Niners Round Up

Big wins tend to disguise problems and beating the Rams is always a big win for the Niners. But two more feet and it goes the opposite way...and the whole discussion is different.

Here's the thing - the Niners play offensive without any style or panache. I don't like it, but I can live with it because as a team, they play tough. I gotta give Nolan credit for that. In football (and pretty much all sports) the only thing unforgiveable, I think, are teams that don't play hard. The Niners play hard, but they don't play smart. The offensive has no imagination and we've witnessed two mediocre defenses shutting them down.

I know the era of Bill Walsh, offensive genius, is over. We don't have Montana or even Young. Our receivers are mid-level NFL guys. Alex Smith shows moments of being an above average quarterback and a great leader, but lets be honest....moments schomements. If I had a quarter for every football player who showed promise...and witness across the Bay with Eric Chavez on the A's. In his first three years in the majors he hit .280, 30 dingers, 100 rbis, and showed signs of being a great clubhouse leader. He blasted a 500 ft homer in the playoffs against some stud pitcher. He was a young player, 22-24, and Billy Beane touted him as the next Mike Schmidt. The A's decided to sign him long term where they hadn't done the same for Jason Giambi or Miguel Tejada (two AL MVPs), and later with Milton Bradley and Frank Thomas. Since then, he's become a great fielder, is a good clubhouse guy, but his numbers have gone down - .250 and he is injury plagued. In short, showing promise is a lot different that performance...and can actually be misleading in some cases.

All that said, we're 2-0 and our defense looks solid for the first time in ages. Especially the secondary.

But our offense is so predictable, we make it easy on the other team. Are we physically incapable of passing on first down. Did you see Brady last night against the Chargers? That was textbook Niners of old. I know Smith is no Brady and never will be, but for chrissake, we've got this Vernon Davis fellow, use him on first down. Even if it fails, it'll put in the head of the other team that we actually might not run on every single play.