Celebratory Mood

After sitting through Monday's mess of a game I was right back at Citi Field on Wednesday for another Mets/Diamondbacks tilt. Of greater import on this night at least, was the fact that it was the 30th Anniversary of my first Mets game, way back on August 23rd, 1987, as 8-year old me attended a 9-2 Mets victory over the Padres in what was the first of what has now become 416 regular season Mets games. These 416 (plus another 12 in the Postseason) have been more good than bad, even in some of the leanest of years. Even this season, which has been a slog and has seen the Mets struggle mightily at home, I sat at 8-7 for the year, which increased to 9-7 after the Mets celebrated my anniversary with a 4-2 victory.

Chris Flexen was on the mound for the Mets and the last time I saw him things worked out pretty well. It was more of the same on Wednesday. Flexen didn't exactly light anyone on fire, but he also didn't get lit up himself. He allowed a run in the first and a run in the 6th, and in between allowed few hits and no runs otherwise, got bailed out by some solid defense (particularly Juan Lagares, who gunned down a runner at home in the 5th), and finished after 6 innings leading 3-2. This was because Brandon Nimmo, one of those young guys essentially auditioning for a future role, kept getting on base by any means necessary (usually walking), and Michael Conforto, who is also auditioning, but for the more prestigious role of All Star and Batting Champion twice drove him home. Amed Rosario, auditioning for the role of Jose Reyes, also drove in a run.

It was 3-2 in the 6th when Dominic Smith led off against Jake Barrett (who once was a closer and now finds himself journeyman) and hit a Home Run to right. This was the bit of Anniversary verisimilitude I found myself looking for. On August 23, 1987, as I mentioned, the Mets won, 9-2. All I wanted to see that day was for Dwight Gooden to pitch well, Darryl Strawberry to hit a Home Run, and the Mets to win, and I got all 3. On August 23, 2017, I was hopeful to see Chris Flexen pitch well, which isn't nearly as sure of a thing as '87 Gooden, and I wanted the Mets to win, and maybe someone would hit a Home Run. Fitting that it would be Smith, given that he shares Strawberry's initials and is a lefty hitter with some degree of power. I wouldn't go so far as to say that Smith is auditioning for the future role of Strawberry, but perhaps for the role of 1st Baseman with some degree of pop and a good glove is acceptable.

Mostly, though, I just wanted the Mets to win, which has been a tall order these days, but they did manage to do that. Ten years ago, I was at a Mets game on the 20th Anniversary of my first game, and it did not go well. This time, the Mets were in about as celebratory a mood as I was. Which is to say they at least did their best to commemorate the occasion.

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.

Trouble And Panic

Last season, the 49ers started their season with a resounding victory, followed by a pair of absurdly frustrating losses that left them at 1-2 with all sorts of questions surrounding where the team was going. They followed that up by winning 11 of their final 13 games. This season has gotten off to a similar start; as the 49ers lost their second consecutive game in Arizona yesterday, as once again they suffered through a second half meltdown and could only watch as the Cardinals came back on them to win 23-14.

Simply by the luck of the schedule, the 49ers have happened to be on TV in New York each of the first three games this year (and thanks to the Giants being scheduled for a Thursday night game, they will make it 4 for 4 next week), so once again, I got to witness first hand just how this game fell apart for San Francisco.

Where in Week 2 against the Bears, Colin Kaepernick simply came unglued in the second half, throwing a pair of severely damaging interceptions among his 4 turnovers overall, Kaepernick rebounded well. He started the game on a roll, completing his first 11 passes en route to leading the 49ers on a pair of lengthy Touchdown drives, one of which was capped by a pass to Michael Crabtree, and the other a run by Carlos Hyde, in which Hyde absolutely plowed through a defender on his way into the End Zone. At this point, with 5 minutes to play in the 2nd Quarter, the 49ers led 14-6 and everything appeared to be going swimmingly.

But then the second half happened and everything basically turned to mush. The 49ers have scored but 3 second half points thus far this season, while allowing 52. This didn't matter much when they led Dallas 28-3 at Halftime, but this loomed large last week and again on Sunday, when the Cardinals, behind backup Quarterback Drew Stanton and a series of clutch catches from Michael Floyd and Rookie Receiver John Brown, came back to score 17 unanswered points.

Or was it that the 49ers, who were nailed for 16 penalties against the Bears, once again self-destructed in a series of yellow flags that either killed their own drives or extended Arizona's?

You be the judge. After scoring a Touchdown to cut the deficit to 14-13, Arizona forced San Francisco to Punt and took over after another fine Andy Lee effort at their own 34-yard line. On the second play of the drive, Stanton took off and scrambled, diving to a stop at the Arizona 45-yard line, where he was then hit by Dan Skuta. Skuta, who had already lowered his shoulder in order to make a tackle, couldn't stop his momentum and although he ended up hitting a sliding Stanton in the shoulder, rather than the head, Skuta was flagged for unnecessary roughness, handing the Cardinals 15 yards. On the following play, the 49ers blitzed and Patrick Willis ended up getting a good shot on Stanton as he released a pass that ended up being incomplete. But again, despite Willis neither hitting Stanton with his helmet nor hitting Stanton in the head, Willis earned a flag for roughing the passer, handing the Cardinals another 15 yards. Not surprisingly, after being handed 30 free yards, the Cardinals went on to score another Touchdown and take the lead.

The 49ers did respond with a fine drive, and were in position to perhaps score a Touchdown of their own and regain the lead. But after Kaepernick hit Anquan Boldin for 6 yards down to the Arizona 6 yard line, Boldin was subsequently flagged for head-butting a Cardinals defender. This was more a case of Boldin being Boldin, since he's generally know for talking a lot on the field, but it cost the 49ers another 15 yards and ultimately led to a Phil Dawson Field Goal attempt that was blocked. The 49ers didn't threaten again.

After the game, Boldin in particular expressed his frustration with the officiating, which has played a heavy role in these last two 49ers losses, sure, but that's not an excuse for an offense that has scored 3 second half points in 3 games, particularly when you consider that they've scored 59 points in the first half of their games. It makes no sense, and it makes even less sense when you consider that Kaepernick, after his disaster of a performance in Week 2, was nearly flawless in this game, finishing 29 for 37 with 245 yards and a Touchdown. In fact, the 49ers didn't turn the ball over at all, and forced one of their own when Michael Wilhoite forced Larry Fitzgerald to fumble about halfway through the 4th Quarter with the game still in reach. But when it was needed most, the 49ers could move the ball no further than their own 10 yard line, including a damaging sack on Kaepernick, and they were forced to punt the ball away.

There's no good explanation for it all except to say that the 49ers aren't playing very well right now. But, again, they weren't playing very well after 3 games last year either and we know how that ended up. All you can do right now is try to regroup—Vernon Davis, generally a key cog in the 49ers lineup, missed the game with an ankle injury—get healthier and hope that next Sunday's matchup against the Eagles, who currently are sitting pretty at 3-0, goes a little better. This will be on TV here, although it happens to coincide with the Mets final game of the Season, so one may take precedence over the other.

Only For The Tough

The 49ers found themselves faced with a number of different playoff scenarios as they went out to Arizona for their final game of the regular season. None of them involved the 49ers not making the playoffs, which was in stark contrast to the situation the Cardinals were facing, because they needed to a) Beat the 49ers and b) hope like hell that the New Orleans Saints somehow slipped up and lost at home to the Buccaneers. Unfortunately for the Cardinals, neither thing happened. The 49ers won a back-and-forth battle 23-20 on a last second Phil Dawson Field Goal, but long before the game was decided, the Saints had cruised to a blowout win over Tampa, making the game academic for the Cardinals. Then again, who cares about the Cardinals. With a win and a Seattle loss, the 49ers could have slipped in and stolen the NFC West title, which would have been quite a kick in the pants seeing as how Seattle has been regarded as the NFL's amphetamine darlings all season long. But Seattle's game wasn't in doubt either, so basically the 49ers were simply jockeying for position as a Wildcard team destined to go on the road for all their playoff games.

All that being said, the scenario seemed to matter very little to the 49ers, who looked like a team that just wanted to go out and play to win, and to their credit they did, heading off a Cardinals team that had been on a pretty good hot streak over the past several weeks, coming out of nowhere to make themselves contenders up to the final week. But the 49ers came out and attacked them from the outset, primarily behind Colin Kaepernick and Anquan Boldin. Boldin, who spent many seasons with the Cardinals, was making his first appearance at his former haunt since they dealt him away in 2009, and he looked like a guy who wanted to show his old team just what they were missing. Boldin ran up 149 yards receiving and one emphatic Touchdown, a majority of it coming in the 1st Quarter and on an electrifying 63-yard catch-and-run to set up a Vernon Davis Touchdown. The defense, behind Navorro Bowman's interception of Carson Palmer, hadn't done much and the end result was that the 49ers raced out to a 17-0 lead and appeared primed to wipe the Cardinals into oblivion.

But the Cardinals, in spite of the continued bad news they got on their own field and from New Orleans, kept fighting and kept the 49ers from extending their lead. Frank Gore and the 49ers rushing attack were pretty much bottled up, leaving the 49ers to solely rely on Kaepernick to move the ball. Though Kaepernick did have some success, netting his second 300+ yard game of the season, the 49ers drives mostly stalled, or, on one occasion, ended with Phil Dawson missing a short Field Goal attempt when Andy Lee's hold went awry. For a playoff tuneup, however, Kaepernick looked good, spreading the ball around with relative ease, working lesser-used receivers like Quinton Patton and Kassim Osgood into the mix, and even hitting Joe Staley for a gain on a Tackle-eligible play.

The defense bottled up the Arizona running game, which wasn't much of a challenge since Arizona's running backs don't appear to be very good, but after keeping him in check in the 1st Quarter, Carson Palmer caught fire over the rest of the game and kept moving Arizona into position to score. Fortunately, Arizona's kicker, Jay Feely, missed a pair of Field Goals, and stopped the Cardinals on 4th down on another occasion. But Palmer was able to keep the game close, and when he hit Andre Roberts on a 34-yard prayer with just over 3 minutes to play in the 4th Quarter, he'd managed to lead the Cardinals all the way back to tie the game at 17.

But, in a situation where nobody would have blamed the 49ers for just letting things lie, taking it easy and just preparing for next week, the 49ers warmed up again, with Kaepernick hitting Michael Crabtree and Boldin for long gains to set up Phil Dawson to hit a season-long 56-yard Field Goal, giving the 49ers a 20-17 lead with 1:45 to go. Undaunted, Palmer countered with a strong drive of his own, hitting Larry Fitzgerald and Rob Housler to move the Cardinals into position to potentially score a Touchdown and win the game, but Palmer couldn't get the Cardinals closer than the 30-yard line, and Feely re-tied the game with a Field Goal with :29 seconds left that seemed destined to send the game into Overtime.

But Kaepernick and the 49ers wanted no part of Overtime. After a strong kick return from LaMichael James (who continues to excel in this role), Kaepernick hit Boldin for one chunk of yards, and then hit Quinton Patton, who made a brilliant leaping catch to pick up another 29 yards, allowing the 49ers to call a Timeout with 2 seconds left, and send out Dawson to kick home the game-winning 40-yard Field Goal and send the 49ers on to the Playoffs with a wild 23-20 win.

Following the game, Jim Harbaugh told the team that where they were going was "Only for the Tough. But we have been toughened." The 49ers finished up the regular season winning their last 6 games to finish with a record 12-4, winning one more game than they did in 2012. But this season seemed to feel like more of a struggle for whatever reason. Maybe it was simply more of a struggle for their Quarterback, as Colin Kaepernick didn't light the league on fire like it seemed he would based on his success last year. He certainly wasn't a disappointment this season, but he was, at times, disappointing. He suffered with the loss of Crabtree and Mario Manningham (who once again is lost for the playoffs). There were games where the offense simply stagnated against tough defenses. Too often, drives stalled and Field Goals were settled for. Too often, the defense was leaned on to win games, and while they did a majority of the time, the offense would leave them with too slim a margin. But in the end, 12 wins speak for themselves. The 49ers for all their problems know how to win games and have drawn some much-deserved praise as a Championship Contender despite going into the Playoffs as a Wildcard team. And as a Wildcard team, the first order of business for the 49ers is the high pleasure of going to Green Bay next Sunday to take on the wonderful Packers, who squeaked into the playoffs with an 8-7-1 record after not having Aaron Rodgers for an extended period of time. Going into Doublecheck Lambeau Field in January is not for the faint of heart, but the 49ers have proven that they can not only handle the Packers in the Playoffs, but they can go on the road and win Playoff games. They did both of these things just last year en route to an NFC Championship. And this is what Jim Harbaugh meant. They have been through these tough Playoff games before. Experience may not guarantee victory, but it certainly can help a team play together and play smart, and these things will help the 49ers as they face a difficult, but not impossible, route through the Playoffs.

Back In Sync

The 49ers won their 3rd game in a row on Sunday, a 32-20 victory over the Arizona Cardinals where they certainly didn't play their prettiest game of the year, but once again they made every necessary play to win the game.

After being mostly ineffective over the past two games due to a hamstring injury, Vernon Davis had the kind of statement game he's often capable of having. Davis has often been a lost man in the offense; he didn't quite click with Colin Kaepernick late last season before appearing more prominently in the Playoffs and Super Bowl. This season, he and Kap started out on the same page on Opening Day, but Davis went down with an injury in Week 2, missed week 3 and despite catching Touchdown passes in Weeks 4 and 5, still wasn't quite 100%. Sunday, he looked every bit like the freakish talent he's known to be, running up 180 yards on 8 catches, and scoring twice, once on a 61-yard pass and later on a 35-yard pass.

Davis certainly carried the day for the offense, helping Colin Kaepernick to his best game in several weeks, netting 252 yards in spite of turning the ball over twice. The defense was, as it has been all season, a group effort. Eric Reid and Carlos Rogers intercepted Carson Palmer passes and the defense forced a pair of huge, momentum-turning fumbles in the 2nd half, preventing the very game Arizona Cardinals from getting too close down the stretch.

Colin Kaepernick and the offense seem to just have a 1st Quarter thing, because despite the 2 interceptions setting the 49ers up with great Field Position, they couldn't move the ball and each time settled for Field Goals. This bit them in the ass when Larry Fitzgerald scored a Touchdown on a 75-yard Broken Play, where Fitzgerald does what he usually does and break tackles and make defenders miss. The ensuing 49ers drive appeared destined for points, but Kaepernick's pass for Bruce Miller near the goal line was tipped and intercepted by Yeremiah Bell. Fortunately, Bell was ruled down by contact at the Arizona 1 yard line. This proved important a few plays later when, backed up at their own goal line, Palmer dropped back to pass and was eventually sacked for a rarely-seen Safety by hard-charging Rookie Corey Lemonier, giving the 49ers an incongruous 8-7 lead. Given the ball, the 49ers capitalized on the ensuing drive when Kaepernick hit Davis for a 61-yard Touchdown.

The Cardinals didn't go down easy, though. After Davis' long score, the Cardinals responded with their own 3-play touchdown drive, culminating with Andre Ellington's 15-yard run to make it a 15-14 game. Davis' second score came later in the quarter to extend the 49ers lead to 22-14, and it could have been more had Kap not fumbled while in the midst of a 2-minute drill. Arizona took the ball near midfield and Palmer immediately bombed the ball down to Malcolm Floyd for a Touchdown. Except that Floyd got called for interference, taking the score off the board and sending the game into the half at 22-14.

The 49ers came out of the gate slow in the 2nd half and allowed the Cardinals to rip down the field for a score on their first possession. This time, they scored a Touchdown and attempted a 2-point conversion that would have tied the game. But a gadget play call resulted in an interception, and the 49ers maintained their slim lead. Still unable to get going on Offense, they were forced into a situation where the Defense had to make a big play. The Cardinals were embarking on another methodical drive down the field, converting multiple 3rd downs while slowly chewing up yardage. But as they creeped past the 49ers 30 yard line, the defense finally made that big play, as Patrick Willis, finally back from his groin injury, stripped the ball from Fitzgerald, who subsequently kicked it away, allowing Eric Reid to eventually come up with the ball and stop the Cardinals in their tracks. This kind of took the air out of the Arizona tires, as the 49ers were then able to ram Frank Gore down their throats insistently, working down the field on an 18-play drive that ate up an astonishing 9:32 of game clock and resulted with Kendall Hunter scoring a clinching touchdown and getting body slammed by a clearly frustrated Tyrann Mathieu. Arizona's last-gasp possession also ended in a Fumble, and the 49ers ran off more clock before Phil Dawson kicked an academic Field Goal to cap off a 32-20 victory that could have been hairier than it ended up.

I'm still not convinced that the 49ers are really playing their best. Kaepernick's play continues to be inconsistent, and he's been helped by the fact that the defense has forced 12 turnovers in the past 3 games, allowing him to work with a lot of short fields. He's been dealing with a foot issue that may be limiting his mobility, but for whatever reason that's barely been talked about. Also, Vernon Davis being healthy again has provided him with an additional target, rather than forcing him to focus solely on Anquan Boldin. The other receivers, Quinton Patton, Kyle Williams and Doug Baldwin continue to be mostly ineffective role players. Fortunately, Mario Manningham is just about ready to return, although it still remains to be seen just how effective he will be. I expect that Kaepernick's performances will continue to improve as he gets more weapons to work with, which is important because the 49ers have a few really tough games coming up in November and December. For now, they have a pair of upcoming road games against AFC South opponents, next Sunday in Tennessee and then a trip across the pond to London where they'll meet the woeful Jacksonville Jaguars. That should be interesting.

Same As The Old Boss

The 49ers simply needed to win on Sunday in order to lock down their second consecutive NFC West title, but they also needed some help in order to get a much-needed bye from the first round of the playoffs. Though things started a bit slow, they managed to do their part, finishing their regular season with a 27-13 victory over the lowly Arizona Cardinals to finish 11-4-1, good enough to win that Division Title.

Though the end result was good, the game wasn't exactly the 49ers most sterling of efforts. A slow start saw the 49ers go 3-and-out on each of their first three possessions, while the Cardinals, behind 4th string Quarterback Brian Hoyer, parlayed a couple of drives into a couple of Field Goals, breaking in front 6-0. The 49ers appeared slow, as if they were still  hung over from the beating they took in Seattle last Sunday. David Akers, who'd already missed a troubling number of kicks this season, missed two more in the first half, calling his reliability into question. All this was troublesome, especially considering that if they somehow lost to Arizona, while Seattle beat the St. Louis Rams, the 49ers would go from Division Championship to playing a road playoff game next Weekend. I was also tuned in to the game on my phone, something that hasn't brought the 49ers much luck this season. If things got worse, I was seriously considering shutting things off out of superstition.

But with certain doom staring them in the face, the 49ers responded much as they have all season: by striking quickly and regaining control of the game. This time, it was a pair of passes from Colin Kaepernick to Michael Crabtree, which happened on consecutive plays and spanned 80 yards, giving the 49ers the lead in the blink of an eye and settling everyone down.

It's taken a few years, and Crabtree still gets somewhat lost in the shuffle among bigger names on other teams with flashier numbers, but Crabtree ended up with an incredibly underrated great season. He was already known as a great route runner with sure hands, but this season, he took The Leap into a clutch receiver who's been able to make the big play. It seems as though it's a regular occurrence that Crabtree is making a key catch to convert a 3rd down, or breaking a tackle and turning a short gain into a long one. Crabtree saved his best game of the season for the finale, catching 8 passes for 172 yards and a pair of touchdowns, finishing the season with 85 catches, 1,105 yards and 9 touchdowns, all career bests. He also became the first 49er receiver since Terrell Owens 10 seasons ago to top 1,000 yards. Crabtree drew some heat for underperforming in the postseason last year. It appears likely that this won't happen again. He's clearly established himself as the best receiver on the team, and perhaps one of the top pass catchers in the league.

With the lead, the 49ers were once again able to do what they do best, control the clock and let their defense wreak some havoc, which they did. Even Akers righted himself, kicking a pair of Field Goals in the second half . Frank Gore got himself going on the ground, with an assist from LaMichael James, who has really impressed in the absence of Kendall Hunter, becoming a sparkplug on Special Teams and chipping in with several key runs. Crabtree's second touchdown, a beauty of a touch pass from Kaepernick, extended the lead, and Gore's score early in the 4th quarter sealed up the victory. Seattle had some trouble with the Rams, but although they emerged victorious, they'll be the ones going on the road for the Playoffs.

With the division now secured, the 49ers and I now turned our attention to the Green Bay Packers/Minnesota Vikings tilt. The 49ers needed a Packers loss in order to pick up that first round bye, and a sorely needed chance to rest and recuperate for the Playoffs. The Vikings, who knocked off the 49ers way back in Week 3, needed a win in order to simply make the Playoffs. The game was a study in contrast, between the Vikings Adrian Peterson running the ball down the Packers' throats and Aaron Rodgers passing at will. Ultimately, it was Peterson who would win the day, as his superhuman 199 yard effort paved the way for the Vikings to win on a last second Field Goal, getting them into the playoffs where they get to face the same Packers next Saturday while the 49ers get to watch and await the winner.

For the second year in a row, the 49ers have won their Division and managed to lock up the NFC's #2 seed in the playoffs. Last year, they got to the NFC Championship. This year, a team that now has that Playoff experience appears primed to hopefully make it further. They've had a much more uneven season than 2011, when they got hot and things just seemed to snowball from there. This year, they haven't had that really great hot streak. They've had good games, and certainly their big wins have made them feel much higher than last year. But they've also had some troubling losses as well, something they didn't see much of last year. Seattle's surging second half kept the division race much tighter than it was last year. Instead of being able to relax over the season's final few weeks, they had to play everything out to the last game before they had sewn everything up. It wasn't likely that they were going to roll off the same 13-3 record they had last year, and 11-4-1 isn't that much of a drop off. All things considered, it's nice to have put together 24 wins under Jim Harbaugh, and being the #2 seed in the NFC both years certainly puts them among the NFL's elite teams. Hopefully this year, they can finish the job.

So, the 49ers season will continue on Saturday night, January 12th, with a Home Playoff game in Prime Time in the Divisional round. Crazy things have been known to happen in the NFL Playoffs, but the odds seem to dictate that their most likely opponent will be the Green Bay Packers, against whom the 49ers started their season with a statement victory on their Home Field. Until then, they've got the week off, the injured can heal up and the remainder of the team, certainly weary from a 17-week grind can rejuvenate themselves and begin a march towards the franchise's 6th Super Bowl Title.

Storm Game

We at The Ballclub are rather fortunate this Tuesday, following the Hurricane that blew through the NYC area on Monday. Headquarters did not lose power, short of a little flickering late in the evening, and in spite of some strong winds, there was no major damage outside of some downed trees, blown-over construction fencing and overturned newspaper boxes. However, I know that many people out there were not as fortunate, so I do hope everyone is OK and on the way to recovering from this mess.

After spending most of the day watching various news outlets for storm updates and damage reports, I flipped away for the diversion of the 49ers/Cardinals matchup. After the debacle against the Giants was followed by only a middling performance against Seattle, the 49ers found themselves matched up with another NFC West upstart in the Arizona Cardinals. A Cardinal victory would have given them the division lead via tiebreaker. Plus, the Cardinals seem to be one of those chippy teams that likes to mouth off a lot, and they don't like the 49ers much. Needless to say, that feeling is mutual. But, the Cardinals are the Cardinals. After spending most of their existence in NFL Siberia, they had a miracle Super Bowl run a few years ago that ended with a last-second defeat. Since then, they turned back into the Cardinals. But, this season, they started off 4-0 and looked like they could be trouble until they lost 3 in a row. They boast a bit of talent, led by Larry Fitzgerald, but they have no quarterback that can adequately throw him the ball, and going up against a Defense like the 49ers, that hadn't allowed an opponent more than 6 points in 4 of their
last 5 games, that should have spelled imminent disaster. The question was, could Alex Smith get his sea legs back and perform at the level he'd been performing at earlier in the season. Could the 49ers get back to that complete team effort for the game? The answer turned out to be a resounding Yes on both counts, as Alex Smith completed 18 of 19 passes (the only incompletion coming on a Delanie Walker drop), threw for 3 Touchdowns, and with a lead could sit back and let the Defense do the rest. End result: A resounding 24-3 victory that re-asserted the 49ers as one of the best in the NFC.

The 49ers started out sticking to the recipe that served them well against Seattle. After an opening punt pinned the Cardinals deep in their own end, the 49ers allowed the Cardinals nothing on the ground. The Cardinals were down to their 3rd Running Back, LaRod Stephen-Hawking, and the 49ers exploited this, allowing him 6 yards on 8 carries for the game, and allowed the Cardinals all of 7 yards rushing in total. The 49ers forced a punt and their second drive, comprised mostly of Frank Gore and Kendall Hunter plowing out yards, culminated in an acrobatic Touchdown catch by Michael Crabtree, who leapt over Patrick Peterson to reel in the pass and land in the end zone.

The following 3 49ers possessions yielded two punts and a Field Goal to extend the lead to 10-0, but not to worry. Arizona Quarterback John Skelton, forced to throw early and often, could only complete short passes to inch down the field, unless he was airmaling his receivers. After forcing yet another punt, Alex Smith set to work to extend the lead, completing 6 of 6 passes to get the 49ers down the field, spreading the ball around to 4 different receivers before finishing with his specialty: a 3rd down pass to Michael Crabtree, who juked Peterson out of his jock and outran him into the End Zone to extend the lead to 17-0 at Halftime.

The second half was more or less controlled by the Defense. The 49ers first offensive drive ended with their final score, featuring Smith hitting Randy Moss on a short pass and Moss breaking a tackle and sprinting away from everyone for a 47-yard Touchdown, where he looked more like 2002 Randy Moss more than 2012 Randy Moss. After that, the defense just stepped on the Cardinals throats, allowing only a field goal and sacking Skelton 3 times as he desperately tried to drag the Cardinals back into the game. But it wasn't happening on this night. Their final drive was the only drive that managed to gain momentum, and even that was halted when his 4th down pass to Fitzgerald ended with Fitzgerald tackled a yard shy of the goal line, allowing the 49ers to take over and run out the clock.

The 49ers appear, at least for the moment, to have righted the ship. At 6-2, they have a 2-game lead in the NFC West, and a 2-0 record in the division. After the bye, they play another long time rival, the St. Louis Rams, before a pair of difficult games against Chicago and New Orleans. Things appear OK for now. The defense has been strong, if not as opportunistic with their turnovers as they were last year. It's been enough, though, that they have been just about impossible to run against with consistency, and most importantly, that they've been able to keep the other team off the scoreboard. This seems to be the recipe that works for them. It certainly worked last night, and proved a most pleasant diversion to the barrage of hurricane coverage.

Another One for the Ages

Yes, he was indeed in.

And with it, another frenetic 4th Quarter flurry of both teams simultaneously finding their rhythms saved yet another Super Bowl from unraveling into an unmemorable mess.

For the better part of the first 3 quarters, this Super Bowl seemed quite a bit like last year's version. That is, a rather unmemorable blur. Sure, there was a bit of excitement generated by James Harrison's electrifying 100-yard interception return, but for the most part, there wasn't anything memorable going on. Pittsburgh's defense had held strong, Arizona couldn't get into any sort of a rhythm offensively, and Pittsburgh's offense basically was doing the absolute minimum needed to win the game. With a 20-7 lead, it seemed more or less academic: Pittsburgh would grind out the rest of the game and win a rather unremarkable Super Bowl.

Then, rather quickly, something changed. Arizona suddenly found their feet, or rather, found their air, sending Kurt Warner back to pass and, and they were moving the ball, and Warner was threading the needle and Larry Fitzgerald was getting open, and the Cardinals were in the End Zone. Pittsburgh went into their Prevent Offense, sending their runner up the middle. Problem was, they hadn't been able to establish a running game at all to that point, and then when they really had to, they couldn't get it going. This would eventually screw them completely in a rather stunning turn of events within about a minute late in the 4th quarter. Pinned back at their own goal line, Pittsburgh couldn't run themselves out of it, and then managed to penalize themselves into a Safety that made the score 20-16 and gave Arizona the ball, and one more chance to try to strike.
And strike they did.

If Larry Fitzgerald hadn't already cemented himself as the premier Wide Receiver in the NFL, he certainly had to with his performance down the stretch in this game. And his 64-yard touchdown, in which he not only managed to split Pittsburgh's safeties to the point of embarrassment, but also turned on the jets and simply outran them to the End Zone could very well have been the enduring image from this game.

I watched the game at a rather sparse party, where beer was plentiful, but food was in short supply. By the 4th quarter, things had pretty much dispersed. Only 5 or 6 of us remained. I resorted to texting a friend, and we began talking about Kurt Warner, and his ubiquitous series of Chunky Soup commercials. I surmised that if the Cardinals held on to win, we would be subjected to Kurt Warner doing those nauseating commercials for the rest of our lives. Perhaps the alcohol had severly impaired my thought process. Or maybe I'd just had enough of Kurt Warner. Either way, I wasn't pleased with the prospects.

But Arizona's pass defense, which had been a liability late in the NFC Championship, and which I figured would be their downfall in this game, couldn't hold up their end of the bargain. Playing in an awful zone formation, the Arizona secondary basically allowed Roethlisberger to pick them apart, moving the Steelers smartly down the field despite an almost-deathly holding call, putting them in prime position to strike, and then hurling the dagger, a picture-perfect strike to Santonio Holmes to cap off their victorious march.
Thus, the enduring image from Super Bowl XLIII was not Fitzgerald. The aftermath would not be a lifetime of Kurt Warner's Chunky Soup. Instead, we're left with Santonio Holmes, his toes hanging onto the ground for dear life, catching the pass and capping off a fabulous game, the kind of Super Bowl that the Super Bowl should be, but rarely is; the kind of Super Bowl that this game almost wasn't for about 2 3/4 quarters.

Thusly, the NFL season comes to a close. Time to turn the page. In New York, I think Baseball season has officially begun.

THE BIG GAME!!!

This is probably going to be very brief...

Ever notice how, more often than not, advertisements and shops and whatnot will not refer to the Super Bowl as the Super Bowl? I know it's got to do with the fear of some sort of copyright infringement, but it sort of removes the spirit of the game. Instead, all over the place, there are signs and advertisements not for the Super Bowl, or Super Bowl parties, rather, they look like this:

"PLACE YOUR ORDERS FOR THE BIG GAME!"

"YOUR OFFICIAL BIG GAME HEADQUARTERS!"

"BIG GAME PARTY HAPPENING HERE!"

We may as well just not call it the Super Bowl anymore. Instead, it's just the Big Game! And so, today, in The Big Game XLIII, we have the Arizona Iced Tea and the Pittsburgh...Whatever the hell they have in Pittsburgh. Rivers? Steel mills? A horrendous airport? I don't know.

The game should be pretty much scenery to the hoopla, it usually is. The stupid hype week usually kills whatever rhythm the teams have, so more often than not, the first half of the game turns into a rather epic crapfest. Look at last year's game. People call it the most exciting game ever, but how many people forget that for 3 quarters, the game was a mess, a 7-3 mishmash of punts and incomplete passes. I guess today could just as easily go the same way. I could talk about the high-powered offense of the Cardinals, or the sterling Defense of the Steelers, but I'm not going to tell you anything you didn't already know. These games tend to come down to who can control the ball and play better defense, and I think Pittsburgh can do both better than Arizona will be able to.

My pick: Steelers 23, Cardinals 14

And by Tuesday, most of you will have forgotten that the Cardinals were even playing in the game.

Enjoy THE BIG GAME, everyone!