naturally lies with the Quarterback and the Offensive Coordinator. Think about the local teams and the daily floggings their QB and OC have taken this season. No team is immune, and when you consider the high bar that's expected from the 49ers Quarterback, you realize how impossible a situation Kaepernick is in. But his early success has contributed to that bar being raised so high. We know he can play better, but he's not. Not even with 4 All-Pro caliber recievers (and that's not even including Vernon Davis) at his disposal. Is it his play? Is it the play calling? Is the situation involving the supposedly imminent departure of Jim Harbaugh wearing on this team more than they let on?

I guess it remains to be seen. All I know is that there's 4 games left in the season and, basically, the 49ers need to win all of them if they want to realistically give themselves a shot at making the playoffs for the 4th consecutive season. That would mean that the 49ers would need to go into Seattle in two weeks and win, so the odds are right now very much against that happening. But, stranger things have happened in the NFL. The bottom line here is that this team needs to get its act together, because they're not playing at the level they should be playing at, and they haven't done so at all this season. They manage to win games simply because they're an incredibly deep and talented team and can overcome opponents because of that at many times, but this isn't going to work when the Big Boys come to town and Big Boy Seattle exposed this to the point of embarrassment. And now you know why I don't want to watch Thursday night's game.

The Level of Competition

I wrote last week about yesterday's 49ers/Washington matchup holding all the potential of a Trap Game, particularly given the way the 49ers have had the annoying habit of playing down to the level of their opponent. Washington came in to San Francisco with a record of 3-7 and hadn't looked good in weeks. The 49ers were coming off a pair of uneven, but effective road victories and sat at 6-4. What should have been an easy win was anything but, as the 49ers offense continued to stagnate for a majority of the afternoon and they nearly let the game slip away because of it. It took a clutch late drive led by Colin Kaepernick, punctuated by a clutch catch by Anquan Boldin and finished by a clutch Touchdown run by Carlos Hyde for the 49ers to escape with a 17-13 victory.

The game wasn't on in New York—mysteriously, CBS was carrying the game for reasons I'm not quite sure of—so I was relegated to NFL.com Gamecast for most of the proceedings. I say most, because let's face it, it's just not so conducive to track an entire NFL game on a computer screen that doesn't consist of actual video. Therefore, I only know what the lines on the screen tell me, and what it told me is that the 49ers once again failed to smash the proverbial flea with the proverbial sledgehammer and it very nearly bit them in the ass.

Things started off well enough for the 49ers, but then again, the 49ers have been starting games strong all season. Aldon Smith kicked things off by registering a sack on Robert Griffin III on the second play of the game, and after a punt, the 49ers tore down the field, as Colin Kaepernick hit Anquan Boldin for an 18-yard gain and then a 30-yard Touchdown that put the 49ers ahead.

After that, nothing. The game dissolved into a series of punts and mistakes by both Quarterbacks, but it was the 49ers that seemed to be making the costly errors. Carlos Hyde fumbled on the first play of the 2nd Quarter and Washington took over, but did nothing with the ball. It wasn't until midway through the Quarter that they broke through, as a drive predicated mostly on the running of Alfred Morris ended in the End Zone as Morris punched the ball in from a yard out to tie the game. The 49ers appeared primed to not respond at all, but just as the clock was running out in the half, Kaepernick, who'd done little of consequence since the Boldin score, hit Vernon Davis and Michael Crabtree for a pair of long gains to set up what of late has been the offensive specialty—a Phil Dawson Field Goal just as the clock ran out.

The second half was a similar shit show. On the 49ers second possession, Kaepernick was intercepted on a deep throw intended for Boldin. Washington did nothing, and only when Aaron Lynch was flagged for Roughing the Passer on Washington's subsequent drive did they manage to mount any sort of yardage and their drive ended with a Field Goal that tied the game 10-10.

It was clear that the team that ended up getting a break would be the team that would break through, and when Frank Gore for the second week in a row uncharacteristically lost a Fumble deep in San Francisco's end, it appeared Washington had the break as their ensuing possession resulted in a Field Goal that gave them a 13-10 lead with 7:48 to go.

So, that was what the 49ers were faced with. In a similar situation against the Rams 3 weeks ago, the 49ers got themselves in position to score and, after eschewing a tying Field Goal instead watched as Kaepernick fumbled the game away on the 1 yard line. Now, after an afternoon of pretty much stagnating, the 49ers needed to come up with a big-time drive and score a Touchdown and put Washington in their place. Things didn't look good after Kaepernick was sacked on the first play of the drive, but somehow he got his act together, completed passes to Boldin and Davis and Gore plowed through to convert a 4th down and keep the 49ers afloat. On the following play, Kaepernick found Boldin in traffic over the middle and Boldin, who continues to make big plays in big moments, caught the ball in traffic while delivering a helmet-splitting hit to Ryan Clark, who went for the knockout and instead not only knocked himself out but got flagged for unnecessary roughness in the process. The additional 15 yards set the 49ers up inside the Washington 20. Kaepernick hit Boldin for another 10 yards to set up Carlos Hyde to score on a 4-yard run to put the 49ers ahead for good.

Washington couldn't move the ball on their ensuing possession, and after spending their time outs on the 49ers possession, Griffin was sacked by Justin Smith in the game's final moments and fumbled the ball away to Ahmad Brooks, and the 49ers were able to kneel on the ball and get the hell out of there with an unnecessarily difficult 17-13 victory.

At the beginning of the season, after a wildly inconsistent and unimpressive showing in the Preseason, Herman Edwards, the legendary motormouth who now pundits for ESPN, was talking about Colin Kaepernick and basically said that Kaepernick played lousy in games that don't matter, and really well in big games, using the preseason and last year's Playoff game in Green Bay as examples. The argument as he put it made no sense, but I understand the point Herm was trying to make. Kaepernick has been totally mercurial this season. He had great games against Dallas, Philadelphia and St. Louis, and even when the 49ers lost in Arizona. He made some key throws in New Orleans and again late in yesterday's game. But in general, he hasn't had a good season. For every good game he's had, there's games like Chicago, or Denver, or winning efforts yesterday and against Kansas City and last week against the Giants where he played poorly and the defense ended up winning games for them. He hasn't performed at the lofty level he set for himself when he took the league by storm two years ago and found himself in a Super Bowl after 10 games. It makes you wonder just how much trust the 49ers can continue to have in him. It's frustrating because the talent is there, but he continually plays down to the level of his opponent, or, as Herm was trying to say, the magnitude of the game. All too often, when it comes down to the 49ers playing a game against a Washington, or a Gnats, or the Rams, Kaepernick ends up having one of those annoying games where he tries to run out of trouble and either takes a bad sack or, worse, forces himself into turning the ball over. The numbers he's generated don't look bad on the surface—2,615 yards and 15 Touchdown passes are on pace to surpass his figures from last year with 5 games to play—but dig a little deeper. While he's only thrown 6 Interceptions, he hasn't yet played Seattle, who was responsible for half of the 8 picks he threw last season, and his completion percentage lies at a barely passable 61% (yet is somehow higher than the 58% he set last year). More alarming are the sacks. Last season, Kaepernick was sacked 39 times for losses of 231 yards. This season, and again, remember there are still 5 games to go, two of which are against Seattle, he's been sacked 34 times for losses of 227 yards, and he's fumbled 7 times, losing 4 of them (both numbers surpassing his totals from 2013). Whether it's been an over-reliance on his legs or an inability to read through the progression of his receiving options without panicking or trying to force a bad pass, he's not taking the next step.

The point is, he's not performing at the level expected of him, and I'm sure he'd be the first to admit that himself. And what's most frustrating about this is that this is a guy who's won multiple Playoff games, and multiple Road Playoff games in his first two seasons as a starter, and in those games, he's been a primary reason that the 49ers won those games. Need I remind you how he routinely eats the Packers for lunch, even in Green Bay? Need I remind you that he threw for over 300 Yards in the Super Bowl in his 10th career start, and nearly led the 49ers back from a 22-point deficit? These things actually happened. This isn't as though we're talking about some flash in the pan, he's proven he can be successful playing his game at this level. Too often, though, we get performances like yesterday, where he's not completing passes, he's taking too many sacks and he's throwing bad interceptions, and it takes a last-gasp drive to save another embarrassing defeat. Or you have a game like in New Orleans, where he saves his ass by completing a desperate heave on a broken play. And then the next week, he could go out and throw for 300 yards or run for 100. There seems to be no happy medium here. There's no particular consistency to his performances this season. It's making the 49ers rather nerve-wracking to follow this season, because they certainly have the talent to be a Championship-caliber team (and on Defense, they play as such).

Somehow, in spite of all these struggles, the team has managed to will their way to 7-4 going into a Thanksgiving Night showdown against the Seahawks at home. Since I tend to spend my Thanksgivings in an environment where I'm likely to get glowered at if I put on the TV, I'm setting the DVR for this one. But I have no idea what the hell kind of performance I'm going to get out of the 49ers on this night. Seattle has certainly had their own troubles this season; they also sit at 7-4 and have had plenty of internal strife and offensive woes. But these two teams certainly don't hold back when they face each other, and they're going to meet twice in the next three weeks and these matchups will quite likely go a long way in determining who will continue to play come January.