A Forgettable Affair

It wasn't going to be an easy matchup for the 49ers on Sunday night, heading into the rarefied air of Denver's Mile High Stadium to take on the Crown Prince of Football Peyton Manning and the unstoppable Denver Broncos. These Broncos could have gone to the Super Bowl two years ago, and last year they did, only to find themselves flattened by the Seattle Seahawks. Now, they appear primed to make another run, solely because Peyton Manning is still standing. The 49ers, well, have been uneven to this point this year. At 4-2, they were in a decent position but they hadn't yet played their best game. But you harkened back to last January and you had to think that if the 49ers had managed to make it through Seattle and gone on to play Denver, they likely would have stomped the Broncos themselves. You carried that thought in the back of your mind as the 49ers went into Denver for a glitzy, glamorous, Sunday night affair. Certainly, they could hang with these guys, right?

DAHHHHHHH...NOPE!

The 49ers, playing with a patchwork offensive line and a porous linebacking corps that already didn't have Navorro Bowman and Aldon Smith and for this week also didn't have Patrick Willis were little match for the Peyton Manning Parade, as Mr. Man lit up the 49ers for 318 yards and 4 Touchdowns as the Broncos pretty much wiped the floor with the 49ers, 42-17.

There was very little redeeming about this effort from the 49ers. They were behind from the start; after Colin Kaepernick was sacked by DeMarcus Ware on the 49ers first possession, they punted away and the Broncos offense shot right down the field for a Touchdown. The 49ers miss a Field Goal, Broncos Touchdown. Down 14 on the road in St. Louis was one thing, but in Denver, with the Broncos rolling and their stadium of 800,000 rocking, things looked rather grim really early. Though the 49ers defense eventually did stop the Broncos, the offense was stagnant and could only generate a Phil Dawson Field Goal early in the 2nd Quarter. What happened next? You guessed it, Broncos Touchdown. All on passes from Manning to one of the Broncos receivers that looks infinitely better than they deserve to because of who's throwing him the ball.

At this point, it was 21-3 and I was beginning to lose interest. The 49ers scored a cosmetic Touchdown shortly before halftime when Kaepernick strung together a nice drive, finding Brandon Lloyd for a long gain to set up a Stevie Johnson TD, and maybe at 21-10 at the Half you might think things could turn, but I wasn't fooled. The 49ers came out in the 2nd half and Kaepernick almost immediately threw an Interception to Aqib Taqib on a play where he ostensibly threw a pass to where Stevie Johnson wasn't. Guess what. Another Broncos Touchdown, one play later.

At this point, I'd had enough. I was getting tired and the 49ers were getting creamed. And yet there was nothing else on to watch, so I was stuck. At some point, both Quarterbacks exited the game, so when the 49ers scored their inevitable Garbage Time TD, it was off the arm of Blaine Gabbert and into the hands of Bruce Ellington, not exactly the combination you expected to see on this night. But with the score an embarrassing 42-17, I suppose not much more could be done.

Fortunately, the 49ers now go into their bye week, sitting at 4-3, in the middle of the pack in the NFC West. They can take some small solace in knowing that the ballyhooed Seahawks are faring poorly as well, having lost two in a row and sit at 3-3 among some internal turmoil of their own. But for the 49ers, the bye week hits at a good time. Patrick Willis will be back, and perhaps Aldon Smith may return after the bye as well. Plus players like Frank Gore, who was a non-factor last night, and Vernon Davis who's been battling all kinds of injuries, can re-establish themselves in the fold. The schedule over the remaining games isn't exactly easy, particularly when you consider that they have to play Seattle twice and struggling or not, those are games where these two teams just beat the crap out of each other. So, it would behoove the 49ers to get healthy and get their act together over the next couple of weeks.

Take It Away!

I guess many around the NFL figured this glitzy, glamorous Sunday Night matchup between the 49ers and Houston Texans was perhaps a Super Bowl preview, since both of these teams figured to be right around the top of their respective divisions. So far, this season hadn't brought overwhelming success to either team; both stood at 2-2 after two solid victories and two perplexing defeats. The Texans were actually sort of reeling, after getting socked in the mouth at home by the wonderful Seahawks, while the 49ers sort of righted their ship 10 days ago in St. Louis. But if the Texans have any sort of championship aspirations, that certainly wasn't on display last night as the 49ers whipped them into submission in a 34-3 rout.

This wasn't exactly a pretty game by the 49ers standards. They struggled on offense for a majority of the game, only sort of establishing a running game with Frank Gore, who finished with 81 yards rushing on the night, and Colin Kaepernick was barely on track, finishing with 6 completions in 15 attempts for only 113 yards. The game was won by the Defense. For the second straight week, NaVorro Bowman stepped up in the absence of Patrick Willis and played out of his mind, and the rest of the unit rallied around him, intercepting 3 passes from the hapless Matt Schaub—one of which was run back for a score—and forcing a 4th turnover on a fumble, creating several short fields for the offense and basically allowing Kaepernick and Company to do the minimum amount necessary to win.

The tone was set 3 plays into the game. Schaub, who's been on a nightmarish streak of throwing interceptions and having them run back for Touchdowns, was victimized on his first pass of the game. His 3rd down out route pass was intended for Andre Johnson, but Tramaine Brock jumped the route, intercepted the pass and walked into the End Zone. From there, the 49ers never looked back as things just spiraled out of control for the Texans. Houston was able to move the ball smartly on their ensuing drive, converting a pair of 3rd downs, but when the drive stalled, their kicker Rich Dullwasp pulled the Field Goal attempt wide left. This was pretty much the story of the Texans night. Either their drives were cut off by turnovers, or their sustained drives ultimately ended short of where they needed to be.

Following the missed Field Goal, the 49ers had one of what was really only two long drives they were able to put together on the night. Behind Gore and Kaepernick spreading the ball around to Vernon Davis and Anquan Boldin, San Francisco moved efficiently down the field, eventually scoring on a short run by Gore to extend their lead to 14-0. After that, things mostly stalled out for Kaepernick. It gets lost in the grand scheme of things, particularly since the 49ers were on cruise control even in the 2nd quarter, but he's really been a shell of the player we saw last year and in Week 1 this season. The quality of his passes was generally erratic; though he looked good when he was completing passes, he only managed 6 of them, and his incompletions were overthrown or forced, rather than dropped. That being said, because the defense was on such a roll, Kaepernick simply wasn't forced to make any kind of a big play, and the case was pretty similar last week. Still, even when the 49ers raced ahead by miles, you still want to see Kaepernick put forth a little better performance. His best pass of the day was probably his last, after going the entire 2nd and 3rd quarters without a completion, Kaepernick opened the 4th Quarter completing a short pass to Bruce Miller and followed that with a beautiful rainbow to Vernon Davis, who, despite still recovering from a hamstring injury, managed to outrun Ed Reed to the End Zone for a game-icing 64-yard Touchdown.  So, at least he left some kind of a positive taste on what was generally a blah night for him.

If I hadn't mentioned it already, the rest of the game belonged to the Defense. Brock got his 2nd interception on a similar play to his first, jumping in front of a pass intended for Johnson, batting it in the air to himself and running it back deep into Houston territory to set up an Anthony Dixon TD that made it 21-0. Schaub's 3rd interception was equally horrible; after a good-looking drive had gotten the Texans inside the 49ers 30 yard line and Al Michaels talking about the Texans' ability to come back, Schaub tossed a short pass without bothering to account for the presence of lightly-used backup Defensive Tackle Tony Jerod-Eddie, who lived the lineman's dream by dropping back into coverage as a decoy and surprisingly ending up with a football in his hands. This set up Kaepernick's TD to Davis. The 4th turnover was a Fumble late in the 4th Quarter, when, just to rub salt in the wound, Eric Reid held up Ben Tate at the end of the run just long enough for Donte Whitner to come in, pop Tate and strip the ball that was ultimately recovered by Tarell Brock to set up the final 49ers Field Goal.

After a pair of really bad-looking losses, the 49ers clearly appear to have righted their ship. But I don't think it's quite as much "righting the ship" as much as they're not making mistakes and varying their offense more. The Defense, which was just worn down in the two losses, hasn't really been the problem. Kaepernick, after a pair of truly terrible games, hasn't been outstanding in the two wins, he's only done the minimum necessary. Frank Gore has really stepped up, which has been a big boost. But the key is that the 49ers, who had ended up -4 in Turnovers after week 3, are now even. The Defense, which has been such a huge factor in the team's success over the past two seasons, has been forcing turnovers again and generally been stifling, keeping their opponents off the scoreboard and giving the Offense short fields to work with. Houston outgained the 49ers last night 313 yards to 284 and won the time of possession battle, and yet the 49ers ran away with a 31-point victory. That's what forcing turnovers can do. That's what has made the 49ers so successful.

So, after a difficult first 5 weeks that saw the 49ers go 3-2, they now enter what on paper is an easy stretch on the schedule, with games coming up at home against Arizona, and then on the road in Tennessee and in London against the woeful Jacksonville Jaguars. Of course, they still have to go out and play hard and win, but after rolling over the Texans last night, there's a little swagger back in the 49ers step. Now they just have to keep the momentum going.

One Step Ahead

The NFL has its own version of The Biggest Game In The Galaxy, which is, of course, a game that's generally slightly overhyped, overspun and overproduced. It used to be Monday Night Football, but that was back in an era when these things were a bit more pure, in the era of Frank Gifford, Howard Cosell and Dandy Don Meredith, until Hank Williams, Jr. arrived on the scene and the phrase "ARE YOU READY FOR SOME FOOTBALL!!" entered the American Lexicon. Since then, the NFL decided to make that Biggest Game In The Galaxy into a Sunday Night affair, with Monday Nights being given less credence, shoved off to ESPN with matchups less appealing. I've never been much of a fan of Sunday Night as the Big Game, it seems to me that Monday always made more sense, but I digress. Part of the reason I feel this way is because of the innumerable times the 49ers appeared on MNF, when their great players always seemed to play their greatest.

But over the past number of years, the 49ers hadn't appeared on a Prime Time game very much at all. Since The Biggest Game In The Galaxy was moved to Sunday Nights, the 49ers had appeared on SNF but once, an embarrassing loss to the Philadelphia Eagles in which Alex Smith was booed off the field and Candlestick Park chanted for his backup. Times have changed since then. The 49ers are now scheduled to appear on The Biggest Game In The Galaxy more than once this season, the first being last night, and the atmosphere may as well have been an Alex Smith Love-Fest.

There was a lot to like about the old ABC Monday Night Football, and NBC's attempt to replicate this for Sunday Nights is part of the problem they've created. First, is the start time. NBC now runs a pregame show that's a bit disjointed, starts well before the 4pm games have ended and runs way too long. It also knocked ESPN's NFL Primetime, off the air (even if you dislike Chris Berman, you couldn't not enjoy NFL Primetime). This pregame show features very little pregame (about 10 minutes out of 90 appears to be devoted to the game you're about to watch) and a lot more show, culminating in the completely emasculating opening theme from Faith Hill. I don't know who this is catering to, exactly, but nothing puts me less in the mood to watch football than Faith Hill butchering Joan Jett over video clips of the NFL's favorite masturbatory obsessions: The Green Bay Packers and Ray Lewis dancing.

After all the ceremonial crotch-grabbing, we're finally ready for a game here, and for the 49ers, a chance to show the nation that last week's resounding victory over Green Bay was no fluke. Facing the Detroit Lions, a lesser but still capable opponent, the 49ers wouldn't have to be perfect to win. They certainly played a less than perfect game, but were still able to come away with a 27-19 victory, buoyed mainly by another outstanding performance from their defense, and a pair of clutch drives, one very early, one very late, from the Offense, each culminating in a Vernon Davis touchdown.

The Lions, still a team in their formative years as far as their roster goes, boast a pair of exceptional talents in Matthew Stafford and Calvin Johnson, and the 49ers game plan appeared to be to keep them as under wraps as possible, and dare them to try to run the football. This formula seemed to work to a tee. Faced with a short-and-long coverage scheme, Stafford could not hit Johnson for long passes, only short, and every time he hit Johnson short, it was generally right in position for him to immediately get belted by either Patrick Willis or NaVorro Bowman. The Lions run game had a similar problem. They could make short gains, but not long ones. The result was that while the Lions has some sustained drives, they inevitably stalled out and Detroit had to settle for a series of Field Goals. Not until the game was out of reach did the Lions manage to move the ball inside the 49ers 10-yard line. Too little, too late.

The offense started out gangbusters, ripping right down the field on their first drive for a quick touchdown pass from Alex Smith to Vernon Davis, giving the 49ers an early lead about 3 minutes into the game. But following that, the offense seemed to stagnate a bit. They were off the field for a while, as a Special Teams fumble from Kendall Hunter was sandwiched between a pair of Detroit Field Goals. But, given a short field following a Dashon Goldson interception, the 49ers marched down the field, caught a break when a Detroit defender was penalized for Running into the Kicker on a Field Goal, and eventually, Frank Gore punched the ball into the End Zone. But mostly, the 49ers offense did no better than Detroit's, starting off drives nicely, but only managing to kick Field Goals, of which David Akers had two. One particularly frustrating instance had Alex Smith with a first down well in Detroit territory, and three perfect passes to three separate receivers were all dropped.

But, after a Lions Field Goal with 9:20 to play in the 4th Quarter cut the 49ers lead to 20-12, the 49ers set out on a drive that paid homage to one of the NFL's great adages: "Great players aren't always great, they're just great when they have to be." Starting at their own 21-yard line, the 49ers chewed up yardage and the clock, as they moved smartly down the field. The way Alex Smith played on this drive made that miserable night in 2010 seem a distant memory. On three separate instances, the 49ers were faced with a 3rd down play with at least 7 yards to go for a 1st down. Each time, Smith effortlessly hit Michael Crabtree with enough space for Crabtree to make the necessary moves for a 1st down. Smith also took a shot on the face on a play where he was forced to scramble. Smith got up, bloodied but unfazed, hit Crabtree on the next play, and two plays later, with blood streaming down his nose, hit Vernon Davis, who outran several defenders into the end zone for the game-clinching score.

So the 49ers kick off their season winning a pair of games against teams that made the Playoffs last season. Last night's victory was not the impressive, resounding victory that the win over Green Bay was, but I'll still take it nonetheless. If the 49ers can go out against a good team, and play less than their best for a majority of the game, and still come away with a victory, you can't help but feel good about it. You get the feeling that the 49ers can win a lot of games playing the way they have so far this season.