Just knew the Niners would go down today. Titans are better than the 1-6 record they came in with (super fantasy back Chris Johnson anyone?) and if you are someone that just looks at records and figures out who will win based on that, then you were shocked today- I wasn't. The Titans were competitive in most of their games this year and with winning last week, they had confidence coming to SF. They were the dangerous, hungry team- not the Niners.
November is a bad month for the Niners (see their schedule), but December will be better (Seahawks, Lions, and Rams; Cardinals should be healthy by then and go off on us). When I heard that Shaun Hill was being benched and then Alex Smith would start in November, that was and is setting him up to fail- see the teams on the schedule in November.
We should of beat Houston, but they have an offense that can score like crazy, so although I felt our defense could limit them, I wasn't confident the 49ers could outscore them. They came back, but that's because they were forced to throw with a different QB as the Texans weren't prepared for Alex Smith. They were prepared for game manager, Shaun Hill. Although the team made it interesting, I was expecting us to lose to the Colts. C'mon folks, its freaking Peyton Manning!!!!! He and his team were going to adjust at halftime to pull out a win- it's what good teams do. At least we come out with the distinction of holding Manning to no TD passes for the game, but that's a meaningless statistic.
We might beat Chicago this Thursday because that team's offense is bad, but we also still have Green Bay (we'll lose unless we can sack Aaron Rodgers 5 times, but keep in mind that he has that chip on his shoulder of being overlooked by SF, so he'll be inspired) and Jacksonville (we'll lose unless Patrick Willis has 30 tackles and 20 of them are on Maurice Jones Drew). I'm a realistic Niner fan. They are still on schedule to finish 7-9 or 8-8, if they don't lose faith in Singletary who is a good motivator, but as a coach he's questionable. He seems slow to adapt to change. He and Jimmy Ray need to give up on this predictable power running game. Take away the 4-5 long runs that Gore has had this year and his stats would not be good. Use him like Marshall Faulk where he can stretch short dump off pass plays into bigger yardage, not have him running into walls. Gore is sucessful when he has room to run and if the OL can't give it to him, let's improvise. With AZ playing better, we ain't winning the division. The Cardinals have a very favorable record the rest of the season.
Random thoughts-
I want to see Nate Davis in at QB, but not in the games in November 'cause he'll be set up to lose the way Alex is now. Look at the schedule. Michael Crabtree looks like he could be a star. So, for those that wished he didn't sign or wanted the 9ers to trade him- he's one of the few bright spots we'll be talking about when the season is over. No question about it, we need him. Vernon Davis looks better now than he has in years (he's not afraid to go down the middle when he's going to get hit like he was before), let's continue to use him and hopefully he doesn't over-celebrate going forward for 15 yard penalties. Isaac Bruce is getting ready to retire and it doesn't look like he has much in the tank. Josh Morgan and Jason Hill looked promising last year- this year, not so much. Glen Coffee doesn't look like he's ready for the NFL- we are entering week 10, so wake up dude! Brandon Jones likes to fair catch kickoffs/punts when the ball is at the 5-10 yard line.....what's up with that? And if it's not Brandon Jones, we have Michael Robinson, who likes to run into the opposing team players versus trying to go around them.....what's up with that too? He's not in college anymore where he was known to run over players- that stuff doesn't work in the NFL.
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