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I'm cautiously optimisitc
Sep. 13th, 2016 08:50 amSan Francisco 49ers: 28
Los Angeles Rams: 0
That wasn't supposed to happen. The conventional wisdom was that the Niners were going to be hopeless this season. We had no offense, no defense, and Chip Kelly's promised shake-up was going to take a long time to implement. A fairly weak preseason seemed to support those arguments.
Until last night. On offense, the Blaine Gabbert era has begun. He was 22 of 35 for 170 yards, with one touchdown pass to Vance McDonald. But that wasn't the whole story, Gabbert had nine carries for 43 yards. These weren't panicked scrambles, but good runs after checking off all the potential passes. Carlos Hyde had 88 yards and 1 TD on 23 carries. The offensive line looked good. We're not great, but playing well as a team and building confidence.
On defense, we shocked the NFL. The Niners were terrible on D last year. Last night? We allowed a total of 185 yards. The Rams had to punt 10 times. We kept pressure on the Rams with an efficient pass rush that used different packages and stunts to keep the Rams' O-line guessing. The secondary looked good, shutting down the longer routes.
Now let's be honest: The Rams aren't a very good team. Last night they looked utterly undisciplined. Stupid penalties, missed assignments, obvious on-field tensions that culminated in Rams defensive tackles Aaron Donald being ejected after making contact with an official. He slammed his helmet into the field, which will earn him a suspension from the league.
But overall, there's hope. Niners head coach Chip Kelly had it right when he made it clear in his post-game press conference that he had identified areas for improvement. Keep working, keep fighting, and play them one week at a time.
Next up: at Carolina Panthers, SEP 18
Los Angeles Rams: 0
That wasn't supposed to happen. The conventional wisdom was that the Niners were going to be hopeless this season. We had no offense, no defense, and Chip Kelly's promised shake-up was going to take a long time to implement. A fairly weak preseason seemed to support those arguments.
Until last night. On offense, the Blaine Gabbert era has begun. He was 22 of 35 for 170 yards, with one touchdown pass to Vance McDonald. But that wasn't the whole story, Gabbert had nine carries for 43 yards. These weren't panicked scrambles, but good runs after checking off all the potential passes. Carlos Hyde had 88 yards and 1 TD on 23 carries. The offensive line looked good. We're not great, but playing well as a team and building confidence.
On defense, we shocked the NFL. The Niners were terrible on D last year. Last night? We allowed a total of 185 yards. The Rams had to punt 10 times. We kept pressure on the Rams with an efficient pass rush that used different packages and stunts to keep the Rams' O-line guessing. The secondary looked good, shutting down the longer routes.
Now let's be honest: The Rams aren't a very good team. Last night they looked utterly undisciplined. Stupid penalties, missed assignments, obvious on-field tensions that culminated in Rams defensive tackles Aaron Donald being ejected after making contact with an official. He slammed his helmet into the field, which will earn him a suspension from the league.
But overall, there's hope. Niners head coach Chip Kelly had it right when he made it clear in his post-game press conference that he had identified areas for improvement. Keep working, keep fighting, and play them one week at a time.
Next up: at Carolina Panthers, SEP 18
