Originally posted by dtg_9er:
Originally posted by Niners816:
Originally posted by 49ers81:
Originally posted by paulk205:
I think the mistake in this reasoning is that you assume that we should start with confidence in a coach, and that he can keep it or lose it. Why?
I start with NO confidence in players, coaches, or the team. They earn it on past good performance and victories. If they lose they keep their default"no confidence" status. It's worse when they come with high expectations and plaudits about "talent" and "genius". Then they have to do even more to earn my confidence. They're geniuses, aren't they not? This should be easy for geniuses.
Shanahan has done little so far to earn my confidence. Some short stretches here and there, but overall I see a team of sloppy losers. When he starts to deliver professional performances and victories, hey presto, here's my confidence.
The problem with these threads is that people have a tendency to confuse supporting the team with taking its crap when it's crap. I'm not going to accept 0-7 , leading the league in penalties, or worse, "moral victories". I root for the team... to win. If they don't, I get upset. Then by the next gametime I root for the team again. To win. Properly, not morally. And not for high draft picks either.
These narratives of "progress", "moral victories", "trusting processes", and "potential" are unacceptable to me as a supporter and a consumer. They are maintained to keep getting my money and my emotional investment in the team and accept an inferior product. Forget about it.
People make fun of Philadelphia fans (of whom I'm one in baseball) because of their bitterness. I say they are the best fans. They suffer (and pay for) because of incredibly sloppy performances and long stretches of no success, and they make their unhappiness clear. Why should they have to be happy about it?
It's funny how people grab on to a point they allege someone else made as a justification for their own counter arguments. Things like "moral victories", I don't think I have seen a single poster who is preaching patience or process (yes, that is something I do believe in) use the term moral victory to describe a loss. That is something that seems to come from the people who, for whatever reason, have failed to grasp the notion that the team probably wasn't going to be very good this year under even the best of circumstances and continue to get their panties in a twist over the fact that the team is playing more or less to expectations at this point. They have been competitive in most of their games this year and are a few plays away from having a slightly better record than they do. It is easy to look at them and believe that one of these weeks they are going to put together a whole game and come away with a win, though that probably won't be against Philadelphia.
No one should have thought that Hoyer was going to be any good though clearly Shanahan hoped his experience in the system would be an asset. As soon as that proved not to be the case he benched him, which gave Beathard a chance to earn some valuable practice reps and not have his confidence blown up by a bunch of early season beat downs. Now that he is the starter we'll see what happens, patience and process.
The defense was hurt by losing Malcolm Smith and Foster and possibly Carradine, there is also the challenge of having a first time defensive coordinator, running a new scheme which apparently requires a different skill set than those possessed by some of the recent defensive draft picks who were selected, like Dial and Armstead. This is the year in which those things will hopefully get sorted out. Their Head Coach, Defensive Coordinator, and GM are all in the first year of their jobs so there is bound to be some sort of a learning curve. They have a team running new schemes on both sides of the ball as well as a number of rookies and UDFA's who all need how to learn how the NFL game is played. If you listen to any of the interviews with Shanahan and Lynch they are both guys who want to win but they recognize that it might take a year or so to lay the foundation that will allow them to be competitive on a regular basis, which is what their goal is. Wins are nice but they aren't really necessary to the process this year. I am not a person who ever advocates tanking a season for some extra advantage in the draft but if the team is going to be bad this might not be a bad year to do it since there are apparently a few QB's coming out next year who are thought to be pretty good and finishing with a high draft pick would keep them from having to give up a lot if they decided there was someone they just had to have and would give them a better chance to get some other decent players, ones who might better fit the system they are trying to run. Process and patience.
Unlike some of the posters in here I have more confidence in the evident improvement of Shanahan's offensive scheme over what we have had in the past few years. The design of the plays is there, where they have been falling down is in the execution, dropped passes, penalties, and on the other side of the ball more penalties and missed tackles. Some of that is on the coaches but a lot of it is on the players, all of whom are already auditioning for a spot on next year's roster. I'll admit that I am a little concerned by some of the huge chunk plays that the defense has given up in the running game but part of that could just be the lack of available talent among the linebackers, perhaps having Foster and Smith in there full time, as was envisioned, will help get that under control. And they still need a dominant edge rusher, which they haven't had since Aldon Smith's first couple of seasons. Hopefully these are things that can be addressed by having had a year to learn and evaluate what the team needs to take the next step forward.
I can honestly say that having had exactly zero expectations for the team this year I am not at all bothered by their current record. I see where they are improving and I can see where they still have work to do. I enjoy watching the new guys like Kittle and Taylor and Solomon to see how they are progressing. I would love to see Foster get through a whole game as I think he could be a very dynamic player. I'd like to see this kid they brought up from the practice squad, Cole what's his name, the undrafted TE who is supposed to be a good receiver. As long as the team continues to compete every game I can live with another down year, especially since they probably aren't going anywhere until they get the QB position fixed. Is Beathard the answer? I have no idea but finding out is one of the things that will make the rest of the season interesting to watch. Go Niners!!
+1....extremely good post.
+2
+3
or our guys when they mess up. 
Been stirring up the pot too much... Just relax 