Vig1980 Posted July 24, 2005 Share Posted July 24, 2005 The year is 2003 so there's no Smith but I decided it was time to try and bring the good times back to San Fran......So I decided to take up the GM position at San Fran....and of course I would dabble a lil bit in the coaching too..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vig1980 Posted July 24, 2005 Author Share Posted July 24, 2005 There was a new GM in town and despite the fans knowing that this would be a long-term plan, the hopes had increased somewhat...although there were also a fair few "not going to change anything" murmers around. Despite the roster being fairly young, the talent remains largely with the older generation on the team. By the time the youngsters flourish the older players will be retiring so the first move was to ship Bryant Young and his salary together with a 4th round pick to Jacksonville for the younger John Henderson. Henderson already ahs better pass rushing moves although Young excels in the other areas. Henderson has the potential to be better than young in all areas bar run defense and tackling (just). He has 3.0/4.0 rating compared to Young's 4.0/4.0. I also signed Jose Cortez as kicker and Kyle Richardson to be the punter, realsing LaFleur.... Continuing to lower the age I sent DT Derrick Deese with a 2005 4th round pick and 2006 6th round pick to Green Bay for Chad Clifton. Deese was costing me a little less cap room but with both of these players at 4.5/4.5 I was happy. Clifton is a better run blocker too which makes up for what I lost in run defense in the Yound/Henderson trade... I'm still very weak at QB with Rattay the starter but there is no way for me to get an upgrade there so I will see how things go.... First game of the season was against the Bears with them being favourite to win by 9... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vig1980 Posted July 24, 2005 Author Share Posted July 24, 2005 For some strange reason my offense and defense were rated at 4 stars....I can't see that rating staying around for long! Despite a great start for Chicago, scoring on teir first play, Grossman went down injured and they never recovered. Rattay had a very average game - I'm not going to expect more from him. Barlow and Hearst shared the running and we grinded out a win - One fantastic 79 yard touchdown by Lloyd making the difference! Key Stats: Stewart had 3 interceptions throwing for 142 yards on 16.25 passing. Rattay was 2/0 and 13/26 for 178 yards. Lloyd was the top receiver with 87 yards on 3 receptions (4 attempts) Tony Parrish was the player of the game with 12 tackles and 1 int for a touchdown and also a forced fumble and recovery. Cortez missed all 3 of his FG attempts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vig1980 Posted July 24, 2005 Author Share Posted July 24, 2005 Second game of the season was in St Louis against the Rams who had won their first game off the back of 200 yard rushing performance from Faulk. The Power Ranking put them at 3rd in the league and ourselves at 11 (Down from 4)... Despite a 176 rushing yard performance by Faulk, we just held on for the win. Tai streets also pulled out a 106 yard performance which helped us edspecially with an all important touchdown. We are grinding out results with some ough defense which is surprising to say the least. Hearst and Barlow are sharing the running duties and are helping to keep posession of the ball. (32 mins in that game against STL's 27). St. Louis couldn't utilise Holt or Bruce who combined for just 88 yards. Peterson put in an impressive performance on defense with 10 tackles and a hurry. Rattay is still far away from being a QB for the future. Despite his 213 yards and a touchdown, he was intercepted once and completed just 11/28 passes. The surprise of the season so far are the Patriots who are 0-2 after a 2nd week loss to Philly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vig1980 Posted July 24, 2005 Author Share Posted July 24, 2005 Week 3 and Cleveland were in town. For once we were favourites to win a game and we didn't disappoint. Cleveland had given up over 100 yards rushing over the forst 2 games of the season and over 300 passing yards. With ths, Rattay pulled out a great performance with 3 TDs, no INTs and 220 yards on 20/28 passing! Couch had a pretty good game with 283 yards on 22/34 passing for 1 TD and 1 INT. Quincy Morgan had 146 yards receiving but all in vein! Tai Streets played well again with 72 receiving yards - all this whilst being 3rd choice. Barlow was player of the game with 66 rushing yards, 20 receiving and 2 TDs...I would personally have given it to Rattay! With the 49ers at 3-0, all around the league are considerably surprised. Could they possibly keep this form up? Their power ranking is back up to 4th but there are still many skeptics around the league - this mainly due to the team's lack of offensive weapons. Rattay clearly isn't a QB for the future, Brandon Lloyd doesn't seem to have the potential that makes him a first WR option for the future either! And at RB, many still think Barlow is overrated. Few can complain about the defense though. The 49ers are fairly young here and are currently sitting 9th in the league in defense. The Patriots are still asleep, only tying their 3rd game and many believe it is only a matter of time before they wake up. Belichick won't stand for his team's performances for long. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vig1980 Posted July 24, 2005 Author Share Posted July 24, 2005 The next game would see The Niners against the 2-1 Vikings. With Moss having leaft for Oakland, the Vikings were a little thin on the receiver end but Culpepper still had a passer rating of 104.4 with 6 TDs and 3 INTs..... Despite the media predicting a Niner victory, the skeptics saw this as the start of the slide especially as ILB Smith was out for up to 9 weeks. He was the heart of the defense and one of the reasons it was doing so well right now. To the game.... Minnesota kicked off and the return was by Wilson who fumbled the ball and on the next play Bennet ran the ball in for a touchdown. But in an amzing 2nd quarter Rattay made a desperation run on 4th and 1 and gained 11 yards before ran it in to complete the series. On their next attack the niners took the lead through a great Tai Streets catch. He carries on his greatly surprising season. Despite this the scores were even at half time as Claiborne intercepted a Rattay pass and ran it in for the score. The Niners had been warned of Clairborne and this proved why! The 3rd quarter saw Minnesota took apart the Niners. Starting with a field goal and then 2 touchdowns by Bennet and Gates, Minnesota found themselves up 36-21 heading into the 4th quarter. Things didn't seem to get any better in the 4th as the Vikings went up 43 - 21 with Culpepper single-handedly destroying the Niners - he would finish with 3 TDs, 1 INT and 374 yards. But then the game took a drastic turn - The Niners found a new breath of life and started to claw their way back. After an Ahmed Plummer interception return for a TD, the Niners recovered and onside kick and took the ball downfield for the score. A couple of field goals and the Niners were within 9. Then Rattay, as had been doing during the game, decided to rush the ball and somehow scored a TD Kevan Barlow would have been proud of....The Niners were within 3 but with only 15 seconds and no timeouts remaining, a failed onside kick finally ended the comeback prematurely....Still, a great game - the difference. 2 major reasons for the defeat were simply: 1. the 1 v 1 stats were better fo rthe Vikings. Everything the San Fran players did, the Viking counterparts did better. 2. Posession - 35mins to 25mins in Minnesota's favour. One of the major reason the Niners had won at all recently was the posession time... The game of the week saw Philly beat out the unbeaten Bills 24-17 with a 145 yard performance from Owens. Greenbay continued their unbeaten streak with victory over the the winnless Bears. Surpises so far, San Fran aside, were Denver, Oakland, New Orleans and the Titans - all 3-1. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Vibert Posted July 24, 2005 Share Posted July 24, 2005 Good stuff, looking forward to more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vig1980 Posted July 26, 2005 Author Share Posted July 26, 2005 After an easy victory aginast the winless Chargers it was onto Seattle. Many still believed that the Niners would not make the play-offs due to the apparent lack of offensive talent. Others said the defense would carry the team but no further than the first game. One of the few frailities on defense was the run defense. And despite Shaun Alexander's doubters he hit the Niners for 142 yards off his first 7 carries and a TD!!! Despite this, Barlow ran in for yet another TD and the score was 14-10 heading towards the half. The Niners had a chance after a Peterson interception to take the lead but Rattay was unable to to convert in the redzone and Cortez then missed a 27 yard FG! The end of the half could not have gone more wrong for Seattle who lost Hesselbeck for the game. The second half started strong for San Fran as a great series ended with a Beasley score on the run. Trent Dilfer replaced the injured Hesselbeck for the 2nd half. Each team scored a FG each before Barlow ran in for his 2nd score. San Francisco crumbled after but held on for a 29-24 victory... Barlow had one of his better games with 106 total yards but the skeptics will remain for the time being. One area where there are no skeptics is with Rattay - he will never be a QB for the future and it will only be a matter of time before the Niners upgrade! WR Robinson and RB Alexander were the stars for Seattle with 110 yds and 183 yds each respectively. They also shared 3 TDS between them (2 for Alexander). San Frans rush defense showed through again, or at least its weaknesses did. The average Seattle rush brought 7.5 yards! This is definitely starting to be an area of concern. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vig1980 Posted July 26, 2005 Author Share Posted July 26, 2005 2 more games and the Niners had reached the half way point of their regular season. This had been a season of many surprises and non more-so than the 49ers.... They were sat a-top of the NFC West with a stunning record of 7-1. Things were going to get more impressive though - Barlow had 617 rushing yards and 9 TDs! Combined with Hearst, Beasley and, yes, Rattay this yardage climbed to over 1,300 yds! The receiving corp was, at best, very average. However Rattay was spreading his passes around the 3 WRs Lloyd, Edwards and Streets were all over the 300 yds mark and on their way to 400. The offensive line was holding up well allowing few sacks especially new signing Chad Clifton not allowing a single one. The defence had fallen somewhat and was lingering aroung the mid-point of the league. Passing defense was also 28th in the league. The difference was simple with the D - The team was 5th in the league in takeaways and 1st (i.e. the best) in giveaways. The net effect was was that the 49ers defense ranked 4th. The offense was scoring more TDs than anyone else, only 8th in passing but first 1 in rushing. Although the yards per game of the passing game was only 16th, the rushing game was 2nd behind the Titans and just ahead of the Rams. BUT, the most important statistic of all - Tim Rattay. Yep he was having a breakout year. Although 1,000 yds behind the league leader in passing yards, he had the least interceptions of any starting QB (nicely helped by the OL I might add!). His QB rating was 6th in the league at 89.7. Add to all that 254 rushing yards and a TD and his impact has been considerable. As GM I am unsure what to do about him - I expected a very tough year where I cold take a QB high up in the draft but now that seems unlikely. I still believe that I cannot expect more than the 1st game in the play-offs. Tyrone Cash is the number 1 rated QB (#2 overall) in college football right now out of Miami. He's thrown for 1,400 yds with 14 TDs and just 3 INTs - although his pass completion is under 60%. The number 1 rated player is a WR out of Texas AM. There is another QB predicted to go around the middle of the 1st round. Mario Ham out of Southern Cal - 2000 yds, 16 TDs, 6 INTs and 56% completion. His stock is falling however..... It's difficult to call right now. Buffalo has lost just 1 game this year. The Bengals, despite a good season by Palmer and Co. are yet to win. Green Bay have lost only once, their last game against the Rams. The Colts are having a sub-standard, irregular season but are still in the play-off hunt. Minnesota have lost just 2 but all their victories bar 1 has come against teams .500 or less. New England is on a roll - they didn't win their first 3 games but are 4-1 since. The Saints are a surprising 6-2 Philly are 6-2 and look very impressive and with TO only having scored 1 TD. Imagine if he warms up! San Diego are 2-5 but since Brees' return they are 2-0. The Titans are 6-2 - thanks largely to a dominating D (see Bulluck, 5 INTs) and an impressive duo on offense (see McNair 1,800 yds, 11 TDs, 6 INTs and George 998yds, 8TDs). This superb season so far could be a bad thing for the 49ers in the long run - depriving them of high picks in each round of the draft. The skeptics will not stop and even I have my doubts about Rattay over the long run. The 49ers are still to meet a team with a dominating defense. We have won 4 of our games against teams with no more than 2 victories this season. Only the Rams had a good offense of the teams we beat and Minnesota dropped 43 points on us! The play-offs are virtually a lock unless something drastic happens. Only time would tell how the 49ers would hold up as injuries etc picked up...Let the 2nd half of the season begin.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vig1980 Posted July 26, 2005 Author Share Posted July 26, 2005 I'm gonna do updates every quarter now...I think it will be a lil more interesting that way - if you disagree - let me know! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vig1980 Posted July 27, 2005 Author Share Posted July 27, 2005 Well -sorry to any of you that were reading this but there won't be any more updates as my game crashed out and corrupted the game file.....Maybe I'll start again some time but for now I really don't want to start a new game all over again! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.