Really J.J.?

I hate to rehash this moment for 49er fans but I saw an awkward moment on the NFL network today when the NFL AM anchors interviewed Super Bowl hero Jacoby Jones. They asked him to go back through the infamous kickoff return for a touchdown to start the 3rd quarter. During this playback they told him to "walk them through" what happened. I kid you not, they froze the frame on this (without the spot shadow)...



As you can see Jacoby is breaking through for his dead sprint to the end-zone  Jones stated "there was great blocking."
The foul being committed is better seen here a step later...



As Jones breaks away these two players are nearly tackling Miller which is a DIRECT path for Jones to take the kickoff to the house. Miller is being held for nearly 15 yards in live playback!

Even after the fact it is amazing the blindness that people are willing to have in such moments that took place on the worlds biggest stage. The 49ers lost the game, the Ravens should have never been that far ahead but there is no doubt that plays like this helped the Ravens cause tremendously. The fact that a network with the NFL logo representing it can show such blatant errors in the game and say nothing about it is not only awkward but disappointing.

This was one of two major mistakes that I said were more damaging than the final "no-call" on Crabtree. The other being the 2 turnovers (INT by Kaepernick, fumble James).

Offensive Line: 2013 Draft Crush

I was able to watch some of the offensive line run their 40's and go through other drills at the NFL combine this morning, on the NFL Network. I already have two early draft crushes on guys that would fit well for the 49ers.

Kyle Long- OG 6'6" 304lbs Oregon (4.94 sec 40). If the last name "Long" sounds familiar that's because it should. Kyle is from football royalty of sorts with his father being the great HOFer Howie Long, and 49er fans should also be familiar with his brother being the pro-bowl stand out DE for the St. Louis Rams, Chris Long. Kyle looked long, muscular, and athletic. He is listed as a guard but can also play tackle, versatility that the 49ers not only would welcome but usually demand of their players. Long is projected as a 2nd rounder but could fall to the 3rd because of the uncertainty of his position at the next level. Keep in mind the 49ers are expected to have 4 3rd round picks.
http://insider.espn.go.com/nfl/draft/player/_/id/30262

Brian Schwenke- C 6'3" 307lbs CAL (4.99 sec 40). Maybe I'm just being a "homer" but Cal's center Brian Schwenke looked great going through all his drills saturday morning at the combine. Current 49ers center Jonathan Goodwin is a prime candidate to be cut for salary purposes and was graded as having one of the worst games in Super Bowl XLVIII. The 49ers will be looking for a replacement which they may have already in last years pick Joe Looney but Schwenke would be a good fit to be the anchor for Kaepernick for the next 10 years.
http://insider.espn.go.com/nfl/draft/player/_/id/30374

Some may ask why I would think the 49ers should target offensive linemen when most experts claim the 49ers have the best group in football. As stated above I think Goodwin very well may be cut soon and the depth on the line is in question after losing Leonard Davis to free agency. The 49ers will be looking for depth here and these two guys could possibly be a 3rd round steal where the 49ers will have 4 selections, enough picks to begin looking for depth.

Giants 2013 Starting Rotation

With the announcement yesterday from Manager Bruce Bochy that Matt Cain will be the Opening Day starter it is now fairly easy to project the 5 man rotation to open the 2013 season.
Bochy likes to divide up his lefties so we can expect that Madison Bumgarner and Barry Zito will not pitch in consecutive games. Bumgarner had the second spot in the rotation last year, he has done nothing to lose that position. Ryan Vogelsong will be pitching in the WBC which will probably give the Giants reason to give him a little rest before his first start, that makes him a candidate for the back end of the rotation. And just in case anyone was thinking there was a chance Tim Lincecum is "fighting for a spot in the rotation" after his worst season, you can put that to rest, he has reportedly showed up in great physical shape and is focused for the season already. This allows us to assume his spot in the rotation is more than safe, it's guaranteed.
With this logic you can assume the Giants 5 man rotation will be;
Matt Cain
Madison Bumgarner
Tim Lincecum
Barry Zito
Ryan Vogelsong
What's exciting about this rotation is that the Giants get to pitch Cain, Bum, and Timmy against the rival Dodgers (in LA) to start the year. Also, this is a great opportunity for Zito who, in this scenario  gets a chance to be the starter for the home opener. After the up and down (and now back up) relationship he has had with Giants fans since his infamous 100 million plus contract he now can expect a big ovation from the Giants fans after his big renaissance last year.
Giants fans all should have expected Cain to be the opening day starter after his perfect game last year, tie for team lead in wins, team lead in era and whip, and he was the pitcher on the mound for all 3 play-off game clinchers. After the last 4 years of seeing Lincecum take the ball on opening day it was pretty clear that Matt Cain had earned the right for this season, which is good because if the southpaw Madison Bumgarner continues to progress at the rate he is going he should be next in line for a long run at the honor of taking the ball opening day for the S.F. Giants in the future.

Free Agent Surprise

Rumors are whirling that the 49ers could be trading for wide receiver (WR) Percy Harvin, or target top WR free-agents such as Greg Jennings or Dwayne Bowe. There is going to be an obvious void at WR once Randy Moss and Ted Ginn Jr. hit Free Agency but what interests me more is who is available at running back (RB) in this years free agent class.
If recent history holds with the 49ers front office the team will be looking for a big bruising runner to compliment Frank Gore. The 49ers already have two smaller quick backs that are a nice change of pace in Kendall Hunter and LaMichael James, but last off-season they coveted having a bigger guy to get the tough yards. The 49ers remedied this by signing Brandon Jacobs. So, who is available this year? Steven Jackson and Michael Turner.
Turner is not nearly the tough explosive back he was two years ago, and to be honest he doesn't excite me much. In fact, I would not be surprised if Turner can't find a home in 2013 and quietly retires from the NFL after his drop off in production in 2012. He still could bring something to the table in a specialized role with a team that is ready to win. If Turner is willing to take a dramatic pay cut and play for a contender then he might get a shot. Turner may also be very motivated to show everyone he's not quite done, and with limited playing time he could go hard in that position.
Steven Jackson is the real prize in my book. Jackson runs hard and violently like Marshawn Lynch but he has more size! Jackson has been on some awful Rams teams for his whole career and especially the last few years, imagine how productive he could be on a team that's already built to win. Like Turner, Jackson would not be called upon to carry the load, they would only want him for specialized situations which could extend his career, be low risk health wise, and give him a shot at a ring. Jackson would have to be willing to except a massive pay cut and diminished role as a player but with talk of retiring the opportunity to win a championship may be too much to pass up on.
Lets face it Frank Gore hasn't been the pillar of health either. If the 49ers can get one of these two backs on the cheap they would be ideal insurance for the 49ers ground game. This would probably make things hard for Anthony Dixon to remain on the team as a 5th RB, considering the 49ers only run with 4 RB's, and Dixon is a special teams standout so there are obstacles, but the 49ers did sign Jacobs last year so I expect them to be looking to try and acquire a similar big bruiser this year. I would be very impressed if that bruiser were Steven Jackson.

Giants Are Up

It's 2013 and the 49ers have just finished an amazing run to the Superbowl which ended in a heart wrenching defeat. Fortunately fans can take their 49er Superbowl caps off and replace them with Giants Champions hats, not too shabby.
This upcoming season has lots of promise for a team that has won 2 of the last 3 World Series. There are also some big obstacles. The most exciting note is that the Giants are on the brink of being considered a dynasty, in a time when Bay Area professional sports seems to be entering a "Golden Age." Here are the following pro's and obstacle's on my mind entering the 2013 MLB season;

Obstacle's
-The Los Angeles Dollars, whoops, I mean Dodgers have spent a TON of money bringing in top talent from all over MLB. They have a "who's who?" line-up and pitching staff in place, and have been coined "The Yankee's of the West." The problem for the Dodgers is that the the Yankees have won only 1 World Series in the past 12 years despite being head and shoulders above every team in baseball in spending, this spending spree is nice when you want to sell tickets but DOES NOT mean you will win championships. The Dodgers also have no mature proven leader. Look, I know I'm biased but any true Dodger fan would admit that this is true. Who will they turn to for leadership on this team, and before you point to Mattingly remember he's the coach, championship teams need players that are leaders as well. Plus, Mattingly is still unproven as a manager.
-The Atlanta Braves & Washington Nationals are damn good. There's no denying that no matter how much better the Dodgers may be this season the Giants will have to keep an eye on the NL East. These two teams are going to win a lot of ballgames no doubt.
-What will Scutaro and Pagan bring this year? These two veterans played out of their minds last year, can they possibly repeat their respective individual performances again this year? Or even better, for the next 3 to 4 years? This will be a situation to monitor closely as the Giants shelled out good $ for players that might not be able to play to the level of their contracts. Keep a close eye on prospects Joe Panik and Gary Brown, they may be the answer if the veterans start to stumble.
-Pablo Sandoval's weight can be an issue again. Bochy already has told reporters that "(Sandoval) has some work to do." This is not good news. Sandoval has been playing baseball all off season and has stayed at the top of his game but at some point he may drop off if he is out of shape and tired from the non-stop schedule of playing ball.

Pro's
-This is crazy but the Giants have yet to play with a healthy Buster Posey and Pablo Sandoval for one full season! The sky is the limit for these two if they can stay healthy. It will be wild to see how much production the Giants get out of their two young all-stars for a whole year.
-The Brandon's have arrived. Brandon Crawford and Brandon Belt are going to be more settled in their roles this year as the starting short-stop and first baseman for the defending champs. Expect Crawford to be among the leaders for the NL gold glove at Short and for Belt to build upon his .275 BA and power swing now that they have security (even though Belt will have to either sit or play out of position occasionally for Posey to play first base).
-The Giants won their division and World Series last year while Tim Lincecum had his worst year. Lincecum can't get any worse, and if he's remotely back to where he was before last years disaster then the Giants will be that much better. Bottom line; if Timmy is "on" this team can be close to a 100 win team!
-What will Hunter Pence do? Not only may we get to see what Sandoval and Posey can do for a full year together but let's not forget that Hunter Pence is an all-star caliber player. He had his worst season last year as a pro and still helped the Giants win the World Series! If Pence can get back to his career .285 BA and also hit 25-30 HR's with 90 plus RBI's while batting behind Sandoval and Posey then this offense can soar.

The Day After

Unfortunately I woke up today. That's how it feels the morning after your favorite sports team loses in the biggest game, on the biggest stage in the whole world; the Super Bowl. Yes the 49ers lost, but as most experts said leading up to the big game, the 49ers were the better team. The Ravens weren't even top 5 this year, I challenge anyone to say the Ravens were a "better team" than the 49ers, Seahawks, Broncos, Packers, Falcons, or Patriots. Remember the "better team" doesn't always win every game, that's why they play the games and as I've stated before that's what makes sports so interesting; can the underdog be the victor?
The 49ers were not focused and have no one other than themselves to blame for the Super Bowl loss. The Ravens came out pushing and shoving, knowing that they were out matched talent wise, that attitude allowed for them to establish the tempo early. The 49ers fell behind as they had all post-season, it finally caught up to them. Kaepernick looked rattled like he had against the Seahawks and Rams in the regular season, he brought it back in the second half but the damage was done. No team should expect to win in the playoffs when they give away 2 turn-overs and get 0 turn-overs. The opening second-half kick-off for a touchdown was the whole game in a nut shell, the Niners were just not in the right place at the right time. On the final goal-line stand the 49ers passed on 2nd, 3rd, and 4th down when they had displayed one of the best running games all year long in the NFL, this was possibly because they wanted to keep enough time on the clock in case they didn't score and needed to try and get the ball back, bad decision. And then there was the "no-call" on Crabtree in the end-zone. That was blatant "defensive holding," not to be confused with "pass interference." The defender never let go of Crabtree and even was stretching his jersey as they went beyond 5 yards, the refs decided they didn't want to be the difference in the game or to Ray Lewis' career. This is a sad reality, how sometimes in this country we put athletes on such high pedestals we're willing to ignore their obvious imperfections and deceits in order to see them achieve goals we never could. Despite all this the 49ers nearly won the Super Bowl, which is a testament to how talented they are.
As I do with all my teams, I slowly rummaged through my gear and picked out my 49ers hat to wear today. I always wear my teams gear the day after their season ends so that people know that I'm a true fan. Although this loss hurts worse than any I can recall, or chose to recall, I will sport my black SF hat all day and nod at the hecklers because I love the 49ers and I'm proud of all the players and coaches and what they accomplished this year even though they fell short for the second year in a row of what they were capable of.