the forty-niners downfall

Will the San Francisco 49ers ever get back on the football god’s good graces?

The chances of that are starting to get as slim as Calista Flockhart…

What looked to be a pretty good finish for this year’s team in the offseason is starting to turn into something that is somewhat reminiscent of an old deteriorating building in which everything is going to shambles.

THE DEFENSE

The defense was probably the most promising of all the units that this year’s San Francisco 49ers had to offer. Even though they only had the 25th ranked defense out of 32 teams last year, the numbers don’t tell the story, because they had to be on the field for so long thanks to such a horrible offense, but we’ll talk about that later. Last year Patrick Willis earned the NFL’s Defensive Rookie of the Year, as he tallied 226 tackles! How do you get better than that? You add some key free-agents, such as a pro-bowl linebacker in Takeo Spikes (LB), a tumultuous defensive end from Cincinnati in Justin Smith, and a speedy cornerback / kick returner extraordinaire in Allen Rossum. These pick-ups were meant to complement the studs from last year…

However, things have changed as the defense as they seemed to have forgotten how to tackle. They have shown that they have no answer for a powerful running back, i.e. Brandon Jacobs (NYG), and Deuce McAllister (NO). Not to mention that the safeties, whether it’s Dashon Goldson, or Mark Roman, has been getting burnt like toast at a bad breakfast spot. That’s the least of the problems though!

THE OFFENSE

Oh boy, where do I start with this unit? This unit needed a lot of improving after last year, which ranked dead last in the NFL in ever major offensive statistic: Pts/ g, total plays, and Yards/ g; among many others. It didn’t help that their #1 pick from the 2005 NFL Draft, Alex Smith, was injured for a majority of the season, leaving Trent Dilfer to screw up and really show he needs to retire. So, what do you do in a predicament like this, we hire one of the smartest offensive minds in the NFL in Mike Martz to be our offensive coordinator. We then pick up some key free agents on offense as well, such as WR Isaac Bruce, OT Barry Sims, and RB DeShaun Foster. Not to mention we signed a journeyman by the name of JT O’Sullivan in which nobody knew before the season, although he had a great pre-season while starring in a fight for the starting QB spot. Well, he ends up winning the job, and suddenly, you think this offense could be real good…

Yet, that was before the season, and not where were at, 7 games into the season, like we are now. You can’t knock one of the best running backs in the NFL, Frank Gore, because he has done all he can this year. But you can’t run the ball all the time, not to mention, Martz is famous for his brilliant passing attack. The problem is that JTO has shown he’s not really starter material. He makes the wrong decisions at the wrong times. He holds on to the ball for too long, causing sacks, which in turn eventually leads to timely turnovers. Our receivers don’t catch the rare good passes he makes. It’s really bad.

MANAGEMENT AND CLOSING

I’m not one for firing head coaches, but Head Coach Mike Nolan should be fired! He hasn’t shown any kind of leadership. The players don’t trust him. He fails to execute the right plays when needed to.

This all stems from upper management, which in turn falls on the terrible people that own the team, the York Family. They are showing signs of doing whatever they can to run this team into the ground: bad drafts, bad personnel, and a wavering opinion on a new stadium. If they don’t do something quick, my forty-niners will get moved to LA and that would SUCK!