If we can sustain the offensive tempo we had last game we have a shot. We know doing that is possible because we’ve seen that tempo all throughout our first drives, two-minute, Cowboys game, etc. This is a team that’s capable of dropping 35 on one of the league’s best defenses. Waldron just needs to keep his head from getting too big and play to our strengths.

Agreed. This latest stretch of games is an aberration overall. It’s absolutely ludicrous to me to imply that we’ve made the playoffs something like 9 of the last 12 years in spite of the best coach in franchise history like some have suggested. So many franchises would kill to have a coach whose floor is playoff contender, and though his bell curve is certainly skewed to the left a bit it’s just a fact that his ceiling is deep playoff run or even a ring.

If there’s a credible succession plan in place – if we can get Ben Johnson or if Stan Kroenke fires McVay or something – then let’s pull the trigger. But after 12 years of instilling a truly unique and deeply-bred culture that has come to define not only our organizational identity but on-the-field play, Pete is this team. Firing him means either replacing that or wandering the wilderness until you get the right guy. So if the guy’s there, let’s do it. But I’m not gonna risk a Josh McDaniels or a Nate Hackett or a Matt Nagy over a three-game skid to some elite teams.

11-0, probably

This is the first reasoned explanation for what role Pete might play in the struggling offensive playcalling I’ve seen. Bravo. I can definitely see a world in which outside-the-numbers plays are emphasized in a bid to eliminate turnovers, only to end up making your offense so flat and one-dimensional that opposing Ds either know what’s coming and can put themselves into a position to force a turnover, or just de-emphasize the parts of the field you’re ceding to them. Just completely throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

If we can repeat that performance (except for the uncalled DPI) then we’re in this game. Time to see if Waldron turns into a pumpkin.

WHAT A FUCKIN CAAAAAATCH

After a nice, quick completion to the TE followed by a good run followed by a nice quick out to Bobo, I thought we had something good going for fucking once.

Nope, turns out Shane Waldron decides that the best thing to do is make Geno sit in the pocket for a quarter or two as Stone Forsythe falls over in Bosa’s general direction.

After the muffed punt, I promised myself that if there were one more incident I’d turn off the fucking game.

Thanks Stone.

“If it was grass — whoo! — it would be perfect,” one player who chose Seattle said, while another added: “It almost feels like you’re in a bird’s nest. Gotham City.”

If only.

This team absolutely has the capacity to beat the Niners. Our skill groups are comparable at pretty much every position (except probably left side of the O-line and DL). If we find our niche and stay there and fend off their adjustments, we can come out with the W.

The problem is, we haven’t found our niche all season, despite the fact that we start the first two drives of every game there.

The #1 upgrade we could make would be hiring a guy to stand behind Shane Waldron chanting “QUICK PASS, QUICK PASS” all game

Second-best would be O-Line. I don’t think our O-Line is that bad (around league average if I had to guess) but our passing playcalls make their job a lot harder. Having a blue-chip O-line is never a bad thing.

Mafe Time

Scenarios in which we should move on from Geno:

• The 2024 offseason and/or draft develop in such a way that a quarterback better than him is available to us at the right price

Scenarios in which we should NOT move on from Geno:

• The offense has no identity after minute 20, meaning he has to constantly play hero ball to try and convert a 3rd & 9 after a first-down two-yard run and a second-down -1-yard screen pass

I don’t have any recommendations for off the field, but I do recommend you don’t try to do anything on the field unless you want to end up on the receiving end of a Bobby tackle.

No Bobo? We’re fucked.

I’ve always thought of Lock as a high-tier backup. He’s certainly better than some of the guys other teams are trotting out there to start. If Geno went down and we had to start Lock long-term, once he has a few weeks to gel with the first-team offense I think we could stay competitive in games. Could be be better than Geno? Sure, who knows. But it’s hard to show off what you can actually do if you just come off the bench for three drives once a month.

One of the most painful things about this season is that there’s too much damn talent on this offense for our games to be this stressful on a regular basis. A team with DK, Lockett, JSN, the ultimate utility guy in Bobo, one of the better multipurpose tight ends rooms and K9 should not have an offense that is stuck in mud this often.

The flip side of that is that there’s so much damn talent on this team. We can build. If 6-3/6-4 is where we’re at when we’re disappointing compared to our potential then if we make the right moves we could be scary next year (or this one if we can get our shit together.)

There aren’t too many successful HCs (some good DCs; Dan Quinn springs to mind) but I will say this: what makes Pete a great HC isn’t really something that can be “taught.” You can’t learn infectious, non-stop enthusiasm, at least not by the time that you’re in position to become an NFL HC. Pete isn’t an offensive genius or anything, he’s just so much fun to be around that it makes everyone play great football in the process. That’s not something that can be taught from the outside, only cultivated from within. Knowing that that’s his strength as a coach, it makes sense that his “tree” isn’t as strong as some of his peers with similar accolades.

Extremely common Jake “More” Bobo W

Love to see Walker up there. I have a feeling Spoon and Riq are gonna be playing a bit of WR on Sunday.