More Prime Time
I don't even know where to begin when thinking about tonight's game. The Harbowl angle has been and will be covered extensively between now and kickoff. I have no doubt that the "unfinished business" Harbaugh felt after that Super Bowl loss drove him to come back to the NFL. I mean if he'd let his QB use his legs on the goal line instead of trying to force the ball to Michael Crabtree, maybe he'd have won a ring already. But then he would be with the Bolts.
Of course, Greg Roman called the plays for the 49ers that year. We all love to trash him for being too run-oriented, but there was an example of when throwing seemed counterproductive. The same I guess could be said for the second half against Cincy, although I totally understand wanting to let Herbert continue his strong play from the first. The usual Charger second half meltdown includes stubbornly trying to do what hasn't been working, which is often running up the gut.
I do agree with Daniel Popper's insistence that Gus Edwards should have gotten more carries. He was gaining positive yards, it seemed, on every attempt. When Marty was the coach, which was not the romanticized era it has been painted as in retrospect, I said I didn't care about his stubbornness in press conferences. What mattered was his in-game decision making, which wasn't good. I don't know if Harbaugh truly thought keeping Gus on the bench was a good idea or if getting away from the run was his call.
Herbert had decent protection, but the fumble was a killer, especially since we were in field goal range. He certainly went through a period of inaccuracy, especially with that sideline pass to McConkey. However, I don't know of any quarterback who never misses. Like with the Gus Edwards call, it's hard to know if Harbaugh truly thinks Herbert can do no wrong, or if that's just how he appears in press conferences. I know Justin Herbert was pretty pissed at himself for some of those second-half plays. Harbaugh seems to know what buttons to push (or not push) with players. Daniel Popper is clearly pushing at these press conferences. I know he needs to get clicks, especially with the New York Times backing the Athletic. At this point I think he knows that injury updates will not be forthcoming.
Pop did make a good point about Salyer, since it seems like he's outplayed Pipkins this year. He showed his limitations last season after Slater went down. There was a reason he wasn't a first-rounder out of Georgia. Again, it's tough to know if Harbaugh's responses are just his schtick, coaching up his guys, or how he actually feels.
Tonight will be the biggest test of all. Denver, who we will face in our next home prime time game, is surging. I don't know how good they are but I know we need to keep winning. The fact that Harbaugh has never beaten his brother serves as good motivation, though I doubt we need any more. I said before the Titans game that the crowd would show up if we didn't choke. The same applied to last week. Believe me, I had zero faith when the score was tied. I am not going to say "Chargering" is dead unless we win it all some day. It's the same as me not being ready to trust Cameron Dicker fully, until he hits a long clutch kick. Did Harbaugh cause Cincy to miss two kicks of their own? It was nice to see another team suffer that, however. I know Tucker missed a pair in Pittsburgh, but I'm not counting on that continuing.
It sucks that Perryman is out, but he's played more than I thought he would. He played 12 games in each of the two seasons he was gone. He's played 9 this year. I know how good he is against the run, but right now it seems like most of our guys will play.
We couldn't say that in years past. Henry is great, and we played him well in 2023, but we have to trust Minter.
There were some bad lapses last week, though many people pointed out that the injuries to Hart and Denzel played a part. It seems like Hart is out of concussion protocol and that Mack will return. Hopefully, he can hold up. I see that Roquan Smith is probably out for the Ravens and he's never missed a game since being dealt from Chicago.
I would expect that the crowd will be fired up. We haven't won once in the navy jerseys since they redid the uniforms, but apparently a blue helmet is forthcoming?
The Ravens will give us their best as they are coming off a loss to the Steelers and play the Eagles next. This is as huge a regular season game as we've had since the move. We've had a few versus KC that we've lost and you could argue that some of the 2022 games that helped us get into the playoffs were huge as well. But this feels different. I saw a Bleacher Report poll today that gave us a 32 percent chance at winning. I don't think many people really think we will put the Ravens away. Last year's Sunday Night game was really the last gasp for any real chance at the playoffs. In retrospect, it was a blessing. We knew the 63-21 game was needed and clearly it helped the Raiders decide they had the right coach. I don't know if that's true, and I don't care. We could have maybe used a Denver loss yesterday but we need a win tonight for many reasons. This is precisely the moment Harbaugh was brought in for. The Ravens are good, but not unbeatable. McConkey will be blanketed all night so I would expect somone else needs to step up.
Johnston has been so much better than I could have imagined. He's not Zay Flowers, which I assume will cross all our minds a few times tonight. Zay Flowers also melted down against KC, but we have been nowhere near the AFC Championship for quite some time. Johnston still doesn't use his hands to snatch those 50-50 balls which was painfully apparent in the second half last week. I don't know what they see in Reaghor, though he did have one nice sideline grab. Palmer goes AWOL periodically and we are yet to see Chark.
The first half last week was the most complete this team has looked in ages against a decent opponent. Of course, we were also blowing out the Bengals at home in 2021 until we almost gave that one away. They rebounded, beat the Raiders after we couldn't, and came within an Aaron Donald sack of winning their first Super Bowl.
I would love to believe that the team faced down some of their demons last week in the second half. That might also be us trying to put a spin on what felt like an absolute choke job.
I think the outcome tonight will go a long way towards telling us what last week meant. Right now, no one is quite taking us seriously yet. A win tonight keeps us above Denver, etc., but more importantly provides some more evidence that we're for real.
Let's take the cheese.
JIC,
RLW
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