Week 15
Growing up, there's a time in everyone's life when they first discover that not everything is meant to work out and that things sometimes aren't happily ever after. It's that exact moment when you discover for the first time that the heart can be broken. On one wintery, cold day in January, we had that moment. For whatever reason, we grew up to be a Browns fan. Don't ask us how or why, we just were. When instead of throwing the ball away, Brian Sipe tried to force the ball to Ozzie Newsome in the end zone with time running out and wound up getting picked off by Mike Davis instead, our pour bleeding heart got broken for the first time. Even today, we get that icky, gut-wrenching feeling whenever we think about that day. Damn, you, Red Right 88.
TV note of the week- the Rai-duhs game is blacked out due, once again, to not enough ticket sales. Good for the TV viewer, right? Nope. We're getting the god-awful Bengals/Lions snooze-fest for some unknown reason. Hopefully, the game will be over the end of the 1st quarter so they can switch to a good game. Also, instead of showing us the Colts/Chargers game, you know the one featuring the team shooting for NFL history and one of the few teams who can beat them, they're only showing us the Niners/Jags game. Looks like a good excuse to go bar-hopping all day if you ask us.
the Rai-duhs vs. the Cleveland Browns at Oakland: So put on your Styx discs everyone and start cranking out "Best of Times" as we fondly recall the Marques Tuiasosopo era. Wasn't it great? The laughs, the tears, the fumbles? Remember the time he threw that interception? That was great, huh? We miss it already.
Yep, it's ta ta Tui as Marvelous Norv Turner announced this week that the Tui era was over and that the new starting QB will be the old QB, Kerry Collins. Norv said it was decided after meeting with both of them and deciding he liked the cut of Kerry's jib more than Tui's jib. And no, the decision had nothing to do with Al Davis, no sirree no bob. We would criticize Norv for sheer inability to commit to anything, but isn't that one of everyone's criticisms of the President? That he stubbornly sticks to something despite every possible evidence that it's not working? Should we criticize Norv for doing something we wish the President would do?
Then again, Norv isn't leading a war.
Either way, the move doesn't really look good. You can't decide to commit to the backup QB, then throw in the towel after one game. Developing a QB takes patience and Norv is showing none on a team that is so out of the playoff race, it's really got nothing to do but maybe start looking towards tomorrow. The move reeks of ass-saving and it's obviousness makes it that much more apparent it's all about ass-saving.
The Browns, actually, are interesting team to consider right now. Like a certain other Bay Area team, they've had a horrendous past couple of seasons (a horrendous past couple of decades, actually, and when they had a good decade, it was probably even more painful). So they hired a new GM guy, Phil Savage, who gets raves all around, hired a new coach (Romeo Crennel) and even drafted themselves a new QB. Sound familiar? They've only won four games this season, but they've been close in every game and played tough throughout. The rookie QB even started his first game last week and almost knocked off the Bengals. Not bad considering they've lost both last year's and this year's first round draft pick to injuries.
We bring this up not to diss the Niners by showing them an example of how to do things right (although one could say that), but to point out that an up-and-coming team playing hard and tough is the type of team that knocks the gob smack out of teams that laid down like dogs weeks ago.
Niners vs. Jacksonville Jaguars in Jacksonville- There's been a lot of talk this week about Alex Smith, the size of his hands, and balls. The problem is that Smith has a bad case of the fumbles-- nine in four starts-- and everyone's wondering whether it's the size of his hands, bad grip, bad coaching, or just rookie yips. If it's the grip or the yips, that can be fixed. If it's the hands, well, nice pick 49ers. We actually think he'll be fine in this regards as Smith's inability to hold onto the ball is just a case of being a rookie and getting a little panicky at the constant site of people in differently colored uniforms closing in at him all time.
This game against the Jags doesn't look very good for the Niners. Here's a few stats for you to chew over: the Niners haven't scored a TD in florida since George Seiffert was coach way back in '95 and have lost 21 out of their last 23 road games. This isn't the week where that trend will end. The Jags have the seventh-ranked D in the NFL. Even more ominous for Alex Smith is their third in the NFL sacks.
In other words, it's gonna be ugly.