Sierra Foothills

Exactly. This was a ridiculously easy decision for Shanahan to make. Reasons to shut Purdy down for the night: He was having the worst game of his career. The team had a 99% probability of losing. He had just gotten injured. Darnold seemed to give the team a spark. Darnold deserved a chance to show what he could do. The team needed to take the opportunity to evaluate what they have in Darnold. There was no good reason to risk further injury to Purdy... to either his body or his psyche. Reasons to allow Purdy to continue playing: He threw 4 ints but none of them were his fault? Okilies...

Josh is my favorite NFL player ever and in fact he's my favorite pro athlete ever. He's currently one of the top 2 QBs in the league and is on a no doubt HOF trajectory. I fully expect the Bills to win at least one Super Bowl during his career. That said QB mechanics league-wide are definitely on the decline. I think it started with Aaron Rodgers and then was unwittingly promoted by Patrick Mahomes... it's apparently considered cool to throw off platform and have a low release point to flick the ball from. Jordan Love is only the latest example of a young QB who thinks that fundamentals aren't important. As much as I HATE him, Tom Brady NEVER compromised his mechanics. I agree that Josh has to clean his up a bit but so do a bunch of other young QBs And in spite of needing to clean up this area of his game, Josh is still an incredible quarterback as he is... even if he were never to improve. Lots of people would gladly take Josh's hardnosed, linebacker-type play over the underachieving, diva-esque Rodgers. Beyond playing style, Rodgers has a recent history of coming up small in playoff games and many people view his single Super Bowl win (in the 6th of his 19 NFL seasons) as having had an underachieving career. His recent history of not organizing offseason workouts (until he was shamed into resuming them by the NY media) is just another example of Rodgers preferring other things over NFL football. You can clearly see by their playing styles, which of the two loves football more. I'll take the football player every time. Yes. Many Bills fans are spoiled that he's our quarterback and many of those that are spoiled don't realize it. But some of us do and appreciate every moment of his career.

Guaranteed Jones will be coerced into making amends. Even the biggest idiot in the world will be made to understand that he can't have something like this on his record.

This is a 2 possession game. The Ravens really needed another first down on that possession.

The injury to Purdy might be the most positive development for the Niners tonight.

Incredibly there's still plenty of time for San Francisco to come back and win this game.

Lamar was impersonating a ballerina on that play.

Wow. That was such a half-hearted "rushing attempt" by Lamar. He didn't want anything to do with that line of scrimmage. Probably. He certainly wouldn't have ***** footed like Lamar did.

Miami's defense has played well even with the considerable loss of Jaelan Phillips. Vic Fangio's system is really trending in a good direction for the Dolphins. Ouch. What a disastrous night for San Francisco.

NFL Team Scoring: 1 Miami 30.9 2 San Francisco 30.4 3 Dallas 30.1 4 Detroit 27.5 5 Baltimore27.4 6 Buffalo 26.9 7 Philadelphia 25.6 8 LA Rams 23.8 9 Indianapolis 23.6 10 Cleveland 23.0 11 Kansas City 22.8 Regardless of how you feel about Lamar Jackson, the Ravens OC Todd Monken has done a nice job with his offense.

It's true that Shanahan is universally regarded as a master strategist. That said the biggest blemishes on his career are his 2 Super Bowl appearances. His horrific playcalling in the New England-Atlanta Super Bowl arguably cost the Falcons the game and his performance against KC is still questioned in the Bay Area. CMC is a great player but he's also the recipient of a very strong run blocking O-line as well as great downfield blockers in Kyle Juszczyk, George Kittle and Deebo Samuel. He might get the best run blocking in the league.

Isn't it the QBs fault when his passes are tipped? I believe Adrian Peterson was the last RB to win MVP... in 2012.

It's really hard to say how good San Francisco is. Their best wins are over Dallas, Philly, and they've also beaten the Seahawks twice and the Rams once. They've lost to Cleveland, Minnesota, Cinci, and the Raiders. Like many I think their biggest question mark is QB. Excellent O-line and skill position players surround him... They're certainly good enough to win the Super Bowl but not head and shoulders above other top teams. I would lean towards the Bills beating them in the Super Bowl just because how could you pick Brock Purdy over Josh Allen?

It was alluded to earlier in this topic but there has been some noise for SF OT Trent Williams for MVP. I don't think it's possible but his name does come up. McCaffrey is awesome but he does get awesome blocking too.

Lamar's the most feared QB in the league when the defense loses containment.

Yup. Field goals are usually for losers.

Justin Tucker can't be the leading scorer if Baltimore is to win.

Purely from a football standpoint I don't believe Lamar is in the same class as Josh. JMO.

The FG is a win for SF. Lamar was brutal on that "possession."

The problem with the Mannings is now Eli and even Dad Archie are making commercials. Make it stop already.

So what's the moral of the story?

I'm interested to see how Purdy responds to throwing 2 early INTs.

I understand the theory that we want Baltimore to lose tonight so that they're "hungrier" against Miami next week... Is there any reason we would want Baltimore to win this game?

Yes. Also, watching Josh on a regular basis completely changes your evaluation of other QBs. For the most part watching other QBs is a very unsatisfying experience. Why did he do that? Why didn't he do this? I think the thing I notice the most is how easily other QBs are sacked.

On the other hand, why did Darby think it was necessary?