WhitewalkerInPhilly

The only thing I buy in this is that this is a divided organization. On Rex's side, he can point to the obvious: glaring, gaping holes at safety and the WR group. On Whaley's: Rex hasn't gotten the production out of the D that even Pettine was able to, never mind Schwartz. Mario Williams quit on the team after less than a season with Rex, and vast resources have been poured in to try to right the ship and it still hasn't worked. Whaley got an extraordinary value in Kiko for Shady, struck gold with Darby, LorAx, Zach, Hughes and Ritchie, and got the pieces for the best rushing attack two years running. But it still isn't enough. I bet the knives are out. It's hard to tear it all down if they finish 9-7 but there is bad blood. FWIW, the last coach I remember being fired with a winning record was Lovie Smith from Chicago and neither side has done well since.

I don't know about Head Coach (though at this point I am not against it too much) but if he wants to be czar, I am all for it.

Obviously Shady and Sammy. They showed the dynamic part of the offense that we desperately miss when they get out. I also have to hand it off to Hunter. His touchdown was a thing of beauty, and that first down at the end of the game was crucial.

Is anyone else loving this acquisition right now? Say what you want about his all around value, he has been invaluable in Red Zone situations. He leads us in receiving touchdowns, despite not being with the team at the start of the season. We absolutely ought to upgrade WR in the offseason, and Hunter definitely has its limitations, but I certainly think he's shown enough to be brought back next year.

I don't get why they don't have Watkins back practicing. All the reports I heard were that his injury was about pain management. You would think that if he feels good he should be out there.

Against a 3-4-1 team that has looked like a shell of itself, and it's only wins against terrible teams and only able to draw against the Skins? With, again, a team that is coming off a bye when they are on a short week.

I'm a little surprised that we are the underdogs, even by a small margin. The Bengals have not been playing well at all, and we play them off a bye while they are on a short week. We should have Sammy back this week, right?

I definitely agree with WR. Understatement of the year. Sammy has been hurt, Woods is a free agent and we have a big load of nothing after that

At the very least he should be in every red zone package we have. He ran a good route, absolutely beat the pair of safeties on him and caught a perfect ball. If anything, I would want to expand him in the long pass. We really left it off the table most of the game.

I think they have it screwed up in their brackets. They have us playing the Broncos and the Raiders are the 3rd seed when they should be sixth. The Texans being 4th seed at 3-2 is about as clear indication that the playoff system needs overhaul than anything.

I'm not usually one to toot my own horn but I'll just leave this here.

Here's the thing: I share your worries Yolo, but I think Buffalo is just a bad matchup (or good for us) vs the Niners. Chip's offense (for the 3 years I watched it in Philly) is brilliant when everything is clicking at the same time. Kaep, at his best, is near unbeatable when clicking. But they are flying cross country and playing in a very hostile stadium. Kap's biggest knock was accuracy and a difficulty reading defenses. Chip Kelly needs accuracy with all his high tempo pick routes. Rex (with Palmer and Brisset) got back to swarming amoeba coverages. And when Chip goes 3 and out, he goes 3 and out fast. Also, unlike last year vs the Eagles, their run defense is putrid. I don't care what the score is in the first half, pound that rock.

Now that it's official who is starting, I need to bump this. It's the perfect gameplan to throw at Kaep.

I had heard something on this thread on removing the injury guarantee. As best I can tell, that still hasn't happened. Keap is likely Chip's ideal QB, but SF @ BUF might be the single worst time to try it. With the Eagles he had Bradford on a rebound. Right now, the Niners have even worse receivers than Philly, and the 31st run defense. Even if Chip can dial up some plays we should be able to grind it in the first half.

That's kind of deceptive. We have a bend don't break defense (except for the Jets) and we're still tied for 5th in points allowed (with Denver FWIW) while they are 26th. They may be 8th running the ball, while we are 13th defending it, but we are 3rd rushing vs 31st run D. They are near the bottom on per attempt as well, but Chippy likes to run so many plays you can grind it out on them.

In all seriousness though, as a fan, it is tempting to look ahead and ask thing like "what if they sweep SF and Miami? Would they be in position to try to take a permanent tiebreaker over the Patriots for the division? " Lunacy, but fun lunacy.

But wouldn't it be great to work in a little read option out of that 8)

At this point, I am seriously ok with spending a high draft pick to get some quality receiver play. That said, we absolutely do not have the cap space for Jeffrey.

I think there's a contradiction in there But yeah, Lynn went "they are missing 3 DL starters and have a bad linebacker group? Let's let Felton and Shady smash it up the middle."

The niners right now are 31st in run defense. Let's not over think this: heavy sets with 6 OL, Felton lead blocking and Shady pounding the rock. I kept hearing we used the pistol yesterday too. Has anyone done a writeup? I miss the ones Quinn used to do.

I've heard buzz that Kaep is starting. Give him the Brisset treatment ?

My fiancée has pointed this habit out to me. I think we have been so conditioned to accept snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. In the Cardinals game we won by 15 so I kept thinking that somehow with Palmer they could get their quick-strike offense back into it. Winning by 16 was still only two score game I kept expecting the Patriots to do the Patriots. But this one is where the only reason it got as close as it did was we let them back into it. You are *supposed* to win Games where you have close to 200 yards rushing. When you win the turnover battle 3-0.

I definitely agree. We also are likely going to lose Woods to free agency, since this is the last year of his deal. There's always a market for guys who are decent #2 receivers, and we are going to have our hands full trying to keep Gilmore and the current hit on Tyrod's contract. FWIW, I like Tyrod and wanted to win the job. I was happy when we got paid this offseason. But man, he does not look worth the $27.5 million cap hit. But we don't have a ton of options.

To me, that's it. I can remember all the times we would win the turnover battle, have a dominant run game...and still lose. Today, we scrapped out a win. And we did it to a point where it wound up not being close by the end. We did it on the road, when the initial bets were against us.

"Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake." - Napoleon Bonaparte