San Francisco 49ers: Previewing the St. Louis Rams
For San Francisco 49ers‘ fans, this article may be a bit repetitive. Anyone who watched last Thursday’s dud of a game against the Seahawks knows what happened. Nothing.
That was the problem. The 49er offense looked stagnant, rarely moving the ball or converting field position to points. At this point, everyone deserves blame. The coaching staff calls the same dozen plays every drive partly because that’s all they trust the offense to accomplish, and partly due to a lack of creativity on offense. The offensive line does about as much as a hotel pillow to protect the skill position players. Yes, they have lost key pieces over the last year, but that’s not an excuse; they are in the NFL due to a perceived skill, and being compensated as such.
Speaking of compensation, is there any player in the league costing himself as much as Colin Kaepernick is this season? The team structured his contract in such a manner that there is almost no guaranteed money past this season, so if they choose to move on, they aren’t stuck paying him for years to come. While he is clearly being made the scapegoat for Jed York’s Maloof-like ability to run a team into the ground, that doesn’t excuse his poor play on the field.
Kaepernick is simply ineffective. When he calms down in the pocket, and gets time to throw, he misses open receivers. Sadly, this season has had fans wondering how bad he will be, not how good he will be. The sad part is, people don’t seem to grasp that Blaine Gabbert is not exactly a legendary quarterback himself.
Something will happen, and if not soon, by the end of the year. Something has to give. The 49ers can’t continue on this current path of poor play and tabloid-headlines coming out daily about how someone else on the team doesn’t like another player.
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Bear Goggles On
While we are on the subject of 49ers players getting into fights, Vernon Davis may just be the embodiment of the old throwing stones while living in a glass house momism we were all told in our childhood. According to reports, Davis called out Kaeprnick, and lineman Joe Staley came to Kaepernick’s defense immediately. Davis, who is still indeed on the team despite his grand total of 38 catches in 19 games dating back to 2014, is the last person who should be calling out a teammate for poor performance. Vernon Davis hasn’t been relevant to the 49ers since 2013, and has been rumored to be on the trading block since about then. At this point, the 49ers would be lucky to get a seventh-round pick in exchange for the underperforming, over-talking tight-end in the latter stage of his career.
This rant about the 49ers could go on for a week, as we haven’t even covered the receivers or the running game.
At some point, the drama has to get put on hold, because there’s still a lot of football left to be played.
This Sunday, San Francisco jets to St. Louis, to take on the young and unknown Rams.
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Victory Bell Rings
The Rams are not a bad team by any means, but are simply a team in transition. Not unlike the Oakland Raiders, who are also a young team with a lot of talent who play in a very competitive division, and ultimately may have to wait another year or two before fully taking over.
The Rams are the second-worst offense in the league thus far, only ahead of the obvious last place team, the 49ers. To go out on a limb, this isn’t likely to be a shootout.
Meanwhile, the Rams’ defense is a minefield of monstrous young players. Nearly all of their front-seven can effortlessly get to the quarterback and their secondary is known to make big plays and score off of picks and fumbles.
The 49ers need to play tight on defense, and watch out for the explosive kick returner Tavon Austin. Rookie running back Todd Gurley is fully healthy, and now is proving himself to be a top draft pick.
This game isn’t a scary one for the 49ers, but after their lackluster play so far this season, there’s really no such thing as an easy game for San Francisco.